Mothra LIVE: What lepidopteran things did you learn?

[Trekker4747]

I learned that apparently moth larvae can swim despite having no limbs, the larvae can also undergo metamorphosis into the adult stage overnight without any apparent intake of calories.

Pudgy, slow-witted, newspaper reporters can totally own and kick the ass of a handful of fit henchmen.

Somehow, even though this movie was made 55 years ago and uses models, rough creature effects with puppets, practical effects, reverse-projection, and video overlay the effects look and hold up a lot better than the digital effects in a bird-apocalypse movie made a few years ago.

[fodder650]

About the short
I learned that Soapy can be done by two different groups in two completely different ways and work just as well.

About the movie
I learned that the special effects people just didn't care.
I learned that when you dub into English that it isn't important to use actors that you can actually understand. Who knew?
I learned that there are Kaiju that give a crap about little kids. Sorry scientist kid.
I learned that the Japanese deployed American made Davy Crockets and that they were more then willing to shoot them against a angry caterpillar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Crockett_(nuclear_device) (this is for the Cold War buffs in the group as the weapon was featured quite a few times in the tower scene)
I learned that Japan will defend the intellectual property of one of its people to the death! How American of them.
I learned that the guys will leave large amounts of dead air that will cause me to want to scream "LINE!!" at the screen during the early part of the movie.

[Trekker4747]

This movie really needed subtitles.

[Parker_Hylton]

I learned that in American cities Japanese reporters are some of the most famous people eva!
I learned that moths love tiny Japanese priestesses.  (Oh Hai girls!  *Chomp*)
I learned that a bad guy armed with a gun will try and steal an old man's cane because...evil!
I learned that giant moth larvae look suspiciously like giant turds.

[Trekker4747]

To be fair it wasn't *exactly* America it's Rolisica which is supposed to be a stand-in for Western superpowers America and the Soviet Union.  So, it's a country that supposedly has attributes and political standings as those two countries combined which, really, would be pretty bizarre.

[Darth Geek]

I learned that the Japanese deployed American made Davy Crockets and that they were more then willing to shoot them against a angry caterpillar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Crockett_(nuclear_device) (this is for the Cold War buffs in the group as the weapon was featured quite a few times in the tower scene)

Those things were real? And nuclear?! Damn. I thought they were silly looking props.

[fodder650]

I learned that the Japanese deployed American made Davy Crockets and that they were more then willing to shoot them against a angry caterpillar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Crockett_(nuclear_device) (this is for the Cold War buffs in the group as the weapon was featured quite a few times in the tower scene)

Those things were real? And nuclear?! Damn. I thought they were silly looking props.

Nope those things were real. I love the cold war and its toys. At about that same we had 1500 of these rockets called AIM-2 Genies that used the same warheads as those. They were air to air nuclear unguided rockets. You would point them towards a bomber stream and one quarter mile of airspace would just disappear. Sometime you should go look up the prototype English nuclear landmine that used a chicken to keep the electronics from freezing. 
This is why I love the old sci-fi movies. There was some validity to the odder stuff in them.

[Darth Geek]

I learned that the Rifftrax guys could go the entire Soapy short without once commenting on the fact that SOAPY HAS NO PANTS ON!

I learned that using your super ray guns that set things on fire is okay once. But when the creature has changed to a form covered in fur and presumably highly flammable, they're not needed.

I did not learn who that kid was that tried to rescue the little women. Did they even introduce him? All of a sudden it looked like the kid from UP invaded the movie.

[Compound]

I did not learn who that kid was that tried to rescue the little women. Did they even introduce him? All of a sudden it looked like the kid from UP invaded the movie.

Shinji? (And I'm surprised there wasn't a riff about that in there.) Early in the film, when the reporters went to the house of the scientist who kept holding up a paper in front of his face? Shinji was one of the three kids who rushed downstairs after the female reporter saw a mouse. He showed up fairly constantly after that. He was there when everyone went to the theater for the first time. He was one of the people who was talking to the twins when they were allowed to see them that first time upstairs. He was around during a good chunk of the film.

[Pak-Man]

Just hovering in the background. I think what throws you off is that in any other kaiju movie, Shinji would have been the star/Mothra's best friend and only supporter.

[Parker_Hylton]

I learned that the Rifftrax guys could go the entire Soapy short without once commenting on the fact that SOAPY HAS NO PANTS ON!

Yeah, I noticed that too!  Creeped me the eff out.  I thought maybe I just was imagining it because they never commented on it!

[losingmydignity]

I'll never look at mothballs the same way again.

[losingmydignity]

Also, I learned that Barbie-sized twins sound just like church bells! Amazing!

And, oh yeah, no one will notice your casual genocide on remote islands. (I guess because most inhabitants live underground and worship an egg)

[Keighvin]

I learned that Rolisicans come in white and Japanese with whiteface makeup. And that an ersatz Polynesian people are Japanese with blackface.