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Gremlins

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Films

                   Gremlins
     Directed by   Joe Dante
     Produced by   Michael Finnell
     Written by    Chris Columbus
      Starring     Zach Galligan
                   Phoebe Cates
                   Hoyt Axton
                   Frances Lee McCain
                   Dick Miller
                   Polly Holliday
                   Judge Reinhold
                   Keye Luke
                   Corey Feldman
                   John Louie
      Music by     Jerry Goldsmith
   Cinematography  John Hora
     Editing by    Tina Hirsch
   Distributed by  Warner Bros.
   Release date(s) June 8, 1984
    Running time   106 minutes
       Country     USA
      Language     English
       Budget      $11,000,000
     Followed by   Gremlins 2: The New Batch
           All Movie Guide profile
                 IMDb profile

   Gremlins is an American horror- comedy film directed by Joe Dante and
   released in 1984. It is about a young man who receives a strange
   creature named Gizmo as a pet, which then spawns other creatures who
   transform into small, destructive monsters. This story was continued
   with a sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, released in 1990. Unlike the
   lighter sequel, the original Gremlins opts for more black comedy, which
   is balanced against a Christmas-time setting. Both of the first two
   films were the centre of large merchandising campaigns.

   Steven Spielberg was the film's executive producer, with the screenplay
   written by Chris Columbus. The film stars Zach Galligan and Phoebe
   Cates, with Howie Mandel providing the voice of Gizmo. The actors had
   to work alongside numerous puppets, as puppetry was the main form of
   special effects used to portray Gizmo and the gremlins.

   Gremlins was a commercial success and received positive feedback from
   critics. However, the film has also been heavily criticized for some of
   its more violent sequences. Critics alleged these scenes made the film
   inappropriate for younger audiences who could be admitted into theatres
   under its PG rating. In response to this and to similar complaints
   about other films, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)
   reformed its rating system within two months of its release.

Plot

   Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

   The film starts by introducing the character Randall "Rand" Peltzer, an
   inventor of modest abilities and questionable success. He is from the
   fictional community of Kingston Falls, and travels to Chinatown in New
   York City to sell his inventions and pick up a present for his son
   Billy. A young Chinese boy takes Rand to his grandfather's small shop,
   where Rand takes interest in a small, cute, furry creature called a
   mogwai (which, in Cantonese Chinese, translates literally as "evil
   spirit"). Mr. Wing, the Chinese boy's grandfather and owner of the
   shop, refuses to sell the mogwai even when Rand offers US$200 for it.
   This is money that the Wing family desperately needs. Consequently,
   Wing's grandson secretly sells the mogwai to Rand. Though the creature
   seems innocent enough, the grandson warns Rand that one must take
   certain precautions regarding it. Namely, one must not let the mogwai
   near bright light, especially sunlight, which can kill the mogwai; one
   must not get water on the mogwai; and, most importantly, one must never
   feed the creature after midnight.

   Rand names the creature "Gizmo" and brings him home to his son. Billy
   has recently completed high school and has taken up a job at the bank
   to make ends meet for his parents, with whom he still lives. He has a
   dog called Barney whose mischievousness makes both him and Billy the
   target of harassment from Mrs. Deagle, an elderly woman with much
   financial influence. Being a bitter, malicious person, she threatens to
   kidnap and murder Barney.

   Billy is fascinated with Gizmo, who is highly intelligent and can hum a
   tune. Billy's new companion also proves to be a very gentle and
   well-behaved creature. Unfortunately, however, one of Billy's friends
   accidentally spills water on Gizmo. This causes Gizmo to go into
   convulsions and instantly multiply, spawning five new mogwai in a
   process that appears painful to him. The new mogwai are much more
   aggressive than Gizmo. They are led by the mogwai Stripe, who has a
   white mohawk-like hairstyle. Billy donates one to his science teacher.

   At about this time Billy's personal life takes a more positive turn. He
   asks his coworker at the bank, Kate, out for a date, and she agrees.
   Kate is also a local bartender, who sees first hand the misery in the
   town caused by Mrs. Deagle's inhumane financial leadership.

