brilliant actors, brilliant editing

An absolute waste of money

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

And, of course, hard-core daikaiju fans. "Rebirth of Mothra" is an unsubtle morality-play in which evil loggers remove a sacred seal, releasing an ancient monster ('Desghidorah') who threatens to suck the life out of the Earth. This attracts the attention of a tiny 'witch' flying a miniature dragon, who torments the family of the man who took the seal until Mothra's fairy acolytes show up riding a cloying-sweet mini-Mothra to defend the kids. Meanwhile, 'Desghidorah' continues to ravage the environment until an aging Mothra appears, later followed by her larval offspring. Needless to say, most of the second half of the film is a kaiju battle, featuring pyrotechnics, inexplicable coloured lights, and, since this is a new-age Mothra movie, lots of sparkles. In the end, the environment is saved (at least for now), the forests are miraculously reborn, and the power of love reaffirmed. Even compared to some of the more 'child-friendly' Showa-era Godzilla films (e.g. Son of Godzilla, 1967), this film is strictly for the kids. The 'witch' character (her dubbed voice sounding like the "Wicked Witch of the West") is especially puerile and, like the later Showa-era Gamera films, the human 'heroes' are a couple of irritating kids. All could be forgiven (or at least tolerated) if the movie was a good kaiju epic, but it is not. Mothra has reverted to the furry puppet version seen in 1992's "Godzilla vs. Mothra", although now has a wide array of 'energy-weapons' and convenient supernatural abilities. The new incarnation of Ghidorah is now fatter with front legs, and has lost all of the sinuous grace of the original monster. The original Mothra song is briefly heard (the current fairies lack the charm of the original pair), but in general the film's score is trite and derivative, especially in the action scenes. The special effects are of mixed effectiveness, some of the flying shots of Mothra, Desghidorah, and the fairies/witch are terrible while some of scenes with the larval Mothra are excellent (especially towards the transformation scene, the cocooning is especially imaginative). There are none of the classic (and costly) cityscapes to be destroyed, as most all of the 'battles' are aerial or in forests or mountains (although there is an OK 'dam buster' sequence), and the JDF is never mobilised, so the usual scenes of tanks, missiles, carnage and collateral damage that are core to the canon are absent. As I was watching a dubbed version, I can't really comment on the acting but none of the human characters were interesting or engaging. The biggest problem with the film is the direction: scenes just go on toooo long. The 'dog fight' between flying fairies and the witch in the kids' house is endless, as are the repetitious scenes of Desghidorah emerging from the fire, and the ending of the film is an interminable series of good-byes and reminders of what the 'message' is (in the unlikely event that you missed it). Mothra is a unique and iconic part of Japanese kaiju culture. Her first appearance in 1961 and her battle with Godzilla in 1964 are among the best the genre has to offer. Too bad she's now reduced to being a flying green guilt-trip. I admit that the giant moth has a long history of being a 'guardian' of the Earth, but the heavy-handed 'eco' message in this film is a bit hard to take considering Japan uses about 24 billion disposable chopsticks every year (the equivalent of about 1.6 million trees).

When a logging company uncovers an ancient artifact in the mountains of Hokkaido, the Company's boss Mr. Goto finds a mysterious talisman. He prises it free from its resting place, thinking it would be a nice present for his daughter. Unfortunately he's unsealed the resting place of Desghidorah, a three headed, fire breathing beastie that's soon freed to run wild and destroy the local scenery, sucking Earth's precious energy.Only a giant plush moth can save the day! A tired old Mothra - tending a lovely big egg - is reluctantly summoned (in a slightly more J-pop than usual fashion) by her tiny priestesses Moll and Lora. These cuties are from a race called the Elias, and they spend much of the movie astride a mini-Mothra called Fairy, battling their nemesis Belvera, who gets to fly a mini dragon thing and cackle a lot.First in a trilogy of Mothra films for the nineties, while Godzilla was taking a well earned break. Clearly aimed at kids more than the average kaiju fan, this is still great fun, and while no cities get totalled in this offering, the countryside looks nice and there are some cool fight scenes between Death Ghidorah and Mothra.There's a 'save the planet' theme going on that gets rammed down your throat a bit before the movie ends, but the more obvious beef many western fans are going to have with this flick is the lack of a Japanese language option on seemingly the only version available. Why do they do this? Yes, the film's been tarted up nicely, and the dubbing is lip-synched and not overly annoying, but some people will always prefer the original language and there seems to be little reason why it shouldn't be included.

I cannot f**king believe it. I'm serious, this movie is beyond belief. OK first lets talk about Mothra. She is a giant moth/butter fly thing, who protects these 2 fairies called the Cosmos, who keep the universe in balance. This character first appeared in MOTHRA (1960). After that she went on to star along side Godzilla in MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA, after that she ended up staring in many Godzilla movies yet to come. But after the success of GODZILLA AND MOTHRA: BATTLE FOR THE EARTH she managed to break free of the Godzilla franchise and star in this flick and boy is it an experience. A very bad experience. First of all this is actually a very clean G rated movie, well actually this movie is labeled as not rated but if it did I have a hard time believing that it would not be G. First of all I should mention that I kinda like the fact that the twin fairies are not the same actress and talking at the same time, like they did in some of the earlier Godzilla movies. What should be noted is that in this movie we are introduce to a third twin fairy person named Belvera, and boy is she ridiculous. She wears black and rides this robotic dragon thing named Garu-Garu. Speaking of dragons in this movie we are introduced to a new Ghidorah named DesGhidorah. He's pretty much just a less cool version of King Ghidorah. Actually he kind of looks like King Ghidorah from GODZILLA: FINAL WARS. Which actually came out after this movie. Isn't that interesting. Oh wait and let us not forget how King Ghidorah actually appeared in REBIRTH OF MOTHRA 3, which I think was actually Ghidorah's First movie appearance outside of the Godzilla franchise. Now lets talk about the acting as expected, it is pretty corny. Yet again I only saw the dubbed version so I don't know how the acting was without it. Now the effects in this movie are okay. There not great but there not bad either. There some where in between. Now the story line is awful. That's all I can say about it. So this is a bad movie, but because it is a children's movie so maybe your kids will enjoy it.

This movie was the first of three solo Mothra adventures following the Heisei Godzilla series. This movie was pretty good. It has some great points to it: fast pace, great looking monsters, great optical effects, lots of monster fights, as well as a cute looking actress as Lora. However, I thought the movie was too kid-oriented and that the final battle was too short. The monster battles lacked the ferocity of Godzilla battles and Mothra's powers seemed overkill. However, it is a fun movie for fans of the genre.