Mosura
Tags: good versus evil

Plot synopsis:
Millions of years ago, a titanic terror from another realm arrived to destroy the planet Earth. Named Desghidorah, this three-headed dragon was forced to deal with resistance in the form of a species of highly advanced, enormous moths. These monsters were the protectors of the Elias, a race of tiny, humanlike beings who inhabited the planet. After the ensuing battle, Desghidorah was defeated and sealed within the Earth, although a great deal of life on the planet Earth was lost. Three Elias sisters, Moll, Lora and Belvera, were all who were left of their once prosperous civilization. Though the benevolence of Moll and Lora was undeterred, Belvera became twisted and vengeful due to the mass extinction of her race. These tiny fairies, along with one final guardian named Mothra, lingered on for thousands of millennia. To preserve her species, Mothra created an egg in 1996; however, she became physically exhausted from the ordeal. Shortly thereafter, a logging company uncovered the subterranean prison of the demonic space beast that had ravaged the Earth so long ago. When the seal that had bound the creature was removed from the area, one of the workers of the company took it home and gave it to his young daughter, Wakaba, as a souvenir. Seizing the advantage, Belvera controls Wakaba and uses her to torment her brother Taiki, reminding Belvera of her hatred towards her sisters.
Moll and Lora, riding a smaller Mothra named Fairy, then fought Belvera for control of the artifact. Belvera prevailed and managed to release Desghidorah from its rocky tomb to exact her warped plans for destruction of the human race. Mothra was summoned to halt the detestable dragon, which was absorbing the life out of the environment. She fought a long and difficult battle to repel her ancient adversary, and in response to her declining strength, her young son, named Mothra Leo, hatched prematurely to assist his mother. Though his energized silk seemed to turn the tide of battle in the favor of the protectors, Desghidorah sank the teeth of two of his heads deep into Leo and Mothra became desperate. She quickly airlifted her son to safety, and to keep Desghidorah at bay, lured the beast to a dam. With Desghidorah distracted by a wall of raging water, Mothra carried her son to safety. Unfortunately, Mothra's wounds, age, and exhaustion were ultimately too much. Her strength failed, and she plummeted into the sea below. The crestfallen larva attempted to save his beloved mother, but she died in the ocean, to no avail.
Angered, the young moth created a cocoon and began to change into his adult form. Desghidorah had to be defeated; his mother's death couldn't be in vain. Desghidorah then goes on a rampage, destroying everything in its path as the humans watch helplessly. Moll and Lora, who had befriended Taiki and Wakaba, encourage them to have hope that reminded them that Mothra will be reborn to save the Earth. Fortunately, Leo emerged into his adult form as a swarm of multi-colored butterflies. As the butterflies coalesced into one massive insect, Leo took to the air and headed back towards Desghidorah, righteous fury burning in his wake. Arriving in a hail of energy beams, Leo relentlessly blasted his mother's murderer, throwing wave upon wave of searing beams and energy blasts at Desghidorah, who could only feebly attempt to defend himself against this, the most powerful Mothra of all time. Drawing upon an ancient legacy, Leo relentlessly assaulted Desghidorah, eventually renewing the seal that bound the world destroyer beneath the soil of the earth; but his work was not done with the end of the fight.
Drawing upon the power of life that filled his very being, Leo restored the balance to a blasted region that was deforested during the assault of Desghidorah. His work done for the time being, Leo went to his ancestral home and planet Earth was once again safe from Desghidorah. Moll and Lora thanked the children for helping them on their journey and returned home to Infant Island with their pet, Fairy, as Belvera, still vengeful, escaped into a hole in a tree.

Review: This movie was the first of three solo Mothra adventures following the Heisei Godzilla series.
However, I thought the movie was too kid-oriented and that the final battle was too short.
The monster battles lacked the ferocity of Godzilla battles and Mothra's powers seemed overkill.
Unfortunately he's unsealed the resting place of Desghidorah, a three headed, fire breathing beastie that's soon freed to run wild and destroy the local scenery, sucking Earth's precious energy.Only a giant plush moth can save the day!
A tired old Mothra - tending a lovely big egg - is reluctantly summoned (in a slightly more J-pop than usual fashion) by her tiny priestesses Moll and Lora.
These cuties are from a race called the Elias, and they spend much of the movie astride a mini-Mothra called Fairy, battling their nemesis Belvera, who gets to fly a mini dragon thing and cackle a lot.First in a trilogy of Mothra films for the nineties, while Godzilla was taking a well earned break.
