Mothra
Mothra
| 10 July 1962 (USA)
Mothra Trailers

Shipwreck survivors found on the presumably uninhabited Infant Island leads to a scientific expedition that discovers a surviving native population along with the Shobijin, tiny twin fairy priestesses of the island's mythical deity called Mothra. After the fairies are kidnapped by an exploitative businessman named Clark Nelson, Mothra sets out to rescue them.

Reviews
Scanialara You won't be disappointed!
ClassyWas Excellent, smart action film.
Manthast Absolutely amazing
Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Eric Stevenson As a fairly old film, this movie is interesting in setting up its own Universe with Godzilla and Rodan. I'm glad to have seen all of their original movies now. The original "Godzilla" film depicted the title character as just this monster that wanted to destroy. Mothra actually has a lot more depth, even though I will admit it's pretty awkward. The plot of this movie is that some tiny singing people (probably fairies) are taken from an island to perform. They use telepathy to get Mothra to free them. Now, I admit that sounds like a really dumb premise. It actually does make it a lot more interesting.We get a much greater sense of why Mothra is destroying everything. The effects aren't bad either. I will admit that when it became a pupa, it looked like a giant peanut. Well, I like peanuts anyway. Much of this is dialogue and that can be pretty distracting. It was kind of predictable too. I mean, Mothra first appears as a larvae, so it's pretty obvious by its name that it's going to turn into a moth later. Still a nice first entry. ***
AaronCapenBanner Ishiro Honda directed this wild but imaginative film that sees Japanese scientists investigating reports of unusual activity on a mysterious remote island that had been exposed to atomic testing. They find a primitive people and good-hearted "Twin Fairies", two women a foot-high who are kidnapped by a greedy foreign industrialist to be exploited for their unique size and singing ability, which is really a cry for help to their legendary protector: a giant prehistoric moth that attacks Japan, trying to rescue them after being taken to Tokyo. First film appearance of Mothra proved an entertaining effort, with nice model work. Mothra would return in the Godzilla series, in "Mothra Vs. Godzilla".
Aaron1375 I will state this out front, Mothra is one of my least favorite Toho monsters. I always find when she attacks a city it is so slow paced and boring when she is a caterpillar and monotonous when she flaps her wings as a moth. Other people seem to love her, but me my favorite is Godzilla. Which should be no surprise, but I like most of the bad guys better than Mothra. I just can not think of any monster I like less right off hand. This film is all Mothra and of course the twins who are always getting kidnapped by some greedy person or persons because little tiny twins are bound to make you a lot of money. What happens you ask? The usual, people try to get twins back if they can not then Mothra comes marching slowly into the city and takes forever to do anything and then spins a cocoon and then still does very little compared to other monsters, gets said twins then she is off. It is sad when the parts of the movie focused on the people is more interesting than those of the monster of the title of the movie, but that is how it is in this movie for me. I always enjoyed Godzilla, Mothra King Gidorah All Out Monster Attack, because Mothra got totally toasted by the king of all monsters Godzilla.
bkoganbing Having an honored place in Japanese monster film lore is Mothra a giant caterpillar/butterfly who's a Deity on the island of Beiru. A shipwreck strands several survivors on an island where atomic testing has taken place, but the natives are free of any radiation. Some native brew that the castaways are given keeps the atomic effects away from them too.Holding a special place in the affections of these natives are a pair of twin girls, barely a foot tall. An unscrupulous survivor kidnaps them, figuring they'll turn a good buck for him to exhibit as freaks.But not when you've got a giant caterpillar/butterfly on your case. He's the one these girls are continually chanting for and by telepathy Mothra's beating a path to them and it takes him to Japan where Tokyo once again undergoes monster urban renewal.I like Mothra because the monster really is the hero of the piece. And while the special effects of Mothra destroying Tokyo with the flapping of his giant wings, those paper mache, baling wire models that are a trademark of these film, still it's good fun. And of course Mothra came back several times, often in conjunction with other Japanese monster creations.Almost fifty years later Mothra's still a lot of fun.