Speaker 1: Welcome friends and podcast podcast is done?
Speaker 2: Show back again right there? Talking about Bob?
Speaker 1: What is it? It's your pet?
Speaker 3: Number one? If you've got to keep him out of
Speaker 3: bright life. Number two, keep him away from water. It's
Speaker 3: incredible and probably the most important thing. Don't ever feed
Speaker 3: him after midnight? Do you? What are these things?
Speaker 2: Gremlins?
Speaker 3: That was I'll bet every kid in America would like
Speaker 3: to have one. They might even replace the dog as
Speaker 3: the family pet.
Speaker 1: Welcome to a movie film commentary track. My name is
Speaker 1: Zachie Son. I'm here with Brian Hall.
Speaker 2: Hey, how's it going, Zachi? Brian?
Speaker 1: You know, I feel like it's a test of character
Speaker 1: whether you know the three absolutely inviolable rules. Whenever I
Speaker 1: meet somebody, I say, there are three rules, and you
Speaker 1: cannot You cannot defy them.
Speaker 2: That's right. You do not talk about politics or religion
Speaker 2: at the dinner table.
Speaker 1: Those are those are the less important rules?
Speaker 2: Oh oh well, fill me in. What are the more
Speaker 2: important rules? I need to know these?
Speaker 1: Well? Number one, never expose them to light, don't get
Speaker 1: them wet, yes, And most importantly, no matter how much
Speaker 1: they beg do not feed them before noon.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, I did see it written out when I
Speaker 2: saw twelve. So I just assume I surely got the gist.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I'm sure if you follow those three exactly
Speaker 1: as I stated, everything will be fine.
Speaker 2: Perfect. So we're here to talk about Gremlins.
Speaker 1: Gremlins is you know, Gremlins is a It is a
Speaker 1: very specific memory, That's what I've realized, because I don't
Speaker 1: know that this is a movie that has transcended in
Speaker 1: the way that, for example, Back to the Future has.
Speaker 2: I was thinking about that as I was watching it,
Speaker 2: because I feel like it's something everybody knows, even when
Speaker 2: my parents are in town now because Christmas is upon us,
Speaker 2: and I mentioned that I was watching Gremlins. Oh Gremlins. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, like, but it's not something you see replayed
Speaker 2: on television a lot. I don't feel like you see
Speaker 2: as many toys. Yeah, you know, there's certain toys that
Speaker 2: have transcended, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, well, I was, as it happens, I was
Speaker 1: at Target a couple of weeks ago, and I saw
Speaker 1: a gizmo on the toys for grown ups, and I
Speaker 1: was absolutely delighted because because of what you kind of
Speaker 1: what you say, like I I would not have thought
Speaker 1: that you would see a thing such as that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I stand corrected. I mean, and he is such
Speaker 2: an iconic design, right, He's just immediately adorable, so much
Speaker 2: so that apparently later you know, Ferby basically ripped them off.
Speaker 2: So bastards. But yeah, but this is also one that
Speaker 2: I think I was a little young when it came out,
Speaker 2: too young for it, so I kind of had to
Speaker 2: find it along the way, And you know, it was
Speaker 2: I was a little bit older, like in my teens,
Speaker 2: I think when I first saw it. Oh really, even
Speaker 2: though I was very familiar with it. Oh that's interesting. Yeah, Like,
Speaker 2: it wasn't something I got from the video store. It's
Speaker 2: probably something I saw on television, okay, and then it
Speaker 2: was like oh and then probably the Steven Spielberg of it,
Speaker 2: you know, present like, oh, okay, I should this should
Speaker 2: be something I watch.
Speaker 1: Well, with that in mind, speaking of something you should watch,
Speaker 1: why don't we start watching it? Yes, and then we
Speaker 1: can continue this conversation. Let's so, folks, we are watching
Speaker 1: the nineteen eighty four original Gremlins. There's only one cut.
Speaker 1: It is the theatrical cut, So if you want to
Speaker 1: watch along with us, you're certainly welcome to do so
Speaker 1: if not, hey, we'll try to keep this an interesting conversation.
Speaker 1: Hopefully drop some drop some factoids, some nuggets, some words
Speaker 1: of wisdom along what we've learned from a lifetime of
Speaker 1: battling gremlins. Yes, uh, so let's do this thing. We'll
Speaker 1: do the usual thing. Hit play on three one two
Speaker 1: three play Brian, You're ready, I'm ready, all right, here
Speaker 1: we go one two three play.
Speaker 2: So right up top.
Speaker 1: Worth mentioning that this movie was the first one to
Speaker 1: bring back this classic Warner Brothers shield. Uh and Warner
Speaker 1: Brothers liked the look so much that they brought it
Speaker 1: back for their other films. But up you know, day
Speaker 1: before this, they had been using the kind of art
Speaker 1: deco looking not art, not really art deco, kind of
Speaker 1: a you know, I'm talking about it, like the three.
Speaker 2: What's that like the Saal bass. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was about to say, yeah, the sal bass looking thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so yeah, yeah. Interesting. You know, I've never loved
Speaker 2: that one.
Speaker 1: I'm not a fan.
Speaker 2: It doesn't make me warm and fuzzy where I'll say
Speaker 2: the shield does. Well, that's because that's what we grew
Speaker 2: up with, right, definitely, I mean and then also, I
Speaker 2: don't know, there's something aesthetically nice about it, the blue
Speaker 2: and orange and the clouds, and yeah, I mean it's
Speaker 2: definitely the one that I love the most. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: I know recently, I think with Barbie now they have
Speaker 2: sort of a more updated version of it. And I'm like, no,
Speaker 2: speaking of Warner Brothers, when you go on the Warner
Speaker 2: Brothers tour, they take you down a street, you know,
Speaker 2: a fake city street, and they say, you know, at
Speaker 2: the end of this is where Prince shot the image
Speaker 2: of him on the motorcycle and purple rain and over
Speaker 2: here this little staircase, this is the entrance to the
Speaker 2: shop in Gremlins, And wow, so kind of cool.
Speaker 1: So hoyt Axton as Randall Peltzer as I do. I
Speaker 1: looked it up. You know how old he was in
Speaker 1: this movie?
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, how much forty five? Forty five so
Speaker 2: our age? Yeah, yeah, so I rocketed right past Billy
Speaker 2: and ended up at rand Wow. Well, and I saw
Speaker 2: that the mother is thirty nine.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: And yeah, it's just it's just interesting. In the eighties
Speaker 2: they had people just old, you know, of a certain age,
Speaker 2: dressing more dowdy, you know, or you.
Speaker 1: Know what's funny though, this is this is a testament
Speaker 1: to I think me just getting older. I watched this
Speaker 1: and I'm I'm looking at at Hoite accident over here.
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, that's a nice looking hat.
Speaker 2: That's yeah. You know, it's funny you say that because well,
Speaker 2: I know, you do rock a fedora and you you
Speaker 2: kill it. I mean, certain people can pull that off.
Speaker 2: But actually, this very shot we're looking at right now.
Speaker 2: When I watched this two nights ago, I did think,
Speaker 2: I I it's it's just a shame that we lost
Speaker 2: the fedora. I agree, you know, just by and large
Speaker 2: of you know, going into the office and taking off
Speaker 2: your fedora. You know, there's something classy about it. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I don't know now, I don't have the subtitles on,
Speaker 2: but I think this gentleman is offering him frogert.
Speaker 1: Which is cursed.
Speaker 2: That's good. That's bad.
Speaker 1: The topping is made of potassium benzo weet, that's bad.
Speaker 1: I was watching this scene, you know, and you have
Speaker 1: Key Luke as grandfather.
Speaker 2: And I was kind of like, is this racist? You know,
Speaker 2: I was doing you know, it's funny. I've seen think
Speaker 2: pieces on it. Yeah, and some could feel yeah, I
Speaker 2: mean these are sort of very generalized, stereotypical sorts of imagery.
Speaker 2: We're seeing of an Asian man here with the pipe,
Speaker 2: and you know, maybe slightly mystical. And then I've seen
Speaker 2: other people saying that maybe this is an allegory about
Speaker 2: how American culture tries to exploit other cultures.
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, well I definitely had that thought watching this. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: this is like, this is just America coming in. It's like, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take this. It's like no, no, no, you absolutely shouldn't.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take it anyway.
Speaker 2: It is kind of funny. I mean, this boy's like, here,
Speaker 2: take it, and he's just like, yeah, all right, even
Speaker 2: though like your grandfather explicitly said he's like sure, a
Speaker 2: little kid, I'll take this for me.
Speaker 1: He doesn't say like, well no, Willie, we should check
Speaker 1: with your grandpa, you.
Speaker 2: Know exactly exactly.
Speaker 1: What's interesting though, is that especially you know, the way
Speaker 1: White Acton plays him. But I mean, rand Peltzer is
Speaker 1: so lovable, he's great, yeah right, yeah, and I think
Speaker 1: that helps.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, he seems well did you read that
Speaker 2: Pat Hinkle read for this role really ok? And they
Speaker 2: said he was really good. But you know, his character
Speaker 2: is sort of a failed inventor. Yeah, and they said
Speaker 2: that pat Hingle really leaned into the drama of that,
Speaker 2: and it just made it sort of sad, you know.
Speaker 2: And here this guy is a little bit I would
Speaker 2: he's not clumsy or goofy, but he's also you can
Speaker 2: see he's frustrated, but he kind of keeps his chin up.
Speaker 1: You know, right, he always sees the positive side.
Speaker 2: Exactly, And they leaned toward that, and I think that
Speaker 2: makes sense.
Speaker 1: I think that's the right tone.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And by the way, I mean, another fun fact
Speaker 2: about him is that he was a songwriter and he
Speaker 2: wrote three Dog Night's Joy to the World. Wow.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that.
Speaker 2: Actually incredible. Wow. Yeah. And I guess he had been
Speaker 2: in The Black Stallion before this, which is where they
Speaker 2: noticed him. Okay, okay, which I haven't seen that a
Speaker 2: long time. Did you ever show that to your kids?
Speaker 1: Never shown which I haven't seen it since the eighties? Probably?
Speaker 2: Yeah. I was gonna say, I feel like that was
Speaker 2: something they even showed us in school. But yeah, I
Speaker 2: speaking of a movie that's been lost a little bit
Speaker 2: to times.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, I think Francis Koppla produced that, didn't.
Speaker 2: He Uh oh? Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: and then uh oh shoot, you know the woman who
Speaker 2: rody Tea shoot him losing it, but she she wrote that,
Speaker 2: and then she was Lyssa Matheson. I was, I was
Speaker 2: thinking of the Yeah, anyway.
Speaker 1: This nice little shout out to Steven Spielberg.
Speaker 2: By the way, there's a lot of them. Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: it's it's kind of funny.
Speaker 1: They should call it Spielbergville, you know, it was kind
Speaker 1: of fun Well.
Speaker 2: Let's appreciate Hill Valley by the way. Here Hill Valley
Speaker 2: before it was Hill Valley, right, and then we got
Speaker 2: a fun old timey Matt painting there to extend it
Speaker 2: and make it look like a Norman Rockwell kind of picture.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 1: I was watching this with my eleven year old yesterday
Speaker 1: and I was like, do you recognize that's Hill Valley?
Speaker 1: And he goes, yeah, look there's the courthouse. So he
Speaker 1: he caught it.
