"Godzilla vs. Charles Barkley" (1992)

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"Godzilla vs. Charles Barkley"
Promotional poster for "Godzilla vs. Charles Barkley"
Directed by Michael Owens
Producer Clint Goldman
Funded by Nike, Toho
Production company Industrial Light & Magic
Running time 30 seconds
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This page is about the TV commercial. For the comic adaptation, see Godzilla vs. Barkley.

"Godzilla vs. Charles Barkley" is a 1992 Nike television commercial co-financed by Nike and Toho in which Godzilla plays basketball against a kaiju-sized version of NBA star Charles Barkley in Tokyo. Developed by Wieden+Kennedy and produced by Industrial Light & Magic, it premiered in the U.S. during the MTV Video Music Awards on September 9, 1992.

Plot

Godzilla emits a blast of atomic breath as he storms through Tokyo. He turns around and sees Charles Barkley approach him, dribbling a basketball. The monster puts on a pair of pink goggles and darts his tail out, knocking the ball from Barkley's hands. Barkley catches it and charges forward, elbowing Godzilla aside as he dunks it into the fallen "O" from a Tokyo sign. They walk out of the city as friends. In the Japanese version of the ad, Barkley asks Godzilla, "Have you ever thought about wearing shoes?" In the U.S. version, he instead tells him, "The Lakers are looking for a big man."

Staff

Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.

  • Directed by   Michael Owens
  • Produced by   Clint Goldman
  • Cinematography by   Kim Marks
  • Edited by   Bob Sarles
  • Creatives   Warren Eakins, Steve Sandoz
  • Head of creature department   Jeff Mann
  • Sound designer   Jeff Roth
  • Sound mix engineer   Jay Shilliday

Cast

Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.

Appearances

Monsters

Comic book adaptation

Main article: Godzilla vs. Barkley.

In December 1993, Dark Horse Comics published a one-shot comic inspired by the commercial, in which a magic coin allowed Charles Barkley to grow to Godzilla's size and defend San Francisco.

Gallery

Videos

The U.S. version of the ad
U.S. trailer #1 for the ad
U.S. trailer #2 for the ad
The Japanese version of the ad
The Japanese version of
the ad without subtitles
Behind-the-scenes from an episode
of Scientific American Frontiers
Additional behind-the-scenes footage
Saturday Night Live parody

Trivia

  • Saturday Night Live parodied this ad for its September 25, 1993 episode, hosted by Charles Barkley. During his monologue, Barkley showed a clip of a lopsided charity match he played against Barney the Dinosaur, a last-minute replacement for Godzilla.[2]
  • "Godzilla vs. Charles Barkley" was the first of many acting roles for Barkley. He later voiced a giant monster, the legendary wrestling champion Rayburn Sr., in the 2021 Paramount Pictures film Rumble.

References

This is a list of references for Godzilla vs. Charles Barkley. 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]

  1. Vanhooker, Brian (9 September 2022). "Godzilla vs. Charles Barkley: The Oral History of the Most Epic Sneaker Ad Ever". Inverse. Archived from the original on 12 September 2022.
  2. SNL Transcripts: Charles Barkley: 09/25/93

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