Starring:

Some Japanese people.

The Story: This movie is more fantasy than science fiction. Not that its a bad thing. It reminds me of an episode of the original Ultra Man series when some kids drew monsters with some kind of magic chalk. the monsters came to life and Ultra Man had to defeat them. I'm willing to bet a few bucks that this movie was in some was in some part inspired by that episode.

As per usual this movie features a little boy...it seems that every Japanese monster/show or movie has to have a little boy in it. This time at least its not a Kenny clone. (MST3K fans will know who Kenny is if they've seen the episode with Gamera.) In fact, this little boy, Tommy, comes uncomfortably close to reminding me of myself as a little boy. He's a little strange, fascinated with his TV heroes Gamu and Ultra Man Gaia. Tommy also gets picked on in school by the local bullies and isn't very athletic. (Omigod! This kid is ME! I wonder if I can sue the film makers like Jay and Silent Bob?)

Tommy's adventure begins when he finds a magic red ball in his secret hideout, an abandoned warehouse. The ball speaks to him and tells him it can grant any wish. Intrigued, Tommy tells his best friends, some other kid (I'll call him Harry for now since he reminds me of a Japanese Harry Potter, only without the magic...It sounded like Tommy called him Eeyu once, but that can't be right...and once again I thought I heard him called YuYu....hell, I'll stick with Harry for now!) and Lisa, a strange little girl who only recently moved into town. Using the ball, Tommy wishes he could meet his TV hero, Gamu, the man who is secretly Ultra Man Gaia. His wish comes true. It seems that even though Gamu is a fictional TV character in Tommy's world, he truly exists in a parallel universe. Gamu finds himself flying in his E-X fighter plane over Tokyo and is perplexed on how he got there. He doesn't get a lot of time to ponder things though....as Tommy explains what happened to a gathering group of kids, the local bully, Hiro, shows up and takes the magic ball from him. The bully teases Tommy, and wishes for a giant monster to show up. Suddenly a huge creature from the TV show arrives and instantly begins smashing up the city. (The Bully must watch the Ultra Man Gaia show too, since he knows everything about the monster) Gamu programs his plane to land by remote control and becomes Ultra Man Gaia.

Like all Ultra Man incarnations, Gaia can only fight for a short period before his warning light begins to blink, telling him he's running low on juice. Ultra Man Gaia's light begins to flicker almost instantly. Even Gaia is shocked....he's hasn't even done anything yet! Still, unlike Ultra Man Dyna Gaia doesn't pull a "Sir Robin" and chicken out. (Monty Python fans know what I mean) Gaia uses his remaining energy to blast the creature to its component atoms. Gaia roars when he use uses his powers which is kind of cool. While the other Ultra Man I've seen make "karate" sounds, Gaia sounds like "Aaaaaruuuuuugh!" which makes him sound pretty tough. But even though he wins the fight Gaia's power is dwindling, so he becomes Gamu again. Gamu lands his plane and suddenly finds himself being chased by a crowd of children. In this world he's a fictional TV hero, so the kids naturally want to meet him. He runs and finds refuge in a Toy store, where he's shocked to see Ultra Man merchandise all over the place. Luckily Tommy and his friends find him and explain what's happened. They take him back to the warehouse, where Gamu then summons his fighter plane by remote control. Gamu actually should have thought about that...because the police follow the plane to where he's hiding, even as Gamu uses his equipment to analyze the mysterious crystal ball. When the police arrive they take Gamu into custody. Tommy tries to stop them, and accidentally drops the ball, which is picked up by the Hiro, who runs away with it. At the same time, Gamu and his plane fade from this world, back to their original universe. Gamu has only scant memories of what happened, but he doesn't recall his trip at first. Fortunately he finds that he was carrying Tommy's book "Gulliver's travels" and it makes him realize his crossing over. Using his data that he scanned on the glass ball before he was sent home, Gamu accesses the Ball's memory. He finds that it is "The Ultimate Machine" created by humans in an alternate universe. The Ball can create anything that people imagine, but human greed destroyed that world. Now the ball travels unwillingly through time and space and the same thing happens to every world it lands on. Forewarned of the decimation of Tommy's world, Gamu boards a prototype Hyperspace vehicle that he himself designed and travels back to Tommy's dimension.