Speaker 2: It's so iconic.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, now, I no matter what you watch, you
Speaker 2: can't help it. Yeah, I mean because that that clock
Speaker 2: tower becomes a character in that film, right. Yeah. I
Speaker 2: was noticing that this was split up between Universal this
Speaker 2: sort of town Square and then Warner Brothers because I
Speaker 2: had gone, and I mean again, I know it's because
Speaker 2: the tour and we had gone as a family around
Speaker 2: the holidays. They dress it up like stars Hollow from
Speaker 2: Gilmore Girls, so they make Luke's Cafe look like Luke's
Speaker 2: Cafe and whatever. But as we were going through there,
Speaker 2: and I hadn't seen Gilmour at the time, now I have,
Speaker 2: but and so I'm like, oh, I don't know any
Speaker 2: of this stuff. And then our tour guide's like, oh,
Speaker 2: and then that's the house where the old woman flies
Speaker 2: out the window in Gremlins, And I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: take out my phone snaps and now you're speaking my
Speaker 2: language exactly. Yeah. You know, I got to say here
Speaker 2: this isn't like an actual criticism, but watching this specific
Speaker 2: scene here where we have the snow covered car and
Speaker 2: the car won't start and Billy's like oh, and then
Speaker 2: his neighbor comes over and talks to him, I was like,
Speaker 2: you know, this doesn't look cold, like his jacket's kind
Speaker 2: of open. You know, they're not hunched in like that.
Speaker 2: It feels like may and southern California with some you know,
Speaker 2: you know, white something on the ground.
Speaker 1: That's really funny. We've lived it.
Speaker 2: We know, yeah, we know, we know.
Speaker 1: I was watching this. I was like, man, you know,
Speaker 1: Zach Gallaghan is really charming. He's such a good lead
Speaker 1: in this movie. I agree, Like it's a shame, like
Speaker 1: I mean, he's never stopped working, but it's a shame
Speaker 1: like he never really had a higher profile, like he's
Speaker 1: still like, oh, from Gremlins.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm a little surprised. Yeah, yeah, he's very
Speaker 2: very likable. Yeah, I think that.
Speaker 1: He you know, he's sort of a quintessential nineteen eighties
Speaker 1: lead character where he's kind of straight and narrow, good guy,
Speaker 1: and he embodies that well you know that that sort
Speaker 1: of that archetype.
Speaker 2: Yeah, hey, it's that guy.
Speaker 1: Dick Miller.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, Well he's in every Joe Dante movie I think, right,
Speaker 2: pretty much, not in every, but in many well not yeah, sorry,
Speaker 2: not literally.
Speaker 1: And he had a good year this year because he
Speaker 1: was also in a The Terminator in nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 2: That's right. Way we have to point out that marquee
Speaker 2: there in the theater, So Watch the Skies was the
Speaker 2: original title of Close Encounters, and a Boy's Life was
Speaker 2: the original title of et a Little Spielberg Easter in
Speaker 2: there you know what's funny. I remember when Ready Player
Speaker 2: one came out, people were like, is this too?
Speaker 1: You know what would make this scene work better? Sorry,
Speaker 1: I don't mean to interrupted. Yeah, if you had Power
Speaker 1: of Love playing in the background.
Speaker 2: Exactly, just that's the theme of this square. Just thenytime
Speaker 2: you walk through this square, no matter what movie by law,
Speaker 2: just I would love that anyway, Sorry you were saying, well, no,
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna say people were sort of wondering if
Speaker 2: Ready Player one was too self referential because the story
Speaker 2: inherently is a love letter to Spielberg's sort of movies,
Speaker 2: and then to have Spielberg make it was that too.
Speaker 2: Is he the right guy to make that film? Yeah?
Speaker 2: And it's just funny because I mean it's always sort
Speaker 2: of been that way, even nineteen forty one opens with
Speaker 2: a Jaws parody. You know, you got him producing this movie,
Speaker 2: and there's like a lot of Spielberg Ye nods in here,
Speaker 2: so sort of always been like that. So I was
Speaker 2: also going to say there was a story I came
Speaker 2: across a lot researching this movie, which was about Zach
Speaker 2: Gallaghan's audition with I guess he was reading opposite Phoebe
Speaker 2: Kate's and.
Speaker 1: And he was like hamahammahammahammada.
Speaker 2: Well sort of, he was very he was very Google eyes.
Speaker 2: And I guess the quote I saw everywhere I read
Speaker 2: about it was Spielberg was like, look at look at it,
Speaker 2: like he's in love with her. Like we've we've got
Speaker 2: to cast him. Okay, in that case, I should have
Speaker 2: played Billy, I know, yeah, like if it's very difficult.
Speaker 2: That was before they yelled action. Yeah. I mean Phoebe Kates,
Speaker 2: she's just iconic, iconic eighties beautiful, just yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: fast times. Obviously, it was two years before this, and
Speaker 2: I guess that was another thing with the with Warner Brothers.
Speaker 2: They thought, is she wholesome enough for this role? Because
Speaker 2: you know, her role had you know, fast times and
Speaker 2: fast times. But she's she's great in this. Yeah. Married
Speaker 2: to Kevin Klein, which I think, Yeah, she just like
Speaker 2: stopped acting, yeah, yeah, to raise her family, which good.
Speaker 1: Good for her.
Speaker 2: I say, you know, yeah, if.
Speaker 1: You can, if you can get out of the hellscape
Speaker 1: that is Hollywood and just you know, be content.
Speaker 2: Yeah, not feel any pressure. You just live your life
Speaker 2: the way you choose to live it exactly. You know
Speaker 2: this is interesting. This. Uh, there's if I remember correctly,
Speaker 2: there's sort of inference about what's going on and what
Speaker 2: miss Deegal does in this town here. It's not quite explicit.
Speaker 2: We just know that she's not very forgiving to people
Speaker 2: who owe her money. I think later we see a
Speaker 2: real estate sign.
Speaker 1: Yeah, basically she's trying to sell the land to someone
Speaker 1: like developer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's like a Mister Potter esque character. And it's
Speaker 2: it's funny because I was reading that the original cut
Speaker 2: of this so this movie is about an hour forty five,
Speaker 2: The original cut was over two and a half hours,
Speaker 2: and I was like, what could that possibly be? And
Speaker 2: basically you read that there was a lot more story,
Speaker 2: you know, even like Judge Reinhold's character had an entire
Speaker 2: arcy he.
Speaker 1: Just disappears after like the fifteen minute mark, right.
Speaker 2: Well, and I was gonna say that it's sort of
Speaker 2: to me shows that they made the correct decision. I agree,
Speaker 2: where there are certain movies where you think, well, why
Speaker 2: did that guy just show up and not come back?
Speaker 2: And they really did have it seems like a lot
Speaker 2: of story going on in this town and these characters
Speaker 2: and the way that they interacted and growth and whatnot.
Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, at this movie,
Speaker 2: what you want to see is Gremlin's in the snow
Speaker 2: in little clothes, singing Christmas Carol. That's right, Like I
Speaker 2: think they they got that, and so they whittled it
Speaker 2: down to exactly what we wanted to see for exactly
Speaker 2: the right amount of time we wanted to see it,
Speaker 2: and we don't miss Judge Reinhold's characters, Catharsis later in
Speaker 2: the film.
Speaker 1: You know, now you can you can see the deleted footage.
Speaker 1: I believe it's it's online.
Speaker 2: I'd like to see it.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen it, so this too, I mean, Judge
Speaker 1: Ryan Hold the same year as Beverly Hills Cop So,
Speaker 1: which was the number one movie of eighty four. I
Speaker 1: think this was the fourth highest grossing movie of nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty four. Yeah, man, I'll tell you it was.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 1: The hype train was real because I remember I was
Speaker 1: a kid, and you know that summer when we came
Speaker 1: to the States, you know, we got Gremlin's toys, and
Speaker 1: I remember when I was at school, I checked out
Speaker 1: the Gremlins story books and everything, Like I fully I
Speaker 1: knew the world. I had read the novelization. Hmm, like
Speaker 1: it was very, very culturally ubiquitous. There's Chuck Jones, by
Speaker 1: the way, on the right.
Speaker 2: I love it. He's basically like, you're gonna make it someday, Billy,
Speaker 2: and the camera just kind of moves past, and like,
Speaker 2: I love it. So I guess him and Joe Dante
Speaker 2: are friends.
Speaker 1: They were friends, and that was at least part of
Speaker 1: the reason why Joe Dante directed Looney Tunes Back in
Speaker 1: Action was Yeah, because Chuck Jones before he died, was
Speaker 1: not thrilled with space jam. Okay, like the way that
Speaker 1: the Loony Tunes were characterized, Yeah, he said it. It
Speaker 1: sort of it betrayed their essence, even though I believe
Speaker 1: Dante is a producer on that. And so Joe Dante
Speaker 1: had said, like he took Onloney Tunes Back in Action
Speaker 1: as a way of protecting Chuck's legacy.
Speaker 2: You know that rings a bell because I think I
Speaker 2: remember Chuck Jones saying that bugs Bunny wouldn't call on
Speaker 2: anyone for help, right, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, And the
Speaker 2: plot is him, of course, calling on Michael Jordan.
Speaker 1: Which of all people, of course, he would call on
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan for help.
Speaker 2: You know. Yeah, yeah, which, by the let me just
Speaker 2: say Looty Tunes Back in Action, which is a movie
Speaker 2: that Dante is basically disowned.
Speaker 1: It's not a bad movie. It's actually pretty decent.
Speaker 2: That's my memory of it. I've only seen it once,
Speaker 2: but I remember it's not gonna live on like a
Speaker 2: Roger Rabbit or something. But if you like the Looney Tunes,
Speaker 2: it's fun.
Speaker 1: And I will say in terms of like the marriage
Speaker 1: of live action and animation, it it easily competes with
Speaker 1: with what Roger Rabbit accomplished. Yeah, yeah, so yeah, that's
Speaker 1: one of those like it's been lost to the mists
Speaker 1: of time. But but you know, anybody listening to this,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a decent movie. I think if you
Speaker 1: like the Looney Tunes characters, you'll enjoy it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. By the way, I have to point this, Oh,
Speaker 2: this is funny a Chris Columbus tick in his writing,
Speaker 2: which is just like something around a household getting knocked over.
Speaker 2: So you think a home alone, and you know they
Speaker 2: always bump that little statue out front, and here we
Speaker 2: have the stords falling off the wall. That's hey, there's uh,
Speaker 2: it's a wonderful life yeph which also features in a
Speaker 2: lot of Chris Columbus movies. But I wanted to point
Speaker 2: out real quick this little moment in the bar that
Speaker 2: I really loved, and then I read about it later.
Speaker 2: I guess Phoebe Kates was talking to Zach Gallaghan and saying,
Speaker 2: you know, when you're acting, you always want to give
Speaker 2: your character something interesting to do. And so then she
Speaker 2: picked something up off the ground and put it on
Speaker 2: his shoulder. And then in that scene where Judge Reinhold
Speaker 2: is hitting on her, she turns to Billy and then
Speaker 2: picks that little thing off his shoulder, which is a
Speaker 2: really great character moment because you see where her you know,
Speaker 2: loyalty lies or yeah, that's creations and it's very sweet.
Speaker 2: It immediately in my mind makes me think, oh, I
Speaker 2: love these two together.
Speaker 1: That's great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's pretty smart.
