Episode 64: Kaiju Weekly vs. ‘20 Million Miles to Earth’

The Monster Island Film Vault

Hello, kaiju lovers! MIFV’s season three theme, Ameri-kaiju, wouldn’t be complete without some Ray Harryhausen, so Nate invited both of his “co-hosts in kamen” (ba-dum-tsh!) to discuss 20 Million Miles to Earth. (Yes, Jimmy reminds Nate that he got his chronology wrong, because this film was released in 1957 and The Blob was 1958. Oops!). Harryhausen super-fans Travis Alexander and Michael Hamilton, co-hosts of the Kaiju Weekly podcast, join Nate in a chat that veers perilously close to derailing at multiple points. Jet lag will do that to you, especially when flying to the Island in the Rad Bug. Regardless, 20 Million Miles was Harryhausen’s first truly iconic film, paving the way for his fantasy epics that followed. The intrepid Jimmy From NASA keeps trying to tell his story about seeing a herd of Ymir on their native Venus, but nobody cares. The Toku Topic is the Soviet side of the Space Race since this film begins with a rocket ship crash and was released several months before the launch of Sputnik I. Be prepared for many (bad) Russian accents!

To compete with this broadcast, Cameron Winter did a livestream where he sent one of his Cyber-Flies to track down the Ymir so he could be put on display for the film’s anniversary and Harryhausen’s birthday in June. Winter rambles about seemingly random things while doing so.

Special thanks to J.P. Gant for helping to edit this episode! Follow him on Twitter: @Homebrewed_SD (https://tinyurl.com/2jpc36r5).

Guest stars:

• Jack “GMan” Hudgens as Cameron Winter

Additional music:

• “Pacific Rim” by Niall Stenson
• “Chant My Name!” by Masaaki Endo

Sound effects sourced from Freesound.org.

Check out Nathan’s spinoff podcasts, The Henshin Men and The Power Trip.

We’d like to give a shout-out to our MIFV MAX patrons Travis Alexander and Michael Hamilton (co-hosts of Kaiju Weekly); Danny DiManna (author/creator of the Godzilla Novelization Project); Eli Harris (elizilla13); Chris Cooke (host of One Cross Radio); Bex from Redeemed Otaku; Damon Noyes, The Cel Cast, TofuFury, Eric Anderson of Nerd Chapel, and Ted Williams! Thanks for your support!

You, too, can join MIFV MAX on Patreon to get this and other perks starting at only $3 a month!

Buy official MIFV merch on TeePublic!

This episode is approved by Cameron Winter and the Monster Island Board of Directors.

Timestamps:

• Intro: 0:00-13:44
  • Winter Livestream #1: 11:46-12:56
• Entertaining Info Dump: 13:44-22:22
• Toku Talk: 22:22-59:40
• Promos: 59:40-1:02:17
• Toku Topic: 1:02:17-
  • Winter Livestream #2: 1:02:38-1:03:54
  • Winter Livestream #3: 1:39:15-
• Housekeeping & Outro: 1:41:17-end
  • Winter Livestream #4: 1:57:32-1:58:38

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© 2022 Moonlighting Ninjas Media

Bibliography/Further Reading:

• Howell, Elizabeth. “Sputnik: The Space Race's Opening Shot.” com. 29 Sept. 2020. (https://www.space.com/17563-sputnik.html)
• Monster Island Film Vault, The. Episode 15: ‘Battle in Outer Space’ (with Luke Jaconetti) (https://tinyurl.com/MIVF-S1E15)
• Ray Harryhausen Podcast, The. Episode 15- 20 Million Miles to Earth: 60th Anniversary Special.
• Petersen, Carolyn Collins. “A Short History of Roscosmos and the Soviet Space Program.” Updated 3 July 2019. (https://www.thoughtco.com/soviet-space-program-history-4140631)
• Shreve, Bradley G. “”The US, the USSR, and Space Exploration, 1957-1963.” International Journal on World Peace, vol. XX, no. 2, June 2003.
• Siegel, Ethan. “This Is Why The Soviet Union Lost 'The Space Race' To The USA.” Forbes. 11 July 2019. (https://tinyurl.com/3c2mkfcf)
• 20 Million Miles to Earth 50th Anniversary Blu-ray Special Features:
  • Commentary by Ray Harryhausen, Dennis Muren, Phil Tippett, and Arnold Kunert
  • “Remembering 20 Million Miles to Earth”
  • “Tim Burton Sits Down with Ray Harryhausen”
  • “Interview with Joan Taylor”
  • “The Colorization Process”
  • “David Schecter on Film Music’s Unsung Hero”
• Warren, Bill. Keep Watching the Skies!: American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties, The 21st Century Edition. McFarland. 2016.
• Wiki articles on 20 Million Miles to Earth:
  • IMDB (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050084/)
  • Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_Million_Miles_to_Earth)