   Eventually, the new mogwai trick Billy into feeding them after
   midnight. All the creatures soon form cocoons, except Gizmo, who was
   wise enough to not accept the food Billy unwittingly offered after
   midnight (the one in the science lab also gets hold of food.) While
   Billy is at the bank, the cocoons hatch, and the mogwai emerge having
   transformed into gremlin-like monsters with dark green reptilian skin.
   Billy finds the science teacher dead, and hears a noise in the corner
   of the room. However, when he investigates, he gets scratched on his
   hand, the gremlin escapes through a vent, and he never sees it. It
   attacks him when he heads to the infirmary for a bandage. Billy's
   mother is now alone with the gremlins, and comes into conflict with
   them. She manages to defeat them one-by-one, killing one in a blender.
   She stabs a second with a kitchen knife, and traps a third in the
   microwave oven, which she turns on. The gremlin promptly explodes.
   While she is being strangled by the next gremlin, Billy arrives and
   saves her by decapitating the gremlin with an ornamental sword. The
   only remaining gremlin left in the house is Stripe, who then breaks
   out. Billy tracks him down to the local YMCA, but the creature escapes
   once more by jumping into a swimming pool. This causes an incredible
   multiplication of gremlins.

   Billy then takes Gizmo to the bar to recover Kate, who has been
   bartending that night. The gremlins have taken over the bar, behaving
   in an exceedingly vulgar fashion, and force Kate to serve them.
   However, she eventually discovers they are frightened by light when she
   attempts to light one's cigarette. She then knocks down several through
   flash photography, and is reunited with Billy. The two seek shelter in
   the bank while the gremlins wreak havoc upon Kingston Falls. Notably,
   the creatures kill Mrs. Deagle. When Billy, Kate and Gizmo re-emerge,
   they find the gremlins are gone. Billy and Kate track them down to the
   local theatre where the gremlins are planning to spend the coming day,
   and Billy manages to explode it. The gremlins burn to death, with the
   exception of Stripe, who had left briefly to get snacks at the
   department store across the street.

   Billy pursues Stripe through the store, but Stripe escapes and reaches
   a water fountain. By this time, however, it is morning, and Gizmo,
   having escaped notice of the human characters, opens a window blind and
   exposes Stripe to sunlight. Stripe melts as everyone watches.

   At the end of the film, Mr. Wing returns to collect Gizmo to prevent
   any recurrence of trouble. Mr. Wing observes that while western society
   is not ready to properly care for a mogwai, Billy shows some potential.
   Spoilers end here.

Production

Background

   Gremlins was produced during a time when combining horror with comedy
   became increasingly popular. The film Ghostbusters, released in the
   same year as Gremlins – (actually on the very same day and opening
   weekend) and later Beetlejuice (1988) and other such films – were part
   of this growing trend. The new genre seemed to emphasize sudden shifts
   between humorous and horrific scenes, and/or drawing laughs with plot
   elements that have been traditionally used to scare. The comic strip
   The Far Side indicated this was a broader cultural phenomenon. However,
   this drew from older precedent, such as the film Abbott and Costello
   Meet Frankenstein (1948).

   The notion of "gremlins" was first conceived during World War II, when
   mechanical failures in aircraft were jokingly blamed on the small
   monsters. Gremlins entered popular culture as children's author Roald
   Dahl published a book called The Gremlins in 1943, based on these
   mischievous creatures. Dante had read The Gremlins and claimed this
   book was of some influence to his film. Dahl's story is referenced in
   the film when the character Mr. Futterman, played by Dick Miller,
   drunkenly warns Billy and Kate of foreign technology sabotaged by
   gremlins: "It's the same gremlins that brought down our planes in the
   big one... That's right. World War II." Tellingly, one of the gremlins
   in the bar shoots at Kate with a pistol and hits a photograph of a WWII
   airplane. Falling Hare, a film about the fictional character Bugs Bunny
   and a gremlin, was released by Warner Bros., also in 1943. An episode
   of The Twilight Zone, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet featured a Gremlin
   terrorizing an airplane passenger played by William Shatner. This story
   was remade in Twilight Zone: The Movie, with John Lithgow in the role
   previously played by Shatner.

   In 1983, Dante publicly distanced his work from earlier films. He
   explained, "Our gremlins are somewhat different—they're sort of green
   and they have big mouths and they smile a lot and they do incredibly,
   really nasty things to people and enjoy it all the while."