Speaker 1: So this movie Yes, started out Sorry as you're talking
Speaker 1: about Chris Columbus, it was a spec script that he wrote, Yes,
Speaker 1: and it was like hard are horror, Yes, Like the
Speaker 1: mother gets to Capital, she gets decapitated. They eat the gremlins,
Speaker 1: eat Barney, Yes, eat the dog.
Speaker 2: I guess there's like a scene in McDonald's where you
Speaker 2: see them inside the McDonald's, but then when it cuts inside,
Speaker 2: they're not eating the food, they're eating the customers, right,
Speaker 2: And it's so.
Speaker 1: This is you know, we say this a lot, but like,
Speaker 1: you know, this is the Spielberg of it, all right, Yes,
Speaker 1: and so many times his instincts are so dead on
Speaker 1: where he's like, this is not this is not that movie, because.
Speaker 2: Then you do do that and you could end up
Speaker 2: with like ghoolies. I was thinking exactly that. That's exactly
Speaker 2: what I was thinking, Like that box at the video
Speaker 2: store where you're like, what what is that? Yes?
Speaker 1: It well and the other thing as written originally, Gizmo
Speaker 1: becomes Spike mm hmm. And Spielberg again, man, like the
Speaker 1: guy just understand just instinctively. He's like, no, audiences are
Speaker 1: not gonna.
Speaker 2: Want that, yep, yep. And then I mean along that train,
Speaker 2: it was like, sorry, did I say Spike stripe Stripe? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: but at the end it was going to be Billy
Speaker 2: who saved the day, which you can kind of understand
Speaker 2: as a writer. Yeah, but Spielberg is like, no, it
Speaker 2: has to be Gizmo, Like these are his people. He's
Speaker 2: gonna stop his his people, and I was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: his instincts, like you said, and it makes sense, you know.
Speaker 2: I again, from a writer perspective, I do sort of
Speaker 2: see the friend turned enemy. I can see that version
Speaker 2: where Gizmo becomes stripe, but he's so cute we don't
Speaker 2: want to lose him. Yeah, I know it's and it
Speaker 2: is kind of nice then that he's the one who
Speaker 2: takes care of everything at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: even though he didn't start it, but he's the one
Speaker 2: who will stop it. I mean, this, this design is
Speaker 2: just undeniable. It's genius is genius.
Speaker 1: I mean it is iconic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, baited breathway from the show's face here, but he
Speaker 2: means who did not want a gizmo after watching this movie?
Speaker 2: And I still want a gizmo? Yeah? And then of
Speaker 2: course Howie Mandel as his squeaky little voice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, doing a dry run for Bobby's world.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, And I guess I read somewhere. I don't
Speaker 2: know if this is you know, sort of becoming legend
Speaker 2: or whatever making things up, But the rule of light
Speaker 2: not having them in light had to do with making
Speaker 2: it easier to hide cables and strengths and puppets interest,
Speaker 2: which makes sense.
Speaker 1: I mean it does, but also like it's so intrinsic
Speaker 1: to the story, right, like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well it helps too. Yeah, just you know,
Speaker 2: it makes you wonder what they're going to do on
Speaker 2: the fourth of July, like the poor thing has to
Speaker 2: be left in a room with the blind shut, you know.
Speaker 2: But it does also allow the movie to be sort
Speaker 2: of moody, right, creepy. You know, it's so cute. Oh
Speaker 2: my gosh, she's so adorable.
Speaker 1: Man, practical puppets.
Speaker 2: You know, there's just something magical there.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: I know they're limiting like in a lot of ways,
Speaker 2: but it's just so much more effective seeing him curled
Speaker 2: up into his dad right there with that little scared
Speaker 2: expression on his face shaking, you know. Yeah yeah. And
Speaker 2: you know, they could do a sequel now and and
Speaker 2: have thousands of gremlins, you know, but it seems like
Speaker 2: that was sort of the point of contention where it's like, no, no,
Speaker 2: if we do this, we need it to.
Speaker 1: Have the.
Speaker 2: You know, the same sort of tactility and the puppetry
Speaker 2: and the originals. And I don't know, I know they
Speaker 2: did do an animated series that was on Yeah, I think.
Speaker 1: It's still going. Yeah, the Secrets of the Mugway. See
Speaker 1: what's interesting If you look at Gizmo, there's something vaguely
Speaker 1: evilish on his face.
Speaker 2: You know, I noticed that mostly in this scene. He
Speaker 2: looks different in this scene.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well I think at this point there were still
Speaker 1: like it was it was the stripe version.
Speaker 2: Ah, that makes a little sense, right, yeah, because later
Speaker 2: or for most of the film, he doesn't have that
Speaker 2: little i don't know what you'd call it, like a
Speaker 2: sharper sort of expression on his eyes. Here where.
Speaker 1: Now now, I should say. In the novelization my recollection,
Speaker 1: I read this a while ago, but they they explained
Speaker 1: that the mug why were created by aliens. Oh interesting,
Speaker 1: and that what they found was that only one out
Speaker 1: of every ten thousand remained you know, docile and cute.
Speaker 1: Oh and so they were you know, disposed of, And
Speaker 1: somehow Gizmo ends up on Earth. And I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: I don't like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it kind of makes me think of that the
Speaker 2: ancient Aliens meme. That guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's like aliens, Like, I don't need Gizmo to
Speaker 1: be an alien. I need Gizmo to be We don't
Speaker 1: know what gizmo is he's just Gizmo.
Speaker 2: I kind of agree. I'd rather it feel a little more.
Speaker 2: That just feels like a catch all aliens, something that
Speaker 2: can explained, Like I'd rather be like, well, he comes
Speaker 2: from a remote area, been untouched by humans, you know,
Speaker 2: messing with them, and they know how to exist and
Speaker 2: take care of themselves. But when you bring them, you know,
Speaker 2: into people who can't be responsible, this is what you get.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, just people ruining everything.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a great shot right there with the juice
Speaker 4: the juice maker just looming and like.
Speaker 2: You'd rather not use it.
Speaker 1: It's great.
Speaker 2: Yeah. This is one of those things too where you
Speaker 2: imagine like you want to get it right because you
Speaker 2: don't want to have to reset this set after they
Speaker 2: basically blow up all this orange juice everywhere. That's right.
Speaker 2: Do you recognize that glass, by the way, That is
Speaker 2: a very nineteen eighties glass. I remember a lot of
Speaker 2: my foods. Yep. I have definitely drunk out of that glass.
Speaker 2: Corey Feldman, very young Corey Feldman here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well this is what got him the gig on Goonies.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Apparently he auditioned for E t Okay and I
Speaker 2: thought I had heard somewhere that as they were developing
Speaker 2: the script there was an extra kid, and they decided
Speaker 2: to just make all the focus on Elliott, okay, And
Speaker 2: so then they you know, went with Henry Thomas, and
Speaker 2: Spielberg promised Feldman like, well, we'll get something for you
Speaker 2: because he saw there was something there, and then put
Speaker 2: him in Gremlins and of course he had Goonies and
Speaker 2: stand by me. Yeah, I mean he's you know, the eighties,
Speaker 2: one of the greats.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's in he's in Burps also.
Speaker 2: Right, yes, that's right. Well, wow, I didn't think about that,
Speaker 2: the Dante connection. Yeah, they must have hit it off.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's quite young here, but I mean, isn't
Speaker 2: that funny. It's less than a decade, but he seems
Speaker 2: so much older in the Burbs than here. Yeah, weird,
Speaker 2: really young. Yeah. I thought I read somewhere else and
Speaker 2: I couldn't see it. I only saw it in one spot.
Speaker 2: But they said that Billy was originally going to be
Speaker 2: a little younger, and so that's where the Feldman as
Speaker 2: sort of his buddy comes in, because here it just
Speaker 2: seems like, you know, he's Billy is what probably like
Speaker 2: twenty or something. Maybe having the job he has, and.
Speaker 1: I assume he's like eighteen, yeah yeah, out of high school, right,
Speaker 1: because he goes back to visit that teacher. Yeah so
Speaker 1: just out of high school. Yeah, yeah, said. I always
Speaker 1: liked the relationship. It's like it's like a cool older brother,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I remember having people like that in my neighborhood
Speaker 2: where it was like, oh yeah, the kid was older,
Speaker 2: was like nice, and you kind of looked up to him. Yeah. Oh,
Speaker 2: we didn't get to it earlier. But there's that moment
Speaker 2: where Billy reflects the mirror on him and then the
Speaker 2: the light makes Gizmo fall off, and then we see
Speaker 2: his legs kicking in the garbage can. And it's fun
Speaker 2: watching the practical ways they switch out the puppet, you know.
Speaker 2: So the camera is sort of pushing in on his
Speaker 2: little legs and then it tilts up to Billy, and
Speaker 2: so you can do like a little Texas switch, right,
Speaker 2: Like you leave the leg kicking robot down there and
Speaker 2: then you pick up a different one into frame, you know.
Speaker 2: So it's like, well, this one does wiggles its legs,
Speaker 2: this one has expressions, this one. It's very clever how
Speaker 2: they execute all this you know, and this is another
Speaker 2: thing too. I was thinking about, well, you know the.
Speaker 1: Rule, it'd be funny right here if Billy just went
Speaker 1: ape shit on God damn it, you idiot.
Speaker 2: You know you're done, Yeah, get out. Yeah, only in
Speaker 2: this scene.
Speaker 1: He's totally mellow the whole to the movie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is kind of fun. You know, these sort
Speaker 2: of like I mean, clearly, that's like a hole in
Speaker 2: the desk and like a balloon covered in fur or something.
Speaker 1: See. I was looking at these comics. I was like, man,
Speaker 1: there's some vintage comics. I was like, oh wait, those
Speaker 1: were like present day comics back then. M really, I'm vintage,
Speaker 1: not the comics.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I guess that was a much bigger plot point
Speaker 2: in the longer version about him being a cartoonist. Yeah,
Speaker 2: here's just flavor. But I works for me. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: think the.
Speaker 1: World is flashed out enough that the characters aren't just
Speaker 1: ciphers by the time we get to all the you know,
Speaker 1: all the the gremlininius gremlininess of it all.
Speaker 2: You know, we talk about this sometimes, but you know,
Speaker 2: with animals in movies, they don't know they're in a movie.
Speaker 2: You know, they're just standing somewhere there happens to be
Speaker 2: camera and weird things are happening around them, and it's
Speaker 2: kind of funny watching this dog look at these things.
Speaker 1: What is he thinking?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you gotta wonder, you know.
Speaker 1: I do love the when we get like the reaction
Speaker 1: shot of.
Speaker 2: Gizmo, oh like nervous.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like I mean you get a such a clear
Speaker 1: sense of what a puppet is feeling, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh here he has. It's kind of like despair
Speaker 2: because he knows, yeah, he knows what's coming. It's kind
Speaker 2: of funny how quickly Feldman's character is like, oh yeah, yeah, amazing,
Speaker 2: just seem like a gizmo right there, isn't that great? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Look at that.
Speaker 2: He's so expressive.
Speaker 1: I know, it's amazing.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, this is hoyite accident here, Like this moment here,
Speaker 2: there's just the right amount of sadness. Like as a
Speaker 2: grow I don't even know what would have clocked with
Speaker 2: me as much as a kid, but as a grown
Speaker 2: up here I feel a little bad form yeah right,
Speaker 2: things not working in front of his son, and but
Speaker 2: then here, you know, he picks himself back up. Hey hey, hey,
Speaker 2: check this out, and he's all excited about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think there's something sort of there. There's a
Speaker 1: there's a stick toitiveness that is either admirable or depressing.
