Arnold Zwicky's Blog

Yesterday on Facebook, Aric Olnes embarked on “14 days / Countdown [to Christmas] with Godzilla” with this especially arresting image:

Godzilla, defender of Santa’s workshop

A search on this image got me to a reference to: A Daikaiju Christmas: Godzilla vs The Ice Monster (1969). Which seems not to be a real movie, but some sort of fan invention (complete with a plot description, in which Godzilla is defending Santa’s workshop against Shimo the ice monster). But no mention of the creator of the image.

I asked AO who the artist was, and got the answer I dreaded:

— AO: I’ll be posting Godzilla images everyday until Xmas; most were found in a Google search and don’t have an artist attribution. Some images I’ll be posting were snagged from retail sites selling sweater images also without artist names.

So I’ll make do with what I’ve got. The image above, and my responses to it; and the plot line of A Daikaiju Christmas: Godzilla vs The Ice Monster. Which will then require an explication of various terms and references. Most of this from a fantasy world unfamiliar to me.

Reading this Godzilla Santa image. Wonderfully atmospheric, the image shows a determined Godzilla, one radiating intelligence and concern rather than rage and the urge to destroy. The Santa cap is a surprise, but, given the rest, we’re willing to imagine that it’s purposeful and not silly (as some of AO’s Godzilla Santas are). Silly is fine, but not what’s going on here.

The story of A Daikaiju Christmas. From the mycast.io website, a fan casting of A Daikaiju Christmas: Godzilla vs The Ice Monster (1969), with this story plot:

In the North Pole, an ancient monster named Shimo, who once caused the first Ice Age, is resurrected and is threatening to freeze up the world again, starting with Santa’s Workshop. Godzilla is clearly outmatched by this icy behemoth; it would take more than Christmas Spirit to fight back! Can Godzilla save Christmas?

So, this is indeed benevolent Godzilla.

Terms and references. kaiju, daikaiju, Shimo.

kaiju, daikaiju. From Wikipedia:

Kaiju (lit. ’strange beast’) is a Japanese term that is commonly associated with media involving giant monsters. A subgenre of science-fiction, more precisely monster films, its widespread contemporary use is credited to tokusatsu (special effects) director Eiji Tsuburaya and filmmaker Ishirō Honda, who popularized the kaiju film genre by creating the Godzilla franchise and its spin-offs. The term can also refer to the monsters themselves, which are usually depicted attacking major cities, and battling either the military or other creatures.

… Daikaijū literally translates as “giant kaiju” or “great kaiju“. This hyperbolic term was used to denote greatness of the subject kaiju, the prefix dai– emphasizing great size, power, and/or status. The first known appearance of the term daikaiju in the 20th century was in the publicity materials for the original 1954 release of Godzilla.

Shimo. From the Godzilla fandom site:

Shimo (lit. “Frost”), also dubbed Titanus Shimo, is a reptilian Titan in the MonsterVerse created by Legendary Pictures who was introduced as the secondary antagonist of the 2024 film, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. An ancient monster that holds chilling power over cold temperatures which made her a dangerous force of the Hollow Earth, Shimo was made an unwilling “slave” of the Skar King and forced to obey his commands, assisting him in his plot to dominate the entire planet. She was eventually freed through the combined efforts of Godzilla, Kong, and Suko, which allowed her to take revenge on her enslaver.

And that’s all I know about this stuff today.

This entry was posted on December 12, 2025 at 4:59 pm and is filed under Holidays, Movies and tv. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.