Gremlins 2: The New Batch
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| Gremlins 2: The New Batch | |
| Image:Gremlins2poster.jpg | |
| Directed by | Joe Dante |
| Written by | Charles S. Haas |
| Starring | Zach Galligan Phoebe Cates John Glover Robert Prosky Christopher Lee |
| Produced by | Michael Finnell Rick Baker |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date | June 15, 1990 (USA) |
| Runtime | 106 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $50,000,000 (estimated) |
| IMDb page | |
Gremlins 2: The New Batch is a 1990 movie directed by Joe Dante, written by Charles S. Haas, with creature design by Rick Baker and is a sequel to the original Gremlins. It stars Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, John Glover, Robert Prosky, Dick Miller, Jackie Joseph, Robert Picardo, and Christopher Lee.
It is a comedy-horror, where the violence is fairly cartoon-like and slapstick, and there are a number of references and spoofs of many other films, including Rambo, The Wizard of Oz, The Phantom of the Opera, and even the original Gremlins movie. There is also a famous scene wherein hundreds of Gremlins sing Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York".
Tagline: Here they grow again.
Contents |
Plot summary
The film takes place in New York City, a few years after the original movie, wherein Billy Peltzer (Galligan) had acquired Gizmo (voiced by Howie Mandel), a mysterious and cute furry creature called a Mogwai, which multiplies when exposed to water. The new creatures spawned by this method look similar to Gizmo, but are malicious. When these new Mogwai eat after midnight they mutate into green, lizard-like creatures with sharp teeth and claws, their new physique and strength given them the ability to channel their fiendish personalities into manaical acts of destruction and mayhem.
Billy and his girlfriend Kate Beringer (Cates) now live in New York, where they are having difficulty adapting to the large and impersonal city after being brought up in a small town. Billy works for the Clamp Organization, which is based in a large skyscraper in Manhattan (the owner, Daniel Clamp, is clearly inspired by tycoon Donald Trump). Kate also works at the building as a tour guide.
As part of a new development in the area, the old man who owns Gizmo is offered money to sell his store to the Clamp Organization. He refuses, but not long afterwards dies of natural causes. Gizmo is captured and is taken to a bio-lab in the Clamp Office Building, where bizarre genetic experiments are carried out on all sorts of animals (the lead scientist, Dr. Catheter, is played by Christopher Lee in a fairly type-cast role that harks back to his days starring in Hammer Horror movies).
Billy eventually finds out Gizmo is in the building and rescues him. However, at some point, Gizmo gets wet and the new Mogwai (Mohawk, Daffy, George, and Lenny) soon eat after midnight and turn into rampaging Gremlins, quickly causing a fire that triggers sprinklers, meaning they multiply yet further.
Soon enough they are causing mayhem and destruction all through the building, and it is up to Billy, Kate, and the stoic Daniel Clamp to get things under control.
Differences with the original
The original Gremlins was a surprise success, and Warner Bros. and Terry Semel wanted Joe Dante to do a sequel straight away. Dante declined, but five years later agreed on the condition that he could have free reign with the movie.
The Gremlins in the sequel are still malicious, but are far more capricious than the monsters of the first film. As a result, their activities are more along the lines of pranks more likely to cause annoyance and destruction than death, although they do kill and (presumably) eat a few humans and even some of their own number.
The film has many meta-references, including a part wherein—in a film studio within the Clamp Building—a film reviewer (Leonard Maltin) holds up a copy of the original Gremlins movie and denounces it as ridiculous and stupid, his rant cut short when a Gremlin pounces on him and attacks. Also, when Billy is trying to explain the safety precautions regarding the Mogwai (don't get them wet, feed them after midnight, or expose to bright lights) to security guards in the building, the guards find them quite absurd and interrogate Billy, asking him "What if they get a bit of food stuck in their teeth before midnight and eat that piece shortly after midnight?" These are queries raised by some fans of the original movie concerning these rather bizarre rules.
Mogwai/Gremlin Diversity
In the first film when Gizmo multiplied, his off-spring were little more than mean spirited clones of himself. Here the four mogwai he produces each posess their own distinct personalities and physical features. In addition each one had a name that was used in the script as a means of identification but was never actually spoken aloud in the movie. They were Lenny and George (named for the principal characters in Of Mice and Men whom they resemble in both appearance and demeanor), Daffy (named for Daffy Duck, whose manic behaviour he resembles) and their leader Mohawk (so named for the mohawk he sports). Later on when the Mogwai had evolved into Gremlins and multipled, they further diversify by running amok in the bio-labs and ingesting various gene-splicing 'potions'. One is turned into a sunlight-resistant hybrid with a bat (thus becoming the Bat Gremlin), Mohawk (voiced, like Stripe in the first Gremlins film, by Frank Welker) becomes a hybrid of a spider, one becomes part vegetable (director Joe Dante calls him "the Vegetable Gremlin"), another drinks a "male-to-female" potion and turns into a female Gremlin named Greta (dressed like a prostitute with shiny red lips and mascara), another becomes the Electric Gremlin, and yet another—the self-styled leader—takes a drug that makes him super-intelligent. This blesses him with the ability to speak with a very charming and refined voice (he was voiced by Tony Randall). In another piece of cartoonish humor, this Brain Gremlin acquires a pair of spectacles from out of nowhere to denote his newfound intellect.
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 (video game) at MobyGames
