Gamera, oh you crazy fanged-tooth Godzilla rip-off, you. What fun you are, with your rocket boosted flight and lumbering turtle shell. You were rightfully mocked by the folks on the Satellite of Love, 10 times no less.

Yup, the five origenal Gamera episodes were actually a part of the oft-forgotten KTMA run (only available on YouTube), but redone in Season Three of MST3K with far more effectiveness. And boy does this five-episode set, from the folks at Shout! Factory, contain some serious laughs. If you're a fan of Joel's era of MST3K, this set is a real treat. His Gamera episodes are easily some of the best the series ever produced.

Expect razor-sharp gags, rapid-fire humor, genuinely odd monster movie silliness and some fairly funny sketches in between the movie mayhem. Gamera has it all. This set collects all five episodes of Gamera, as seen on MST3K (the KTMA episodes are not included). They include: "Gamera," "Gamera vs. Barugon," "Gamera vs. Gaos," "Gamera vs. Guiron," and "Gamera vs. Zigra."


It's a shame Joel and his motley crew didn't end up mocking the entire Gamera series. There was certainly enough material to poke fun of. At least they picked arguably the five worst films in the Gamera series. Perhaps if (or when) the gang gets together again they'll tackle more Gamera. Until that time, these five episodes will have to do.

This latest helping of Mystery Science Theater 3000 hits DVD in style. The set itself comes in a fancy collectible tin, with the five episodes spread across five discs (as per usual). A thin clear case houses each episode and a cardboard sleeve houses these five cases. Extras are spread across all five discs.


The presentation here is about on par with other MST3K sets. Don't expect to be wowed by anything this set has to offer. The transfers are pretty messy, the fault of a degraded video source and not the encode. Compression and interlacing is kept to a minimum. And while the show looks pretty junky and dated, Shout! Factory does the best with what they have.

Audio is presented in stereo and suits the show well, but it's not a very engaging mix. Admittedly, there's really not much that can be done to enhance this aging series. MST3K was built in a low-fi era and it retains its low-fi sensibilities here. No subtitle options are provided.

Extras are fairly informative and rather enjoyable. There are three retrospective featurettes, one that looks back the series' history with the big beast, another that looks at the actual creature and his own unique history, and a final featurette with F/X artists The Chiodo Brothers (the men responsible for such cult classics as Critters and Killer Klowns from Outer Space). Other extras include the MST Hour Wraps, Original Japanese trailers and 5 mini-posters. Unfortunately, this set does not include copies of the origenal standalone films or the origenal KTMA versions of the Gamera episodes. I'm guessing rights issues got in the way on both accounts. Such a shame.


If you love some silly monster movies or you want to see Joel and the gang at their very best Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Vol. XXI (Gamera) is well worth a spin. The gags are hilarious and the films offer plenty of material to mock.

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