Gremlins 2: The New Batch

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Gremlins 2: The New Batch
Directed by	Joe Dante
Produced by	Michael Finnell Rick Baker
Written by	Charles S. Haas
Starring	Zach Galligan Phoebe Cates John Glover Robert Prosky Robert Picardo Christopher Lee Haviland Morris Dick Miller Jackie Joseph Gedde Watanabe Keye Luke
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	June 15, 1990 (USA)
Running time	106 min
Language	English
Budget	$50,000,000 (estimated)
Preceded by	Gremlins
IMDb profile

Gremlins 2: The New Batch is a film released in 1990 and a sequel to the original Gremlins (1984). Gremlins 2 is directed by Joe Dante and written by Charles S. Haas, with creature designs by Rick Baker. It stars Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, John Glover, Robert Prosky, Haviland Morris, Dick Miller, Jackie Joseph, Robert Picardo, and Christopher Lee.

The story continues the adventures of the creature Gizmo, who spawns numerous small monsters when wet. In the first film Gizmo's offspring had rampaged through a fictional small town. In Gremlins 2, Gizmo multiplies within a building in New York City. The new creatures thus pose a serious threat to the city should they be able to leave the building. Much of the story involves the human characters' efforts to prevent this disaster.

Like the first film, Gremlins 2 is a live action comedy-horror film. However, Dante put effort into taking the sequel in new anarchic directions. In general, the film is meant to be more cartoon-like than the darker original. The violence is fairly slapstick. There are also a number of parodies of other films and stories, most notably Gremlins itself, as well as the Rambo films, The Wizard of Oz, Marathon Man and Phantom of the Opera. As with the first film, critical response varied. However, some critics who thought the first film was too dark gave Gremlins 2 better reviews. Unlike its highly successful predecessor, Gremlins 2 had a mediocre performance at the box office.

[edit] Plot

The film takes place in New York City, a few years after the original film, wherein Billy Peltzer (Galligan) had acquired Gizmo (voiced by Howie Mandel). Gizmo is a mysterious, cute, good-natured furry creature called a mogwai. In the first film, Billy was informed of the "rules" regarding mogwai, namely that one must never get them wet or feed them after midnight. Nevertheless, Gizmo was later exposed to water and multiplied. When the new mogwai ate after midnight, they mutated into dark green, reptilian monsters with sharp teeth and claws. These monsters or gremlins caused much destruction and mayhem in Billy's small hometown. Gizmo's original owner Mr. Wing took the creature back after the gremlins had died.

Billy and his girlfriend Kate Beringer (Cates) now live in New York, where they are having difficulty adapting to the large and impersonal city. Billy works for Clamp Enterprises, which is based in a large skyscraper in Manhattan. Kate also works at the building as a tour guide. The head of Clamp Enterprises, Daniel Clamp, is a pastiche of tycoon Donald Trump and media mogul Ted Turner.^[1]

As part of the new development in the area, Gizmo's owner Mr. Wing is offered money to sell his store to Clamp. Mr. Wing refuses, but not long afterwards dies of natural causes. His store is then demolished and Gizmo is captured and taken to a laboratory in the Clamp office building. Bizarre genetic experiments are carried out on all sorts of animals in this laboratory. The lead scientist, Dr. Catheter (Lee), is a sinister mad scientist who threatens to dissect Gizmo.

The Brain Gremlin

Billy eventually finds out Gizmo is in the building and rescues him. However, when one of Billy's bosses takes Billy away to a restaurant, Gizmo is left in the office and accidentally gets wet. The new mogwai, Mohawk, Daffy, George, and Lenny, soon eat after midnight in a cafeteria or near a water main and are transformed into gremlins. They quickly start a fire that triggers sprinklers, causing them to multiply even further.

The new gremlins cannot leave the building because it is still daytime, and sunlight kills mogwai and gremlins. While confined to the building, the gremlins invade the laboratory, where they discover various fluids that cause them to mutate into creatures never before known. One gremlin consumes a hormone that makes him super-intelligent and gives him the ability to speak with a refined voice (provided by actor Tony Randall). This "Brain Gremlin" acquires a pair of spectacles from out of nowhere to denote his newfound intellect. Another gremlin takes the form of electricity, but after he kills Dr. Catheter he is captured in the phone system by Billy. Mohawk becomes a spider-gremlin, and the brain gremlin injects another with bat hormone and genetic sunblock, letting him fly outside in the daylight. Later, the Brain Gremlin leads all gremlins into the lobby when they are ready to leave the building. Billy and his friends turn a waterhose on the gremlins and, as the monsters start to multiply, Billy releases the electric gremlin. The gremlins are hit by the electricity and consequently melt away. The sole survivor of the new batch of gremlins was the female gremlin who appeared at the very end of the film romantically pursuing the Clamp Chief of Security (Robert Picardo).