Meanwhile, Lisa convinces Tommy that he has to try and get the ball back from Hiro and his two friends instead of being a little twerp coward. Tommy almost succeeds but he and his friend are caught by Hiro and the bullies. Hiro and company have broken into the school's art room and made their ideas for giant monsters into clay figures. (Don't they lock doors in Japan?) Then Hiro uses the ball to bring his monster to life! This huge beast instantly goes on the rampage, destroying the city! At this time Hiro and his henchmen...er...henchBOYS, are under some kind of spell created by the ball. But Gamu arrives in his hyperspace vehicle, the Adventure, and attacks. You know, if I ever need to contract some kind of super vehicle I'm picking a Japanese company...because it seems that the Japanese have a knack for creating machines that turn into different things! The Adventure transforms into a robot and Gamu uses it to grapple with the monster, named Kingamon. Kingamon is too strong though, and destroys the Adventure, but obviously not before Gamu transforms into Ultra Man Gaia! Gaia however finds that Kingamon isn't so easy to beat...the monster withstands Gaia's main weapon and the giant space hero soon finds himself on the receiving end of a big ol' can of whoop-ass. To make matters worse, even though Tommy frees Hiro and his cronies from the ball's control, his friend Harry falls under the spell under uses the ball to summon two more monsters. Now facing three foes, Ultra Man Gaia gets his butt kicked but good! The three evil beasts basically beat him up like a red headed stepchild! The devastation wrecks the building on which Tommy and the others are standing. Harry drops the ball, and becomes his normal self, but the ball falls into a crevice and Gaia is still getting his head caved in by the monsters. Tommy finally decides to have some grumba and goes after it...but when he wishes for the monsters to vanish the ball tells him that prior wishes cannot be erased. Just then one of the monsters launches a fireball at the building, sending Tommy and the other children flying to their dooms, but Tommy has time for one more wish...and it comes true! Instead of being killed by a big fall, Tommy and the others find themselves safely in the hands of Ultra Man Tiga and Ultra Man Dyna! The giants put the children down and then rush to the aid of their fellow hero, Gaia.

Together the three Ultra Men start taking the monsters apart. Tiga chases one into the sea where he destroys it, and Dyna follows one that flies into space, blasting it into a fiery mess with his mighty rays. Gaia, still on earth, summons the remainder of his power and destroys Kingamon. Then as the other Ultra Men return, Gaia transforms back into Gamu to greet Tommy. That's when an awful discovery is made. Lisa is in reality just a manifestation of the ball....well, its not that much of a shock to the viewer...you'll note that the ball's voice when it does speak to the characters is Lisa's voice. Lisa/ the Ball wants the carnage to end. It isn't evil, but it brings ruin to all who use it. Tommy wishes the ball never existed even though that will effectively destroy Lisa. The last act the power of the ball completes is to return Tiga, Dyna and Gamu to their own worlds.

But since this movie is aimed at kids there has to be somewhat of a happy ending. The next day at school (or maybe weeks...after all, the city was destroyed...but no indication of time is made) Tommy meets a new classmate. Lisa! So was Lisa just an identity the magic ball used for awhile? I don't know, but as I said, this movie is more fantasy than science fiction. Still, it was a fun little romp into the world of Ultra Man...and who among us hasn't wished to meet their childhood heroes in the flesh? I still do. I'd pay real money to go out drinking with Captain Kirk.

Best Lines:  “Mom...I love ultra Man, but I love you more.” -Tommy to his mom. *sniff* I wish I said that to my own mother more. and that's no joke, my droogies.

“Whats up with this town? No Way! How do they know I'm Gaia?” -Gamu to himself as the screaming children chase him.

“Go Gaia! You can Win!” -Tommy and his friends cheer Gaia on as fights Kingamon. I'll bet Gaia is thinking "You little brats! I wouldn't be in this if not for you stupid little numbskulls!".

 Are you kidding me?

1.) They really need to have better security in Japan. If this warehouse is abandoned, how come its not locked up in such a way to prevent Tommy or other little kids from getting into it? They could get hurt! But its surprisingly clean and rat free for an abandoned warehouse so maybe its still in use....but then how come there's no one there to stop Tommy from hiding out there and making poorly drawn Ultra Man pictures in chalk on the floor?

