Gamera was Daiei Studio's answer to Toho Studio's Godzilla. At the start of the series, the giant mutated turtle was a grave threat, but then became "friend to all children." To me, all these such monster movies are just awful, but with the MST3K treatment they become good for a few laughs. Of course the atrocious dubbing and other attempts to sell the films in the West may be what seems to be wrong with them.