Eiji Tsuburaya, kaiju king and co-creator of Godzilla, celebrated by Google
Take your place in the director's chair for a playable Google doodle bringing Ultraman to life.
From beneath the waves it comes, scourge of cardboard cities across the globe: Googzilla! Google has paid animated tribute to Eiji Tsuburaya, kaiju king of the Japanese monster movie.
Google often customises the logo on its search engine home page, theming the image or animation around an event of the day. On July 7, the search giant celebrates the life of Eiji Tsuburaya, the creator of Ultraman and co-creator of Godzilla, who was born on July 7, 1901.
Tsuburaya's practical effects defined the look of the Japanese monster movie genre, known as "Tokusatsu." Born 114 years ago, he was fascinated by planes and motion pictures at a young age. He was inspired by 1933 film "King Kong" to create the visual effects for the first "Godzilla" movie in 1954. That film invented a genre in which towering monsters, or "kaiju", threaten humanity, and led to the smash hit TV show "Ultraman" in 1966. Tsuburaya died in 1970.
Doodlers Jennifer Hom and Mark Holmes visited the secret effects studio of Tsuburaya Productions to develop the doodle. The interactive doodle puts you in Tsuburaya's director's chair to create your own monster masterpiece. At each stage of the game you're faced with a giant creature and driven to meet a filmmaking challenge, from gluing together sets and dressing your monster to lighting the set and swatting model spaceships. Along the way you're assisted by a sunglasses-wearing Tsuburaya.
Godzilla was given the Hollywood treatment in 1998 and again in 2014. Tsuburaya's influence continues to be felt in monster mash-ups from "Power Rangers" to "Pacific Rim" and the Beastie Boys music video for the 1998 single Intergalactic.