Initial stages

   The story of Gremlins was conceived by Chris Columbus. As Columbus
   explained, his inspiration came from his loft, when at night "what
   sounded like a platoon of mice would come out and to hear them
   skittering around in the blackness was really creepy." He then wrote
   the original screenplay as a "writing sample" to show potential
   employers that he had writing abilities. The story was not actually
   intended to be filmed until Spielberg took an interest in it. As
   Spielberg explained, "It's one of the most original things I've come
   across in many years, which is why I bought it."

   Spielberg chose Dante as his director because of Dante's experience
   with horror-comedy; Dante had directed The Howling (1981), though in
   the time between The Howling and the offer to film Gremlins, he had
   experienced a lull in his career. The film's producer was Michael
   Finnell, who had also worked on The Howling. Spielberg took the project
   to Warner Bros. and also produced it with his own company, Amblin
   Entertainment.

   The film's script went through a few drafts before a shooting script
   was finalized. The first version was much darker. Scenes were cut
   portraying Billy's mother dying in her struggle with the gremlins, with
   her head thrown down the stairs when Billy arrives. Dante later
   explained the scene made the film darker than what the filmmakers
   wanted. Also, instead of Stripe being a mogwai who becomes a gremlin,
   there was no Stripe mogwai and Gizmo was supposed to turn into Stripe
   the gremlin. Spielberg overruled this plot element because he felt
   Gizmo was cute and audiences would want him to be present at all stages
   of the film.

   There is a famous urban legend referenced in the film, in which Kate
   reveals in a speech that her father died on a Christmas when he dressed
   as Santa Claus but broke his neck while climbing down the family's
   chimney. It was rumored that Columbus had written the scene as drama,
   though the filmmakers and performers took it as dark comedy. This scene
   was always a part of the Gremlins story. In the film the speech was
   delivered while hiding in the bank. One early version of the script
   included the speech in a scene where the leading characters found a
   McDonald's restaurant after it had been attacked and the patrons eaten,
   but the hamburgers were untouched. Later, the filmed speech would be
   controversial, as studio executives insisted upon its removal. They
   felt it was too ambiguous as to whether it was supposed to be funny or
   sad. Dante stubbornly refused to take the scene out, saying it
   represented the film as a whole, which had a combination of horrific
   and comedic elements. Spielberg did not like the scene but, despite his
   creative control, he viewed Gremlins as Dante's project and left it in.

Casting

   The speech was given by the character Kate, played by Phoebe Cates. She
   received the role despite concerns that she was known for playing more
   risque parts, such as Linda Barrett in Fast Times at Ridgemont High
   (1982). Spielberg urged the casting of the relatively unknown Zach
   Galligan for Billy, because Spielberg saw chemistry between Galligan
   and Cates during auditions. Galligan later compared himself to Billy,
   saying he was a " geeky kid- and so being... in this picture for me was
   really kind of a dream, I mean what I get to do, what my character gets
   to do, blow up movie theatres... got to work with great people."

   In contrast to Galligan, many of the supporting actors and actresses
   were better known; many were longtime character actors. Veteran actor
   Glynn Turman portrayed the high school science teacher whose study of a
   mogwai leads to his death after it forms a cocoon. Dick Miller was yet
   another experienced actor on the set, playing a World War II veteran
   who first refers to the creatures as gremlins. With so many experienced
   actors on the set, Galligan had the opportunity to query them about
   their careers. Rand was played by Hoyt Axton, who was always the
   filmmakers' preferred choice for the role even though it was widely
   contested by other actors. Axton's experience included acting in The
   Black Stallion (1979), and he was also a country music singer. Because
   an introductory scene to Gremlins was cut, Axton's voice earned him the
   added role of the narrator to establish some context. Mr. Wing was
   played by Keye Luke, a renowned film actor. Although he was around 80
   in reality and his character is very elderly, Luke's youthful
   appearance required make-up to cover.

   Polly Holliday, an actress best known for her role in Alice, played
   Mrs. Deagle. Dante considered the casting fortunate, as she was
   well-known and he considered her to be talented. Ironically, two other
   well-known actors, Fast Times' Judge Reinhold and character actor
   Edward Andrews, received roles that were significantly reduced after
   the film was edited. They played Billy's superiors at the bank.