Speaker 2: He's still okay. On that note. I never really thought
Speaker 2: about it very much. But there's that scene where the
Speaker 2: mother is chopping I think onions, I think, and she's
Speaker 2: watching It's a Wonderful Life or It's Potatoes, I actually
Speaker 2: can't tell. But she seems sad, right, and she blames
Speaker 2: it on the movie. I thought it was maybe the onions,
Speaker 2: but it seems like she's really internalizing something which I
Speaker 2: think is their life. Yeah, you know, and I never
Speaker 2: realized how kind of sad that is still actually this
Speaker 2: recent viewing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I I again, it's like at forty five,
Speaker 1: if you're still trying to have the bathroom, buddy cell,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, maybe maybe you need to rethink your
Speaker 1: choices a little bit, you.
Speaker 2: Know, yeah, which which is good motivation. Then when he realizes, well,
Speaker 2: if we could sell this the Peltzer pet, yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: it makes sense. That's is that gizmo playing the trumpet
Speaker 2: there really happy under the tree because they throw something
Speaker 2: at him, I think, acting like jerks. That's why I
Speaker 2: thought it was. Yes, I think so yeah, I wasn't certain,
Speaker 2: but it is so adorable. How happy he is playing
Speaker 2: that little trumpet.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's that's gizmo.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, and he's so sad.
Speaker 1: There's some mean.
Speaker 2: Even that, I mean the acting on those puppets where
Speaker 2: he's like looking over like that I hurt his feelings good,
Speaker 2: And then he goes back to the video game like
Speaker 2: just so simple but so expressive, and it was it's
Speaker 2: smart to because the others they go way further where
Speaker 2: than in part two, where they you know, you have
Speaker 2: a googly eyed gremlin, you have a female gremlin, you
Speaker 2: have but this but this one they do sort of
Speaker 2: look similar. But it's nice. You have Stripe. It's like,
Speaker 2: and I've noticed it. It seems like adr because you
Speaker 2: never see him actually say it with his mouth, but
Speaker 2: he'll be like, oh that's Stripe. That's the leader, you know,
Speaker 2: and it gives you you can identify it. You know.
Speaker 1: People give this sequel a lot of shit, you know,
Speaker 1: for you know, obviously we got a whole key and
Speaker 1: peel sketch out of it, right like all the crazy
Speaker 1: ideas that they had for it, and and Joe Dante
Speaker 1: has said is like, no, that's that's very accurate, like
Speaker 1: in terms of how they came up with the ideas
Speaker 1: for part two. That's hilarious. But like, the truth is,
Speaker 1: the second one is not that far removed from this
Speaker 1: one tonally.
Speaker 2: Hey, you know, I don't you know it's funny because
Speaker 2: I think this one it feels a little bit more
Speaker 2: in reality, except like, yes.
Speaker 1: Well sorry, I don't mean to interrupt you, but yeah,
Speaker 1: in terms of the human character sort of acting like
Speaker 1: regular human beings, yes, yes, yes, But in terms of
Speaker 1: the gremlins and the way they are sort of cartoonish.
Speaker 2: Yes, and that they have little clothes that are tailored
Speaker 2: to them, and you have like the flasher like gremlin.
Speaker 2: Where did he get that trench coat exactly? So it's
Speaker 2: like that, take that part of it, yeah, and then
Speaker 2: say let's run with that, right. Yeah. Yeah, it's funny
Speaker 2: because I mean I'd seen this one numerous times before
Speaker 2: I saw the second one. I think I found the
Speaker 2: second one a little jarring in just how much of
Speaker 2: a Looney Tunes cartoon it is, and I would like
Speaker 2: to revisit it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like it, and I remember so I this
Speaker 1: movie came out in eighty four. I think I saw
Speaker 1: it in eighty seven is my recollection visiting Toronto and
Speaker 1: my cousins Harris and Humsa who listened to the show.
Speaker 1: I watched it at their house, but I knew the
Speaker 1: story very very well because I had read the book
Speaker 1: and you know, I knew it. And then you know,
Speaker 1: Gremlin's Two was what ninety right, yeah, so relatively shortly thereafter,
Speaker 1: and so I wasn't watching it with like I remember
Speaker 1: watching it and being like, oh, this is funny, and
Speaker 1: I wasn't like, how dare they be funny? I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's funny, you know, right, So I just sort of
Speaker 1: onboarded it. Maybe just because I was young, I don't know,
Speaker 1: you know, but I've always I've always enjoyed it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I would approach it differently now, especially
Speaker 2: you know Joe Dante letting his freak flag fly, you know,
Speaker 2: and like following his passions and his love for you know,
Speaker 2: Looney Tunes cartoons and things like that. I think, for me,
Speaker 2: what I love about this, and we talk about this
Speaker 2: a lot, is why all these eighties movies really appeal
Speaker 2: to me is I love this magic in your own
Speaker 2: backyard type of yarn. And this movie feels a little
Speaker 2: bit more like that, whereas the second one feels like
Speaker 2: a slightened, heightened reality, you know, with the futuristic building
Speaker 2: and sort of the funny hats that they wear as
Speaker 2: employees there, and a little more cynical. Yeah, a little
Speaker 2: more cynical, a little more fantastical, just reality itself. But
Speaker 2: I think knowing that, so, I think I was jarred
Speaker 2: when I went from this one to that one. But
Speaker 2: I think if I now that I know, that, I
Speaker 2: might enjoy it for its own personality. Yeah more Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, I watched this yesterday with my eleven year old
Speaker 1: and he's like, oh, can we watch the second one tomorrow?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, yeah, so I guess I'll be watching it.
Speaker 2: In the couple. Actually, I would love to know what
Speaker 2: he thinks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like, I think that the I think that there
Speaker 1: is a in the second one, you know, where you
Speaker 1: have like the people who saved the day are Billy
Speaker 1: mister Futterman, right, So there is sort of an and
Speaker 1: implied like, oh, small town values are still gonna gonna
Speaker 1: beat out you know, all them them them city folk, you.
Speaker 2: Know, sure, sure, sure, Oh that's interesting. Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 2: can see that as a take definitely. Well, here we're
Speaker 2: getting a little bit where we're having this guy, you know,
Speaker 2: the Futterman, talking about World War two, right, and that's
Speaker 2: kind of where the notion of gremlins began. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: here's here's my question.
Speaker 1: Were those actual gremlins like in this movie?
Speaker 2: Oh that's a good that's a good point. Are they
Speaker 2: even gremlins or is it appropriating?
Speaker 1: Exactly right, that's my question.
Speaker 2: Yeah, to whatever these little moms.
Speaker 1: That's what I see.
Speaker 2: That's what I want.
Speaker 1: You know how they keep talking about the USS Indianapolis
Speaker 1: movie for a Jaws like a prequel. Yes, I want
Speaker 1: the mister Futterman prequel with the Gremlins.
Speaker 2: Zachy. That could be a really fun movie. That could
Speaker 2: be you know, speaking of one of those things. I mean,
Speaker 2: obviously i'd prefer in the theaters, but when they were
Speaker 2: trying to come up with stuff straight to Max or whatever, dude,
Speaker 2: there you go, there you go, like this World War
Speaker 2: two adventure and then you know, fighting the gremlins. I
Speaker 2: would love that.
Speaker 1: And and have have that adventure somehow intersect with the
Speaker 1: USS Indianapolis prequel.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, yeah, it's connect all the universes. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: a Spielberg universe. That's right, yeah, but I mean to
Speaker 2: get specific, I guess it's in the when there was
Speaker 2: mechanical failure with aircraft or machinery in the war. I
Speaker 2: guess it sort of began in the RAF. Yes, that's
Speaker 2: the UK, but they would blame like, oh, there must
Speaker 2: be a gremlin in the machine. Yeah, you know, messing
Speaker 2: with the internal machinery making it mess up. And so
Speaker 2: that's where and then roll dall real quick right.
Speaker 1: There where she's sorry, I don't mean to cut you off.
Speaker 1: She's like, I don't celebrate Christmas. He's like, what are
Speaker 1: you Hindu or something?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I know. It's like, yeah, he's very as sweet
Speaker 2: as he is, he's a little insensitive in this scene.
Speaker 2: I mean not just for that that specifically, but just
Speaker 2: like what's better you know, you know.
Speaker 1: It has little things that like it's like that SNL
Speaker 1: with the with the the old p S A S.
Speaker 1: Where he's like smoking that's gay, you know, right right right?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, like how immediately dated certain things are from. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but it's like you would think a sensitive person would say, oh,
Speaker 2: well why is that You're right, what's the matter with you?
Speaker 2: Hindu or something? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's hilarious, but this is really sweet.
Speaker 2: He's so like, I don't know, look at her, look
Speaker 2: at They're both freaking adorable in this scene, so like yeah,
Speaker 2: wide and look at that start out.
Speaker 1: And then out of nowhere he's like, can you take
Speaker 1: off your shirt? Because he watched Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
Speaker 2: And then Warner Brothers is.
Speaker 1: Like, see like a poor phosy kids.
Speaker 2: Good Times so sweet anyway, so yes, but Roll Dahl
Speaker 2: was in the RAF and then he so he would
Speaker 2: know this whole sort of like joking around that people
Speaker 2: would say about Gremlins, and then he wrote a book
Speaker 2: called The Gremlins, and I guess at some point Walt
Speaker 2: Disney wanted to make it into a movie.
Speaker 1: Wow, okay yeah.
Speaker 2: And then there's a Bugs Bunny cartoon about Gremlins on
Speaker 2: an airport.
Speaker 1: Dad, I remember seeing and I saw that after this
Speaker 1: movie and I was like, that's not what gremlins look like.
Speaker 2: Uh huh. Yeah. Yeah. And this actor I don't have
Speaker 2: his name right off the top. See.
Speaker 1: Now this is interesting because like you know, with missus Deegal,
Speaker 1: like the movie is setting her up to get her up.
Speaker 1: And yes, with mister Hanson, you know, the whole needle thing.
Speaker 1: It's supposed to be like ironic death. Yeah, and I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: it's sound like he's.
Speaker 2: Torturing the guy, you know, you know it's funny because yeah,
Speaker 2: he never comes across his sinister and I had read
Speaker 2: I don't know if they filmed it or if it
Speaker 2: was in the script, but it was originally going to
Speaker 2: be he had a bunch of needles sticking out of
Speaker 2: his face and he was dead. And instead what we
Speaker 2: get is we don't even see his face. He's on
Speaker 2: his front and we see a needle in his butt,
Speaker 2: which feels appropriate to the tone of this movie. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but yeah, yeah, although it does, I do they do
Speaker 2: make it look kind of like it hurts the poor
Speaker 2: little guy. He's like, what are you doing sticking that
Speaker 2: in his arm? And you think about it, that is
Speaker 2: a long needle for as big as that little maglay is.
Speaker 2: This is a great little twist here with the midnight thing. Yeah,
Speaker 2: checking the clock, and then you realize later that they
Speaker 2: ripped the cord. Look at that. I love that. That's
Speaker 2: so creepy, the way they're watching him. Their heads are
Speaker 2: all turning in sync, and look at the whispering and
Speaker 2: the conspiring it's so good.
Speaker 1: I mean, the whole after Midnight thing doesn't make a
Speaker 1: lick of sense.
