Living with Monsters is a live action/3D animated hybrid Mockumentary by Tarrel Christie, based primarily on the Godzilla franchise with many other kaiju franchises thrown in the mix. It's the second in the Godzilla Found Footage Series. It also serves as a prequel to The Gryphon (Godzilla Found Footage).
In a world where kaiju and other monstrosities have become public knowledge, we take a look back at the beginnings of humanity's increased awareness of the existence of kaiju during the 20th Century and how they dealt with such new knowledges all presented by respected host, Gene Maldonado.
The short film can be seen here
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It is preceded by The Gryphon (Godzilla Found Footage) and followed up with Shelter 54.
Living with Monsters provides examples of the following tropes:
- Alternate Continuity:
- Carl Denham's expedition to Skull Island ended up much better than it did canonically, and instead of bringing back King Kong to New York for a live spectacle after he'd failed to keep any surviving footage from the island, he instead was able to make a successful documentary of Skull Island (still titled King Kong) and brought back a Triceratops and a Doug-like lizard from the island as evidence for his press conference. King Kong is also shown fighting Gaw rather than the Meat-Eater and he's shown as the caretaker of Kiko/Little Kong as opposed to simply being implied to be his father.
- Rather than getting killed by the Oxygen Destroyer like in the 1954 Gojira, Godzilla survives the military's attempts to kill him and simply disappears until Anguirus surfaces a year later, at which that point the events of Godzilla Raids Again take place, but Anguirus is spared by Godzilla and simply walks away rather than being killed and Godzilla himself is unscathed once again.
- Gorgo doesn't gets captured like in his film and instead is simply photographed and recorded by scientists for investigation purposes, whether or not he has a much bigger mother here is unknown.
- Alternate History: The United Nations weren't just formed to deal with the aftermath of World War II but also to deal with the increasing threat of kaiju/superfauna attacks, especially that of Godzilla.
- The Cameo: An unspecified octopus-like entity, seemingly Oodako, is speculated to still be present inside the Chaitén caldera.
- Canon Welding: Primarily based off the Godzilla franchise, it also depicts events from the King Kong franchise (mainly based off the 1933 film) as well as Gorgo and Rodan.
- Composite Character:
- King Kong takes primarily after the 1933 version, but his design also has elements of the MonsterVerse version such as his beard, and his nemesis is Gaw from the Kong: King of Skull Island novel rather than the Meat Eater.
- Godzilla has his Monsterverse design and implied backstory of the 1954 version along with being similarly destructive towards humans rather than a simple Destructive Saviour.
- Foreshadowing: The ending mentions that research is being done into how superfauna radiation results in exponential plant growth, and of the UNGCC creating Anti-Superfauna bunkers for civilians to take shelter in. Both of these elements would play a critical, albeit horrific, role in the next short.
- Non-Malicious Monster: Gorgo is highlighted as a non-aggressive kaiju unless provoked, contrasting the other more destructive monsters that show up.
- Papa Wolf: Kong battles Gaw to protect Kiko, ending with Kong breaking the theropod's jaw, killing it.
- Spared by the Adaptation: King Kong, Kiko, Godzilla, Anguirus and Manda all survive rather than get killed as in their original outings.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Kanira fills in for Ebirah as a crustacean kaiju that fights Godzilla (albeit based off a crab rather than a cross between a shrimp and a lobster).
- There Is Another: When the corpse of a young member of Godzilla's species first washed ashore after the H-Bomb tests, none knew that it only heralded the arrival of a much larger specimen.