From November 2nd to 4th of 2024, the city of Los Angeles played host to events celebrating the 70th birthday of the Godzilla series. The main events were in Little Tokyo on Nov 2nd and at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on Nov 3rd, which was the date the first Godzilla movie appeared in theaters 70 years ago. In preparation for the celebrations, the Metro train station in Little Tokyo along with the metro trains re-decorated themselves with a focus on Godzilla while the organization that runs the store called Anime Jungle opened a small Godzilla shop like the ones found in Japan. The store will be open from Nov 2nd to Nov 17th and has a variety of different merchandise. Furthermore, on Nov 2nd and 4th, the Japan Foundation of Los Angeles hosted two panels that were led by Godzilla historians Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski with the one on Nov 2nd discussing the thematic elements of Godzilla and how they evolved throughout the years, while the Nov 4th panel discussed the special effects of the overall series.
There were two main events at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on Nov 3rd. The first one was a marathon of five Godzilla films the museum showed at the David Geffen Theater. Lasting from 11:00am to around 10:00pm the list consisting of GODZILLA (Gojira), DESTROY ALL MONSTERS (Kaijū Sō-shingeki), GODZILLA VS HEDORAH (Gojira tai Hedora), SHIN GODZILLA (Shin Gojira), and GODZILLA MINUS ONE (Gojira Mainasu Wan). The second main event was a small workshop that took place in the Shirley Temple Education Studio. Named the Godzilla Workshop and lasting from 12:30pm to 4:30pm, it allowed attendees to use Legos, Godzilla toys and recording via large iPads to create stop-motion films. The workshop would let a certain number of people enter the room to work on tables in the workshop and the process could last up to 30 minutes. Once a person finished and left the workshop room, another person waiting in the line would enter. In addition, the audience for the workshop helped in the construction of a small Godzilla pinata they would break open at the end of the workshop.
In the main lobby, the museum displayed artifacts that the team from Godzilla Minus One had when they won the academy award for special effects earlier this year. Furthermore, the Godzilla suit that Krystopher Baioa created and wore in Little Tokyo on Saturday appeared at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures for a meet and greet with the guests that lasted from 11:30am to 3:30pm. The number of guests varied throughout the day, but it was a good-sized crowd overall. Some of the guests, the kids, dressed up in costumes and others brought their Bandai toys along with some of the audience using them in the Godzilla workshop. The gift shop also had a small selection of Godzilla merchandise on sale.
Overall, it was an impressive event and one that was unimaginable even a year ago. This along with the other events in LA showed just how the franchise has advanced in the wake of the incredible success of Godzilla Minus One.
