Two of Toho's star city-wreckers come to blows in this rubbery dash of mid-sixties mayhem. When a major typhoon deposits a giant egg on the beach of a coastal Japanese town, it's exploited as a tourist attraction... until Godzilla randomly emerges from the Earth and terrorizes the landscape. Soon the egg is revealed to have traveled from Infant Island, where Mothra is quickly enlisted to defend humanity (and her unborn offspring).

While not as deliberately cheesy or cut-rate as its immediate predecessor, King Kong vs. Godzilla, it's very tough to imagine this as a serious effort, even in the era of its release. The special effects are often laughably transparent, a mix of happy accidents (Godzilla's head catches fire during a napalm attack, which looks cool but can't have been planned) and a stream of good-spirited, if inept, toy-stomping sequences. Many of the monster-on-monster fight scenes are equally silly. Zilla himself is prone to throwing up his arms in a panic, tossing his head about in a hilarious temper tantrum whenever he's confronted with a new obstacle, and the twin Mothra grubs who emerge for the final battle closely resemble a pair of giant, wriggling cat turds.

The accompanying human story is serviceable but shallow, a rather basic morality play that closely matches earlier entries. In short, it's almost exactly what one should expect of the series; tons of noise, explosions and screams, well-intentioned but feeble effects, puffy, expressionless monsters and a simplistic message. And yet, there's a certain dash of irresistible charm to it all. You get what you think you'll get, nothing more and nothing less.