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Gamera: The Little Braves is the newest entry in the Gamera series,
returning Gamera to his old Showa roots as a hero to all children. This film has no connection to any other Gamera films,
and is made for pure entertainment. Gamera: The Little Braves is very enjoyable, but there are a bunch of things that detract
from the film. This new film is far superior to the Showa series, but not up to the same level of the Heisei trilogy. Kadowaka
Films should be pleased with their first Gamera film, but they shouldn’t be amazed or extremely happy with the final
result.
This new Gamera lacks what the Heisei trilogy had: perfection. Gamera’s Heisei look was spectacular-
it was just the best design you could ever get for such a creature. He looked powerful and menacing in the Heisei trilogy-
for this new Gamera, Kadowaka tried to make him cute and cuddly. The big cute eyes, the innocent face, and the tiny arms and
legs made that very obvious. Kadowaka succeeded with making their Gamera cute and cuddly, but after seeing what Shusuke Kaneko
did with Gamera before, this new version is very lackluster.
The special effects, unlike the Heisei trilogies’,
are no new high or a breakthrough in kaiju cinema. They are an improvement from the Millennium Godzilla series, but nothing
ground breaking. Special effects director Isao Kaneko, no relation to the great Shusuke Kaneko, shouldn’t be amazed
by his work, but should be very pleased with himself. The model used for Gamera when he is injured and being taken away by
the military is very well made- all of the little details from the suit appear on the model, and it is very convincing and
adds to the realism. However, the strategy of mixing scenes with real and miniature buildings didn’t work out very well.
It is very easy to tell the difference between the real ones and the fake ones, and it detracts from the realism of it all,
although a giant turtle that towers over buildings, flies, breathes fire, and is a guardian defending Japan from an overgrown,
flesh eating beast isn’t very realistic to begin with. But, you have to look past things like this and just sit down
and enjoy the show. Don’t put too much thought into it, because it may hurt your brain after awhile.
Aside from
special effects, the music isn’t very note worthy. In fact, it is probably the lowest part of the movie. The musical
score is pretty standard, and nothing I found to be unique or fun to listen to. The music worked for what they were aiming
at, but its nothing you would listen to on spare time. The music was well placed too, but didn’t deliver the correct
amount of power or atmosphere when it was on to add to the quality of each scene. Another bad part of this film is the fact
that they have replaced Gamera’s traditional roar with a generic monster roar, a very poor decision on Kadowaka’s
behalf.
I have no idea what evil force possessed Kadowaka to do such a thing.
Ok, Gamera isn’t off to a very
good start here. On the positive side, the acting is incredible. I do believe that this is the best acting in a Gamera film
ever- and better than most of the Godzilla series’ acting. You would expect Toru to be a loud, obnoxious little brat,
like the Showa series kids, but instead Toru actually is a character that isn’t stupid or obnoxious in anyway. (But
occasionally loud, seeing as how he yells at Gamera a lot and stuff.) His personality is well brought out, and it is quite
easy to understand and relate to poor Toru. I have to admit that Toru is actually one of the best parts of the film. Not only
does Ryo Tomioka do an amazing acting job on Toru, Kanji Tsuda does an incredible job on Toru’s father, Kousuke Aizawa.
The two have great chemistry on the set together during scenes. But we can’t forget Kaho either, who does an excellent
job on the character Mai.
The fight scenes are definitely the best of what this film has to offer. The sequences are
unique and very entertaining, much different from what we have seen in the Millennium Godzilla films. (But that does not mean
they are better. No fight in Gamera: The Little Braves tops the fights in Godzilla: Final Wars.) Sadly, it becomes obvious
that the writers had ran out of ideas near the ending- During the middle to end of the final battle, the majority of the time
is focused on the human characters, and we’ll only see Gamera and his new foe, Zedus, ramming into each other here and
there.
Speaking of Gamera’s newest enemy, Zedus is my personal favorite Gamera kaiju. Zedus has the coolest design
of all of the Millennium kaiju, and is what a proper kaiju should be: a ruthless killing machine that will stop at nothing
to kill his opponents. He fights to the end, and never backs down. Unlike GINO, Zedus does not hide or retreat from his enemies
in battle. The only problem with Zedus is that he has origin, or reason: He just shows up in the middle of the film and starts
devouring humans. It is never explained why he is there, (although I’m pretty sure it was just to feed on humans,) or
how he was born or created. Another big mistake on behalf of the script writers. Their third and final mistake was the worst
of them all. They didn’t explain the origins of Zedus, and they didn’t explain the scene where all of the children
help deliver the red orb to Gamera. Tell me, what would you do if you were a ten year old little Japanese boy in Japan, and
a giant monster is crushing buildings, eating people, and probably will kill you on sight? Would you: A) Run for your life,
or B) Take a red orb from a little girl (You have no idea who she is, or what the orb is for by the way) and run to the giant
turtle that is fighting the other giant monster. (By the way, you have no idea who the giant turtle is either.) I don’t
know about you, but I would pick A. Why would little kids help each other deliver a red orb to something that they don’t
even know what it is? It is just a poor quality work by the writers, and totally flawed. I am pretty sure that the entire
scene is supposed to be sending this message: Gamera is a friend of all children.
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