Directed by Eijirō Wakabayashi, this movie was adapted from a tokusatsu superhero series known as Planet Prince. The series was a rip off of another show, call Super Giant AKA Starman. In fact, the title hero whose alter-ego was Waku-san AKA Wally is played by Toshio Mimura whom bore a strong resemblance to Super Giant. Instead of getting the same actor to play the hero in the film, they got Tatsuo Umemiya and got a new costume for him which kinda kill the whole fan base. In the edited US version, he is call Prince of Space and has no superpowers other than the invulnerability of his costume. He uses weapons like a wand-like laser gun that looks like a butane grill lighter and flies a small spaceship that looks a upside down wheel barrier. The company that produce the film, Toei: made two movies that featured this character titled Planet Prince and Planet Prince - The Terrifying Spaceship. For release in America, these two movies were compiled into a TV movie titled Prince of Space. Depending what film, you watch, the incoherent plot is really hard to follows, but it goes something like this, Prince's enemy's Ambassador Phantom of Ginsei AKA Ambassador Dictator Phantom of the Planet Krankor (Joji Oka) is trying to conquer Earth for rocket fuel. The villain travels through space to the planet Earth, so that he can steal a formula for rocket fuel that will allow him to travel through space? This is even hand-waved in the film itself, by a group of journalists who ask the head scientist why such an advanced race needs Earth technology. The scientist's explanation is that their fuel technology lags behind ours, which is just explain anything. If The Phantom Of Krankor could observe the Humans from space, and peek into anywhere in the world, why didn't he just observe the creation of the formula and take notes? This movie makes you have a headache if you think too hard of the plot. Anyways, with his chicken-like alien henchmen, he kidnap the world leading rocket scientists to force the world's leader to give up their world to him. I'm sorry, but I can't take this villain serious even with the cartoony evil laugh. I can tell he is avoiding undergarments, because most of the film has him running around with his 'junk' visually showing through his sweat suit costume. Krankor sounds like crank whore in this film. He does look like one with drooping football pads under his tights looking like he's going to suck some Planet Prince's penis. The Phantom of Planet Krankor looks like Penguin from Batman mixed with Wario from the Mario Brother Video Games. He's so clumsy, and mismanage, that the whole alien invasion plot is so subverted. He also use the same weapons, time after time again on Prince of Space even after Prince of Space mention his weapons are useless. Even the bare fist fight scenes are laughable. Prince of Space can't really get hurt in the US version so there is little to no suspense. Having the hero have immortality doesn't make good story telling, as the hero is never put into any real danger. I know this was a translation error in the English dub. Prince of Space imply in the US version that he is invulnerable to all the weapons. In the Japanese version, this line simply had him implying that their weapons were useless because he was capable of dodging them. The English line leads to confusion as the Prince is constantly shown running away from the lasers that he is supposed to be invulnerable to. To add to the insult, there are plenty of scenes that are never explain Prince of Space is able to survive near disasters like Prince's ship getting shot down, and only to come back, a few minutes later in the film with the same ship not scratch. The model ships are so Ed Wood like, as it just awful to watch. The scene with his ship fighting a giant Ferengi Shrek on a planet surface is laughable. The whole scene looks like a man in bad make up on a soundstage. Also so the ray gun strips people from their clothing before oblivioning them is a bit off. Reminds me of 1953's Wars of the Worlds which had better special effects than this. You could think 1959 would have better effects than 1953, but no, this movie proves it. The sound effects are some of the most annoying sounds, I ever heard. I just couldn't stand hearing the turkey like Krankor ship leave and enter. My ears were bleeding because of it. Another thing, I found dumb is the fake nationality: Obviously, the movie try to make the Japanese people look American with English names and badly done English dubbing. It's weird to see New England and New Yorker accents in this film as it doesn't match the lips. I know the film was made for kids, but gees I hate the kids in this film. I really do. Small Japanese boys run around giving orders, having access to restricted government property and getting in danger. At less, the second part of the film got a little more serious. Overall: it's one of those movies, 'so bad, it's good'. The movie is a bit rare so it might be hard to find. If you can't find it, just look up Mystery Science Theater 3000K Season 8, Episode 18. Some people can find it, watchable, but most can't. Hints why there wasn't no sequel to this, and the producers went on to make a better show with Mirror Mask. I wonder if the Prince ever went back to his shoe shine job?!
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