Once again it’s time for Rifftrax! The trio of Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett came together with the goal of ridiculing a movie for all of the absurdity it presents. Deciding to take a look deeper into film history they went back and mocked the first appear of an icon of Japanese cinema in its self titled movie, Mothra from 1961. They also brought along an educational short which once again asks if the creators were trying to actually teach children something or traumatize them into being obedient.
Soapy, The Germ Fighter
It’s another one of those inanimate objects coming to life shorts to tell humanity what they are doing wrong in their lives. This time it’s a bar of soap called Soapy, who tells a young boy named Billy (because kids in educational shorts are always named Billy), the importance of making sure to wash himself. The fact he’s appearing in a child’s bedroom in the middle of the night is just a sample of the hilarity which comes from this short. The short alone easily justifies the price of the ticket.
Mothra
After a boat capsizes near an island where nuclear tests were done, the crew is rescued and found to be somehow unaffected by radiation poisoning. A team investigating the island, but they find something much more valuable, tiny twin girls the size of dolls. A scheming capitalist decides to steal the two and bring them back to civilization, unaware they have a connection with a giant monster moth called Mothra who will stop at nothing to get the pair back.
There were two big aspects of the plot which really helped with the comedy. First, was the fact Mothra takes a long time to show up in its own movie. This leads to such amusing lines as “When you think of a film called Mothra, you of course think of press meetings in airport conference rooms.” The second is the greedy villain who kidnaps the fairy girls just so happens to be named Nelson. Murphy and Corbett didn’t waste an opportunity to make jokes at the expense of their companion.
The only real downside of this film is the dubbing which was used for the film. Though not the fault of the Rifftrax crew as it was the dub which came from the films original 1962 release. It still contains audio which reflects early 60s mentality about people from asian, complete with forced accidents and even a crass “Ha So” joke thrown into the mix. Some may need to take this into consideration before enjoying the film but the team makes sure to never to stoop to this caliber of humor and even go as far as to point out how the line itself was going too far. As always the team tries to be a better class of comedians and succeed very well in this case.
This is definitely one of the better shows the team has been put on. It was more entertaining than their attempt to revisit Time Chasers and should be checked out for not only fans of Rifftrax and Mystery Science Theater 3000 but anyone who enjoys a night of wonderful comedy.
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The show was presented through Fathom Events. An encore presentation of Rifftrax: Mothra will air on Tuesday, August 23rd.
