MST3K: Episode 312 - Gamera vs Guiron

I'm watching all the episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 in order. More about this here. It began here.

Episode 312: Gamera vs Guiron

First aired: Comedy Central on 7 September 1991
Availability: iTunes, Amazon DVD (Volume 21 Deluxe Edition/Standard Edition), Shout (Volume 21 Collector's Edition), Best Brains (Volume 21 Collector's Edition)

Its a turtle movie!

It's Gamera! Ohhh! Gamera! Ahhhh!

While I have the DVD, I also have the iTunes store download. And, while the picture quality is good, on this and many other MST3K episodes, the iTunes version doesn't have actual chapter markers, but rather, markers every 10 minutes.

What this means is you want to skip to a Host Segment, or skip a Host Segment, you can't. You have to fast-forward and stop it when the image on the screen looks like it's where you want.

That's disappointing. And lazy on iTunes part. Or whoever supplied it to iTunes.

The movie? It's features Gamera, Friend to All Children. So it's a Japanese kiddie movie. But, there is an upside. It has a hot Japanese she-villain. Two, actually, though, as we said when we covered the KTMA episode that featured this movie, one is more of a villain than is the other.

Crow gives his full name as "Crow T. Robot." I don't recall that being specifically said prior to this episode. So, at least it's official.

Crow's name made it's appearance in a Richard Burton skit. Joel & the Bots thought one of the kids -- the one played by Christopher Murphy ("Those Japanese sure have funny names!") -- looked like Richard Burton. And he did. A little.

Hot Japanese She-Villains and the kid that looks like Richard Burton

Actual Richard Burton
© 2004 Onward Productions Ltd

The resemblance, slight as it was, gave rise to lots of riffs referencing the late actor, including his role in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. I didn't care for the movie, but the references were funny.

No Beef-A-Roni this time around

In the KTMA version, they did a Beef-A-Roni reference, recalling the "We're having Beef-A-Roni" song from the old commercials. They decided to forego that this time around, instead focusing on the actual tune being played. I loved the Beef-A-Roni bit from KTMA, and it's not being there this time made me miss it.

The riffing in this episode is very good. The Host Segments contain some very funny skits. And Mike's guest appearance, as Michael Feinstein, was great, as was the Mads' reaction to it.

This is the second consecutive episode to air without the standard closing theme. Mike's Feinstein-like piano playing covered the credits this time. On the previous episode, Peter Graves' speech covered the credits.

Although I don't care for Gamera movies, the MSTified versions have grown on me. I don't love them like so many MSTies do, but I don't hate them. I wouldn't watch one without J&tB sitting in front of the screen.

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