Clearly aimed at kids more than the average kaiju fan, this is still great fun, and while no cities get totalled in this offering, the countryside looks nice and there are some cool fight scenes between Death Ghidorah and Mothra.There's a 'save the planet' theme going on that gets rammed down your throat a bit before the movie ends, but the more obvious beef many western fans are going to have with this flick is the lack of a Japanese language option on seemingly the only version available.
Yes, the film's been tarted up nicely, and the dubbing is lip-synched and not overly annoying, but some people will always prefer the original language and there seems to be little reason why it shouldn't be included..
In this movie, Mothra is the protector of earth, and when a monster which threatens to destroy earth's habitat, Mothra comes to rescue.
I rather liked this movie because of its beautiful cinematography and a plot that was not based simply on destruction, but about the importance of protecting our environment.
The plot was a typical kaiju (Japanese for monster, i.e. Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, etc.) plot, with a seal being removed and a wicked monster coming out to wreak havoc on the planet.
The special effects were pretty cool in places, and bad in others and there was some pretty good cinematography.
The human plot, if I could even call it that, was boring and pointless and pretty much just had a couple bratty kids sitting on a mountainside watching the battle.
There were a few really great looking scenes, and Desghidorah (which was pretty much like a black King Ghidorah with four legs) was pretty badass looking.
Mothra looked pretty cool in a few scenes, too.
I don't really want to give it away, but the underwater Mothra scene looked really good.
The only problem is, there can't be the same kind of action that's in a Godzilla movie, and cause Mothra just isn't as tough or limber as Big G.
This is pretty evident through most of the movie, when Mothra's getting beaten pretty badly.
But there is one pretty cool scene near the end where it actually convinces you that Mothra CAN kick some ass.
This Mothra won a previous battle with Death Ghidora many, many years ago but that was when she was still a young Moth.
Can the little fairies defeat the evil fairy "Belvera?" This film is a good story of "evil vs good" and also of "family!" A must for all those fans of Japanese monster films..
With Godzilla dead and gone (yah, right), Toho concentrated on their other major star, Mothra.In this first of a trilogy (more, more!) Mothra (the 1992 Mothra) battles a creature called Death Ghidorah (a cousin of King Ghidorah?).
Thrown into the mix is the new Mothra, called MothraLeo. With time running out for Earth, can MothraLeo survive to carry on the long line of Mothras that have defended the planet?Of course he can!
How can one moth have so many beam weapons?I have to say that Megumi Kobayashi and Sayoko Yamaguchi, who play the priestesses of Mothra, now called the Elias, are excellent in this movie, as well as Aki Hano, who plays Belvera, one of the new elements to the Mothra saga.
Of the two Elais, Moll is more determined than Lora, especially on calling the "old" Mothra into battle.On the whole, a very good movie!
Although not generally one of the most popular kaiju (Japanese for monster) movies, Mothra: 1996 is in my opinion one of the most beautiful.Mothra: 1996 is the first in a new trilogy from Toho studios.
Mothra battles a new creation in the form of Death Ghidora.
This film contains no less than 4 separate battles between Mothra and Death Ghidora.The special effects are up to par and the creation of Belvera, the evil fairy is interesting.
Mothra begins a new solo adventure, battling Desghidorah to save Earth's green landscape.
She hatches an egg and out comes her son MothraLeo. To pick up where his mother left off, MothraLeo battles Desghidorah to the finish.There are amusing battle scenes and great special effects by Koichi Kawakita.
This movie is a big change from the concepts of the original Mothra of the 1960s.
The two tiny priestesses are not twins like the original one who were portrayed by The Peanuts, and each one in this movie is actually given a name: Mona and Lora (the "Elias").
The central character in this movie is a kid who helps Mona and Lora battle their evil sister.
The scene where the Elias and Belvera riding on their "Mothra" pets and shooting rays at each other at the kid's home is too childish and took away to much time in the movie.
The Mothras in this movie are not treated like the Sacred Goddess in the Mothra films from the 1960s, but more like superheros ready to defend Earth.
e) even the serious bits (Eg the home chase at the beginning ) are handled in a Disney-ish way.This time Mosura goes solo against King Gidorah freed from its stone grave when an incautious foreman removes a sacred seal of atlantean origin.
There are other typical subplots mixed in from the less fortunate TOHO movies: a couple with hard times in parenting because say the husband must work long hours; two children who can't get along.
All in all, a nice relaxing movie: of course do NOT expect any "final wars", "tokyo sos" or "battle for earth" kind of fights.
There is the "mosura larva" subplot, but this time the larva got new powers & turns into some super-mothra.
Not the worst of the Japanese big monster bashes, but far from good, The Rebirth of Mothra will appeal mainly to kiddies under the age of 12 and should not be viewed by anyone older, unless they are die-hard completists of this particular genre.