[edit] Looney Tunes segments

In addition to the main plot, there is animation by Chuck Jones in the film featuring the fictional Looney Tunes characters Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig. Jones had actually quit animation before returning to work on Gremlins 2.^[2] Dante explained the animation at the beginning of the film was meant to "set the anarchic tone."^[3] In his scenes, Daffy breaks the fourth wall when he forcefully tries to insert himself into the title and ending sequences. At the beginning of the film, he stops the music, and tries to overthrow Bugs to ride the Warner Bros. shield, only for it to malfunction horrendously. Daffy also interrupts the end credits with sardonic humor. He calls the credits really long and wonders aloud why anyone would still be in the theatre during the credits. The ending has Daffy trying to usurp Porky Pig to say the closing line, only to get hit by another shield.

The DVD version includes a longer version of the cartoon short. In it, Daffy mistakenly writes the title Gremlins 2 as Gremlin Stew and then attempts to rename the film The Return of Super-Daffy Meets Gremlins 2 Part 6: The Movie. This material was removed from the film because early audiences expected a live-action film and were bewildered by the lengthy animated sequence.^[4]

[edit] Production

[edit] Background

The original Gremlins was a financial success and Warner Bros. asked its director Joe Dante to make a sequel straight away. Dante declined, because he saw Gremlins as having a proper ending, and thus a sequel would only be meant to be profitable. Moreover, the original film was a taxing experience for Dante, and he wanted to move on. Work on Gremlins 2 proceeded without him, as the studio approached various directors and writers. Storylines considered included sending the gremlins to cities like Las Vegas or even the planet Mars. After these ideas fell through, the studio returned to Dante, who agreed to make the sequel after receiving the rare promise of having complete creative control over the movie. He also received a budget triple that of the original film's. Dante later acknowledged that by this point too much time had passed between the films, thus possibly taking away from Gremlins 2's appeal.^[5]

The film was released in 1990, and as the filmmakers later noted, this was a time when cable television, genetics and frozen yogurt were becoming more common and influential. This all left a mark on Gremlins 2, as Clamp's media empire ran many cable television channels. Gremlins 2 actually exaggerated what could be seen on cable television at the time, although as the filmmakers noted in 2002, that humour might be lost on present-day audiences. Cable television later grew to provide that type of variety. Genetics in 1990 were reflected in the laboratory seen in Gremlins 2, and frozen yogurt is what the mogwai eat after midnight.^[3]

[edit] Plotting

With more control over the film, Dante engineered a project that he later referred to as "one of the more unconventional studio pictures, ever." Dante included some material that he believed Warner Bros. would not have allowed had they not wanted a sequel to Gremlins. He was allowed to break a number of rules in filmmaking. He also later claimed it was the film he had put the most of his personal influence into. Dante imagined Gremlins 2 as a satire of Gremlins and sequels in general. Another basic description of Gremlins 2 was that, as Dante said, an hour into the film it becomes "extremely cartoony."^[3]

Charlie Haas was the recommended screenwriter, and he brought to the project the basic storyline of moving the gremlins to New York City. Haas also imagined a corporate head (the character Clamp) being Billy's boss and at the centre of the new disaster. Warner Bros. was concerned it would be too expensive to portray the gremlins attacking an entire city, so the gremlins were limited to one building. Haas also included a great deal of material in his screenplay that proved too elaborate to be produced, including having a cow-hamster hybrid running on a treadmill in the laboratory.^[3]

In keeping with Dante's desires to satirize the original film, the sequel has some meta-references and self-referential humor. These include a cameo appearance by film critic Leonard Maltin. He holds up a copy of the original Gremlins video and denounces it, just as he had in reality. However, his rant is cut short when gremlins pounce on him. Partly for this scene, one academic called Dante "one of contemporary cinema's great pranksters."^[6]

Additionally, when Billy is trying to explain the safety precautions regarding the mogwai to staff in the building, the staff find them quite absurd and interrogate Billy on the application of the rules. This scene originates from the fact that the filmmakers themselves saw the rules as irrational, and some questions in the scene were based upon queries raised by fans of the original film.^[3]

