Magic Serpent (怪竜大決戦 Kairyū Daikessen, lit. Great Mystic Dragon Battle) is a 1966 tokusatsu kaiju ninja fantasy film produced by Toei Company and based on the Japanese folktale “The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya.” It was released to Japanese theaters on March 5, 1966, and to American television syndication via American-International Television in 1970.

Magic Serpent was released directly to television in the United States by American International Television in 1970. Despite the existence of an English dub commissioned by Toei, AIP-TV had the film dubbed at Titan Productions, where voice actor Bret Morrison directed and gave voice to several supporting characters. AITV’s version of the film is uncut, save for the opening credits: in Toei’s version, the credits play over a montage of Jiraiya’s training throughout his adolescence, while AITV editors Emil and Eli Haviv shortened the credits and used a montage of still shots of the Giant Dragon as a backdrop. The song “Forward, Jiraiya!” was also replaced by instrumental music from elsewhere in the film. Additionally, all of the monsters’ roars were replaced with those of existing monsters: the Giant Toad uses Rodan‘s roar, the Giant Dragon uses Godzilla and Gaira‘s roars, the Giant Eagle uses Mothra‘s roar, and the Giant Spider uses Kiyla’s roar.

color, mono, fullscreen, English dub, runs 86 minutes. DVD-R comes packaged as shown in color DVD case, wrapped in plastic!