Special effects

   The performances were shot on the backlot of Universal Studios in
   California. This required fake snow; Dante also felt it was an
   atmosphere that would make the special effects more convincing. As the
   special effects relied mainly on puppetry, the actors worked alongside
   some of the puppets. Nevertheless, after the actors finished their work
   for good, a great deal of work was spent finishing the effects.
   Numerous small rubber puppets, some of which were mechanical, were used
   to portray Gizmo and the gremlins. They were designed by Chris Walas.
   There was more than one Gizmo puppet, and occasionally Galligan, when
   carrying one, would set him down off camera, and when Gizmo appeared
   again sitting on a surface it was actually a different puppet wired to
   the surface. These puppets had many limitations. The Gizmo puppets were
   particularly frustrating because they were smaller and thus broke down
   more. Consequently, to satisfy the crew, a scene was included in which
   the gremlins hang Gizmo on a wall and throw darts at him.

   A few marionettes were also used. Other effects required large mogwai
   faces and ears to be produced for close-ups, as the puppets were less
   capable of conveying emotion. Consequently, large props simulating food
   were needed for the close-ups in the scene in which the mogwai feast
   after midnight. An enlarged Gizmo puppet was also needed for the scene
   in which he multiplies. The new mogwai, who popped out of Gizmo's body
   as small, furry balls which then started to grow, were balloons and
   expanded as such. Walas had also created the exploding gremlin in the
   microwave by means of a balloon that was allowed to burst.

   Howie Mandel provided the voice for Gizmo, and the prolific voice actor
   Frank Welker provided the voice for Stripe. It was Welker who suggested
   Mandel perform in Gremlins. The puppets' lines were mostly invented by
   the voice actors, based on cues from the physical actions of the
   puppets, which were filmed before the voice work. Mandel also chose the
   type of voice for Gizmo, which was baby-like, based on what had been
   done. Mandel explained, Gizmo was "cute and naive, so, you know, I got
   in touch with that... I couldn't envision going any other way or do
   something different with it. I didn't try a few different voices."

Music

   The film's score was written by Jerry Goldsmith. For his effort, he won
   a Saturn Award for Best Music. The main score was written with the
   objective of conveying "the mischievous humor and mounting suspense of
   Gremlins." As the filmmakers recalled, the so-called "Gremlin Rag" came
   across not as "horror music" but as " circus music," and some cited it
   as an influence to their later work on the film. Within the story,
   Gizmo was capable of singing or humming. Goldsmith wrote Gizmo's song
   as well, but Mandel never sang it. A girl Goldsmith knew was hired to
   sing Gizmo's song, although she had never worked in films before.

   Songs heard in the film include "Gremlins... Mega-Madness" by Michael
   Sembello. This song is played while the gremlins party in the bar, and
   one break dances to it. The Peter Gabriel song "Out out," produced in
   collaboration with Nile Rodgers, is also heard in the bar scene.
   Darlene Love's song "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" plays over the
   opening credits.

Reception

Critical reaction

   The reactions of film critics to Gremlins varied. Roger Ebert was
   approving, calling the film not only "fun" but a "sly series of
   send-ups," effectively parodying many elemental film story-lines. In
   his opinion, Gremlins does this partly through depictions of mysterious
   worlds (the shop in Chinatown) and tyrannical elderly women (Mrs.
   Deagle). Ebert also believed the rule in which a mogwai cannot eat
   after midnight was inspired by fairy tales, and that the final scenes
   parody the classic horror films. He connected Kate's speech about her
   father with "the great tradition of 1950s sick jokes." Conversely,
   Leonard Maltin disapproved in remarks on the television show
   Entertainment Tonight. He called the film "icky" and "gross." Later, he
   wrote in his book that despite being set in a "picture- postcard town"
   and blending the feel of It's a Wonderful Life (from which a clip
   appears in Gremlins) with that of The Blob, the film is "negated by
   too-vivid violence and mayhem." He thus gave the film two out of four
   stars. Maltin actually made an appearance in Gremlins 2 and repeated
   his criticisms of the original on film, as an in-joke, being throttled
   by the creatures as a result; he gave the second film a more positive
   rating, three out of four stars.

