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Gremins Special Edition
Studio: Warner Brothers
Year: 1984
Rated: PG
Film Length: 106 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 16X9 Enhanced Widescreen (1.85:1)
Don't get him wet, keep him out of bright
light, and never feed him after midnight.
In 1984, I was in my early twenties and a manager
at a local movie theater. Talk about great job!
My first day on the job ended with an early
sneak employee showing of a new film called
Gremlins. To this day, I can still remember
the excitement that followed this viewing. I felt
as if I had just seen something incredible. Seems
that many others shared my opinion of this devilishly
dark and humorous romp as it has become an absolute
classic that never tires of repeated viewings.
Randall Peltzer (Hoyt Axton) is an amateur inventor
who peddles his newest gadgetry that never seems
to quite work right. While visiting a shop in
Chinatown, Peltzer discovers a creature in the
corner of the shop. He takes this creature home
and presents it as a Christmas gift for his son
Billy (Zach Galligan). The creature, named Gizmo,
is a "Mogwai" and is utterly cute and adorable.
Billy's father warns him not to get Gizmo wet,
expose him to bright light or feed him after midnight.
Such responsibility for a young Man. Billy carelessly
allows the neighborhood kid (Corey Feldman)to spill
a glass of water on ol' Gizmo. Soon comes the
realization that exposing Mogwais to water makes
them reproduce. Before he knows it he's surrounded
by five more of the damned things.
It's only a matter of time before they trick Billy
into feeding them after the forbidden hour. They then
go into pods and emerge several days later as gremlins
and set out to destroy the sleepy town of Kingston
Falls. Now its up to Billy and his girlfriend Kate
(Phoebe Cates) to round up the Gremlins and restore
order to the town.
A tribute the 1950s matinee genre, Gremlins
never lets up in action nor suspense. It has
touches of horror and violence that will cause
some parents to cringe, but retains a tremendous
feel of magic and innocence thanks to the influence
of Producer Steven Spielberg. What more fun can
there be than watching slimy creatures break dance
to cheesy music and sing along to Snow White and
the Seven Dwarfs?
How is the transfer?
A little bit of history here. Gremlins
was originally released to DVD in 1997 during the
format's infancy. It was a time when the studios
were taking catalog product that was in poor
condition and just throwing out to the masses.
The original DVD transfer of Gremlins was
piss poor. In fact, I wanted to remind myself just
how bad it was, so for old time sake I popped it
in my DVD player. From the opening Warner logo,
you can see the nasty scratches and dirt that plagued
the print. The very first scene of a street in
Chinatown looks awfully murky with smeared reds.
I suggest that everyone who owns the original
DVD release to watch the first 5 minutes of it just
so you can appreciate what you are about to see...
This new transfer of Gremlins is like day
and night to the old. From the moment the Warner
logo appears, you can see how clean the print looks.
Gone are the scratches. Gone is the dirt. The
transfer looks smooth. As you find yourself watching
that familiar Chinatown street, it suddenly doesn't
look as familiar anymore. Gone is the smearing.
Picture looks sharper, detailed and far more color
balanced with rock solid black levels. The film grain
that was so abundantly clear in the original transfer
is now gone. Colors are much more vivid -- especially
when set against the snowy white background of
Kingston Falls.
The only problem I saw is the slight change of
quality 5 minutes into the film as we go into
the title sequence. There you can see dirt in
the snowy white scenes. You should realize from
past experience, catalog title sequences never look
very good, and once Joe Dante's name appears in the
opening credits, the film returns to looking pristine.
The 5.1 Dolby Digital mix is delightful. The
front soundstage is quite robust full with distinct
stereo separation. Even the tiniest sounds can be
heard thanks to the fact there is no background hiss.
The rears play the most important part of this
mix by not only supporting Jerry Goldsmith's wonderful
score, but adding a funhouse effect to all the
crazy action that takes place on screen. You never
quite know what direction sound is going to
come from next as the rears provide the effect laughs
of the Gremlins and all the sounds of chaos
they create. The famous bar scene will give you
a front row seat to the surrounding whirring and
crashing noises caused by the drunken creatures.
