MovieChat Forums > Gojira vs. Desutoroiâ (1995) Discussion > Destroyer vs 'Destoroyah'

Destroyer vs 'Destoroyah'

posted 10 years ago by vankor
4 replies | jump to latest

Why on earth do people in America insist on labeling the movie and the creature "Destoroyah" or "Destroyah"!? This is so clearly because the Japanese have problems saying "Destroyer". In the original 1954 movie, and here, it's "Oxygen DESTROYER", not "Oxygen Destroyah". That is what this beast came from, the oxygen destroyer. So... why change it? Why perpetuate this bad pronunciation as an actual word? What the hell is a "Destoroyah"? If you watch the movie with subtitles, they even write "Destroyer" and not "Destoroyah".

If we needed to change words and names based on bad engrish, then why not change "3-D scan" to "SRI-D SKYAHN" Destroyer sounds much cooler than "Destoroyah" anyway.

[–] OllieSuave-007 10 years ago

According to Toho, they changed the name "Destroyer" to "Destoroyah" because they realized they would have a hard time publishing the name "Destroyer" for copyright reasons.

[–] kingofthemonsters1995 9 years ago

The monster's official name is actually "Destoroyah." In Japan, the monster was named "Desutoroia," which is the Japanese transliteration of the English word "Destroyer." As such, Toho had the monster's name dubbed as "Destroyer" for the English version. However, when Toho went to copyright the name in Western markets, they found "Destroyer" could not be copyrighted. So what did they do? They approximated "Desutoria" in English as "Destoroyah" and copyrighted the name. So, while the name comes from "Destroyer," literally means "Destroyer" in Japanese, and the monster is called "Destroyer" in the dub, the official copyrighted English name of the monster is "Destoroyah."

[–] Ijkkkjq 8 years ago

^^^^^correct

[–] mph1-3 8 years ago

That's fascinating!