The Magic Serpent (1966)

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Image gallery for Magic Serpent
Credits for Magic Serpent


The Magic Serpent
The Japanese poster for The Magic Serpent
Alternate titles
Flagicon Japan.png Great Mystic Dragon Battle (1966)

Directed by Tetsuya Yamanouchi
Producer Shigeru Okada
Written by Masaru Igami, Mokuami Kawatake (story)
Music by Toshiaki Tsushima
Distributor ToeiJP
American-International TelevisionUS
Running time 86 minutesJP
(1 hour, 26 minutes)
83 minutesUS
(1 hour, 23 minutes)
Aspect ratio 2.35:1

The Magic Serpent (怪竜大決戦,   Kairyū Daikessen, lit. Great Mystic Dragon Battle) is a 1966 tokusatsu kaiju and ninja fantasy film produced by Toei Company and based on the Japanese folktale "The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya." It was released to Japanese theaters on March 5, 1966, and to American television syndication via American-International Television in 1968.

Plot

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To be added.

Staff

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

  • Directed by   Tetsuya Yamanouchi
  • Written by   Masaru Igami
  • Story by   Mokuami Kawatake
  • Produced by   Shigeru Okada
  • Music by   Toshiaki Tsushima
  • Cinematography by   Motoya Washio
  • Edited by   Tadao Kanda
  • Production design by   Seiji Yada
  • Monster suits created by   Equis Productions

Cast

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

  • Hiroki Matsukata   as   Ikazuchi-Maru / Jiraiya
  • Tomoko Ogawa   as   Tsunade
  • Ryutaro Otomo   as   Orochi-Maru
  • Bin Amatsu   as   Daijo Yuki
  • Nobuo Kaneko   as   Dojin Hiki
  • Sen Hara   as   Spider Woman
  • Kensaku Hara   as   Zenbei
  • Masataka Iwao   as   Kido
  • Seizo Fukumoto   as   Ninja
  • Akira Shioji

Appearances

Monsters

  • Jiraiya Toad
  • Orochimaru Serpent
  • Dojin Hiki Eagle
  • Tsunade's Spider

Gallery

Main article: The Magic Serpent/Gallery.

U.S. Release

The Magic Serpent was released directly to television in the United States by American International Television in 1968, with dubbing by Titan Productions. AIP-TV's version of the film is uncut, save for the removal of the song "Forward, Jiraiya!" at the end. All of the monsters' roars were replaced with those of Toho monsters: Jiraita Toad uses Rodan's roar, Orochimaru Serpent uses Godzilla and Gaira's roars, Dojin Hiki Eagle uses Mothra's roar, and Tsunade's Spider uses Ebirah's roar.

Alternate Titles

  • Great Mystic Dragon Battle (Literal Japanese Title)
  • Grand Duel in Magic (International English Title)
  • Monsters of the Apocalypse (Les Monstres de L'Apocalypse; French theatrical)
  • Ninja Apocalypse (French video)

Video Releases

Retromedia/Image Entertainment DVD (2004)

  • Region: 1
  • Discs: 1
  • Audio: English (2.0, Titan Productions dub)
  • Subtitles: None
  • Special Features: None
  • Notes: Cropped to 1.33:1. Packaged with Gamera vs. Gyaos.

Toei Video DVD (2004)

  • Region: 2
  • Discs: 1
  • Audio: Japanese (1.0)
  • Subtitles: Unknown
  • Special Features: Theatrical trailer, textless trailer

Videos

Clip from the international English dub of The Magic Serpent

Trivia

  • Fragments of an international English dub for The Magic Serpent appear on the film's French theatrical dub. The complete dub remains undiscovered.
  • Toei reused the Jiraiya Toad and Orochimaru Serpent suits for their 1967 TV show Masked Ninja Akakage, although the latter lost its nasal horn.[1]
  • Promotional artwork featuring Toad would later be reused and heavily altered by Yamapro to become the Pachimon monster Shirako.

References

This is a list of references for Magic Serpent. 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. Dragon and Toad Are (Not) Friends.jpg

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