Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai (1 Viewer)

[Optimus Prime]

About the old man in the original movie as a child

I was really hoping for the long rumored Gremlins 3 or even a reboot of the original

It also bugs me that Gizmo is called Gizmo here for some reason even though Billy's Dad gave him that name in the first movie

 

[Madmarsha]

My dog's name is Spike cos, well, he's that ugly.

 

[Boy_of_wonder75]

No.

 

[tenordas]

I see that Joe Dante acted as a consultant, so there might be some small hope of it actually being funny. Then again, he isn't the writer, director, or producer, so how much of a say he had in it is unknown. He might have just happily taken a cheque.

I agree with you that it's weird (and not a good sign, IMHO) that he's called Gizmo. Since it takes place in Shanghai, he should have a Wu Chinese name, not the English name given him by Hoyt Axton's character.

Who knows, whether good or rank, maybe it will do well enough to gain enough interest to finally get the long rumoured Gremlins 3...

 

[tenordas]

My dog's name is Spike cos, well, he's that ugly.

I still have one of the original hard plastic gremlin figures that stands about a foot tall. While I call it Spike as well, the actual name of the character was Stripe.

 

[Madmarsha]

I still have one of the original hard plastic gremlin figures that stands about a foot tall. While I call it Spike as well, the actual name of the character was Stripe.

Really? Well, that's the second stupidest thing I've said today.

 

[Dago]

Really? Well, that's the second stupidest thing I've said today.

Day is still young

 

[Madmarsha]

Day is still young

What's the record?

 

[Dago]

What's the record?

Do you even SSF bro?

 

[Madmarsha]

Do you even SSF bro?

Yes, but I personally have never said anything wrong before. Is the record more than 3?

 

[Dago]

Yes, but I personally have never said anything wrong before. Is the record more than 3?

My point was that if you have spent time in SSF, you know that the record is WAY more than 3

 

[Madmarsha]

My point was that if you have spent time in SSF, you know that the record is WAY more than 3

My point was that I never paid attention to what the record was as it had no relevance to me because of being perfect and all.

 

[Dago]

My point was that I never paid attention to what the record was as it had no relevance to me because of being perfect and all.

 

[Madmarsha]

That's not what I thought it said when I saw this. That technically makes 3, I guess.

 

[Optimus Prime]

As a kid I went through a movie novelization period

Ive actually read this book, remember not liking it
==========

……..The Gremlins novelization aimed to answer those questions. They almost had to. In the 1980s especially, novelizations to popular movies did big business. They could be problematic though, say if your film was about little creatures who didn't speak and had no backstory.

A novelization of a film is meant to expand on the limited run time of what we see on a screen. A book is where a writer could go more in depth on a character's backstory, adding scenes and dialogue.

With Gremlins focusing mainly on protagonists and antagonists we know almost nothing about, the author of the Gremlinsnovelization, George Gipe, had to make stuff up, and he went off in the craziest of directions.

The first crazy thing Gipe did was make the gremlins from outer space. The first page of the novel explains a race of aliens, called Mogturmen, who created the Mogwai:

"The galactic powers sent Mogwai to every inhabitable planet in the universe, their purpose being to inspire alien beings with their peaceful spirit and intelligence and to instruct them in the ways of living without violence and possible extinction."

Gipe then explained why most gremlins are bad:

"Soon after these first departures it was discovered that Mogturmen’s creatures were highly unstable. To be exact, fewer than one in a thousand retained the sweet disposition and charitable aims built into it by the inventor. Instead, something went wrong. Very wrong. The Mogwai himself knew of the unstable Mogwai, being well versed in the historical background of his species. He preferred not to think of the complications that had developed, but it was nearly impossible not to. It was, after all, part of his heritage. Closing his eyes as he relaxed in his cage awaiting his supper, he mused briefly on the wars, landslides, and famines that had taken place on Kelm-6, Clinpf-A, and even here on Earth because of his creator’s miscalculations and willingness to disseminate an untested creature. Small wonder Mogturmen had been punished by having his . . .
The Mogwai pushed the thought from his mind. True, Mogturmen had failed in the overall, but he himself was one of the successes, the one in a thousand who still embodied all the good things put there by his high-minded inventor. Yet his existence, he knew, had no long-term benefits for society. Gentle as he was, he was a distinct threat to those around him. Just a few drops of water, a morsel of food at the wrong time, and—"

According to Gipe's bonkers Gremlins backstory, most of these created space alien Mogwai go bad due to some sort of mutation. The Mogwai who will be known later as Gizmo is one of the few not to be affected and keeps his "peaceful spirit." It's a crazy idea, but still a fun one for how off the wall Gipe went and was allowed to go.

But why can't the gremlins kill Gizmo? No worries, Gipe had an explanation for that as well in a scene where the Mogwai language is translated to English.

"Stripe balled his short pointed fingers into something resembling fists. 'I want to kill you,' he said coldly. 'But I can't. Something is holding me back.'
'It's the one responsible emotion Mogturmen was able to keep in us,' Gizmo explained. 'We're incapable of killing each other.'
'You have other information we need,' Stripe continued. 'There's something that can kill us in large doses, cause us pain in smaller doses. What is it?'
'You will find out soon enough.'
'Chetz-wubba!' Stripe rasped, swearing in Mogwai. 'Why must you be so secretive?'

If you thought Gremlins was a strange enough premise as a film, it has nothing on how far the novel is willing to go…….

Why Is Gizmo the Only Good Gremlin?

In the 'Gremlins' films, all of the creatures turn bad except for Gizmo. The original film's novelization gives us a strange reason for why.

collider.com