Briefly: Fans aired confusion at Sony for not releasing, arguably, some of the best Godzilla movies in their catalog on Bluray. Recently Sci-Fi Japan revealed* covers and release dates for Godzilla 2000, Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, Godzilla against MechaGodzilla and The Rebirth of Mothra Trilogy. Each set is slated to be available September 9th.
Godzilla 2000 gets a standalone release for a few reasons: It's the Toho film Sony spent the most money on; after buying the rights Sony dubbed the film themselves. In addition to the dubbing minor edits were made to enhance the film's pacing for western audiences. Roughly 50% of Takayuki Hattori's music was removed for J. Peter Robinson's re-score of major action beats. (Robinson's contributions used more of Akira Ifukube's Godzilla theme and, oddly enough, Ifukube's Rodan theme.)
Because of the changes made to the English version it is nearly impossible to lay the Japanese audio track over the American cut. Therefore, in addition to Sony's version, western audiences will own a slightly different cut of the movie with a marginally longer running time in Japanese language.
Two Millennium Series favorites will finally be released. Although it's unlikely the subtitles will be improved, (based on how Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II and the other Millennium series bluray were handled) fans will finally be able to own high definition versions of the highly praised Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah and the Tokyo S.O.S. prequel Godzilla against MechaGodzilla. Although extras have not been confirmed for any of these films it's likely all will have teasers/trailers.
Of minor note, GMK now uses Toho's DVD/Bluray cover instead of Sony's enhanced version of the theatrical poster.
The Mothra Trilogy will be released for the first time in North America with Japanese language audio. This also marks the very first time Rebirth of Mothra III will be released on home video in North America. Once again special features have not been confirmed, but it's likely each film will include theatrical trailers. This is the first triple feature bluray set Sony has released in the genre.
With these sets Sony will have released all of their major titles in the genre on Bluray with Japanese audio options. Look for these titles this September.
EDIT:
I need to make a correction. Sony also holds the rights to Mothra (1960), Battle in Outer Space and The H-Men. (All Ishiro Honda films.) Although Sony has released all three films in a single DVD set, there is yet any information about whether or not they intend to put them on Bluray.
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*Exclusive: Sony Releasing More Godzilla - And Mothra - Blurays!
Special thanks to Keith Aiken.
