| Zilla Junior | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| Naming | |||
| Others | Godzilla, Godzilla Junior, Animated Zilla | ||
| Personal information | |||
| Species | Mutant iguana | ||
| Gender | Male | ||
| Place of origin | New York City | ||
| Relations | Zilla (Father) Komodithrax (Mate) | ||
| Biology | |||
| Body type | Theropod | ||
| Height | 60 meters | ||
| Length | 91 meters | ||
| Weight | 500 tons | ||
| Diet | Piscivorous | ||
| Sentience | Sentient | ||
| Sapience | Non-Sapient | ||
| Behind the scenes | |||
| Universe | Godzilla Universe | ||
| Created by | Roland Emmerich, Dean Devlin | ||
| Designed by | Patrick Tatapoulos | ||
| Performed by | Frank Welker (Vocals) | ||
Zilla Junior (also called "Godzilla Junior" by his fans and simply called "Godzilla" in the series itself) is the son of Zilla, a mutated iguana who attacked New York in 1998 and was killed on the Brooklyn Bridge. He was also the only surviving offspring after Madison Square Garden - where Zilla's nest was located - was bombed by a trio of F-18's. This was due to Zilla Junior hatching later than the rest of his siblings.
When it hatched, the baby imprinted on Niko (Nick) Tatopoulos - who was in the area with the egg when it hatched and was covered in gunk from the eggs. Since then, Zilla Junior has looked to Nick as his parent and protects him whenever he is in trouble - with Nick and his team HEAT using this to their advantage by having Zilla Junior as an ally to destroy other, more hostile mutations around the world.
Like his father, Zilla Junior is a sentient Theropod-like lizard who is semi-aquatic, very agile, an
Zilla Junior using his atomic breath.
excellent jumper and able to both run and burrow at incredible speed. However, Zilla Junior is shown to be sterile and thus incapable of reproducing - meaning no more mutated marine iguanas will be around after his death. Some more noticeable traits in Zilla Junior include his hide been much tougher and resilient to most forms of attack, been able to regenerate from injuries, having a much more aggressive attitude to the point of been willing to die rather then back down from a fight and been able to breathe green atomic fire - with his spines/scutes flashing and his eyes lighting up when he uses it. (Originally his eyes light up yellow when he uses the attack, but later change to orange/red - possibly indicating he has grown stronger). Zilla Jr.'s colour is noticeably different to his father. With a more bright blue instead of a darkish grey, and green dorsal plates, possibly a by-product of his mutations.
The reasons for why Zilla Junior has these abilities and not his father is not explained, but is most likely due to his DNA been unstable as a result of been a mutation. It's not known if the other babies had extra abilities like Zilla Jr., or if Zilla Jr. is unique among his brood.
Zilla Junior was shown to be intelligent - been able to make moral decisions (such as when he chose to free Nessie's baby) and use tactics/strategy to defeat an enemy - and highly loyal to Nick, but at the same time was an aggressive and wild animal that only Nick and Mendel Craven's robot N.I.G.E.L could get close to. He was also shown as been more resilient to alien mind control then other monsters.
GODZILLA (1998)[]
The baby Zillas go on the attack.
When Nick, Phillipe and the French Secret Service team followed the tunnels Zilla had made into the ruins of Madison Square Garden, they found over 200 eggs which the creature had laid and began setting explosives to kill them. However, the eggs began hatching and begun to feed on the fish that Zilla had collected for them - forcing the team to flee as they smelled like the fish that the creatures had begun to eat. Two members of Phillipe's team were killed by the baby Zillas after been ambushed, while the remaining two were later killed by the baby Zillas as they spread out through the garden. Phillipe tells Nick to contact the military and get them to send a bomber to blow up the building to prevent the infants from escaping, but Nick was unable to get a call to the military as the phone
A video shot of the Baby Zillas.
lines - both on cell phones and pay phones - were busy.
