Godzilla Planet: The Animated Film and Its Lost Earth

Godzilla Planet refers to Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters (2017), directed by Kobun Shizuno and Hiroyuki Seshita. Netflix lists the film as an anime, and its premise follows humans who return to Earth after a failed attempt to settle another planet. By the time their ship arrives back, 20,000 years have passed on Earth and a new ecosystem has emerged. The premise is rather like returning to a former home after the neighborhood has changed beyond recognition, except that the interval here spans thousands of years.

The complete title helps identify the film when a search uses a shortened phrase such as godzilla monster planet. Planet X and Monster Planet of Godzilla should not be treated as alternate titles for Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters. Its 2017 date and its directors provide further identifiers, especially alongside Godzilla: The Planet Eater, the final film in the animated trilogy. The opening film is also listed by Netflix with a running time of 1 hour and 28 minutes. For a story about humanity returning to a distant future Earth aboard the Aratrum, start with Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters.

Humanity leaves Earth because conflict with monsters and Godzilla's dominance have made the planet untenable. In Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters, humans depart aboard the Aratrum in 2048 to seek another home. Netflix Media Center places that departure in the film's fictional history, giving the journey a starting point before the travelers face the much longer interval that passes on Earth. The evacuation establishes a survival problem before the story reaches the question of returning.

The distinction matters when following the film's premise: the travelers have already left their home before they encounter the difficulties of settling elsewhere. Their ship carries them toward Tau-e, but finding a destination and finding a suitable place to live prove to be different matters. Netflix Media Center places Tau-e in the Cetus constellation, 11.9 light years away. Godzilla's role in the loss of Earth also connects the wider human departure to Haruo's personal history, since he witnessed Godzilla kill his parents. Keep the 2048 departure attached to the animated film's story rather than treating it as a date in the separate Monsterverse continuity.

The Aratrum returns to Earth after the travelers find Tau-e unsuitable for human settlement. Netflix Media Center identifies Tau-e as a planet in the Cetus constellation and describes an 11.9 light year journey to reach it. The travelers arrive after 20 years of space travel, only to discover that the destination cannot provide the home they sought. The failed settlement attempt explains why the story turns back toward Earth despite the circumstances that forced humanity to leave.

The distance and the travel time describe separate parts of the journey. The 11.9 light year figure measures the journey toward Tau-e, while the 20 years describe the travelers' time in space before reaching the planet. Neither figure is the interval that has passed on Earth when the Aratrum returns. That later interval is 20,000 years, according to Netflix Media Center. The returning travelers find that a new ecosystem has emerged on Earth during that interval. To follow the setup, keep the sequence in mind: humanity leaves Earth in 2048, reaches an unsuitable Tau-e and eventually returns to a changed Earth.

A new ecosystem has emerged on Earth by the time the Aratrum returns, after 20,000 years have passed on the planet. Netflix Media Center gives both the elapsed time and the change in the ecosystem, establishing why the travelers encounter a different Earth from the one humanity left. The planet remains their place of origin, but its present conditions have developed across an immense interval. That difference gives the return journey its central tension before any later events need to be revealed.

The 20,000 years on Earth should be distinguished from the 20 years of space travel before the travelers reach Tau-e. The two numbers describe different intervals at different points in the premise, so they should not be presented as competing estimates of the same journey. Netflix Media Center also describes Tau-e as an 11.9 light year journey from Earth. The supplied facts do not establish a detailed mechanism for the difference. For an introduction to the film, the useful point is the consequence: after an unsuccessful search for another home, the people aboard the Aratrum return to an Earth with a new ecosystem.

Haruo is a human character whose childhood loss gives the return to Earth a personal stake. Netflix Media Center states that he was four years old when he witnessed Godzilla kill his parents. His desire to return and confront Godzilla connects a family tragedy to the wider story of humanity's displacement. The same creature is associated with both the loss of Haruo's parents and the conditions that led humans to leave their planet.

Haruo's history gives the destination a meaning beyond its potential as a place to live. The travelers have found Tau-e unsuitable for settlement, while Haruo also has a personal reason to face Godzilla. Those motivations can be understood alongside one another without assuming that every passenger approaches the return in the same way. Netflix Media Center places the human departure aboard the Aratrum in 2048, before the failed attempt to settle Tau-e. His childhood experience supplies the background needed to understand his stake in the premise without revealing the outcome of his confrontation. When following the opening film, keep his personal loss in view as the Aratrum returns to an Earth transformed during humanity's absence.

Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters was made as a 3DCG anime directed by Kobun Shizuno and Hiroyuki Seshita. AnimeJapan's 2018 guide describes the film as an anime made solely with 3DCG, while Netflix lists it as an anime title. Netflix announced Gen Urobuchi as the animated Godzilla project's screenplay writer on March 13, 2017, and named Toho and Polygon Pictures in connection with the project. These credits identify the production behind the 2017 film.

The format and production technique answer different questions about the same title. Netflix's classification tells viewers where the film sits in its catalog, while AnimeJapan's description specifies that its animation was made solely with 3DCG. The film is the first entry in an animated trilogy that concludes with Godzilla: The Planet Eater. The names also help distinguish this project from Gareth Edwards's Godzilla (2014), the separate live action film associated with the parent page. If a shortened search brings up several Godzilla productions, use the complete title alongside Shizuno, Seshita and Urobuchi to identify the animated film before choosing a listing.

Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters begins an animated trilogy separate from the Monsterverse films. Its story of the Aratrum, Tau-e and a return to a distant future Earth belongs to that animated series. Gareth Edwards's Godzilla (2014) is a separate live action film, even though both productions feature Godzilla. The shared creature is useful for finding related films, but the anime's fictional dates should remain with its own story rather than being added to the Monsterverse timeline.

For the separate live action film, the Godzilla 2014 page covers the parent title. The Monsterverse movies hub is the starting point for the wider franchise covered by this site. Readers following the animated story can continue from Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters to Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle and then Godzilla: The Planet Eater. Netflix Tudum identifies the latter as the third and final film in the animated trilogy. Those titles give the anime its own sequence, leaving the Aratrum's 2048 departure and the 20,000 years elapsed on Earth within the animated premise.

Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle follows Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters, and Godzilla: The Planet Eater completes the animated trilogy. Netflix Tudum identifies Godzilla: The Planet Eater as the third and final film, placing the similarly named title at the end of this sequence. The 2017 film begins the story with humanity's departure and return to Earth, while the other two films continue the animated series. Knowing their order helps readers find the continuation without needing a description of later events.

The full titles are particularly useful because the first and final films both use planetary language. Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters identifies the opening installment, whereas Godzilla: The Planet Eater identifies the conclusion. Netflix lists the opening film as a 2017 anime with a running time of 1 hour and 28 minutes. A search using only Godzilla Planet can leave that distinction unclear, especially if a listing shows several titles together. After watching the 2017 film, look for Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle as the next entry, followed by Godzilla: The Planet Eater.

Netflix has a listing for Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters, identifying it as a 2017 anime with a running time of 1 hour and 28 minutes. The complete title is the most useful search term on the service, since the shortened phrase Godzilla Planet can also resemble the title of Godzilla: The Planet Eater. The year and runtime provide additional details to check when selecting the opening film of the animated trilogy.

A Netflix title listing does not establish every playback option available to an individual US account. The supplied information does not specify current audio or subtitle choices, so those details should be checked in the listing or player through the account being used. The runtime belongs to Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters, rather than to the trilogy as a whole. The next film in the sequence is Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle, followed by Godzilla: The Planet Eater. Before starting, confirm the full title and 2017 date, then check the playback, audio and subtitle options available on your account.