I started today feeling pretty down about myself, which honestly is like most days. I wasn’t sure I was going to push out any reviews today, but I noticed the next title on my list was Godzilla Minus One. I talk a lot about audio description, but I can’t do that here. It doesn’t existt. There is no known audio description for Godzilla Minus One. the film was released theatrically without audio description, and was submitted for Oscar consideration without any accessibility for any blind or low vision Academy members, and managed to win an Oscar. Why? Because there are not the right voices in the rooms where choices like that happen. Because this system is not built for me, or for people like me, and we have to spend seemingly every hour advocating for what it is that we need in life.

Netflix, which in 2022, had no problem running Oscar hopeful RRR without audio description, is the lucky winner once again for a high profile international film that lacks audio description. I would say that this is surprising, but Netflix routinely fails to put audio description on their own high profile Oscar contenders, including past nominees Roma, Bardo, and Il Conde.

The message I get from these services, and film distributors, is that I can watch their film perfectly without audio description. Of course, this is a Japanese Kaiju film, so it’s highly unlikely, but I’ll take that challenge. After all, we blind folk don’t get discounts on our subscriptions due to the lack of audio described content. We’re just supposed to take it.

Godzilla Minus One at least has an English dub, and the actors who recorded it are really trying to give fully rounded performances. The movie seems to be about a Japanese pilot in World War II, who is dealing with some survivors guilt, and also the shame he has brought to his family by surviving. Also, there’s this giant lizard trying to eat, stomp, and kill. So, yeah, that’s what I got out of it.

I’m sure this is a fine film. I’m sure the hype is real, but the fear of missing out is still very real, because my sighted friends had a completely different experience. And that is exactly what I’m talking about every single time I hop onto this platform, is that accessibility is such an afterthought that often it doesn’t even exist. I still am baffled as to how Disney has not ported their own audio description track for The First Omen to their own streaming services. This is the battle we fight. I’m aware of shows and movies that have recorded tracks that aren’t being used. There’s a show that I gave negative reviews to because it was audio described with just one narrator, when I know there’s a version with multiple voices that is available.

When these companies make these decisions, they think they can make them because their blind and low vision customers are such a niche percentage of their audience. I didn’t plan on going blind, and I keep telling everyone you should build the accessibility regardless, so it is there in case you need it one day. We all think things will never happen to us, and that selfishness drives this industry. So when one critics guild is more concerned with the presentation of my work, and whether or not I need to gussy it up, to that I say… it’s easy to say that on the other side. It’s easy to think that my presentation is what I’m offering, instead of the content, or the fact that I post rather regularly challenging companies to do better for disabled users.

Godzilla Minus One has made more than enough money to pay for an English Audio Description track, and Netflix also could afford it. Not providing accessibility is apathy and a choice. And for every single person who chooses to only see my site as one thing, or wonder why my YouTube videos aren’t professionally edited, my counter to that is… it must be nice to have seen Godzilla Minus One in theatres, with subtitles, as I know you watched it. I do not have that luxury, and I’m daily faced with the choice of watching content even though no audio description exists. Do i try? Do i not?

For a film with such revered visual effects, and a giant monster that is attacking pretty consistently, that leaves my grade as a pretty easy one.

Final Grade: unwatchable

Inclusivity. It’s time to think about what that really means, and who is really in the room to decide what that looks like.