Speaker 2: Which I guess is what two sort of gets into, Like, right,
Speaker 2: let's just have fun with this and make fun of
Speaker 2: the premise itself. Yes, that's right, because characters in that
Speaker 2: film are even like, well, wait a minute, what if
Speaker 2: you're on an air it's always midnight somewhere. Yeah, you're
Speaker 2: crossing a time zone and it's like yeah, or what
Speaker 2: if you have something stuck in your teeth and then
Speaker 2: it happens. It's but you know, it's I don't know.
Speaker 2: Maybe nowadays, if this movie came out, people would immediately
Speaker 2: pick it apart on TikTok or something. But there's something like,
Speaker 2: when you're a kid or whatever, you just okay, not
Speaker 2: after Midnight, got it? You just go with it.
Speaker 1: I don't know, No, you know, well, you are right.
Speaker 1: But it also just makes me think, how like this
Speaker 1: movie came out at the perfect time for it to
Speaker 1: have this kind of real cultural sway. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: like I don't know that could happen today, like something
Speaker 1: brand new, not like Gremlin's the Legacy sequel or whatever.
Speaker 1: But just like.
Speaker 2: Something new like this.
Speaker 1: I don't know that it would sort of capture the
Speaker 1: people's fancy the way this did.
Speaker 2: And I don't know where that is. You know, I've
Speaker 2: complained for years, probably about like the duration of the
Speaker 2: existence of this podcast, but I feel like movie aliens
Speaker 2: are less and less iconic, and I think it's almost
Speaker 2: because there are no limitations. Yeah, you know, so then
Speaker 2: they make them super fanciful, and then they are less
Speaker 2: memorable than your ET's or your whatever or your gizmos.
Speaker 2: And I don't know. Yeah, it's hard to imagine a
Speaker 2: new movie coming out in a new creature and it
Speaker 2: taking the world by storm the way that this did,
Speaker 2: but that that could there's a lot of factors to that.
Speaker 2: I mean, the world has just changed the way that
Speaker 2: we take in this.
Speaker 1: Is Invasion of the Body Snatcher's right here that Billy's watching.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I don't know. You know. Another interesting fact
Speaker 2: is that this was really on the same day as
Speaker 2: Ghostbusters in nineteen eighty four. Oh interesting, Yeah, same day,
Speaker 2: same day, and Ghostbusters ended up doing better than this. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm kind of curious because yes, I know,
Speaker 2: there was the like I said, this was fourth place
Speaker 2: for the year. I know it is. It must have been,
Speaker 2: because I think it was Beverly Hills cop Temple of
Speaker 2: Doom somewhere in there, and then probably Ghostbusters than this.
Speaker 2: But it's funny, like these sort of family movies, kids movies,
Speaker 2: but there are these horror comedies that kind of push
Speaker 2: it a little bit. Yeah, you know, like that's what
Speaker 2: we were subject to growing up.
Speaker 1: Well, and of course, famously this movie and Temple of
Speaker 1: Doom were what led to the creation of the PG thirteen.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, yeah, although you imagine that leap like PG
Speaker 2: to R.
Speaker 1: Right, I mean that's well a couple of thus number one.
Speaker 1: I was watching this yesterday and I'm I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: it's pretty tame.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Really, the only gross thing is with the mother
Speaker 2: right right, with the microwave, and I guess.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there were folks who were worried that kids would
Speaker 1: put their pets in a microwave, right, And and I'm
Speaker 1: not discounting that that's a possibility, But I'm also like, well,
Speaker 1: kids love their pets. Gremlins are the bad guys.
Speaker 2: Like yeah, yeah, yeah, And that plays into the thing
Speaker 2: that I keep saying that I like too, where it's
Speaker 2: like what if there's a monster You're not on another
Speaker 2: planet and you don't have a proton pack or something
Speaker 2: like that, Right, Like, what if you were in your
Speaker 2: kitchen and you know something, you understand there's a monster,
Speaker 2: so you shove it in the microwave like you would
Speaker 2: everything else. And like, I love using things that we
Speaker 2: understand against them, supernatural things. That's always delighted.
Speaker 1: Well, just this scene that we were just seeing right
Speaker 1: there with with the you know, Glenn Turman has the
Speaker 1: gremlin egg in his office and you know like it
Speaker 1: it the normalcy of just like high school classroom juxtaposed
Speaker 1: with this this you know hr Giger looking thing.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, exactly, yeah, yeah, but yes, I mean yeah,
Speaker 2: the PG thirteen thing you can't imagine. I guess I
Speaker 2: did watch the trailer for this, and they don't reveal
Speaker 2: the look of the creatures.
Speaker 1: By the way, right behind, we got a quite accident there.
Speaker 1: That's Jerry Goldsmith. There's Steven Spielberg right.
Speaker 2: In front of him. Yeah, and then there's a funny
Speaker 2: gag with the time machine in the background.
Speaker 1: Yep, yep, right there, you see it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And so I.
Speaker 1: Don't I want to get back to what you're saying,
Speaker 1: but with Jerry Goldsmith there, we have to say, this
Speaker 1: is such a great Goldsmith score.
Speaker 2: It's the perfect tone.
Speaker 1: You know what occurred to me listening to it is
Speaker 1: it's the most John Williams score that Jerry Goldsmith has
Speaker 1: ever done.
Speaker 2: Oh interesting, it's.
Speaker 1: It feels very in terms of orchestration. He was almost
Speaker 1: like inspired by the spielbergness to be very Williams.
Speaker 2: You know, well, you know that could be Spielberg pushing
Speaker 2: for that because I know when Zamechis talks about making
Speaker 2: back to the Future, he wanted to use Alan Silvestri
Speaker 2: because he had used him on Romancing the Stone. They
Speaker 2: had hit it off. But Spielberg was like, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: you need like a score, you need like a like
Speaker 2: He was very specific about what the score needed sound like.
Speaker 2: And then Silvestry did what he did, and Spielberg was like, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: that's fine, so maybe here. Yeah, he was like, no, no,
Speaker 2: it's gonna sound like this. Although we do get these
Speaker 2: random with Missus Diegal, especially this very early eighties synth sound, yeah,
Speaker 2: which doesn't match the rest of the score.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it well, and I suppose well it works in
Speaker 1: the movie. Yeah, but it doesn't listen well if you
Speaker 1: just if you put the album on, you.
Speaker 2: Know, yeah, oh we should note this. The school movie
Speaker 2: they're showing here is a Hemo the Magnificent Okay, which
Speaker 2: I guess sort of kicked off an era of these
Speaker 2: sort of educational films that incorporated animation and sort of
Speaker 2: the style that we see parodied a lot on Wow, Okay,
Speaker 2: Simpsons and things we grew up with. Yeah. Yeah, you
Speaker 2: know who wrote and directed this school film, Hemo the
Speaker 2: Magnificent Tell me Frank Capra Wow wrote and directed that.
Speaker 1: So a couple couple of Capra images in this movie.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, and mel Blank does a voice in it,
Speaker 2: and June foray and that is really random wow, weirdly
Speaker 2: iconic little educational films. Yeah. Yeah, I mean this stuff
Speaker 2: looks so good, these like sacks opening up. I love
Speaker 2: how there's lights inside, even though that makes no sense, right,
Speaker 2: but I love it. I mean, you don't question it. No, no,
Speaker 2: the poor little gizmo watching on inside that helmet. But no,
Speaker 2: But I mean again, I just I don't want to
Speaker 2: gloss over the whole PG. Thirteen noess of this where
Speaker 2: it's Yeah, in the advertising, they didn't show the creatures.
Speaker 2: It's from Steven Spielberg, who just made et.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: The poster basically shows a boy holding a box with
Speaker 2: these furry little hands sticking out of it. And so apparently,
Speaker 2: you know a lot of parents take their five year
Speaker 2: olds to see this and are like, good Lord.
Speaker 1: Good generational trauma.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And then also the same Summer Temple of Doom,
Speaker 2: which I think to this day remains shocking in its violence.
Speaker 1: Yes, like that one is easier to understand. I guess
Speaker 1: what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, And so a lot of upset parents. So
Speaker 2: Steven Spielberg himself proposes PG. Thirteen to the MPAA.
Speaker 1: See, I think I think Spielberg sho should have been
Speaker 1: like Michael Jordan, been like f them kids.
Speaker 2: They got to learn sometime. Yeah, exactly about lava sacrifice.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 1: Hey, you know, if not now, then when yeah, have.
Speaker 2: You seen the Howling?
Speaker 1: By the way, I have not seen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, apparently that was where what put Dante on Spielberg's radar.
Speaker 2: And then they, I guess, collaborated in the Twilight Zone movie. Yes,
Speaker 2: that's right, which he has that funny segment right with
Speaker 2: the boy who has the holds the powers over everybody,
Speaker 2: that's right, Yeah, all the adults. And Nancy Cartwright is
Speaker 2: one of the people in that.
Speaker 1: It's the remake of It's a Good Life. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: Gizmo just oh no.
Speaker 2: Yeah. But I thought that was interesting too because if
Speaker 2: if the Howling caught Spielberg's eye. D Wallace is in that,
Speaker 2: so you wonder if he was like, oh, who's that?
Speaker 2: And then you interested her as Mary and e t
Speaker 2: a year after that. Wow. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Joe Dante, like we've talked about him's such a such
Speaker 1: a unique voice that it's it's a crying shame that
Speaker 1: he has essentially been either by choice or sort of
Speaker 1: just you know, by fiat, been been excommunicated from Studio Pictures.
Speaker 2: Yeah. He he definitely has a voice, and it's a
Speaker 2: really fun horror voice, and that it feels very unique
Speaker 2: to me and I we were saying before we even started,
Speaker 2: it's surprising he doesn't have like a streaming series that's
Speaker 2: in his voice or something these days.
Speaker 1: It you know, his last okay, so his last movie
Speaker 1: was Looneychin's Back in Action. I think before that, I
Speaker 1: think Small Soldiers.
Speaker 2: Wow, you know, I've never seen Small Soldiers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, it's I don't I don't think it's good.
Speaker 1: I would not recommend it, but I think it's it
Speaker 1: is interesting. I think the way that technology is used
Speaker 1: in that movie, it's really it's it's like, that's really cool,
Speaker 1: you know. But the movie itself is kind of a
Speaker 1: swing and a miss.
Speaker 2: But it's Gremlin's ask, right, it's very much little yeah,
Speaker 2: little figures coming to life and terrorizing people, very very much.
Speaker 2: So yeah, and you can see that that's probably the influence.
Speaker 2: But but I think, you know, it's just studio interference, right,
Speaker 2: because because I think there's probably like, oh, you know,
Speaker 2: we can sell the toys or whatever, and you know,
Speaker 2: you're not letting them just make the movie that he
Speaker 2: needs to make, you know, but you see how his
Speaker 2: sensibilities just sort of fell out of out of step
Speaker 2: with with executive thinking or you know. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 2: it's it's ironic because Luney turns back in action the
Speaker 2: whole thing. It's it the plot hinges on the studio
Speaker 2: making a stupid decision and then you know, like that's
Speaker 2: the story in the movie and that's.
Speaker 1: Literally what the that's what the studio did with regards
Speaker 1: to that movie. You know, yeah, but but it it
Speaker 1: it's one of those things where I was I was
Speaker 1: thinking watching this right and it's it's so of the moment,
Speaker 1: and it really captured the zeitgeist, and I was like,
Speaker 1: this is kind of it's just the story of every filmmaker.