A very active and highly entertaining mix.
Special Features
With a new Special Edition of Gremlins,
you would have hoped that the studio would have
done something creative with the Main Menu. Not
here. The menu is plainly dull, with the film's
rag score playing in the background.
There are two Feature-length commentaries
included on this DVD. The first is with Director
Joe Dante, Phoebe Cates, Zach Galligan, Dick Miller
and Howie Mandel (the voice of Gizmo). The second
is with Director Joe Dante, Producer Michael Finnell
and Special Effects Artist Chris Walas.
This is the kind of stuff I love watching but
never knew existed. An original 1983 Featurette
that takes us on the set of Gremlins. As the
featurette begins, Director Joe Dante takes us on
a tour of the Chinatown set (actually built in
Burbank). Hoyt Axton carefully describes the plot
of the film without giving away any secrets as does
a very young Steven Spielberg. We watch the cameras
roll across the Chinatown set as well as a department
store set where actor Zach Galligan describes the
chaos that is about to ensue. Gremlins Designer
Chris Walas describes how tedious his task was in
making this film as his creations are active for
most of the film's running time. The beautiful
young Phoebe Cates describes how carried away she
got in her role, often being scared by the Gremlin
creatures. This short featurette blows away those
other DVD "fluff" pieces that are often 3 times as
long, simply for the fact we see the actors on the
set, acting naturally, without trying to promote
a film.
(length: approx. 6 minutes)
Three trailers are provided on this disc.
First is the original theatrical trailer. Next is
the reissue trailer. Finally, the trailer for
Gremlins 2: The New Batch.
There are over 10 minutes of never-before-seen
footage that is looped into one continuous play.
These additional scenes include:
* Randall Peltzer's initial entry into the
China man's shop, meeting a sales lady at the
counter, and telling her he is looking for a
gift for his son. She proceeds to show him
all sorts of little trinkets that he finds no
interest in.
* Billy being taken into the bank President's
office to be lectured, much to the amusement of
Gerald (Judge Reinhold).
* An introduction to Billy's room upstairs,
which was shot to establish its location in
the home.
* Billy shaking hands with the Reverend who is
about to mail a few letters.
* Does Mrs. Deagle (Polly Holliday) have a
dastardly plan in store for the town? Billy
and Kate stumble upon some secret plans in
the bank's back office.
* A gag involving carolers and a gremlin was
ultimately cut.
* A scene explaining how Mr. Futterman (Dick
Miller) lost his job at the noodle factory.
* Gerald gets locked in the vault and Billy
and Kate find him.
These scenes can be viewed with or without the
aid of audio commentary. I found the commentary
to be interesting -- especially the fact that
actors Zach Galligan and Phoebe Kates did not
remember most of these scenes ever being shot.
There is a wonderful photo gallery of
cute pictures of Gizmo, as well as the diabolical
Gremlins playing amidst Director Joe Dante. Some
nice candid shots of both Dante and Spielberg on
the set, as well as cast members clowning around.
There are also a few storyboards included.
Unfortunately, there seems to be less than 3
dozen pictures and it makes you kind of yearn
for more.
There is a very nice cast and crew filmography
that gives a little history of each person rather
than just listing their film credits. Reading
Phoebe Cate's biography, it was interesting to see
she was originally turned down for the part because
of her image of playing 'bad girl' roles. She
wanted to be a dancer, but a knee injury ended that
career.
Behind The Scenes is simply pages of text
that give you background on the creation of
Gremlins, that was the idea of screenwriter
Chris Columbus. The rest of the text just glosses
over general information about the actors, the
effects creators and composer Jerry Goldsmith.
Final Thoughts
This new transfer alone is the reason why owners
of the original Gremlins DVD should immediately
buy this new Special Edition and give their old copy
to an enemy.
What more can be said about Gremlins?
This was certainly Director Joe Dante's greatest
success, and serves as an reminder of how inventive
and cool blockbusters seemed when you were a child.
Release Date: August 20, 2002
