Gremlins is officially 40 years old as of this year, and it only continues to be one of those memorable ’80s movies and beloved part of pop culture. As Gizmo’s story continues in animated form through Gremlins: The Wild Batch, now streaming with a Max subscription, Joe Dante talked to CinemaBlend about how executive producer Steven Spielberg helped make the movie so popular with one major choice.
The Gremlins director, who serves as a consulting producer on the second season of the Max animated series, reflected on why Gizmo is so loved and how Spielberg was involved. In his words:
Well, for me, Gizmo has been the key to the success of the entire franchise. And, we owe that to Steven Spielberg who put his foot down about two weeks before we started shooting and said, ‘You know, this Gizmo character who turns into the bad Gremlin after 20 minutes, I like him too much. You have to keep him around for the whole movie.’ Which was a nightmare for us because we didn’t have the technology, we didn’t think we would be able to make him look real for an entire movie. But we managed to do it.
As Dante shared during our interview, Gizmo was actually supposed to become a Gremlin himself early in the 1984 movie. In fact, he was set to transform into the Gremlin leader, Stripe. However, Steven Spielberg thought Gizmo was such a cute character and suggested that he remain a hero throughout instead. Perhaps the adorable E.T. had something to do with that?
The original Gremlins idea was conceived and written by Chris Columbus before he was behind another classic, The Goonies, along with helming Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire and the first two Harry Potter movies. While Spielberg passed off the directing to Joe Dante and took a supporting role in the making of the film, it was certainly an important decision. Imagine the heartbreak of Gremlins without Gizmo staying Gizmo?
He remains one of the best pets in Hollywood history, but it wasn’t without some difficulty on the tech side of things. Remember, all those mogwais and gremlins were practical puppets. They considered using monkeys, but that didn’t pan out as you can imagine. In our interview, Dante also said this:
And, I think it was one of the main reasons why this picture was so popular at the time and why Gizmo carried what is obviously a very odd sequel. And, over the years people have bought Gizmo merchandise and named their pets after Gizmo. I met a woman in Switzerland who named her daughter Gizmo. It’s become part of the culture and to see that character not only animated, but to have more psychological depth as it does in the second half of the second season, it’s a validation.
Gizmo’s latest journey is as a fluffy animated character in the second season of the Gremlins series, where he has an adventure in 1920s San Francisco and, later in the season, the American West. As Dante alluded to, as Gizmo’s character continues to deepen this season, it’s only further “validation,” that he was meant to be a hero.
The first five episodes of Gremlins: The Wild Batch are streaming now, with more to come. You can check out what Dante and the producers had to say about Gizmo returning to live action and our interview with Ming-Na Wen about voicing Fong Wing here on CinemaBlend.