History Trivia / KingKongVsGodzilla

* UncreditedRole: Much like the rest of the films in the franchise, the English dub cast is completely uncredited. And with the exceptions of Les Tremayne and dub adapters Paul Mason and Bruce Howard, has never been fully identified.

* UncreditedRole: Much like the rest of the films in the franchise, the English dub cast is completely uncredited. Unlike many of the other films however, the dub cast for this one has not been identified even after all this time.

* DisownedAdaptation: Willis O’Brien was reportedly displeased with producer John Beck taking his original ''King Kong vs. Frankenstein'' script, which he intended to be his comeback, and went behind his back with Toho to make their own movie. He even considered suing Beck for stealing his idea, but ultimately passed away before any action was taken. His widow even believed it was the stress of what happened to his script that caused his death.

* PopCultureUrbanLegends: There are a lot of people who claim that ''Film/KingKongVsGodzilla'' (1962) has two different endings for the American and Japanese releases, one where King Kong wins and one where Godzilla wins respectively. While there are differences between the two versions, the endings are the same and WordOfGod says that King Kong was always the intended victor. The rumor may have started because the Japanese version has King Kong's and Godzilla's roars played at the end, while the American version only had Kong's.
* ProductionPosse: Creator/IshiroHonda, Music/AkiraIfukube, Creator/EijiTsuburaya and Akihiko Hirata becomes part of this film's production. This is Tsuburaya's third ''Godzilla'' film, while this is the actors' second.

** When Willis O'Brien wrote the script that would become ''King Kong vs. Godzilla'', he envisioned it as ''King Kong vs. [[FrankensteinsMonster Frankenstein]]''. Eventually the script fell into Toho's hands and became ''King Kong vs. Godzilla'', but Toho also considered a ''Frankenstein vs. Godzilla'' and ''Frankenstein vs. the Human Vapor'' (a lesser-known non-giant monster from the Toho movie of the same name), but those evolved into ''Film/FrankensteinConquersTheWorld''

** Original ''Kong'' director Merian C. Cooper didn't have kind things to say about the film either. He found the concept of the film "belittling" and even criticized the use of an actor in a suit for Kong over stop motion work.

* DisownedAdaptation: Willis O’Brien was reportedly displeased with Toho taking his original ''King Kong vs. Frankenstein'' script, which he intended to be his comeback, and went behind his back to make their own movie. He even considered suing for stealing his idea, but ultimately passed away before any action was taken. His widow even believed it was the stress of what happened to his script that caused his death.

* WordOfGod: According to Creator/{{Toho}} Studios, the winner of the battle is [[spoiler: King Kong.]]

!!Tropes exclusive to the U.S. version:
* ContinuityReboot: Despite a helicopter pilot clearly identifying the monster, the U.S. version ignores the previous two films completely (also note that ''Gigantis'' wasn't really considered a Godzilla film in those days for obvious reasons), presenting Godzilla as a generic frozen dinosaur with no connections to the H-Bomb.
* CutAndPasteTranslation: Where to begin... The infamous "corns" exchange only serves to coverup the fact that the scene has been shifted. In the Japanese version, Furue is talking about Godzilla's sudden return, which took place ''after'' the expedition party reached Faro Island.
* DubInducedPlothole: In a cut subplot, Fujita is running experiments on his tensile strength wire aboard a ship, departing at Nemuro shortly before Godzilla destroys the same ship off screen. A plane crash is what motivates Fumiko to look for him in Hokkaido in the English script, even though the newspaper she's reading clearly shows a ship.
* HollywoodDarkness: Some scenes that originally took place during the day were tinted to match surrounding shots, but for some reason, in foreign prints no color grading was applied.
* InconsistentDub: General Shinzo (who is unnamed in the Japanese script) is called Kenzo during one loop.
* NukeEm: This standard B-movie plan is considered by the authorities, but is dropped in favor of the film's title. This is also touched upon in the Japanese cut, albeit more briefly. It should be noted that during the first scene with Shigezawa (which was shifted ''before'' Godzilla attacks the army base), he is talking about how no one should really be surprised about Godzilla's return, and the references to the 3000 year old lotus seed and the ancient frog are put in Johnson's mouth instead in the U.S. cut.
* NoPronunciationGuide: Every dub actor repeatedly pronounces Hokkaido as "Hokkai-yaddo". The only individual to pronounce it properly is James Yagi during the added U.N. scenes.
* ObliquelyObfuscatedOccupation: The script never really makes it clear what Prof. Shigesawa's profession is (in the Japanese script he seems to be just a civilian scientific adviser). In one scene, he's the Minister of Defense, and in another he's given the vague title of premier.
* RecycledSoundtrack: With Ifukube's score almost entirely out of the picture, [[Film/CreatureFromTheBlackLagoon the Gillman's]] three note leitmotif now serves as both monsters' theme. Some cues go back as far as 1941's ''Man-Made Monster''.
* SameLanguageDub: The original voices of the Seahawk's crew were not retained and Harold S. Conway was given a foreign accent for whatever reason, [[Film/TheMysterians again]]. A bit of dialogue changes occur too: In the Japanese version, the captain utters "Oh my god" after the engine fails, while in the dub he says [[{{Bowdlerise}} "Oh, great"]] instead. The helicopter pilots' dialogue was changed as well.
* StockFootage: In addition to the U.S. produced scenes, footage lifted from ''Film/TheMysterians'' is thrown in for good measure. The invaders' otherworldly orbiting mothership stands in for the U.N.'s International Communications Satellite, scenes of panicking civilians obviously not tinted to match the rest of the scene pad out Kong's rampage through the suburbs, and by far the most notable usage occurs during the ending, where scenes of entire villages sinking into the ground and tidal waves flooding valleys were used to make Godzilla and King Kong's fall into the water and the following tremor seem more climactic.
%%* UncreditedRole: Much like the rest of the films in the franchise, the English dub cast is completely uncredited. Unlike many of the other films however, the dub cast for this one has not been identified even after all this time.

