The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, often shortened to Criterion, is an American home video distribution company specializing in prestige releases of significant films past and present. Founded in 1984, its innovations include letterboxing widescreen films, audio commentaries, and special features in general. Despite the genre's often dim reputation in the West, Criterion has licensed many kaiju films, including nearly every entry in the Showa Godzilla series.
Selected Home Video Releases
- King Kong (1933) - LaserDisc (1987)
- Godzilla (1954) - DVD and Blu-ray (2012)
- The X from Outer Space (1967), Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell (1968), The Living Skeleton (1968), and Genocide (1968) - DVD set titled Eclipse Series 37: When Horror Came to Shochiku (2012)
- Jellyfish Eyes (2013) - DVD and Blu-ray (2015)
The Criterion Channel
Criterion also operates a streaming service in the U.S. and Canada called The Criterion Channel, which it launched in 2019. Previously, select Criterion titles were only available on Hulu, then FilmStruck.
The following kaiju films are available to stream on The Criterion Channel. All Toho films except Godzilla use Toho's 2008 HD transfers, while titles dubbed into English twice use their international export dubs:
- Godzilla (1954) [Japanese and English]
- Godzilla Raids Again (1955) [Japanese]
- Rodan (1956) [Japanese]
- Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) [Japanese]
- Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964) [Japanese]
- Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) [English]
- The War of the Gargantuas (1966) [English]
- The X from Outer Space (1967) [Japanese]
- Son of Godzilla (1967) [Japanese and English]
- Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell (1968) [Japanese]
- Destroy All Monsters (1968) [Japanese and English]
- All Monsters Attack (1969) [Japanese]
- Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973) [English]
- Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974) [English]
- Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975) [English]
- Princess from the Moon (1987) [Japanese]
- Jellyfish Eyes (2013) [Japanese]
Revival Screenings
In 2019, Criterion business partner Janus Films began facilitating revival screenings of the Godzilla films it owned the rights to, including Godzilla vs. Gigan and Godzilla vs. Hedorah, both currently unavailable on The Criterion Channel.[1][2]
Trivia
- Criterion's 1987 LaserDisc release of King Kong contains the first audio commentary for any film.[3]
- Criterion published an ad in the April 1998 issue of Image Previews for LaserDiscs of Godzilla (1954); Godzilla, King of the Monsters; Mothra vs. Godzilla, Invasion of Astro-Monster, All Monsters Attack, and Terror of Mechagodzilla.</ref>[4] The discs were ultimately never released.
External Links
References
This is a list of references for The Criterion Collection. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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