Speaker 1: I don't think any filmmaker is immune to this where
Speaker 1: you'll have that that window and maybe it's a short window,
Speaker 1: maybe it's a long window where everything you do hits
Speaker 1: and then eventually you just kind of fall out of favor.
Speaker 2: It's someone else's turn. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And you know, even even Spielberg to some extent, is
Speaker 1: in that place right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's one of those rare people who's just sort
Speaker 2: of grandfathered in where he'll always get to make what
Speaker 2: he wants. But his movies don't, you know, take the
Speaker 2: world by storm like they used to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right, you know, like right now is kind
Speaker 1: of Christopher Nolan's moment, right, Yes, and like everything that
Speaker 1: moment is going to pass. Yes, that's just the nature
Speaker 1: of these things, you know.
Speaker 2: Yep, yep. Well, he's not said specifically, but almost said
Speaker 2: as much where he's said, you know, people ask him,
Speaker 2: are you ever going to make your small little indie movie,
Speaker 2: and he's like, no, I realize the privilege I have
Speaker 2: where I can make movies at the budget that I can. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, at this sort of scale. So it's almost
Speaker 2: like incumbent upon me. Yeah, to exercise that privilege while
Speaker 2: you can do it, while you can Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I you know, it's just you know, like you
Speaker 1: realize this the longer you're around and you see the
Speaker 1: arcs of these filmmakers' careers, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's for a little gizmo on the dart board.
Speaker 1: It is interesting how they torment Gizmo, but they're like
Speaker 1: neighborhood bullies, Like they're not hurting him, Like they don't
Speaker 1: kill him. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1: Like it's not like he's family. Yeah, he sucks, but
Speaker 1: he's family kind of you know. Yeah, you know, I never.
Speaker 2: Really thought about that, but you're right. Yeah, they pick
Speaker 2: on him, Yeah, they don't hurt him. Yeah, it's interesting,
Speaker 2: you know, Yeah that is I didn't think about that. So, uh,
Speaker 2: Francis Lee McCain playing the mother here, do you recognize
Speaker 2: her from another movie?
Speaker 1: I feel like I should.
Speaker 2: That is Lorraine's mom in Back to the Future.
Speaker 1: Yes, okay, I knew, now, Marty. Yeah, yeah, wow, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she got to go right back to that square.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm I'm as i'm watching this, I'm realizing
Speaker 1: one thing that, like, you know, I was living overseas
Speaker 1: when this movie came out, and very much my the
Speaker 1: notion in my head of like a typical suburban house
Speaker 1: was the Peltzer House.
Speaker 2: Yeah sure, sure, you know, yeah, and.
Speaker 1: It is about as quintessential as it gets, like in
Speaker 1: terms of like what an eighties suburban house looked like.
Speaker 2: You know, it is funny what I mean, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: attribute it to Spielberg kicking it off, but making the
Speaker 2: suburbs like it's like movies take place in generally, if
Speaker 2: you're gonna make a movie, they take place in New York,
Speaker 2: they take place in Los Angeles, you know, with Hughes Chicago.
Speaker 2: With Spielberg, the Suburbs, right, the Suburbs are like a
Speaker 2: capital letter the location for him so much so, and
Speaker 2: it's endured so long that now we have you know,
Speaker 2: Star Wars Skeleton Crew, Yeah, the series, and they have
Speaker 2: a Star Wars version of the Suburbs because they're you know,
Speaker 2: intentionally trying to evoke that eighties feel. So that's amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and I mean this is kind of like where I
Speaker 2: grew up, so it obviously struck a chord with me.
Speaker 1: And yet amazingly you did not see this movie all
Speaker 1: the way through until the nineties.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's very possible. Yeah, or maybe maybe the late
Speaker 2: eighties when the sequel was about to come out and
Speaker 2: it was on TV or something. But it was something
Speaker 2: I knew. I knew the box from the video store,
Speaker 2: you know, and you jogged a memory. I do remember
Speaker 2: the story book at the school library. But yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Remember at my school we had there was these like
Speaker 1: it was like the story of the movie for kids,
Speaker 1: but it was like these little it was like these
Speaker 1: little picture books and each book told a portion of
Speaker 1: the story.
Speaker 2: Mmmm.
Speaker 1: So you had to check out, you know whatever, five
Speaker 1: or six of them in order to get the whole movie.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Oh interesting, So it'd be from Gizmo's point of view,
Speaker 2: it'd be from Billy's point of view, be from No,
Speaker 2: it wasn't even that. It was like like this book
Speaker 2: is from when mister Peltzer buys Gizmo to like, and
Speaker 2: now Billy and gizmoar are friends and that's like your
Speaker 2: first book like that, right, I see, you know, but
Speaker 2: in the books, you know whatever, they were like twenty
Speaker 2: twenty by page or something like that.
Speaker 1: So I remember those. I remember checking all of those
Speaker 1: out and reading them, you know. So I was probably
Speaker 1: like five. Yeah, And like I said, I remember that
Speaker 1: summer when we had to come to the States. You know,
Speaker 1: we got a little it was like a multi pack
Speaker 1: of little figurines and it was like Stripe as a
Speaker 1: mug why gizmo and Stripe as a gremlin and like
Speaker 1: a generic gremlin something like that. It's like this four pack.
Speaker 1: And I remember having those toys, you know. And I
Speaker 1: had a little Gizmo toy on my desk you know
Speaker 1: for the longest time. Uh it was like it was
Speaker 1: a plastic figurine, you know. Yeah, And so it's again
Speaker 1: it was just part of.
Speaker 2: My here we go this. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can see this as being kind of a
Speaker 1: traumatic moment. I suppose.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's pretty grizzly.
Speaker 1: But I mean if any kid watches this and is like, hey,
Speaker 1: I want to do that to Rover, I mean, get
Speaker 1: that kid some help.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, we're talking about the microwave. Yeah. People
Speaker 2: not watching a lot. Oh and then also you can
Speaker 2: see the grimlin she stabbed.
Speaker 1: To move, she grabs the second knife.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, but you see the guy still sort of
Speaker 2: struggling in the background the knife in him. Apparently they
Speaker 2: did film him struggling to get the knife out of him, okay,
Speaker 2: and they were like, no, no, too.
Speaker 1: Far, that's too much, too far, too far.
Speaker 2: It is kind of funny, though, I know there's like
Speaker 2: a sliding scale or something as time marches on, because
Speaker 2: I mean, PG now is basically what you would think
Speaker 2: of as G when we were growing up. That's right,
Speaker 2: but it is kind of like, you know, it does.
Speaker 2: I guess things have calibrated ever since the invention of
Speaker 2: PG thirteen, you know, like your toy stories are rated PG,
Speaker 2: you know, right, right, But it's it's amazing to think
Speaker 2: seeing this mom with a like a psycho knife basically
Speaker 2: just stabbing this creature repeatedly in the same rating as
Speaker 2: a toy story movie. I had that toy, that little
Speaker 2: robot right there, end up robot rightly.
Speaker 1: I had that robot.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, I remember that.
Speaker 1: I was like man sense memory. It was like it
Speaker 1: wasn't it was like it was a battery operated but.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh okay, so you switch them on and then
Speaker 2: he moved.
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2: See.
Speaker 1: The the great thing about about the design of the
Speaker 1: Gremlins is that there's a real like it's not just
Speaker 1: just gleap clop, you know, mm hmm. There's this kind
Speaker 1: of artistic is there's a there's a weird beauty to
Speaker 1: the design.
Speaker 2: It really is. Yeah. Yeah, and like its body makes sense, yes, exactly.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was reading about an earlier version too, where
Speaker 2: the movie, like there was a version of the movie
Speaker 2: a draft or something where Billy was like wielding a
Speaker 2: sword through town. Is like him Corey Feldon character stuck
Speaker 2: with him, and then the Phoebe Kate's characters like the
Speaker 2: trio and he had the sword and they were just
Speaker 2: going through town.
Speaker 1: Probably the swords that they set up in the house.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you can kind of picture that version too.
Speaker 2: You know, almost feels like a Stranger Thing's kind of
Speaker 2: kids with makeshift homemade weapons fighting a supernatural force. See.
Speaker 1: I kind of dig that, and I love to see
Speaker 1: somebody like you said, like like when you think about
Speaker 1: like Stranger Things is not an excavation of some prior thing, right,
Speaker 1: it's a new thing. Inspired by people's collective memories.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, it's like do that do something new. I
Speaker 2: would totally watch something like that, right. I remember when
Speaker 2: Stranger Things was first announced and I saw the poster
Speaker 2: and it was like the kids on bikes thing, and
Speaker 2: I remember thinking I was going to be the only
Speaker 2: one watching it, which is laughable now, but I was like,
Speaker 2: oh wow, they bullseye for me. Yeah, it just I mean,
Speaker 2: it proved that it's still evocative formula. You know, everybody
Speaker 2: wants to watch that. Now. What is that robot again?
Speaker 2: Is that lost in Space? No, that's from a Forbidden Planet.
Speaker 2: That's Robbie the Forbidden Planet. Yeah, yeah, not danger danger. Well,
Speaker 2: so that one must have been inspired by this one.
Speaker 2: Then it was yeah, yeah, Forbidden Planet. By the way,
Speaker 2: if you haven't seen it, it's a very good movie.
Speaker 2: I haven't seen it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It stars Leslie Nielsen in a non comedic role,
Speaker 1: so obviously when you you can't help but be like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's Frank Grebin. That's hilarious. But despite that, it's it's
Speaker 1: very it's very good.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: We were talking about the design of the Gremlins. We
Speaker 1: should shout out Chris Wallace, who actually designed them.
Speaker 2: M hm.
Speaker 1: I mean it's remarkable. I mean it's you know, I
Speaker 1: think I think what he came up with was something
Speaker 1: that it stood the test of time. You know, I
Speaker 1: believe as Rick Baker, who did the effects for the
Speaker 1: second one. Yeah, yeah, and you know with this one,
Speaker 1: all the Gremlins are the exact same model, except for Stripe.
Speaker 1: Obviously with the next one, Baker was able to take
Speaker 1: the foundation of what they established here and do something,
Speaker 1: you know, little wonk here.
Speaker 2: I think that was the appeal, right If he was
Speaker 2: just going to be recreating a design with the why
Speaker 2: I hire Rick Baker, But he got to make all
Speaker 2: these an array of personalities and different types and looks
Speaker 2: and like a bat gremlin And I love it. It's
Speaker 2: in the movie. The first time I saw that, I mean,
Speaker 2: it was just it's brilliant. It's a brilliant idea and
Speaker 2: the execution could not be more perfect. Yeah, it's so good.
Speaker 1: Well again, and so we're talking about the key and
Speaker 1: Peel sketch. Yeah, the fact that Joe Dante saw that
Speaker 1: and was crack camp. He's like, yeah, that's basically what
Speaker 1: it was. That's that's very funny to me.
Speaker 2: And you have to imagine too, Like, you know, Peel
Speaker 2: being sort of the horror guy that he is, he
Speaker 2: probably loves that movie, like it's exactly probably done with affection,
Speaker 2: you know, yeah, yeah see. And I love this kind
Speaker 2: of the humor throughout this movie. Like when the Grimlin
Speaker 2: jumps into the pool here, it's not like he just
Speaker 2: goes in. They actually show a shot of him doing
Speaker 2: the cannonball pode and plugging his nose, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. That's the cheekiness of it. That's just so
Speaker 2: fun And I love this image. It's just so cool.