However, Nick's ex-girlfriend Audrey and her cameraman Victor 'Animal' Palotti had also snuck into the garden and escaped from the creatures through an air duct after been cornered. Heading upstairs, Audrey managed to get them into the Garden's broadcast booth - where she, Victor and Nick were able to send out a message to the public and the military about the nest and the baby Zillas - explaining that Madison Square Garden must be destroyed before the babies can escape out into the city as if it happens, the infants would grow and multiply - with them possibly replacing humanity as the dominant species of the planet. The military - having now heard the
Madison Square Garden is destroyed.
broadcast - in turn send the group a message to get outside the building in six minutes or less as they have sent a trio of F-18s in an airstrike to bomb the Garden.
Nick, Phillipe, Audrey and Animal rush to the exit as they are pursued by numerous baby Zillas - only to run into a problem as they find the exit blocked by many of the babies and less then 30 seconds remaining to get out. They manage to get past the gathering of the infants by Phillipe blasting down the chandeliers and the group rushing past. Getting free and blocking the door to trap the babies, the group flee as the bombers arrive and destroy Madison Square Garden. The resulting explosion kills all the baby Zilla's inside, while the adult Zilla (thought to have been killed earlier) is eventually trapped
Zilla Junior's egg prepares to hatch.
on the Brooklyn bridge after chasing a taxi with Nick and his group in. Zilla is then killed by the same F-18s after been fatally wounded by a barrage of missiles - seemingly killing the creatures for good.
However, in the ruins of Madison Square Garden, one egg is shown to be late in hatching and to have survived the explosion - with the egg then proceeding to hatch before the last baby Zilla (Zilla Junior) roars.
Godzilla the Animated Series (1999-2000)[]
The Final Offspring[]
Zilla Junior in his egg.
The Animated Series began where the film left off, with Zilla been killed on the Brooklyn Bridge. Following the creature's death, however, Nick goes to Major Hicks and warns him that both of them and a military squad should return to Madison Square Garden to ensure they didn't miss any of Zilla's eggs - stating "after all the misery that thing caused, can we really afford to have another one on the loose?" Hicks reluctantly agrees and assembles a small squad to be airlifted into the remains of the Garden. Unbeknown to the group, one egg had indeed survive the bombing, with the baby inside ready to hatch out.
Nick is cornered by Zilla Junior.
As the group headed deeper into the Garden, Nick called his friend Randy - a computer hacker - to hack into a satellite up-link and see if there was any signs of activity or power outages inside the garden. While heading towards the location of the last recorded power outage, the team were separated by a collapsing ceiling- with Nick been cut off from the group and ending up down a tunnel into a room. Waking up, Nick had found that he had fallen in some of the 'gunk' from inside the eggs, but soon found he had bigger problems as he found he was in the room with the last egg - from which Zilla Junior promptly hatched out. Backed against a wall by the creature, Nick watched as the creature sniffed him (picking up on the scent of the eggs and imprinting on Nick) before a sudden electric burst startled the creature - which burrowed away and escaped into the Hudson River.
Following the escape of Zilla Junior, Major Hicks (on orders from his superiors) shut down the scientific team that helped them deal with Zilla - stating that the military would be able to deal with finding the infant before it grew. However, Nick stated his belief that the military wouldn't find the monster in time and that the destruction would start all over again. Talking to his colleagues Elsie Chapman and Mendel Craven, he takes them to a research center he has on Statten Island - which they can use as a base to try and track down the creature themselves. Nick's friend Randy joins the group along with a robot that Craven has made called N.I.G.E.L (Next-Millennium Intelligence Gathering Electronic Liaison) - with the group playing a recording of Zilla's roar during his swim in the Hudson river. It is believed that Zilla Junior will hear it and follow it to Statten Island - where the team will be able to capture the infant and study it. Setting a trap and playing the recording of Zilla's roar, Craven and Randy take a small motorboat and begin to set buoys out in the Hudson River. During this, however, the pair quickly head back to Statten Island as the buoys begin to disappear underwater and the sign of something big coming towards them. The pair reach Statten Island and flee as Zilla Junior appears - following a trail of fish to the trap.
