海角大神

The newly released Godzilla trailer may not have shown us much, but it tells us that kids are going to be happily rampaging through imaginary cities in 2014, shouting 鈥淩AWR!鈥�

The film is expected to open May 16, 2014, however my son鈥檚 imagination is already captured, so much so that in his mind he鈥檚 already in his seat for the remake of the classic monster movie.

鈥淚 wonder who he鈥檚 going to fight,鈥� Quin, 10, asked excitedly. 鈥淢aybe Mechagodzilla? I hope it鈥檚 not just the army again.鈥�

At age 10, Quin will be allowed to see Godzilla because the evening news has more ugliness than a mutant lizard squishing cars and knocking through skyscrapers.

Also, I view Gojira (his original name) as a misunderstood, persecuted creature who, historically, was just reacting to man鈥檚 invasion of his habitat.

In fact, he鈥檚 left some pretty big shoes to fill in the save-the-day department by defending his former 聽attackers when willfully destructive monsters come to call on major cities.

Godzilla is a great lesson in not pre-judging someone based on cultural difference or physical appearance.

In anticipation of the film, my household is already hotly debating the question, 鈥淚n a battle to the finish with laser blasters who do you think would win, Godzilla and Mothra as a team, or Cyborg King Ghidorah?鈥�

This was posed by Quin.

The interesting thing is that Quin must have learned about the radioactive monster via osmosis and YouTube because he鈥檚 never seen the films with me.

Although, when Quin was little, his favorite book was 鈥淒ogzilla鈥� by Dav Pilky, so I suppose I should have seen this coming.

If your kids are younger you should consider 鈥淒ogzilla鈥� a sci-fi primer for future fun with a city-stomping, room-wrecking, imaginary friend.

In our house, Dogzilla was allegedly responsible for anything spilled, strewn, or broken in the house.聽

Later it became the 鈥渞eal鈥� Godzilla who apparently masqueraded as any one of my four sons. He鈥檚 spent so much time with my family over the years, from when I first saw the original film in New York City in black and white and slept with the light on, to today. I鈥檓 glad to see he鈥檚 back in action.

Godzilla turns 60 in 2014 and he鈥檚 looking pretty spry for someone who鈥檚 battled 32 different monster enemies in 29 films and counting, taken out New York and Tokyo countless times in the process, and laid eggs in Madison Square Garden.

Since we don鈥檛 want to just keep up with our kids, but rather lead the next generation into their science-fiction fandom, it鈥檚 time for a little crash course on our mutant reptile facts.

Let鈥檚 start with some of the big guy鈥檚 nicknames that we know of: Gojira, King of the Monsters, Gigantis Gira, Monster of Justice, Big G, G Man, God of Destruction, Big Gray Gecko, Kaiju Alpha, and Goji.

When I say he鈥檚 big I mean this guy originally weighed in at 20,000 metric tons as a 50-meter tall prehistoric monster in 1954 when he terrorized Japan.

Originally Big G wasn鈥檛 enhanced, just a prehistoric monster. It took Americans in the 1984鈥檚 鈥淭he Return of Godzilla鈥� to morph him into an irradiated, laser breathing monster we know and love to run from today.

Some of his most popular allies are Mothra, Rodan, and Anguirus. The Big Gray Gecko鈥檚 enemies are numerous, and he has most often fought them with the result of saving the very city that was trying to destroy him. According to my son Ian, unimpeachable keeper of all sci-fi lore, the list of legendary Godzilla foes is long, but the best loved at our house are:聽, SpaceGodzilla, MechaGodzilla and .

Since the big guy鈥檚 left such a footprint on childhood, perhaps we need to get ahead of the curve by adding DVDs of the classic Godzilla films as some oversized, reptilian-themed stocking stuffers.