"Voyage into Space" (1971) [Kaijuly]

by Joseph Perry and Mike Imboden

In our “The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict” film reviews, Joseph and Mike give their thoughts on a slice of cinema. For this installment, it’s Voyage into Space which is part of our 2nd annual “Kaijuly” look at some giant monster films (of which we both love thanks to seeing them in our childhood of the 60s and 70s).

Synopsis

A made-for-TV film made from five of the 26 episodes of the TV series Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot. This pulls material from the first two episodes (#1 and 2), two episodes from the middle of the series (#10 and #17) and the final episode (#26).

The Good

Joseph: Watching Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot after school was a highlight of my childhood days. My friends and I couldn’t get enough of Japanese giant monster and superhero action, and a kid right around our age solely in control of a giant robot was a fun situation to which we could easily relate. Sure, the situations range from the corny to the absurd through our adult eyes all these decades later — How do the parents of a gunslingin’, adult-fightin’ elementary school kid not even appear? — and the villains look comical — Who wrote on that guy’s forehead with markers? — and the monster suits are obviously made on a low budget, which calls for inanimate weapons at times. But there’s still a lot of fun to be had if you haven’t seen Johnny and Giant Robot in ages, and all of that silliness is part of it.

Mike: I’m going to try and avoid looking at this through the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia and be as genuine as possible. Let’s see if I can.

Voyage into Space is a cobbled together amalgam of the first, final, and a few other episodes of Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot, a series from the late 1960s about a kid named Johnny who falls into becoming a member of Unicorn - a group of do-gooder special agents - when he accidentally imprints his voice into a giant robot. The film features plenty of fights between the robot and monsters of various types - from a giant bipedal sea creature to a giant dog toy. The monsters are doing the bidding of the Emperor Guillotine, an alien bent on taking over the earth for reasons he keeps to himself. Assisting him are the nefarious Gargoyle gang, a band of bumbling bad guys who have the marksmanship of a Stormtrooper.

The monster battles are entertaining, and while the miniature work suffers here and there due to the budget, it is still above average and looks better than some of the Godzilla films that would follow in the 1970s.

The Bad

Joseph: I won’t spoil it here for those who don’t already know how this movie — and the series — ends, but suffice it to say that it sent loads of kids who watched the series back in the day into gloomy, gloomy sadness. And if any of the things I listed in “The Good” don’t appeal to you, feel free to move those thoughts into this column.

Mike: Basically a “clip show” of Giant Robot which suffers from odd continuity problems (characters transporting from one location to another, characters just showing up with no introduction). As mentioned some of the effects are less than impressive which may produce laughs and groans from some of today’s jaded youth who expect Marvel movie quality CGI in all action scenes.

The story itself DOES manage to follow a three act structure, but it’s the middle act the suffers from the aforementioned problems which makes the movie sag a bit during its middle half hour (give or take a few minutes).

The Verdict

Joseph: I hadn’t watched the adventures of Johnny Sokko and Giant Robot in ages, but I had a pretty fun revisit here. Recommended for kaiju fans of all stripes, for those who miss the days of rubber-suit giant monsters over CGI, for those who want a quick hit of nostalgia, and for the monster kids of today who don’t mind watching older television fare.

Mike: For fans of Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot that have never seen this, Voyage into Space serves as a grand reminder of coming home from school in the early 70s to watch this and Ultraman. If you never managed to have seen Johnny Sokko before, but love the suitmation aspect of tokusatsu, this should serve as a great introduction to Johnny, the other agents of Unicorn, and the world of his Giant Robot. Young fans of things like The Power Rangers may find an interest in Giant Robot, despite the dated effects.