However, Zilla Junior had gone through a growth spurt since originally fleeing into the Hudson river and had grown from his original human size to the size of a Tyrannosaur. The trap - intended for a human sized creature - was quickly torn apart by Zilla Junior (with N.I.G.E.L been batted away by Zilla Junior's tail when it tried to lead the creature back to the river) before then turning his attention to Nick and catching him in his hand. As he prepared to eat Nick, however, he stopped as he recognized Nick's scent before gently putting Nick down. Seeing this, Nick quickly realized that Zilla Junior had imprinted on him - seeing Nick as its parent. Managing to get himself and his team inside, Nick explained what he believed had happened - persuading the team to still study the creature despite the events caused by its father and siblings. Elsie agrees but warns Nick "If [Zilla Junior] looks at me wrong - even once - I am re-uniting it with the rest of it's family".
The team's study of Zilla Junior discovers a lot of interesting information. Contrary to current theory on carnivorous dinosaurs, Zilla Junior only hunts prey upon necessity. Furthermore, Zilla Junior - rather then relying on pure instinct like a lizard - displays intelligence and even loyalty towards Nick. Further tests on the creature find that, unlike Zilla, Zilla Junior is sterile and therefore incapable of reproducing. (The reason for this is never given, but it is likely due to the instability of Zilla Junior's genes due to him been a mutation). Due to the military wanting to kill Zilla Junior and due to some strange reports of people and boats going missing in Jamaica been blamed on the creature (despite Zilla been with Nick and his team all day), the group decided to keep Junior a secret.
However, the French Secret Service had continued to secretly monitor Nick and learned of his interaction with Zilla Junior - sending an agent called Monique Dupree to alert the military and get Nick to hunt whatever is attacking people and boats in Jamaica. Soon enough, the military arrive at Statten Island and attack Zilla Junior - who dodges a missile launched at him from a military helicopter before showing off a new ability his father did not have as he blasts the helicopter out of the sky with a blast of atomic fire (although the pilots both escape the helicopter's crash unharmed). Despite Nick's protests to Major hicks, Zilla Junior is hit by both shoulder launched missiles and tank fire - visibly bleeding from the hit and retreating into the river. He is then attacked from the air by an F-18 - which launches a cluster missile at Zilla Junior as he dives underwater. The missiles explode and Zilla Junior doesn't resurface, presumably implying that the creature was killed by the attack while underwater.
Battle in Jamaica[]
Following Zilla Junior's apparent death at the hands of the military, Nick and his team decided to stay together and investigate 'other mutations' around the world - starting with Jamaica following reports of people and boats going missing and some mysterious 'black tar' that kept appearing on the water surface. Elsie and Craven headed off to Jamaica first with N.I.G.E.L to try and find out what was going on, while Nick and Randy intended to sort out a few things first. The pair confronted and were quickly defeated by an intruder - who soon revealed herself to be Monique Dupree. As well as revealing she had been sent by the French Secret Service, she revealed that she was the one who called the military about Zilla Junior's location. Despite his anger at this, Nick agreed to help her deal with the Jamaica mutation - with Monique providing them with a ship they could use.
In Jamaica, Elsie and Mendel found that the tar was paradoxically keeping animals trapped in it alive - but was also draining their blood's nutrients at the same time. As they reported this to Nick and Randy, however, their ship was attacked by the creatures responsible for the tar - a group of giant squids bigger then colossal squid. The squid grabbed Elsie, Craven and N.I.G.E.L before pulling them and their ship underwater. When Nick, Randy and Monique arrived, they initially couldn't find any trace of Elsie and Craven's boat - although Randy successfully locked onto N.I.G.E.L's distress beacon and so was able to recover the robot along with Elsie and Craven - who were unconscious and covered in tar, but were alive. Nick was able to use an alkaline chemical mix to break down the tar, with Elsie and Craven regaining consciousness.