   While some critics criticized the film's depictions of violence and
   greed – such as death scenes, Kate's speech, and the gremlins' gluttony
   – as lacking comic value, one scholar interpreted these instead as a
   satire of "some characteristics of Western civilization." The film may
   suggest that Westerners take too much satisfaction out of violence.
   Gremlins can also be interpreted as a statement against technology, in
   that some characters, like Billy's father, are over-dependent on it. In
   contrast, Mr. Wing is shown having a strong distaste for television.
   One scholar suggested the film is meant to express a number of
   observations of society by having the gremlin characters shift in what
   they are meant to represent. At different times, they are depicted as
   African Americans, teenagers, the wealthy establishment, or fans of
   Disney films. The film the gremlins had been watching in the theatre
   before Billy blew it up was Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

   Another scholar drew a connection between the microwave scene and urban
   legends about pets dying in microwave ovens. He described the portrayal
   of this urban legend in the film as successful, but that meant it
   seemed terrible. This is indeed a scene that is thought of as being one
   of the film's most violent; even Ebert expressed some fear in his
   review that the film might encourage children to try similar things
   with their pets, and he urged parents not to let their children see the
   film.

   It should be noted that Gremlins has been criticized for more than its
   depictions of violence. One BBC critic wrote in 2000 that "The plot is
   thin and the pacing is askew." However, that critic also complimented
   the dark humour contrasted against the ideal Christmas setting. In
   2002, another critic wrote that in hindsight Gremlins has "corny
   special effects" and that the film will likely appeal to children more
   so than to adults. He also said the acting was dull.

   Gremlins won numerous awards, including the 1985 Saturn Awards for Best
   Director, Best Horror Film, Best Music, and Best Special Effects, and
   Holliday won the award for Best Supporting Actress. The film also won
   the 1985 Golden Screen Award and the 1985 Young Artist Award for Best
   Family Motion Picture (Adventure). Corey Feldman, who played Billy's
   young friend, was also nominated for the Young Artist Award for Best
   Young Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture Musical, Comedy, Adventure
   or Drama.

Charges of racism

   Despite its critical acclaim and popular success, Gremlins has been
   criticized as racist and culturally insensitive. Some observers have
   commented that the film presents gremlins as African Americans in a bar
   scene, and in an unflattering manner. The creatures exhibit some of the
   worst stereotypical behaviour attributed to blacks. They are wild,
   drunken, carousing, violent, murderous, seductive, lascivious,
   sometimes simple-minded, crude and rowdy. The females are depicted with
   big, red lips and wearing ugly, blonde wigs. The males swagger, wear
   sunglasses at night and big-apple slouch hats, a fashion popular in
   urban African American communities in the 1970s and 1980s; and in one
   scene a gremlin spins on the floor, breakdancing.

   In her book Ceramic Uncles & Celluloid Mammies, Patricia Turner
   examines the issue of the movie's depiction of the "African-American
   gremlins" as racist caricatures.

     Nowhere are the negative ethnic messages clearer than in the actual
     depiction of the unearthly beings....

     These malevolent miniature Mogwi are the most destructive and
     reflect negative African-American stereotypes. Soon after their
     unexpected birth, the pesky gremlins are devouring fried chicken
     with their hands. Their first target is Billy's kind, overburdened
     mother, and they are soon pursuing the hero's girlfriend at Dorry's
     Tavern. In some unexplained way, several of them have managed to
     acquire shades and caps that cover their eyes. Cigarettes droop from
     the corners of their mouths. They make haste to a tavern where they
     cannot get enough to drink. Here we see their love of music and
     their ability to break-dance.

   The character of the elderly Asian man who sells Gizmo and sets off the
   chain of events that comprise the movie's story line also has been
   criticized as reinforcing Asian stereotypes—his flawed English, heavy
   accent, and his belief in, and association with, magic.

Gremlins and audiences

   Gremlins was a commercial success. It was filmed on a budget of
   $11,000,000, making it more expensive than Spielberg had originally
   intended but still relatively cheap for 1984. The trailer introduced
   the film to audiences by briefly explaining that Billy receives a
   strange creature as a Christmas present, by going over the three rules,
   and then coming out with the fact that the creatures transform into
   terrible monsters. This trailer showed little of either the mogwai or
   the gremlins. Conversely, other advertisements concentrated on Gizmo,
   overlooked the gremlins and made the film look similar to Spielberg's
   earlier family film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982).

