Icons of Sci-Fi: Toho Collection

Though his name is conspicuously absent from the cover, the “icon” celebrated in Sony's three-disc Icons of Sci-Fi: Toho Collection set is Ishiro Honda, the prolific director of the original Godzilla and the best of the giant monster movies that followed it. This anthology highlights his science fiction output with the U.S. DVD debuts of three films: The H-Man (1957), a monster/horror picture within a cop drama, where detectives investigating a drug ring discover a gooey radioactive slime creature (predating The Blob); Battle in Outer Space (1959), a pre-Star Wars space opera, short on character and plot but full of nostalgic old-school special effects; and the original Mothra (1961), the gem of the set, a marvelous mix of science fiction, monster movie, and adventure fantasy filled with colorful characters and an unmistakable sociopolitical subtext (Toho's gentlest and most benevolent creature, Mothra, a giant multi-colored moth, is a beautiful and visually riveting figure). Superbly mastered, the set features both the original, uncut Japanese versions as well as the English-dubbed American ones, all in full Tohoscope widescreen, with informed audio commentary by sci-fi historians Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski on Battle in Outer Space and Mothra. A strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)