Speaker 1: Oh it's great. You know what's funny. I'm sitting there
Speaker 1: watching this this specific scene as the swimming pool is
Speaker 1: bubbling up, and in my head, I'm like, I just
Speaker 1: know Brian loves this.
Speaker 2: You really have my number, You're so like, but yes,
Speaker 2: because it's like a y m C a public swimming
Speaker 2: pool that should be normal and safe, but then seeing
Speaker 2: it bubbling and these weird strobe lights going on underneath,
Speaker 2: that's that is my jam man. It's just a.
Speaker 1: Great shot, you know, it's so effectively executed.
Speaker 2: Yep, here we go.
Speaker 1: And here's Jonathan Banks aka Mike Ermin Trott yea from
Speaker 1: Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. Yeah, and he's in
Speaker 1: Beverly Hills Cop the same year, same year man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's funny. This scene is very similar to
Speaker 2: the scene in The Goonies, also written by Christopher Columbus,
Speaker 2: when Chunk is calling the police station and they're like
Speaker 2: oh right, right, right, sure, you know, like not believing
Speaker 2: him talking about the Fertellies, Which is funny though, because
Speaker 2: then he's like, oh, you and your stories, you know
Speaker 2: about like those little creatures that get wet when you
Speaker 2: would throw water on him, Like he references Gremlins in the.
Speaker 1: Thing about these these goddamn idiot cops here. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: you tell me once you see Gizmo, isn't that kind
Speaker 1: of like okay, maybe we should listen to this kid?
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, right, So this shot I love this. Look
Speaker 2: at that that motion, it's so like funny. Yeah.
Speaker 1: They could never quite figure out how to make Gizmo
Speaker 1: walk yeah, and make it look good. But as far
Speaker 1: as the Gremlins, I think I think the way they
Speaker 1: pulled that off that it's slightly from a distance that's
Speaker 1: stop motion. It has the problem it looks real enough
Speaker 1: but also unnerving enough, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, something about the staccato, you know, stop motionness of
Speaker 2: it makes it a little like unnerving, Yeah, which is
Speaker 2: I guess stop motion is what Joe Dante wanted to do.
Speaker 2: And other people even proposed having a monkey dressing it
Speaker 2: up like a gremlin, and I guess they tried it,
Speaker 2: but the monkey panicked, and which makes speaking of Jordan Peele,
Speaker 2: you know, makes me think of Nope. I mean that's
Speaker 2: like a whole plot point. Don't make real animals, especially monkeys,
Speaker 2: be a part of your TV show, Yeah right, yeah,
Speaker 2: they might freak out, but this is fun, Like you
Speaker 2: couldn't do this anymore. Well, I guess you'd pull the
Speaker 2: cable plug or something, you know, but like messing with
Speaker 2: TV intent on the roof and someone.
Speaker 1: Somebody pulls your modem router cable.
Speaker 2: Yes, right, right, yeah, you're right. But yeah, that's just
Speaker 2: something so fun it just doesn't even register with me.
Speaker 2: But I guess there aren't TV in Tennis anymore on
Speaker 2: enough of rooftops. But it's still I mean, I remember that,
Speaker 2: so it's still kind of fun to see these little
Speaker 2: monsters swinging on it. Yeah, you know, something that I
Speaker 2: had on top of my house growing up.
Speaker 1: Dick Miller has the most character actor face, right, like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: he just embodied a type totally. Now this movie based
Speaker 1: on this movie. Mister Futterman is dead.
Speaker 2: Yes, which always surprises me. You think they're gonna get
Speaker 2: out and it just destroys the house. But it's pretty dark.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, this is the thing because because I remember
Speaker 1: watching the second one and being surprised he was in it,
Speaker 1: because I was like, I thought he died.
Speaker 2: Well supposedly I read this, I did not hear it,
Speaker 2: but there's a news report in the movie. Okay, and
Speaker 2: you can hear them say that Futterman was taken to
Speaker 2: a hospital.
Speaker 1: Okay, so that's at the very end.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so they probably realized this is pretty intense, and
Speaker 2: so they decided to keep him alive for them hopefully.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, because they're both they're both in the next one.
Speaker 2: Oh they both are okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. This immediately
Speaker 2: is like, oh, that's the church from Gilmore Girls. What's
Speaker 2: happened to me?
Speaker 1: I think we need a Gilmore Gremlins, right, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think there's a crossover opportunity. And they're both Warner
Speaker 1: Brothers properties, and it's just that somebody's leaving money on
Speaker 1: the table. Yeah, have Laura I attacking gremlins using a
Speaker 1: show as like a hatchet, you know, yeah.
Speaker 2: Right, and then like Luke shows up with like some
Speaker 2: contraption he's made out. It's like I'd watch it, watch it,
Speaker 2: and then all the banter. Imagine the banter. It'd be
Speaker 2: so fun, right, But this is kind of funny, how
Speaker 2: low fi this gag is here? Yeah, gremlin messing with
Speaker 2: the traffic light and we only hear the car crash.
Speaker 2: You know, we don't like see anything.
Speaker 1: That is well and and see this is this is
Speaker 1: why I was thinking about are the critters that uh
Speaker 1: mister Futterman talked about were they gremlins? Because they're acting
Speaker 1: like those types of gremlins.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: They're not just a malevolent horde. They're mischievous, so those
Speaker 1: you know, that's why I was like, so we're those
Speaker 1: real gremlins, like you.
Speaker 2: Know, yeah, yeah, I don't know, I don't know. Let's
Speaker 2: get you know, how old he is in this movie?
Speaker 2: Oh no, how old?
Speaker 1: Twenty three? No, No, he's like thirty seven.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, there's a different time. I mean, yeah, I mean,
Speaker 2: I don't mean this in any sort of negative way,
Speaker 2: but it just feels like people aged a little quicker.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it has to do with even
Speaker 2: I mean truly like not making a joke, but like
Speaker 2: even just like sunscreen or you know, just certain sorts
Speaker 2: of things that have changed over the years.
Speaker 1: But well, but here's the thing I wonder, like, what
Speaker 1: do my parent my not my parents, what do my
Speaker 1: students think of me?
Speaker 2: That's very true, right, that's very true. I mean I
Speaker 2: can't speak for my own face, but just when I
Speaker 2: see certain people on TV who are a certain age
Speaker 2: and then compare them to people of that same age
Speaker 2: in these sorts of movies, I do sometimes find it
Speaker 2: a little surprising. I mean Wilford Brimley is the classic example, yes, right,
Speaker 2: you know where people like Paul Rudd is older than
Speaker 2: Wilford Brimley was in Cocoon. Gwen Stefani is either the
Speaker 2: same age or older wow than Wilford Brimley and Cocoon,
Speaker 2: and that's just still shocking. So this sort of you know,
Speaker 2: this is kind of a dark little joke. Having the
Speaker 2: woman on that chair that moves up and down the
Speaker 2: stairs and she flies out the window, which reminds me that.
Speaker 2: I guess when they were looking for directors they did
Speaker 2: look into Tim Burton. Oh interesting, and some of this
Speaker 2: you can definitely see Tim Burton having fun with this,
Speaker 2: and it would be interesting to see what parts of
Speaker 2: his voice he would bring into this. You know, not
Speaker 2: that I'd prefer it. I do like what we have,
Speaker 2: but it, you know, it's interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wonder about that because because I can definitely yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know, that's a tough one, right, Like what
Speaker 1: would a Tim Burton Gremlins look like?
Speaker 2: I'm sure it would have been a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: And you can imagine. I mean, his movie that everyone
Speaker 2: was watching in this moment was franken Weenie, you know,
Speaker 2: kind of a horror comedy kind of thing. So you
Speaker 2: can see why they were like, wew, that's interesting. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but he hadn't made a movie yet, so I think
Speaker 2: they were nervous that this would be too much of
Speaker 2: an undertaking. I do love that though. The gremlins caroling
Speaker 2: there and they have like their little little hats and
Speaker 2: scarves and you know, like little songbooks. Yeah, it's really funny.
Speaker 1: So Paullie Holliday, who plays missus Deegle, she was she
Speaker 1: was flow the waitress on on Alice.
Speaker 2: You know, I gotta be honest. I know that reference,
Speaker 2: and I hear it referenced a lot.
Speaker 1: But I'm you've heard that.
Speaker 2: I see again, I know what that is. I didn't
Speaker 2: know that was from that. That's just something I don't
Speaker 2: really know.
Speaker 1: You know, how old she is here?
Speaker 2: How old are you kidding? I'm not kidding. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: need them in Zachi. I don't know. I don't know
Speaker 2: if this is like a certain sort of age where
Speaker 2: you just suddenly become obsessed with actors' ages and movies
Speaker 2: and comparing them to where you are. But I never
Speaker 2: get tired of it. I do kind of love this
Speaker 2: sort of idea of these two cops who didn't believe
Speaker 2: the kid's story, being in this car and sort of
Speaker 2: casually looking at all the horror around them, like, hey,
Speaker 2: look at that Santa Claus. He's getting attacked by tiny
Speaker 2: little kishure like slowly dawning on them. It's something kind
Speaker 2: of cartoony and funny about it, just rolling up their window.
Speaker 2: You know, I've not seen a lot of behind the
Speaker 2: scenes footage of this, do you know if that's out there?
Speaker 2: Like just seeing the puppeteers working all of this. That'd
Speaker 2: be really interesting.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen any. I suspect something got to exist, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but we talked right past when missus Deegle dies, but
Speaker 1: clearly a little nod to the wicked Witch.
Speaker 2: Very much after Billy's dog. After literally she says I'll
Speaker 2: get you and your little dog too, I mean she
Speaker 2: almost does. She says she's going to take the dog right. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so here, maybe this is why we don't see the
Speaker 2: car crash earlier. They're like, we get one. Yeah, that's right,
Speaker 2: that's the budget. Yeah, it's kind of fun. You know,
Speaker 2: you can see the little I don't know, rig or
Speaker 2: whatever it is underneath the car that's put in place
Speaker 2: so it will flip over. Yeah, probably paint out digitally.
Speaker 2: Kind of fun occasionally, you know. Yeah. But yeah, the
Speaker 2: Degal thing feels it's funny because they do paint her
Speaker 2: as an awful person, and she does want to get
Speaker 2: the dog. But it is sort of jarring to see
Speaker 2: an old woman yelling in terror being thrown out a window.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Brian, I think I'm okay with it.
Speaker 1: I'd have been okay with it even without all this stuff.
Speaker 2: Earlier. It doesn't make me wonder I would. I'm not
Speaker 2: you know, clamoring for the Snyder cut per se of this,
Speaker 2: but like, I would be curious to see the full blown,
Speaker 2: you know, two hour plus just all the story threads
Speaker 2: and things that they had going on.
Speaker 1: See. I want the Missus Deegal prequel where she comes
Speaker 1: to Kingston falls as young and hopeful, and you know,
Speaker 1: she has a difficult marriage. You know, her husband goes
Speaker 1: off to war and die like, no gremlins at all,
Speaker 1: nothing to do with that gremlins at all.
Speaker 2: And she takes over the real estate business and it's
Speaker 2: hardened her. She doesn't want to become hard but it
Speaker 2: hardens her.
Speaker 1: It would be like a secret Gremlin's prequel, Like she'd
Speaker 1: be called like Beatrice or something, and that's like and
Speaker 1: then at the very end, they're like, what do you
Speaker 1: want to do now, Beatrice, She's like, I'm not Beatrice,
Speaker 1: I'm Degel.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, call Meg.