At one point in the film, Dante attempted to involve his audience in the story by making it seem as if the gremlins had taken over whatever theatre Gremlins 2 would be screened in. The film seems to be broken by the gremlins, who then engage in shadow puppetry over a white screen. Professional wrestler Hulk Hogan then appears in a cameo appearance and intimidates the gremlins into running the rest of Gremlins 2. This joke was inspired by a similar stunt in William Castle's film The Tingler (1959). The studio feared people might really leave the theater if they thought the film had broken. Dante thus secured the inclusion of the sequence by assembling some people for a preview of the film. When the scene was shown, the real-life audience found it enjoyable and stayed in the theatre. Dante later described this scene as one of the most widely enjoyed jokes in Gremlins 2. When Gremlins 2 made its debut on home video, the filmmakers altered the scene, to make it seem as if VCRs had been broken by the gremlins. This time actor John Wayne forces the gremlins into continuing the film, although voice impersonation was needed since Wayne had been dead since 1979.^[3] Notably, a clip from Falling Hare, a film released in 1943 featuring Bugs Bunny and a gremlin, appears in this version.

The original version of the film was longer, but executive producer Steven Spielberg claimed there were too many gremlins, and several scenes were cut as a result. One deleted scene portrayed three of the main gremlins, Daffy, Lenny and George, sneaking into television host Grandpa Fred's studio and "helping" him host, which worked because Grandpa Fred's show was supposed to be scary.^[4]

[edit] Casting

From left to right: Zach Galligan as Billy, Christopher Lee as Dr. Catheter, and Robert Picardo as Forster.

Several actors from the original film returned to make Gremlins 2. These included Galligan and Cates, as well as Dick Miller. Miller reprised his role as Mr. Futterman, who was severely injured by the gremlins in the first film. In the second, he plays a part in wiping out the creatures by turning the hose on them. Character actress Jackie Joseph returned to play Mr. Futterman's wife. Keye Luke also returned to play Mr. Wing, Gizmo's original owner. When Luke heard his character would die in Gremlins 2, he quipped, "Remember, when you make Gremlins 3 I'm a flashback!" Hoyt Axton was meant to return as Billy's father, the inventor. He would have appeared at the end of the film, having designed special clothing for Gizmo that would ensure Gizmo would never come into contact with water again. At the last moment the filmmakers decided not to shoot the scene because the film was too long.^[3]

New performers included Robert Picardo, who had previously worked with Dante and producer Michael Finnell in films such as The Howling (1981). He plays Forster, one of Billy's crueler bosses. Robert Prosky played Grandpa Fred, a television host, and his character was based upon Al Lewis's character Grandpa Munster. Joe Dante has a brief cameo as the director of Grandpa Fred's show. John Glover played Clamp, and brought to the role an enthusiastic innocence that overrode how his character had been written as a villain. Dante felt Glover's approach to the role lightened the film in general.^[3]

Christopher Lee played the mad scientist Dr. Catheter. Lee imagined his role as light-hearted, but Dante encouraged him to portray the scientist as evil to better match the atmosphere of the laboratory set. Lee was revered on the set for his experience.^[3] There was actually a deleted scene wherein Dr. Catheter examines a bat which had been injected with "genetic sun-block." He then says to his colleague: "I'm told they sometimes feed on blood." This is a reference to Lee's performances as Count Dracula in the Hammer Horror films.^[4]

[edit] Special effects

Director Joe Dante (left) holding a cardboard "Bat Gremlin", with actor Dick Miller (right). The cardboard gremlin was replaced with a stop motion model in post-production.

For special effects, the original film had relied on Chris Walas. As Walas had moved on to pursue a directing career, Dante turned to Rick Baker to create the effects for Gremlins 2. Baker was not interested, as he saw Gremlins 2 as too much work for a project in which he would not be the creator but rather a successor to Walas. He was eventually persuaded to accept the job when it was suggested he could make the gremlins and mogwai more diverse.^[3]

