Munnozzilla
| Munnozzilla | |
 Promotional poster for Munnozzilla on TeleV+ | |
| Directed by | Goffredo Ripamonti |
|---|---|
| Written by | Luca Nuzzari, Anita Crolami |
| Produced by | Goffredo Ripamonti |
| Music by | Luca Sardella |
Production company |
TeleV Productions |
| Distributed by | TeleV+ |
Release date |
1742 AN |
Running time |
117 minutes |
| Country | Vegno |
| Language | Vegnian |
| Budget | 2.1 million Rin |
Munnozzilla is a Vegnese animation horror-comedy film produced and directed by Goffredo Ripamonti, known for his genre-bending television work at TeleV. The film was released exclusively on the streaming platform TeleV+, later airing on national broadcaster TeleV due to its remarkable popularity.
Mixing classic monster tropes with dark satire and social commentary, Munnozzilla quickly rose to prominence as a cult phenomenon within the Vegnese media landscape, blending absurdity with shocking visuals and an unexpectedly tragic backstory.
Plot
The film opens on a peaceful summer night along the idyllic coast of the fictional seaside town of Porto Granchio, a popular vacation destination. A group of teenagers gathers around a campfire, playing music and telling ghost stories. Among them, a couple— Antonio and Giulia—venture into the shallow waters to enjoy a moment of intimacy.
Suddenly, without warning, the sea begins to churn violently. From the depths emerges a gargantuan beast, its silhouette massive against the moonlight. It has the scaled, serpentine body of an ancient aquatic dinosaur, but its head bears disturbingly human features, grotesquely distorted. The creature lets out an unnatural screech, alerting the beachgoers moments before it strikes. The two lovers are dragged underwater; chaos ensues.
Over the following days, the beast—soon dubbed "Munnozzilla" by panicked news outlets—systematically lays waste to the coast, destroying villages and ports, crushing infrastructure and sending entire communities into exodus. Surveillance drones capture haunting footage of the monster rampaging inland, triggering a national crisis.
As military response proves ineffective and panic rises, a team of scientists led by marine biologist Dr. Lidia Campi uncovers evidence that Munnozzilla’s DNA contains both prehistoric sequences and traces of recent genetic engineering. Joined by technologist Bruno Scalzi, she investigates further and discovers a shocking truth: the creature is none other than the mutated form of Dr Munnostat, a reclusive and once-famous scientist thought to have died months earlier in a lab explosion.
Dr Munnostat had been conducting illegal experiments attempting to clone dinosaur cells to cure neurological degeneration. A miscalculated exposure to gamma radiation during a sequencing test had triggered his horrifying metamorphosis. His transformation had caused memory loss and instinctual aggression, worsened by months of isolation underwater.
In a dramatic finale, Dr. Campi uses sonic communication technology to trigger fragments of Munnostat’s human consciousness. In a final act of lucidity, Munnozzilla heads out to sea and detonates a self-initiated overload of radiation at the abyssal trench, vaporizing himself and ending the terror.
Production
Munnozzilla was conceived as an animated feature film, marking a major milestone for TeleV Productions, which had previously focused primarily on serialized animation and sketch shows. Director Goffredo Ripamonti, together with art director Elena Ruffa, opted for a bold 2.5D animation style, blending hand-drawn character work with three-dimensional environmental rendering.
Animation was handled in-house at TeleV Studios using a custom pipeline integrating ToonBoom Harmony and Blender, allowing for cinematic depth and fluid monster sequences while preserving the quirky aesthetic typical of TeleV. The animation team drew visual inspiration from classic horror films, 80s VHS horror posters, and contemporary digital illustration.
Designing Munnozzilla required a dedicated concept art team that spent over three months iterating on a creature that was both monstrous and vaguely human. Artists intentionally exaggerated features like the eyes and jaw to make the transformation from human to beast more tragic and disturbing.
Voice acting was recorded at Studio Fonorip, with actor Marco Columbro providing both the voice of Dr Munnostat and monster vocalizations, later manipulated with digital filters. The sound and music teams worked closely with the animation department to synchronize destructive sequences with orchestral cues and diegetic effects.
Post-production included a color-grading phase designed to mimic washed-out film stock, giving the final product a slightly retro, VHS-era atmosphere, enhanced by simulated analog grain effects during key scenes.
Special Effects
The creature design for Munnozzilla was a hybrid of practical effects and computer-generated imagery. The base body was constructed as a full-scale animatronic torso with moveable limbs and jaw mechanisms designed by the special effects team at Effetti 3R, while facial expressions were captured via motion capture from actor Marco Columbro, later overlaid with digital distortion effects.
Over 600 hours of post-production rendering were required for key scenes, especially for wide destruction sequences involving urban landscapes and the creature's final self-destruction offshore.
Release
Munnozzilla premiered on 1742 AN, exclusively on TeleV+. Within 48 hours, it became the most streamed original film in the platform’s history, prompting a scheduled primetime broadcast on TeleV1 just two weeks later.
Merchandising followed swiftly, with action figures, t-shirts, and even snack endorsements ("Munnoz-Chips") flooding the Vegnese market.
Reception
The film received **mixed to enthusiastic reviews**. While many critics derided its campy tone and implausible plot, audiences embraced its entertainment value and absurd charm. Cultural commentators praised its subtext about science ethics and media hysteria.
It achieved:
- 38% national share** during its streaming launch week on TeleV+
- 4.1 million viewers** for its terrestrial TV premiere on TeleV1
- 51% youth viewership rate** in the 18–34 demographic
In terms of cultural impact, the monster "Munnozzilla" quickly became a meme figure across Vegno’s online communities. A spin-off animated special for children, Baby Munnozzilla, was announced.
Trivia
- The name “Munnozzilla” blends the scientist's name Munnostat and Godzilla, used ironically in script drafts before becoming the film’s final title.
- The campfire beach scene was filmed using infrared night cameras, capturing genuine shock reactions from extras who weren't told when the animatronic monster would rise from the water.
- An alternate ending was shot but not used, where Munnozzilla was captured and contained rather than self-destructing. Test audiences found it "unsatisfying".
- The fictional city of Porto Granchio was created via CGI, based on a composite of coastal towns in the Strait of Pearls region.
