It’s a Turkey Day miracle!
Shout Factory has announced that they have acquired the rights to all five Gamera movies that were lampooned on Mystery Science Theater 3000. The MST3K versions of Gamera, Gamera Vs Barugon, Gamera Vs Gaos, Gamera Vs Guion and Gamera Vs Zigra will all be released at some point next year. No word yet as to whether they will be in one box set or if the group will be broken up over a couple of the regularly released MST3K sets that Shout releases.
This might not seem like a big deal to some, but many fans of the series had serious doubts that the films would ever make it out into home video. The story goes that Sandy Frank, the man who imported the Gamera films to the United States, oversaw their dubbing and syndication for television, was none too thrilled with the treatment the movies received at the hands of Joel and the `bots. He probably wasn’t too amused with the drubbing he himself took over the course of the five movies mocked, as well.
All five episodes were part of the show’s 1991-1992 third season, which most fans consider as the time the show really began to hit its creative stride. There were several other Sandy Frank imports in this season that fans have been hoping to make it to DVD, such as Time Of The Apes, Fugitive Alien (“He tried to kill me with a forklift!”) and Mighty Jack. Hopefully, this is opening the doors to get those on DVD as well.
Let’s let Mike and the `bots explain their reactions to some of the Gamera movies they’ve watched through dioramas-
Via Satellite News.
