Godzilla: 3D Hollywood Movie Version is 'Too Fat' Say Japanese Fans

Japanese Godzilla fans are complaining that the new 3D Hollywood movie version of Godzilla is "too fat" after seeing the new trailer and images released by Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures.

Disgruntled fans in Japan have been taking to online forums to bemoan the fact that the monster for the new Hollywood epic Godzilla movie seems to have become less muscular and put on quite a few kilos.

The much-loved Godzilla first made his screen debut in 1954 in one of the first ever anti-nuclear films as "Gojira", an amphibious reptilian monster that emerged from Tokyo Bay after an atomic bomb explosion.

The monster laid waste to Japan's capital, causing explosions, dead bodies and fleeing civilians everywhere, which evoked the scenes from the last days of World War II and began the Japanese obsession with disaster films.

There have now been at least 28 Godzilla films by the Toho film studios in Japan, as well as several TV series, video games and books.

In 2004, Godzilla was awarded his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on the 50<sup>th anniversary of Gojira.

Online posters are now concerned that America has "super-sized" the iconic monster, in reference to Morgan Spurlock's 2004 documentary Super Size Me, a documentary focussing on the perils of eating fast food from McDonald's.

Comments have included the suggestion that perhaps America has been feeding Godzilla pizza and marshmallows since he was last seen on screen in 1998.

"It's not surprising – everyone gets a spare tyre in middle age," one online poster commented.

Over the last 60 years, Godzilla has not just got wider, but also taller.

Between 1954 and 1975, he stood at a height of just 50m during the Toho Showa era. Hanna-Barbera's version of the iconic monster put him at roughly 80m tall and much more rotund from 1978 to 1981.

Then from 1984 to 1995, during the Toho Heizei era, he shot up to 100m tall but more muscular. The new Godzilla looks about twice the size of the Toho Heizei version, and about four times bigger than Sony's Zilla version from 1998.

The new Godzilla motion picture will be released in Japan and the US on 16 May, starring Ken Watanabe, Bryan Cranston, Juliette Binoche and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

Rather than atomic bomb-testing, the plot will focus on the "terrifying force of nature" and see Godzilla go up against other monsters "bolstered by humanity's scientific arrogance".