2.) Eventually Hiro seems to be in the balls control when he uses the thing to bring his mighty monsters to life. But earlier he summoned the first monster seemingly of his own free will. What a twisted little creep! What's the point of bringing an uncontrollable giant monster to life? To get revenge on people for treating you like sh!t? If the monster's going to smash everything just so Hiro can gloat he should consider this....his house is in the city too! So all of his stuff gets smashed too! (Not to mention his family) I'd like to get even with people that have treated me shabbily too, but I'm not going to burn my own house to do it!

3.) Gamu's hyperspace machine is freaking hilarious! Look at this thing! Its got huge ass wheels on it! Did he design it with the idea that he might have to go on the back roads of alternate universes? Even better, it transforms into a robot fighting vehicle! I guess if your job is fighting giant monsters that makes sense, but its still kind of funny. I can imagine him sitting at a drafting table thinking "I know, I'll make the big friggin' wheels unfold into arms so I can use my hyper-mobile to fight monsters as well as drive around!". I wish he'd design my car to do that. Then I'd show every jerk that cuts me off in traffic!

4.) Harry, or Eeyu or YuYu, or whatever he's called makes a disturbing statement. Even after Tommy knocks the ball out of Hiro's hands, freeing the bully from its control, Harry picks it up and is put under its spell. He then says that the ball reflects what's really on the minds of people and that he doesn't like this world either so it must be destroyed. Wow....are kids that disenchanted with the world. (Man, its a good thing no adults got the ball!) I guess I'm taking that too personally....I'd agree that the world can be a dark and scary...and often dangerous, sick, and crappy place to live...but I don't think that people are inherently evil and that there's no hope so we oughtta just eradicate ourselves. Its just disturbing to me to hear a child say something like that. By the way, after repeat viewing of the movie, the kid's name is Yuyu (I may not be spelling it right....pronounced  "Yoo-Yoo") So I guess I can stop calling him Harry.

5.) After the three Ultra Men destroy the monsters, Lisa asks Tommy what he'll do with the ball. She tells him he can wish the town were rebuilt. Tommy replies that if they rely on the ball, they'll eventually destroy themselves so he's going to wish the ball out of existence. Uh, here's an idea, Tommy. Why not wish for the town to be restored and THEN wish the ball to disappear? Even Yuyu seems shocked at Tommy's announcement, as if to say "Hey, man! My house was smashed! The monsters squished my mom and dad! At least wish for that to have not happened first, you selfish jerkwad!". Me? I'd for the town to be rebuilt, a few million bucks and then for the ball to not exist! ...and maybe for a few Playboy playmates...but then again, I'm not a little Japanese kid with Ultra friends.

Nudity and Sex: none

Huh?:

Even though they don't show it, a lot of people must have been killed when the giant monsters attack. Well, it is a kid's movie, I guess. But that sure didn't stop them from showing dead guys in the original Ultra Man show. During the fight with the monsters Gaia is thrown into buildings...in one scene he lands on one straight on...you can't tell me NO ONE was in there or that he didn't accidentally squash some poor schmoe.

During the fight when Ultra Men Tiga and Dyna show up I couldn't help but laugh....because one of the first things I noticed was Dyna getting his hiney kicked! Dyna already got his head handed to him twice in the movie Ultra Man Tiga and Ultra Man Dyna. I guess he's the "little brother" of the other Ultra Men, the one that gets his faced bashed in and his brothers have to kind of cover for him. Gaia's licking not counting....Gaia was outnumbered and he put up a good fight despite of it. Gaia even defeated Kingamon on his own, whereas Dyna needed the help of Tiga to defeat the Molena.

If you look closely you can see the red spotlight behind Gamu when he transforms to his human form from Ultra Man Gaia and runs towards Tommy.

The Final Judgment: This was a pretty fun little flick. Even if you're not a big Ultra Man fan its enjoyable and its a movie that your kids may enjoy. While I miss the dark atmosphere of the original Ultra Man series its still good to see my own childhood hero in some incarnation. Maybe if we get lucky the entire series will be available some day. The Infernal Demons give this movie five devil heads.

Check out the review of this movie at Stomp Tokyo!