Thank God for the fast forward button.The only interesting parts of this trilogy are the monster battles, which are pretty good, though they don't stomp on any cities in these owing to a small budget.
Due to the budget constraints, the army never makes an appearance, which is strange considering giant monsters are rampaging through the countryside and, in the third movie, snatching children by the hundreds.
Bad Ass Monsters, Annoying Kids.
This is the kick off of Mothra's very own series and I must say it wasn't a bad move by Toho.
You see, Mothra, like Rodan, was originally a solo character who was introduced to the Godzilla franchise in the cross-over "Mothra vs.
Her first film had been back in 1961 and for whatever reason, audiences like Mothra a lot.
Want to guess which monster co-star has been in the most Godzilla films?
The real downside is that to save money Toho had Death Ghidorah rampage through a forest the entire movie without even touching a single building!
Toshiyuki Watanabe is a great composer, giving Mothra a heroic theme and everything.Unfortunately, most will find the bad outweighs the good and find watching the film unbearable.
I guess it can be argued that all kaiju is for children, but this one is in the way that the old Gamera films were.
This is not so much about monster battles but kids having an adventure and saving the day.It's nice and entertaining, but those expecting a typical Godzilla-type kaiju film are going to be disappointed..
"Rebirth of Mothra" is an unsubtle morality-play in which evil loggers remove a sacred seal, releasing an ancient monster ('Desghidorah') who threatens to suck the life out of the Earth.
This attracts the attention of a tiny 'witch' flying a miniature dragon, who torments the family of the man who took the seal until Mothra's fairy acolytes show up riding a cloying-sweet mini-Mothra to defend the kids.
Needless to say, most of the second half of the film is a kaiju battle, featuring pyrotechnics, inexplicable coloured lights, and, since this is a new-age Mothra movie, lots of sparkles.
The 'witch' character (her dubbed voice sounding like the "Wicked Witch of the West") is especially puerile and, like the later Showa-era Gamera films, the human 'heroes' are a couple of irritating kids.
The original Mothra song is briefly heard (the current fairies lack the charm of the original pair), but in general the film's score is trite and derivative, especially in the action scenes.
The 'dog fight' between flying fairies and the witch in the kids' house is endless, as are the repetitious scenes of Desghidorah emerging from the fire, and the ending of the film is an interminable series of good-byes and reminders of what the 'message' is (in the unlikely event that you missed it).
I admit that the giant moth has a long history of being a 'guardian' of the Earth, but the heavy-handed 'eco' message in this film is a bit hard to take considering Japan uses about 24 billion disposable chopsticks every year (the equivalent of about 1.6 million trees)..
Rebirth of Mothra (1996) * 1/2 (out of 4)The mean Death Ghidora is threatening to destroy all of humanity but have no fear because Mothra comes to the rescue.I typically like to start my reviews off with a bit more of a plot description but there's really no point here.
Toho's Godzilla character was in retirement so they decided to dust off Mothra and get him back on the big screen.
The original MOTHRA movie was a really fun monster movie and he would eventually make apperances in various other Godzilla films.
REBIRTH OF MOTHRA has the creature returning but sadly it turned out to be his worst film up to this point.I've always found these type of films to be quite interesting because they are so child-like but at the same time so many adults love them.
There are a few good things about it, being that it's a kaiju film and whatnot, but the flaws are too strong to be looked past.
The first 2-3 minutes of the film are very promising, as we are introduced right away to Mothra.
However, as soon as that's done, we are taken right to, without warning, the absolute worst part of the whole movie: annoying, bratty, screaming, whiny kids.
That one scene in Pacific Rim (2013) with that crying kid may have been annoying enough, but this makes that scene look normal.The other biggest, most unforgivable flaw in the whole movie is the CGI.
Normally, I could forgive them for being bad since it was the mid 90's, but keep in mind that this is Toho, who previously used CG for Godzilla's fire-breath and lasers in prior films, and they actually looked really convincing!
Overall, Rebirth of Mothra is just about one of the worst films of all time in my opinion.
Annoying kids unforgivably bad special effects make this a joke entry in Toho's long line of giant-monster movies.
It is not as good the 7th M.o.t.h.r.a movie Godzilla and M.o.t.h.r.a and the battle for the earth.
It is not as the 6th M.o.t.h.r.a movie Godzilla vs G.i.g.a.n. It is not as good as the 12th M.o.t.h.r.a Godzilla M.o.t.h.r.a and King G.h.i.d.o.r.a.h giant monsters on an all out attack.