The boat soon came under attack from the squids once again, with Nick been grabbed by one of the squid and nearly eaten. Suddenly the squid are all pulled under - with the reappearance of Zilla Junior (who had survived the airstrike, healed from his injuries, gone through another growth spurt to full size and then followed Nick's scent all the way to Jamaica). As Nick and the team watched, Zilla Junior made short work of the squid - killing them with his atomic fire. Monique was shocked at this - unable to believe how Zilla Junior had ultimately saved the lives of all of them, to which Nick replied to her "Lucky it doesn't hold a grudge". Heading to the shore, the group found more of the dead squids - but soon realized these squids were in fact drained of their vital fluids and not charred by Zilla Junior's atomic fire. Adding to the fact that Nick believed they were deep water dwellers, it soon became clear to Nick that some kind of 'Super-Predator' was responsible for forcing the squids to the surface.
The 'Super-Predator' was soon revealed to be a bizarre looking monster (named as 'Crustaceous Rex' outside the episode), which headed inland as Zilla Junior had ultimately destroyed its food supply and so it now needed to find a suitable substitute - while military attempts to stop the monster proving useless. Nick and Monique managed to lead it back to the shore with a truck full of hot tar, but as the creature threatened Nick its attention was suddenly drawn to Zilla Junior - with the two monsters beginning to fight. The fight was watched by Nick and his team - as well as Audrey and Victor 'Animal' Palotti (who had recorded the earlier fight between Zilla Junior and the squids). Crustaceous Rex appeared to temporarily subdue Zilla Junior by regurgitating a stream of tar at him before knocking him aside, but as it walked back towards the town it was attacked once again by Zilla Junior - who lured the monster to the top of a cliff before tunneling all underneath it.
The now unstable ridge collapsed with Crustaceous Rex on top of it, although the monster grabbed Zilla Junior with its tentacles in an attempt to hold on. Zilla Junior, however, blasted the tentacles with his atomic fire - watching the creature plummet to the ground and be buried under an avalanche of rock. Zilla Junior soon tumbled off as well as the cliff continued to give way and too was buried under another rock fall. However, the monster soon emerged from under the rocks - roaring triumphantly. As military helicopters arrived, though, Zilla Junior jumped into the ocean and swam to where the squids had been placing the boats and people they had captured and encased in their tar - managing to get all of them to the surface (much to the shock of Major Hicks). Upon Nick's word that Zilla Junior was the only thing standing between them and every other mutation that appeared, Hicks called off the military attack but warned Nick not to make him regret it - with Zilla Junior again returning to the ocean.
Back at Statten Island, the group watched Audrey's report on TV of the incident - with her keeping Zilla Junior out of the spotlight for the time being as a 'thank you' for the monster saving them. As Craven stated he was just glad it was all over, Nick stated that they would not be facing any future mutations alone as Zilla Junior would be there to help them.
Future Battles[]
Following the battle with Crustaceous Rex in Jamaica, Zilla Junior created an underwater lair less then 5 miles away from Statten Island - which was later discovered by N.I.G.E.L and which Nick's team (calling themselves HEAT - meaning Humanitarian Enviromental Analysis Team) would later install cameras in to keep a watch on Zilla Junior.
Games[]
Zilla Junior has had two Gameboy Colour games.
The first featured him battling other monsters from the series, such as the Crackler and Crustaceous Rex among others, but is mysteriously attacked by military vehicles despite Major Hicks stating that the vehicles don't belong to the armed forces. It is discovered they instead belong to Nick's old enemy Cameron Winter - who serves as the final boss as Zilla Junior destroys his fortress before he swims off alongside the Heat Seeker.
The second was loosely based on the "Monster Wars" storyline in the cartoon, with the 'Tachyon Aliens' creating monsters on Earth to try and take over - leaving it to Zilla Junior to stop them. Zilla Junior fights several monsters such as El Gusano, The Nanotech Creature and the Giant Bat among others before finally facing off against Cyber Zilla.