   Afterwards, Gremlins was released into US theatres on June 8, 1984. It
   grossed $12.5 million in its first weekend. By the end of its American
   screenings on November 29, it had grossed $148,168,459 domestically.
   This made it the fourth highest-grossing film of the year, after
   Beverly Hills Cop, Ghostbusters and Indiana Jones and the Temple of
   Doom. In August it opened in Argentina and Spain, and in October it
   premiered in West Germany. Screenings began in Australia and much of
   the rest of Europe in December. As Gremlins had an international
   audience, different versions of the film were made to overcome cultural
   barriers. Mandel learned to speak his few intelligible lines, such as
   "Bright light!", in various languages such as German. Regional music
   and humor were also incorporated into foreign language versions. Dante
   credited this work for Gremlins' worldwide success.

   Still, there had also been complaints among audiences about the
   violence. This was particularly true among people who had brought their
   children to see the film, many of whom walked out of the theatre before
   the film had ended. Dante admitted to reporters later, "So the idea of
   taking a 4-year-old to see Gremlins, thinking it's going to be a
   cuddly, funny animal movie and then seeing that it turns into a horror
   picture, I think people were upset... They felt like they had been sold
   something family friendly and it wasn't entirely family friendly."

   The film became available to audiences again when brought back to
   theatres in 1985. This brought its gross up to $153,083,102. It was
   also released on video, and made $79,500,000 in rental stores. The film
   was released on DVD in 1997 and again in 1999. On August 20, 2002, a "
   special edition" DVD was released featuring cast and filmmakers'
   commentary and deleted scenes.

Merchandising

   With its commercial themes, especially the perceived cuteness of the
   character Gizmo, Gremlins became the centre of considerable
   merchandising. As such, it became part of a rising trend in film, which
   had received a boost from Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Under
   the National Entertainment Collectibles Association, versions of Gizmo
   were sold as dolls or stuffed animals. Both Gizmo and the gremlins were
   mass produced as action figures, and Topps printed trading cards based
   upon the film.

   The film was also the basis for a novel of the same name by George
   Gipe, published by Avon Books in June 1984. The novel offered an origin
   for mogwai and gremlins as a prologue. Supposedly, mogwai were created
   as gentle, contemplative creatures by a scientist on an alien world.
   However, it was discovered that their physiology was unstable, and
   under "certain circumstances," alluding to the three rules that were
   given in the film, mogwai would change into creatures that the novel
   referred to as "mischievous". This origin is unique to the novel but is
   referred to in the novelization of Gremlins 2 by David Bischoff. No
   definitive origin for mogwai or gremlins is ever given in either
   Gremlins film.

   Several video games based on the film were also produced; these
   included Gremlins (1985) by Brian Howarth and Adventure Soft. In the
   2000s more were released; Gremlins: Unleashed! was released on Game Boy
   in 2001. It was about Gizmo trying to catch Stripe and thirty gremlins,
   while the gremlins try to turn Gizmo himself into a gremlin. Both Gizmo
   and Stripe are playable characters in this game. Gremlins: Stripe
   Versus Gizmo, with both Gizmo and Stripe as playable characters, was
   released in 2002.

Legacy

   Along with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, also rated PG,
   Gremlins was one of two films in 1984 to influence the MPAA to create
   the PG-13 rating, with Red Dawn being the first film released with the
   rating in August 1984. The scene in which a gremlin explodes in the
   microwave was particularly influential to the idea that some films too
   light to be rated R are still too mature to be rated PG. Indeed, before
   Gremlins came out, the controversy over Indiana Jones might very well
   have died. The change to the rating system was not insignificant; the
   rating PG-13 turned out to be appealing to some film patrons, as it
   implied some excitement without going too far.

   The film not only spawned a sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, but is
   believed to have been the inspiration for several other unrelated films
   about small monsters, many of which have similar one-word titles. These
   include Critters, Ghoulies, Spookies, Troll, Hobgoblins, Beasties,
   Kamillions, and Munchies. Many of these films were not critical
   successes, and Hobgoblins was lampooned on the television series
   Mystery Science Theatre 3000. Ghoulies actually began development
   before Gremlins.

   There were rumors that the talking doll Furby was so similar to the
   character Gizmo that Warner Bros. was considering a lawsuit in 1998,
   but Warner representatives replied that this was not true. In fact, a
   Furby-based Gizmo toy was later produced by the same company that made
   Furby. The anime Pet Shop of Horrors has also been compared to
   Gremlins.

   In the popular web cartoon Homestar Runner, The Cheat dresses up as
   Gizmo for halloween in 2006.

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