In the first film when Gizmo multiplied, his off-spring closely resembled himself, with the exception of the leader Stripe. Here the four mogwai Gizmo produces each possess their own distinct personalities and physical features. Additionally, each mogwai has a name, although the names were used in the script and never actually spoken aloud in the film. Two of the mogwai were Lenny and George (the black one sans stripe and the buck-toothed one), named for the principal characters in Of Mice and Men, whom they resemble in both appearance and demeanor. There was also Daffy, who displays manic behaviour, and the leader Mohawk, so named for the mohawk he sports. Mohawk is based on the original film's character Stripe the gremlin. Like Stripe, Mohawk is voiced by Frank Welker. While both the mogwai and gremlin versions of Stripe had fur stripes, Baker hit upon the idea of giving the Mohawk mogwai a fur stripe and giving the Mohawk gremlin something scalier. Gizmo was also redesigned. The puppet was generally larger and its design was simplified. Dante commented Gizmo may actually look less real in Gremlins 2, but the result was that Gizmo could convey more emotion.^[3]

Later on when the mogwai had evolved into gremlins and multiplied, they further diversify by running amok in the bio-lab and ingesting various drugs. One is turned into a sunlight-resistant hybrid with a bat, thus becoming the Bat Gremlin. Mohawk becomes part-spider. One becomes part-vegetable (Dante calls him the Vegetable Gremlin), and another consumes a drug and turns into a female gremlin named Greta, with shiny red lips and mascara. Yet another has acid thrown onto his face and is quickly presented with a rendition of the Phantom of the Opera's mask.^[3]

As with the first, puppetry was involved, and some of the puppets were mechanical. An actor holding a puppet would actually have to have wires strapped to him. Gremlins 2 also includes more stop motion animation than the first film. The Bat Gremlin was portrayed through some stop motion animation. Film technology since the original had improved, and as a result the creatures can be seen walking more. In fact, Gizmo is able to dance, although this scene took the longest to make. While there are more gremlins in Gremlins 2 than the original, this still took a long time to make possible, with the filming lasting five months. Many of the effects had to be completed after the actors had finished their work.^[3]

[edit] Music

As with the first film, the music in Gremlins 2 was composed by Jerry Goldsmith. Goldsmith has a cameo in the film. In the latter half of the film, Gizmo, inspired by the Rambo films and tired of the abuse he has suffered at the hands of the gremlins, takes revenge on Mohawk. Gizmo shoots the Mohawk spider-gremlin with a makeshift bow and flaming arrow. For the scene in which Gizmo prepares for this move, Goldsmith composed a new theme based on that in the Rambo films.^[3] Goldsmith had also authored the music in the Rambo films.

The scene featuring Mohawk transforming into a spider-like monster features a portion of the song "Angel of Death" by thrash metal band Slayer. There is also a scene wherein hundreds of gremlins sing Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York". They are led by the Brain Gremlin in the number.

There is a sample of the action music from the film The Burbs (1989), also directed by Joe Dante and composed by Jerry Goldsmith, when the Bat Gremlin flies out of the Clamp building after being injected with sunblock solution.

[edit] Reception

Film critics varied in their reviews of Gremlins 2. Roger Ebert, who had approved of the original, observed that Gremlins 2 was meant to satirize sequels. Nevertheless, he felt it did not manage to differentiate itself from the original enough and was not as good. He went on to claim that the film lacks a well constructed plot, and once the gremlins arrived the film simply becomes a "series of gags." He thus gave the film two and a half stars, out of a possible four.^[7] Hal Hinson of the Washington Post caught on to how the Looney Tunes animation is meant to imply "anarchic wit," but nevertheless felt both the cartoon short and the film itself are failures. He saw the beginning as too slow and, like Ebert, thought the film is too similar to the first. Hinson did, however, approve of the characterization of the gremlins and their version of "New York, New York." He also noted that turning the gremlins against Clamp resembles anti-corporate "poetic justice."^[2]

In contrast, while one reviewer for Films in Review, like Ebert, argued the film resembles the original and abandons its plot when the gremlins arrive, he also felt the film's appeal could be found partly in its self-consciousness of these facts and its in-jokes and satire. He also complimented Cates as "wholesomely bewitching," and Galligan as "a suitably naive foil for the scaly fiends."^[8] Desson Howe of the Washington Post also approved of the film, including its special effects and the parodies of Trump, Turner, genetics labs, cable television and the film Marathon Man.^[9] (Marathon Man is parodied when the gremlin Daffy abducts Billy and tries to torture him with dental tools.)

