This is a great kaiju movie from Toho Studios. Right off the beginning of this film, we see an already intriguing scene when a scientist gets kidnapped by a creature from under the sea. The suspense builds when the creatures reveal themselves to be habitants of the Undersea Kingdom of Mu, and that they have come to Earth to reclaim its land (of course the Earth people do not accept that, so it's the super-submarine Atragon to the rescue). The scenes where it show the origin and the places of the Mu Kingdom are very entertaining. We actually get to see what the Mu Kingdom looks like. The scene where the Mu people sing and dance and worship is a real charmer. For this movie, the special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya are spectacular and the screenplay by Shinichi Sekizawa is exciting, spellbinding, and full of suspense and drama. The plot is solid and perfect and Ishiro Honda's directing is superb. The music by Akira Ifukube is excellent and fantastic. The main title music is full of melody and harmony and is probably my favorite Akira Ifukube music score. And, virtually everybody is in this movie: Tadao Takashima, Yoko Fujiyama, Yu Fujiki, Ken Uehara, Jun Tazaki, Kenji Sahara, Hiroshi Koizumi, Yoshifumi Tajima, Akihiko Hirata, Eisei Amamoto, and Susumu Fujita.

The scenes where the Earth humans and the Mu people battle each other is inspiring. Manda, the giant sea serpent, is an awesome-looking monster. He is the protector of the Mu Kingdom. From the sounds of the worships, Manda seemed to be a powerful creature. However, he is actually pretty weak since he hardly put up a descent battle with Atragon, and he appeared only briefly throughout the entire movie. That was a disappointment - more scenes of Manda would have made this an even better feature. But overall, this film is a great one from Toho.

Grade B+

This non-GODZILLA Toho flick seemingly retains the same kind of dramatic monster music as familiar from kaiju films and even throws a half-hearted giant water serpent into the proceedings at the climax. Otherwise it's a slightly dated production about the undersea kingdom of Mu waging war on mankind, and the only possible hope for the salvation of mankind lying in a super supermarine with the power to fly (!). There's lots of interesting things to say about politics and Japan's place in a post-WW2 world, but the plot is slightly dragged out and the pacing flags in the middle. Still, the cast are game and the special effects are inventive and impressive, things building to a lavish climax with an epic feel.

1963's "Atragon" ("Kaitei Gunkan" or Undersea Battleship in Japan) was among the last Toho efforts that did not involve two giant monsters duking it out in the final round. Like "Matango" the same year, it's a character driven story that depends on its human cast, reteaming Tadao Takashima and Yu Fujiki in the same comical vein as 1962's "King Kong vs. Godzilla" though a bit more serious this time. We are introduced to a lost continent like Atlantis which sunk in the Atlantic, here a Pacific equivalent called Mu, ruled by an imperious Empress (Tetsuko Kobatashi) who announces world domination using heat generated from the earth's core to cause massive devastation through earthquakes. Apart from the seeming impossibility of locating such a world they also boast of a fabled protector, the sea serpent Manda (later seen in "Destroy All Monsters"),who can twist around enemies like a snake, its claws too puny for any real grasp but hungry for imprisoned captives (more along the lines of 1960's "Reptilicus"). Earth's only hope is to find the long thought dead Hachiro Jinguji (Jun Tazaki),former commander of Japan's Imperial Forces, still seeking to restore its dignity following the period where they had abolished war. This Captain Nemo-type was intended for the nation's most acclaimed actor, Toshiro Mifune, later to costar with Christopher Lee in Steven Spielberg's 1941, but a prior commitment prevented him from accepting, leaving the part available for Tazaki, square jawed veteran of many a military general fighting monsters in the Toho universe, clearly relishing this change of pace as for once he's granted a pretty daughter (Yoko Fujiyama) who last saw her father at the age of 3. It is her kidnapping at the hand of Mu agent Kenji Sahara that finally convinces Jinguji to use his newly finished battleship Atragon against the common enemy, capable not only of flying through the air but also the usual tasks required from an underwater submarine, with attachments that allow it to burrow beneath the earth, and a freeze ray to incapacitate other threats. So overwhelming in fact is its power when finally in use that it makes one wonder why secret agents of Mu even tried to seek out the elusive captain, emerging from the sea in diving costumes that resemble the Gill Man (slightly less conspicuous than the creatures on display in Toei's 1966 "Terror Beneath the Sea"). A similar lost world is later depicted in "Godzilla vs. Megalon," using the same costumes for the more sparse residents of Seatopia.