Gremlins - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Gremlins or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Gremlins

[norma]

The film opened against Ghostbusters, and while that movie did better in most cities "in New York City where people were furious about having their traffic disrupted while that picture was being made for all those months we always did better than Ghostbusters."

[ivan]

The picture of Rockin' Ricky Rialto is a picture of Don Steele.

[clayton]

One of the reasons for the "no bright lights" rule was that in 1984 Joe Dante and Amblin could not completely navigate the perilous waters of special effects for the Gremlin/puppets that well; by keeping them in the dark this camouflaged this problem. (That's an old Sci-fi trick; Dante did the same thing with the tricky (and lumpy) practical effects for Howling three years earlier; they kept the monsters in the dark to hide special effects problems.

[sandra]

Final theatrical movie of Scott Brady (Sheriff Frank).

[ruby]

Director Joe Dante prefers Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) to this movie.

[linda]

It is said that they can't get wet, or if they do they breed, yet through the last third of the movie they're spending quite a bit of time in and around the snow.

[chad]

During one night shoot, problems with the Gremlin puppets were so severe that the entire cast fell asleep on the set during the delay.

[harry]

The official comic strip adaptation included scenes that were not in the movie, including Billy's mother asking if the mogwai was a rat, followed by the mogwai using Randall's "Bathroom Buddy", thus earning the name "Gizmo". There was also more emphasis on a subplot of Mrs. Deagle trying to buy up everything in town, a scene of Billy finding that throwing juice on the mogwais has no effect on them, Mr. Hanson's students being more Billy's age, Gizmo and Kate trying to shut down the fountain and turn on the lights, and Billy smashing Stripe's skeleton with a baseball bat.

[maureen]

In addition to restoring the classic Warner Brothers logo to the opening of the movie, it was hoped to release this movie along with the classic Looney Tunes short, Falling Hare (1943), where Bugs Bunny is harassed by an airplane gremlin during World War II. This fell through, but, highlights from the short do appear as part of the Behind the Scenes featurette that has also been included on the Special Edition DVD.

[frederick]

Screenwriter Chris Columbus sold Executive Producer Steven Spielberg the script, along with the screenplay for The Goonies (1985), but his career didn't take off until the massive success of Home Alone (1990).

[brent]

Chris Columbus wrote the script for this movie and directed Home Alone (1990) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992). All three movies have a video clip of It's a Wonderful Life (1946).

[jamie]

When Stripe is hiding among the stuffed animals, the animals to either side of him are Warner Brothers character (this was a Warner Brothers film). The one that he pushes over and leans on is an ET stuffed character from Spielberg's earlier film, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982).

[chad]

Judd Nelson and Emilio Estevez were considered for the role of Billy.

[gerald]

The coloring of Gizmo, including the white patch of fur around the right eye, was directly modeled after one of Spielberg's dogs.

[toni]

Executive Producer Steven Spielberg changed the design of the Mogwai from moment to moment, greatly upsetting Chris Walas' Workshop. He initially suggested they change the color to brown and white, rather than all-over brown, then hairless ears, and then he wanted Gizmo to become more of a sidekick to Billy's hero, doubling Walas' already overstretched workshop.

[richard]

A deleted scene shows that Gerald (Judge Reinhold) was hiding out in the bank vault while the Gremlins ran wild, and is losing his sanity.

[willard]

Executive Producer Steven Spielberg urged the casting of the relatively unknown Zach Galligan as Billy, because he saw chemistry between him and Phoebe Cates during auditions. Galligan later compared himself to Billy, saying he was a "geeky kid", and that being in this movie "was really kind of a dream" given "what I get to do, what my character gets to do, blow up movie theaters", adding that he "got to work with great people."

[linda]

Edward Andrews', Judge Reinhold's, and William Schallert's roles were reduced after this movie was edited.

[ruby]

Phoebe Cates does not recall auditioning with Zach Galligan.