YMMV / All Monsters Attack

• Awesome Music: The Japanese version has a very kid friendly song naming off various monsters. While the U.S. version had a bizarre but So Bad, It's Good showing clips from this movie and Destroy All Monsters that some find more interesting than the original opening credits.
• Base-Breaking Character: Gabara is often referred to as one of the lamest Kaiju in the lamest Godzilla film, but he oddly also has developed a bit of a fan following who regard him as one of the more enjoyable aspects of the movie, due to his goofy design, his hilariously petty monster bullying, and Metafictional origins. Evidently someone at TOHO animation is one of them, as Gabara's design appears to have been a major source of inspiration for the monster Salunga in Godzilla: Singular Point.
• Designated Hero: We are supposed to feel sorry for Ichiro because he was bullied. Yet right after he stood up to said bully he goes on to pull a prank on a sign painter, who did nothing to deserve such a prank. Which in turn just made Ichiro just as bad as the bullies.
• Fanon: Fans like to think Gabara has mystical powers despite this not being shown in the movie. Mainly because he looks like an Oni, and him only existing in the imagination of a child.
• Fridge Brilliance: The film is loaded with Stock Footage of past Toho movies. This makes a little more sense when you realize this is set in the real world, and the sequences of Monster Island are in the mind of a young Godzilla fan. His memories of all the movies are playing out in his fantasies.
• Memetic Mutation: "Godzilla says that I should learn to fight my own battles, you know", from the dub.
• Narm Charm: The Gabara suit is pretty narmy, but the goofy design is most likely intentional considering who the film was made for.
• The Scrappy
  • While the Son of Godzilla introduced the not-so-well liked Minya, there are many lovely moments and he is tolerable. But this movie cemented Minya's scrappy status by having him talk through the fight scenes and by showcasing him as an even bigger doormat when he barely attempts to fight Gabara. His dopey voice they gave him in the American cut doesn’t help either which made him sound way too much like the beloved Disney character Goofy.
  • As is typical for kids in Kaiju films, Ichiro is pretty annoying as well.
• Sequelitis: While many of the other entries, both past and present, have fallen into Contested Sequel territory in some way, this entry universally agreed by fans to be the worst Godzilla film of all. Criticism stems towards the overuse of stock footage for a majority of the films fight scenes and the overt pandering to children by having a child protagonist interacting with Godzilla’s son. It being the first Godzilla film to be made after Destroy All Monsters doesn’t help.
• So Bad, It's Good: Often seen as the bottom of the barrel of the whole Godzilla franchise (at least until the 1998 remake and the third anime film), but it still has its fans, most of whom are there either for its Narm Charm, or are fans of Minilla and Gabara.
• Values Dissonance: After defeating the bullies, Ichiro proves his new coolness by... pulling a mean prank on a sign painter (one that, in a more serious film, likely would have killed him). Keep in mind, the sign painter did nothing to provoke such a prank!
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The film gets very dark out of nowhere in the second half; Ichiro is suddenly kidnapped and taken hostage by adult bank robbers who hold a knife to his neck and threaten to kill him if he speaks. And how seriously the film treats this is directly at odds with the Denser and Wackier tone of the film. This film is supposed to be for children?

---