It is not as good as the 5th M.o.t.h.r.a movie Destroy all monsters.
okay monster movie, but nothing special.
I was actually hoping to see a little bit more out of Rebirth of Mothra than what I did see.
The story concentrates too much on those little fairies flying around on tiny moths and dragon-things.And the monster battles, which are reasonably long, have their moments in this film.
Mothra's death after the first battle sequence was perfect, however.
Destoroyah.Overall, Rebirth of Mothra is an okay kaiju film, not the best and not the worst.
Mothra still looks like a flying Beanie Baby but the rest of the special effects are very good, especially the explosions and light beam effects.
I've seen that movie last week on TV and was quite disappointed.The story: The bad sister of the sweet little ELIAS ( known from every other movie including Mothra ) wants to steal the "Seal of the Elias", which was found by a family father at a mountain.
But the Elias can't let that be, take the mini-version of mothra, called "Fee" and also fly there.
It looks like an old ATARI-Game, when Fee and the little Dragon fly through the house and shoot at each other!However, the bad sister is victorious in stealing the seal and uses it to free a three-headed monster: Desghidorah.
To stop Desghidorah from killing all life on earth, the Elias decide to call Mothra - what's done with a song.
Yeah, okay, we know the girls like to sing - but they do it three times in that movie!
A funny things about it is the background, which starts to get coloured and coloured flowers flow around - looks like a seventies-music-video!Mothra arrives to fight Desghidorah, but is to weak and old for the strong-growen monster!
I don't want to tell the whole story here, some people reading this may not have seen the movie yet...So I start with my final judgement: The story of the film is weak - but that's not important in a monster movie.
Mothra and Desghidorah have nearly no moveable parts, the flying scenes are bad as hell ( there are better ones in some 70's movies!
And Desghidorah doesn't radiate enough threat to build somewhat like tension...So the movie gets along boring and tensionless and you get angry about the bad special effects, supporting the bad impressions.
If you can imagine one of those goofy old Mothra flicks with great soundtrack music, good acting, very nice cinematography, and special effects at least as good as those in "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger," then you can imagine "The Rebirth of Mothra." Though obviously aimed at kids, and with all the genre's intrinsic ridiculousness firmly intact, the movie is a resounding success on it's own terms mainly because the filmmakers of this entry in the series wisely chose to downplay the Sci-fi elements in favor of a magical fairy tale approach (there's a wicked witch and even a mini-mothra named "Fairy").
I know many may find this hard to swallow, but Rebirth of Mothra is a lot of fun for kids and kids-at-heart alike.
After ending the Godzilla series with the Heisei series, Toho wanted to maintain a higher grossing monster movie.
But actually, Mothra had her own movie before all of this, like some other monsters best known for their role in Godzilla movies (Rodan comes to mind).
Her 1961 movie is something to check out, but getting that history out of the way brings us back to 1996's Rebirth of Mothra.
Mothra looks okay, but a bit fuzzy in moth form.
Her offspring, named Mothra Leo, looks pretty good and doesn't fall apart like the larvae of the Showa series.
How about the villain monster in this movie, Desghidorah?
He sure makes you hope for his death the way he heartlessly attacks Mothra and Leo in larvae stage.
Overall the monsters are a plus and the action is pretty good.
The drawback is that the final battle between Leo in moth form and Desghidorah is just way too easy.
Desghidorah overpowers the aging Mothra in the beginning, but then Leo just comes in and gives him a good one-two.
But for all this kid theme talk, I still like the movie and have a copy on DVD..
It seems silly to say that a monster movie could touch someone but this one does.
In a nutshell, this movie picks up where Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth left off.
Mothra is a few years older at the beginning (I don't know what that is in human years).
During one of the many great battle scenes Mothra is hurt, her strength diminished.
My heart broke as Mothra with her last breaths tells her child it must continue the battle.
There wre human actors in this movie, however, I feel that the message was there from Mothra and her chld.
All in all the best of the giant monster films.
But after the success of GODZILLA AND MOTHRA: BATTLE FOR THE EARTH she managed to break free of the Godzilla franchise and star in this flick and boy is it an experience.
First of all I should mention that I kinda like the fact that the twin fairies are not the same actress and talking at the same time, like they did in some of the earlier Godzilla movies.
Speaking of dragons in this movie we are introduced to a new Ghidorah named DesGhidorah.
Actually he kind of looks like King Ghidorah from GODZILLA: FINAL WARS.
Oh wait and let us not forget how King Ghidorah actually appeared in REBIRTH OF MOTHRA 3, which I think was actually Ghidorah's First movie appearance outside of the Godzilla franchise.