Trivia / Varan, the Unbelievable

• Bad Export for You: The 1962 American cut, which rivals Gigantis, the Fire Monster in terms of worst Americanization of a Tokusatsu film, replaces all of Akira Ifukube’s original bombastic score with a more generic sounding one, changes the whole plot to follow a wholly new character who doesn’t even interact with the actual main characters, even the roar and name of Varan are different (and worse sounding). It has since fallen into obscurity after the original Japanese release was made available in the US.
• What Could Have Been: Varan was initially meant to be a Japanese-US co-production made for television as a way to capitalize on the success of Godzilla: King of the Monsters! (1956). The US company eventually backed out due to lack of funds, however, and it became a theatrical Japanese release instead.