!!Tropes exclusive to the Japanese version:
* NoExportForYou: Initially, the English dub was the only version of the film in the west while the Japanese version was never released outside of Japan. That is until it was released by Creator/TheCriterionCollection as part of the Showa Films collection in 2019.
* {{Retool}}: Ishiro Honda originally did not want the monsters in a LighterAndSofter approach, as most of his kaiju films are serious in nature. From this film onwards, he chose to not direct anymore films after ''Film/TerrorOfMechagodzilla''.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Toho decided to move the series in a lighter direction despite Creator/IshiroHonda not wanting to turn a serious monster film into a comical one.

** When Willis O'Brien wrote the script that would become ''King Kong vs. Godzilla'', he envisioned it as ''King Kong vs. [[FrankensteinsMonster Frankenstein]]''. Eventually the script fell into Toho's hands and became ''King Kong vs. Godzilla'', but Toho also considered a ''Frankenstein vs. Godzilla'' and ''Frankenstein vs. the Human Vapor'' (a lesser-known non-giant monster from the Toho movie of the same name), but those evolved into ''Film/FrankensteinConquersTheWorld''

* DumbDinos: Dr. Johnson claims that Godzilla's brain is the size of a small marble (as in the marble that he's literally holding in his hand) while Kong's brain is about 10 times the size of a real gorilla's. This is playing into the stereotype that the [[PrimateVersusReptile dinosaur is a dumb brute while the primate is a thinking animal]], never mind the [[ArtisticLicenseBiology astonishing claim]] that a marble-sized brain can properly handle a 50-meter tall radioactive {{Kaiju}}.

* ArtisticLicensePaleontology: Dr. Arnold Johnson, curator of the New York Museum of Natural History, classifies Godzilla as a dinosaur "possibly crossed between the tyrannosaurus and the stegosaurus". A carnivore and a herbivore separated by millions of years of evolution can interbreed? What!? Made worse when the doctor holds up a children's dinosaur book to support his theories. It seems he couldn't even afford a copy of ''[[Film/GodzillaRaidsAgain Anguillosaurus, Killer of the Living.]]''

* DubInducedPlothole: In a cut subplot, Fujita is running experiments on his tensile strength wire aboard a ship, departing at Nemuro shortly before Godzilla destroys the same ship off screen. A plane crash is what motivates Fumiko to look for him in Hokkaido in the English script, even though the newspaper she's reading clearly shows a ship.

When U.S. producer John Beck was not satisfied with ''King Kong vs. Godzilla'', he and to a greater extent, his team of writers and editors tried to "fix" the film in the best ways they could: Chopping away scenes that actually made the characters a bit dimensional, adding in boring, pace halting segments of UN personnel explaining what's been cut out, shifting scenes and shots beyond recognition, sometimes less than logical dialogue changes, and finally, the near complete removal of Akira Ifukube's wonderful compositions because they "sounded too Japanese". In terms of making it feel like a completely different film, they succeeded, as the end result is much more akin to American Sci-Fi of the time, with most if not all satirical elements from the original cut excised, though the lighthearted tone and comedy scenes are kept.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Almost immediately after the release of this film, there were plans to do a sequel, simply entitled ''Continuation: King Kong vs. Godzilla.'' Unfortunately, the idea didn't get far, and very few details are known as to how the film would've turned out.