Some critics thought the film has qualities the original lacked, such as wit. A critic for National Review called the film "much freer and wittier than the first one," though he felt the sequel shies away from becoming an important piece of satire.^[10] The cover of an issue of Entertainment Weekly in July 1990 also exclaimed that "actor John Glover... and director Joe Dante made Gremlins 2 wittier, better and more subversive than the original." Some critics who found the first film too dark also gave Gremlins 2 more positive reviews. Leonard Maltin, who appears in the film, gave it three out of four stars for its references to other films, Glover's imitation of Turner and Trump and Lee's performance.^[11] An All Movie Guide critic complimented the sequel by saying the "original's violence and mean-spiritedness are gone, making this follow-up somewhat more kid-friendly."^[12]

The film was nominated for several Saturn Awards, namely for Best Director, Best Fantasy Film, Best Music, and Best Special Effects. Glover and Picardo were both nominated for the Best Supporting Actor award.

Still, the film did not perform as well at the box office. The trailer introduced the film to audiences by displaying a surface of water intercut with scenes from the original. A narrator goes over the rules regarding how to safely handle mogwai. After the narrator says, "You didn't listen [to the rules]," scenes from the sequel are shown. It is revealed the gremlins mutate into strange new creatures. The trailer then ends with the Brain Gremlin speaking.^[13] Gremlins 2 was released on June 15, 1990. In its first weekend it made $9,702,804, and it ultimately made $41,482,207 in the United States.^[14] It was thus only the thirty-first highest grossing film of the year, behind a few other films in the comedy, horror or fantasy genre, such as Back to the Future Part III ($87,727,583), Edward Scissorhands ($56,362,352), and Arachnophobia ($53,208,180). It did, however, outperform Predator 2 ($30,669,413), Child's Play 2 ($28,501,605) and The Exorcist III ($26,098,824).^[15]

Gremlins 2 also played in other countries. Canadian audiences reportedly enjoyed one scene in which Billy and his boss meet at a Canadian-themed restaurant, where the waiters are dressed like the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.^[3] The film was released in Norway and Finland on July 5 and July 6 respectively, in Colombia on July 12, and much of the rest of Europe in the rest of July, including in the United Kingdom and Spain on July 27. It opened in France and Argentina in August and reached Australia on September 20.^[16] It earned £7,400,000 in the United Kingdom. Later, the film made an additional $20,800,000 in rental stores.^[17]

[edit] Merchandising

As with the first film, Gremlins 2 was accompanied by merchandising. This may have been integral to the film's purpose. As one critic wrote, "it's a savvy, off-the-wall comedy that acknowledges, yes, it is just one more silly rip-off sequel, produced to sell off the merchandise inspired by the first film."^[8] One reference the film makes to the original, an allusion to the merchandising surrounding Gizmo, drew criticism. Some critics saw the mention of merchandise as tasteless. This type of product placement has since become more common.^[3]

The new merchandise included action figures by the National Entertainment Collectibles Association based on characters such as the Brain Gremlin. There were also children's books like Gremlins 2: The New Batch: Movie Storybook, by Michael Teitelbaum, published by Goldencraft in December 1990. Gizmo to Rescue was published by Golden Books in July 1990.^[18] A novel based on the film was written by David Bischoff and published by Avon Books in June 1990. An interesting aspect of the novel is how the sequence where the film breaks is adapted. In the novel, the Brain Gremlin subdues and locks Bischoff in his bathroom before taking the reins for a little bit (and does tell you about the sequence in the film) before Bischoff breaks his way out of the bathroom with an axe and subdues the Brain Gremlin. The novel then continues where the film picked up after the film break.

Gremlins 2: The New Batch was translated into a video game by Elite Systems for personal computers such as Commodore 64 and Amiga in 1990.^[19] There was also a poorly-received PC version made by Hi-Tech Expressions, which differed from the Elite side-scroller. You still played as Billy Peltzer, but the game was an overhead-scroller. The MSX conversion was done by Spanish Erbe Software.

A version was also created for the Nintendo Entertainment System by Sunsoft. In the game the player controls Gizmo through various levels in the building, armed with weapons ranging from the genetically-modified super tomato in the laboratory, to the new matchstick-firing bow in the later sections. A Game Boy version was also created, differing from its NES sibling by being a sidescroller rather than an overhead action game.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Gremlins 2: The New Batch at the Internet Movie Database
• All Movie Guide entry for Gremlins 2: The New Batch
• Gremlins 2: The New Batch at Rotten Tomatoes
• Gremlins 2: The New Batch (video game) at MobyGames
• February 16, 1989 third draft screenplay by Charlie Haas