Gamera vs. Viras is the movie where Gamera's love for children became the main plot point, firmly establishing him as the Friend to All Children. It features stock footage from Giant Monster Gamera, Gamera vs. Barugon, and Gamera vs. Gyaos. An expedition force of Virians arrive on Earth to take it for their own and kidnap two young boys. Stopping Gamera in his tracks, the aliens learn about his desire to protect humans by probing his memories. The aliens then take control of Gamera and have him attack Japan. The boys plead with the military to not care about their own lives (in a rather noble moment of self-sacrifice) and to destroy the aliens' ship, but the UN refuses. Fortunately, the boys' scoutmaster gives them an idea on how to solve the crisis. Gamera is soon freed from his mind control when the boys screw around with the alien ship's controls, and the ship is destroyed after they escape. The surviving aliens then merge into one giant monster, called Viras, who engages Gamera in a duel to the death. Gamera wins after freezing Viras in the atmosphere.
This film contains examples fo the following:
- Adults Are Useless: Yeah...pretty much.
- Alien Invasion: The Viras People have come to Earth because the planet has plenty of nitrogen in its atmosphere, an element that's especially important to their survival.
- All Your Powers Combined: A variation; the Viras leader absorbs the other Viras crewmen in order to grow to Gamera-challenging size.
- Behemoth Battle: The giant flying turtle Gamera fights a giant squid-like creature to protect the Earth from an alien invasion.
- Chekhov's Skill: The two boys' knack for screwing around with device controls and setting them in reverse. It comes in handy later.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The Aliens' first ship is destroyed by Gamera before it can even approach Earth. The next one learns from it and avoids a direct confrontation with Gamera, instead trying to manipulate him through his affection for children.
- Evil Sounds Deep: The Virasian leader's voice.
- Friend to All Children: Gamera is this, and the aliens take advantage of it.
- Gratuitous English: As the Token White, Jim does this.
- Kill It with Fire: Gamera destroys the first Viras spaceship with his flame breath.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: The first alien during the opening scene, leading into the title card.
- Kill It with Ice: Gamera kills Viras by lifting him up into the stratosphere, where he freezes solid. He then lets Viras fall into the ocean, where he breaks up into pieces.
- Lighter and Softer: Considerably more lighthearted than the previous films in the series.
- Literally Shattered Lives: Gamera kills Viras by lifting him up into the stratosphere, where he freezes solid. He then lets Viras fall into the ocean, where he breaks up into pieces.
- Non-Indicative Name: AIP-TV changed the title to the outlandish Destroy All Planets. Their only reasoning behind this was that the company was piggybacking off of their theatrical division's successful release of Destroy All Monsters the year prior.
- Re-Cut: There are three, yes THREE different cuts of the film, the only difference being the amount of stock footage.
- Japanese theatrical edition: 72 minutes (available on R2 DVD). Only Gamera's emergence and Eiichi's rescue are shown. Different music track than the other two cuts.
- "Extended" edition (version currently used): 81 minutes. Includes the two Barugon battles, but only the first Gyaos battle.
- International edition (version used for foreign releases and the AIP-TV version; also released on Japanese laserdisc in the 80s): 90 minutes. The other two Gyaos fights are included, but are curiously sandwiched between the second Barugon battle and the first Gyaos battle.
- Reverse the Polarity: Masao and Jim use this technique, first to play a prank on the scientists building an experimental submarine, then later on to make Gamera disobey the aliens, then escape from the UFO.
- Stock Footage: So. Very. Much. Made worse by the fact that a lot of it is used to represent current events... including footage from the first film, which isn't even in color.
- Token White: Jim
- Too Dumb to Live: Jim and Masao are smart when it comes to engineering, but they seem to lack, what's it called? Oh yeah, the sense of self preservation.
