Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Film / UltramanStory

Go To

1!! Spoilers for the Land of Light continuity of the ''Franchise/UltraSeries'' preceding this one, including ''Series/UltramanEighty'' may be left unmarked. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned!
2[[quoteright:227:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ultraman_story.jpg]]
3
4''Ultraman Story'' is a 1984 film produced by Creator/TsuburayaProductions as part of their ever-popular ''Franchise/UltraSeries''. This film is one of the more notable pieces of output for the franchise during the fifteen year hiatus period between ''Series/UltramanEighty'' and ''Series/UltramanTiga'' in which there were no new ''Ultraman'' series being produced for television. It is primarily considered an ''Series/UltramanTaro'' movie, even though that series had already ended a decade ago, although its exact placement in ''Ultra Series'' canon is hard to say.
5
6The film centers around Series/UltramanTaro growing up in the Land of Light in Nebula M78 under the guidance of his parents, the Father and Mother of Ultra. The young Taro dreams of joining the Ultra Brothers (Series/{{Ultraman}}, Zoffy, Series/UltraSeven, [[Series/ReturnOfUltraman Ultraman Jack]], and Series/UltramanAce) as one of their members when he grows up[[note]]Although this contradicts events in his own series, in which he is only slightly younger than them as opposed to still a child when they are already adults[[/note]]. But as he gets older, he finds that the Father of Ultra believes he is too inexperienced to enter any battles with the Ultra Brothers and instead put him through a great deal of training.
7
8But at the same time, an old enemy of the Father of Ultra named Juda has returned after a 50 000 year absence and is sending out many of the Ultra Brothers' most infamous enemies to defeat them. Eventually, he unleashes an incredibly powerful robot named Grand King and sends it to the Land of Light to destroy the Ultras on their homeworld. As the Ultra Brothers face one of their most powerful enemies yet, Ultraman Taro will find the opportunity to prove himself worthy of being a member of the Ultra Brothers.
9
10The film used a rather large amount of StockFootage, primarily for the fighting and training scenes, but a great deal of new footage was shot for the new monsters and scenes involving the Ultras and Nebula M78. It was primarily shown at children's film festivals alongside the ''Series/ChoudenshiBioman'' movie. And while the film itself has since faded into one of the more obscure pieces of ''Ultra Series'' history, its main villains, Juda and Grand King, have become recurring foes of the Ultra heroes. Juda also appeared as the BigBad of a spin-off called ''Series/AndroMelos'', which introduced his siblings Mold and Gina, who would subsequently reappear in a three-part story in ''Series/UltramanX''[[note]]For convenience's sake, Juda and Grand King are primarily described on the ''Series/UltramanTaro'' Character Page, while Gina and Mold are described on that of ''Series/UltramanX''[[/note]].
11
12For the series' Character Sheet, visit that of ''Characters/UltramanTaro''.
13
14! ''Ultraman Story'' contains examples of:
15* AdaptationalWimp: The original series' battle between Ultraman and Antlar has the monster being depicted as tough enough to survive a Specium Ray to the chest and continue fighting, necessitating the SSP to use the Blue Stone of Barajj -- said to be the only item capable of defeating Antlar -- as a missile to assist Ultraman. But thanks to compressing the entire fight into a single minute, it's implied right here that Antlar is felled by the Specium Ray, with Ultraman defeating said monster without needing assistance from the humans.
16* AdaptationalOriginConnection: In some dubs, Eleking II is stated as being revived by Alien Mefilas II. The original series they were both acting independently without any affiliations.
17* AllYourPowersCombined: In the final battle against Grand King, the Ultra Brothers transfer their combined powers to Taro, granting him the strength to defeat the kaiju.
18* BigBad: Juda, with his monster Grand King acting as the one the Ultra Brothers have to fight.
19* ContinuitySnarl: Despite it appearing to be canon with the reappearance Juda and Grand King in later shows, when you stop to think about it continuity doesn't a line right. This is most notably with 80 and Leo's appearance, and showing archival footage of there fights despite it being billed as a prequel to Taro.
20* ChekhovsSkill: The final step of Taro's training with Father of Ultra involves learning how to absorb energy through his Ultra Horns. Take a guess as to how he achieves his SuperMode in the final battle.
21* StockFootage: Lots of it.
22** The following fight scenes are recycled from Showa series.
23*** From ''Series/{{Ultraman}}'': Antlar, Alien Mefilas
24*** From ''Series/UltraSeven'': Alien Borg
25*** From ''Series/ReturnOfUltraman'': Gudon and Twin Tail
26*** From ''Series/UltramanAce'': Zemistar and Alien Hipporito
27*** From ''Series/UltramanTaro'': Enmargo, the second Alien Mefilas, the resurrected Eleking, and Tyrant
28*** From ''Series/UltramanEighty'': Alien Baltan (first appearance).
29** Additionally, Ultraman Taro watches several minutes of stock footage as part of some training videos.
30*** From ''Series/UltraSeven'': The battle between Miclas and Eleking, and Alien Icarus
31*** From ''Series/ReturnOfUltraman'': Takkong's reappearance and Kingsaurus III
32*** From ''Series/UltramanAce'': Yapool
33*** From ''Series/UltramanLeo'': Silver Bloome. Also Leo's only appearance in the film.
34*** From ''Series/UltramanEighty'': Red King
35* SuperMode: Taro gains one called Super Ultraman Taro to defeat Grand King.
36* ThemeMusicPowerUp: When Taro achieves the above-mentioned SuperMode, the theme song from his show begins playing in the background as he defeats Grand King.

Top