Mothra

Ishiro Honda, the prolific director of the original "Godzilla" and famed for his run of giant monster movies, is celebrated in this three-disc set. The DVD debut of "Mothra" (1961) is the gem of the collection, a lively mix of science fiction, monster movie and adventure fantasy filled with colorful characters and an unmistakable sociopolitical subtext. In a reworking of "King Kong," a mercenary explorer from the country of Rolisica (a not-so-subtle stand-in for the United States) kidnaps pixie-sized women (played by identical-twins pop duo the Peanuts) from Infant Island and the natives call upon Mothra to rescue them. After bobbing along in larvae form and destroying everything in its path, it spins a cocoon and really whips up some property damage when it emerges with fuzzy, full color wings.

Also features "The H-Man" (1958), which is not a man at all but a gooey radioactive slime (the original Japanese titles translates to "Beauty and the Liquidman") that slurps through the Tokyo sewers and starts dissolving gangsters and showgirls, and "Battle in Outer Space" (1959), a space opera featuring rocket ships battles, a great laser fight on the moon, and the decimation of Earth's landmarks. The films are all presented in their original, uncut Japanese versions as well as the American incarnations (which are dubbed and in some cases re-edited) and in full TohoScope wide-screen, and the transfers are terrific. Japanese science fiction film historians Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski provide lively and well-prepared commentary tracks for "Battle in Outer Space" and "Mothra." But the case design is problematic: All three discs are stacked up on a single spindle, which is not only unwieldy, but also prone to scuffing and scratching.