Bring on the Monster Army!

The 6 Ultra Brothers vs. the Monster Army (1974)

When I was a kid, there were a handful of shows that aired daily, and I would probably go nuts if I couldn’t watch them. One of them was Space Giants, one was Marine-Boy, another was Speed Racer, and number one on my list was Ultraman. So, as I grew up, and got my first VCR, I spent a large amount of time seeking out anything Ultraman.
As my search progressed, I came into contact with a lot of odd Ultraman related titles, but the oddest of all was the 6 Ultra Brothers vs. the Monster Army. Odd for a number of reasons, but not the least of which, odd because it was actually a Thai/Japanese co-production, and it would appear that the Thai producers had more of a say in what actually ended up on the screen than the Japanese did, and in the end it comes out as foreign even to the hardcore Ultra-fans. But, oddity doesn’t mean it wasn’t fun, and boy was this fun.

The film features Ultraman, Ultraman Zoffy, Ultra Seven, Ultraman Jack, Ultraman Ace, Ultraman Taro, and a Hindu Monkey God (who is actually a little boy that has been transformed into a hero after he is murdered by criminals), teaming up to fight, well, for a lack of a better term, a monster army. It’s weird, it’s oddly dark, and yet it’s kind of fun. The darkness is very strange, because it’s quite apparent, even to the most casual of observers that this is actually a movie intended for children.

The finer points of the story are less apparent to me, because the copy I watched was not dubbed, and did not have any subtitles. So, due to the language barrier, I can only speak of the visuals, which were pretty lacking in budget; and fun anyway.