The Giant Condor or Ookondoru (Japanese: 大コンドル, Hepburn: Ōkondoru) is a Japanese monster, or kaiju, featured very briefly in the 1966 Godzilla film Ebirah, Horror of the Deep.
| Giant Condor | |
|---|---|
| Godzilla character | |
 | |
| First appearance | Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966) |
| Last appearance | All Monsters Attack (1969) |
| Created by | Shinichi Sekizawa |
| Modelled by | Teizo Toshimitsu |
| In-universe information | |
| Species | Giant mutated bird |
Overview
editDevelopment
edit
Shinichi Sekizawa created the Giant Condor as a reference to the Pteranodon seen in the original 1933 film King Kong.[1] Originally for a film that originally was Operation Robinson Crusoe: King Kong vs. Ebirah, Rankin-Bass had rejected the script and walked off the project, but since Toho had already started making the sets and props for the film, they swapped Kong with Godzilla as the opponent to face off against for the Giant Condor and Ebirah, and Toho carried on with production of the film, which would later evolve into Godzilla, Ebirah, Mothra: Big Duel in the South Seas, and then later into Ebirah, Horror of the Deep.[2]
Design
edit
The Giant Condor was portrayed using a remodeled Rodan prop which first appeared in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964) and Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965), and would be used for Ebirah, Horror of the Deep following its use to depict the monster Litra in Tsuburaya Productions' 1966 TV series Ultra Q.[3][4]
Reception
editThe Giant Condor has been considered by fans to be an extremely weak monster.[5]
Film history
editShowa era (1966-1969)
editOriginally, the Giant Condor was meant to be an opponent for King Kong, as he originally featured in the script for Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, but was replaced with Godzilla during production.[6]
In Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, as Dayo made her escape from Godzilla, the Giant Condor soared overhead. She cried out to alert Godzilla just before the bird descended on him. After a fierce scuffle, Godzilla sets it ablaze with his atomic breath, sending its charred corpse plummeting into the ocean.[7][8][9][10]
In All Monsters Attack, the Giant Condor appeared as the Giant Eagle where it is killed by Godzilla again, but this time while Godzilla was wandering around his home of Monster Island.[9][11]
Millennium era (2004)
editThe Giant Condor was proposed to appear in the 2004 film Godzilla: Final Wars, but the plans were discarded from the film.
Appearances
editFilms
edit- Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966)[6][12][13]
- All Monsters Attack (1969, stock footage)[6][11]
Video games
edit- Godzilla Defense Force (2019)
Books
edit- GODZILLA: Project Mechagodzilla
References
edit- ^ Japanese SFX & Fantasy Movies. Keibunsha. 1997. p. 178. ISBN 4-7669-2706-0.
- ^ Ryfle (2018), p. 239
- ^ All Toho Monsters Pictorial Book (4th ed.). Yosensha. 9 April 2016. p. 126. ISBN 978-4-8003-0362-2.
- ^ The Pictorial Book of Godzilla 2. Hobby Japan Co., Ltd. 12 January 1995. p. 88. ISBN 978-4-89425-117-5.
- ^ Aravind, Ajay; Bark, Daniel; Lowthian, Declan; Iacobucci, Jordan; Arellano, Patrick; Jeanetta, Tony; Vieira, Benjamin (12 November 2020). "Every Godzilla Monster, Ranked from Weakest to Strongest". CBR. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
- ^ a b c Pinera, Alexander (3 May 2024). "Godzilla: 10 Monsters That Never Showed Up Again". TheGamer. Retrieved 19 March 2025.
- ^ Pryor, Shawn (29 October 2024). Kaiju Unleashed: An Illustrated Guide to the World of Strange Beasts. Epic Ink. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-7603-9289-8.
- ^ Ryfle, Steve (1998). Japan's Favorite Mon-star: The Unauthorized Biography of "The Big G". ECW Press. p. 156. ISBN 978-1-55022-348-4.
- ^ a b Dubiel, Bill (14 February 2025). "All 12 Kaiju Who Live On Godzilla's Monster Island". ScreenRant. Retrieved 19 March 2025.
- ^ Loyarte, Julián Jorge Fernández (25 March 2024). "Godzilla: 12 Weakest Kaiju In The Movies, Ranked". Game Rant. Retrieved 19 March 2025.
- ^ a b "Let Them Fight: The Top 10 One-Off GODZILLA Monsters — Nerdist". archive.nerdist.com. Retrieved 23 August 2025.
- ^ Berry, Mark F. (31 August 2015). The Dinosaur Filmography. McFarland. p. 450. ISBN 978-1-4766-0674-3.
- ^ "Every Godzilla Monster Ranked from Lamest to Coolest". Paste Magazine. Retrieved 19 March 2025.
- Ryfle, Steve (10 April 2018). Ishiro Honda. Wesleyan University Press. ISBN 978-0-8195-7741-2.