Speaker 1: And then we hear the gremlins, the Jerry Goldsmith Gremlins,
Speaker 1: Rag come up, you know, the.
Speaker 2: And then like.
Speaker 1: Three quarters of the audience goes, huh yeah. It's sort
Speaker 1: of like at the end of Split where it revealed it,
Speaker 1: and I it was like me and three other people
Speaker 1: in a full theater, going, hey, no one.
Speaker 2: Else got it.
Speaker 1: Well, it's like the movie Pearl, right, Like if you
Speaker 1: happen to know it's a prequel to X right, otherwise
Speaker 1: you're just like, oh, it's just about this deeply disturbed woman,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: Right right? But you know what, Frankly, I think after
Speaker 2: this we should get in the car and drive away
Speaker 2: to Warner Brothers, because I think we have an ip
Speaker 2: bonanza just ready to go the GCU, the Gremlins Cinematic Universe.
Speaker 1: We're ready.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I know again, I know they have
Speaker 2: the animated series and I've heard it's pretty good, and
Speaker 2: I feel like, I don't know why not. I mean,
Speaker 2: they're doing it to everything else. I think there's some
Speaker 2: fun to be had with us. I think that.
Speaker 1: Definitely, Like I don't see any reason not to do
Speaker 1: something else with the Gremlins.
Speaker 2: I am.
Speaker 1: I am vehement that if Joe Johnson, well, Joe Johnson, hey,
Speaker 1: if you want to directed there, but Joe Dante has
Speaker 1: to be involved in some way.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, because this is a unique tone. I think it
Speaker 2: needs to stay with this playful darkness.
Speaker 1: So Okay, so here's my question. We saw them drinking beer. Yes,
Speaker 1: but I thought the rule was don't get them wet.
Speaker 1: See because the dad even says don't. He can't even
Speaker 1: drink water, right, so then it made me wonder what
Speaker 1: he can drink.
Speaker 2: Exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you can say, oh, don't, don't get them,
Speaker 1: don't don't they can't be exposed to water. Okay, well
Speaker 1: then alcohol is different. But if the rule is don't
Speaker 1: get the wet, well, I mean they're.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, shouldn't they be shouldn't they be popping off
Speaker 1: and multiplying if they're drinking beer.
Speaker 2: That's a good point because later when the stripe is
Speaker 2: at the fountain. Yeah, I mean he it's not like
Speaker 2: the metamorphosis is done once they become a gremlin. Apparently
Speaker 2: they can reproduce too, So exactly this cracks me.
Speaker 1: Up, doesn't doesn't make sense for me.
Speaker 2: This is very funny, sort of the loner jazz man,
Speaker 2: this whole thing right here, this has come on. That's
Speaker 2: hilarious that the pup so funny. Yeah, so the gremlins
Speaker 2: have some level of intelligence obviously. Yeah, they're emulating people.
Speaker 2: So this is not that far removed tonally from what
Speaker 2: we see the Gremlin's doing in the second one. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: like this right here. No, you're right, Like they take
Speaker 2: this and they're like, no, we're doing that.
Speaker 1: This is the whole movie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, flash dance is what we're talking about here, this
Speaker 2: flash dance thing. Yeah, you're totally right. I mean, the
Speaker 2: seeds of it are in here.
Speaker 1: For sure, Like famously Joe Dante because because Warner Brothers
Speaker 1: was trying and trying to get something off the ground
Speaker 1: with with the Gremlin sequel. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: Gremlins Go Hawaiian.
Speaker 2: I'm sure it was in the.
Speaker 1: Minutes the Warner Brothers go to was in doubt, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: Batman goes Hawaiian.
Speaker 2: I think that was something they can said.
Speaker 1: I wish I had, but but they cut. They circle
Speaker 1: back around to Dante. He's like, fine, I'll do but
Speaker 1: you let me do whatever I want. And they're like fine,
Speaker 1: mm hm, you know, and it's sort of the the
Speaker 1: desperation of the Condemned. They were like, fine, whatever it takes,
Speaker 1: you know, and then unfortunately that gambled.
Speaker 2: And pay off. That's what irks me a little bit.
Speaker 2: I wonder why that was. Was it a little too late?
Speaker 1: I think it's too late. It's six six years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean it didn't.
Speaker 1: Feel too late to me. Like that's I I think
Speaker 1: I've said this before, right, because you had had Ghostbusters
Speaker 1: two in eighty nine, you had Gremlins two in ninety
Speaker 1: and I wasn't like, oh finally, I was like, oh great,
Speaker 1: you know another one.
Speaker 2: Or weirdly, was this just one of those things that
Speaker 2: just hit at the right time, just kind of a unicorn? Yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean it was no fluke. You know,
Speaker 2: it made in in nineteen eighty four money, It made
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty million dollars. It was the highest
Speaker 2: grossing Warner Brothers movie until Batman in nineteen eighty nine.
Speaker 2: So I mean then, see, that's so people were going
Speaker 2: back again and again. Yeah, it struck a chord.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's really interesting to me.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: You know what's kind of interesting. I was reading you know,
Speaker 2: Howie Mandel did Gizmo's lines, and a lot of other people,
Speaker 2: of course did the Gremlins lines. But Frank Welker is
Speaker 2: a stripe by the way, right right right in Michael
Speaker 2: Winslow of Police Academy. He's one of the voices, you know,
Speaker 2: the one gremlin that's like rare, rare ring ring ring,
Speaker 2: you know. Oh so just the Michael Winslow gremlin, Yeah,
Speaker 2: wouldn't be amazing. But no, Apparently what they did was
Speaker 2: when they dubbed it for overseas, Howie Mandel and those
Speaker 2: actors like localized the dialogue that they were doing. Oh
Speaker 2: so they did jokes that made sense in Germany, that
Speaker 2: made sense in Japan. And apparently in this bar scene
Speaker 2: they dubbed the gremlins to be singing German bar songs, right,
Speaker 2: and so it's like it just kind of resonated everywhere.
Speaker 2: They found a really clever way to make everyone sort
Speaker 2: of connect with it and find the humor in it,
Speaker 2: you know, even locally. So that's it's pretty genius.
Speaker 1: Hey, it's it's a good way for them to make
Speaker 1: a little extra coin too.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, but we're in the bank here, right, Yes, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I guess there was like a scene I think it
Speaker 2: was even filmed or maybe it was. It's filmed, yeah,
Speaker 2: with Judge Errold. Yeah we get like payoff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's like locked himself in the vault and he's
Speaker 1: gone a little kuocko bananas.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so but again, I mean, you can see
Speaker 2: why a writer would write that. It makes sense, you
Speaker 2: set this guy up. But I think they've realized what
Speaker 2: we're doing here, and it's like, now just keep going
Speaker 2: with you know the creatures.
Speaker 1: Like I wouldn't have complained if they kept that scene in.
Speaker 1: I don't think the movie loses anything because you're not like, well,
Speaker 1: what happened to Jerry? You know?
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I.
Speaker 1: Think just as as just sort of putting a button
Speaker 1: on that character, I think it wasn't the worst thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: oh no, same, same, And it might have even you know,
Speaker 1: if Billy had no confidence at the beginning or something,
Speaker 1: and then through this adventure he has gained confidence and
Speaker 1: he's able to tell off this guy who believes.
Speaker 2: Him at work, I could see him satisfying.
Speaker 1: Okay, so let's talk about Kate's monologue here. Yes, about
Speaker 1: her her dad dad. Now, let me first say, her
Speaker 1: dad kind of an idiot? Yes, So, like I think
Speaker 1: we have to we have to acknowledge at the heart
Speaker 1: of this horrible tragedy is her dad was an objectively
Speaker 1: stupid and.
Speaker 2: A grown man. Yeah, thinking it's a good idea to
Speaker 2: go down a chimney in pretending he's Santa Claus. Bad idea.
Speaker 5: Right, So so so is this whole long thing about
Speaker 5: how you know they found her dad's body and the
Speaker 5: you know thing, and that's why.
Speaker 1: She hits Christmas. And the studio was like, no, you
Speaker 1: have to cut that, and Spielberg was like, h I
Speaker 1: don't know about that, but he left it to Joe Dante.
Speaker 2: I really admire that. Yes, yeah, Spielberg also didn't like it,
Speaker 2: but well, it's your movie. Yeah. I mean that's talk
Speaker 2: about a confident producer, like I picked you for a reason.
Speaker 2: It's your movie. If you like it. I don't like it.
Speaker 2: But if you like it, that's your movie, well leave
Speaker 2: it in.
Speaker 1: It is it is very jarring.
Speaker 2: It is one of the only times I do Yeah.
Speaker 2: I feel like after the action is kicked in, the
Speaker 2: movie kind of slows to a stop just so she
Speaker 2: can tell that story.
Speaker 1: You know what'd be funny is after that she finishes
Speaker 1: the story and then we go we get that reaction
Speaker 1: from Billy and after beating he's just like, very quietly,
Speaker 1: he's like, I'm sorry I called you dude.
Speaker 2: You know what, though, when I say slows to a stop.
Speaker 2: I think it's in the execution. I think it was
Speaker 2: throwing me off that she's telling this clearly emotional story
Speaker 2: that she's finally ready to tell.
Speaker 1: He's like listening exactly, yeah, which is kind of weird. Well,
Speaker 1: I think no, I'll tell you because he didn't expect
Speaker 1: it like that. Who has a story like that?
Speaker 2: You know what I mean tooche, But I think characterized,
Speaker 2: it would have been nice to see him realize like, oh, oh,
Speaker 2: she's like opening up to me, and then the thing earlier.
Speaker 2: Now I see why there's this like she's a little
Speaker 2: haunted and then you know this should be like then
Speaker 2: where he pulls her close and like they connect or
Speaker 2: something because he I don't know, I'll tell you what
Speaker 2: I love though, is the second one specifically, it makes
Speaker 2: fun of that moment I don't remember.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, if you're gonna watch it, just but it's
Speaker 1: it's as if Dante himself is like, yeah, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: like take take the piss out of that, you know
Speaker 1: that's funny.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Now, I mean you could imagine that being some
Speaker 2: sort of like urban legend or something, and probably I'm
Speaker 2: sure it's like yeah, I'm just saying that dad kind
Speaker 2: of a Darwin Award. Yeah, yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker 2: I was reading also because I do remember this. But
Speaker 2: in the second movie, well, or I should say, with
Speaker 2: this movie, Leonard Malton, who is the film critic for
Speaker 2: Entertainment Tonight, didn't like this movie. Yes, right, he called
Speaker 2: it icky and gross, and so then he makes a
Speaker 2: cameo in the second movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the gremlins murder him in the second.
Speaker 2: Yeah, criticizing the first movie and then the gremlins kill him,
Speaker 2: which is what a good sport? Yeah, that's funny, Leonard
Speaker 2: Malton legend.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I still you got me the very last Leonard
Speaker 1: Malton film guide.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: Yeah, still have it sitting. I'm looking at it right now.
Speaker 1: It's on my shelf.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: It just reminds me of a time. It's just a
Speaker 2: piece of history, right, sort of like a pre internet
Speaker 2: thing where it was like a movie guide where he
Speaker 2: had these little mini reviews for ya and that guy
Speaker 2: reviewed everything. Mm hmm, yep.
Speaker 1: It's just this fat little book that just kept getting
Speaker 1: fatter every year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is so adorable, this execution. So they're in
Speaker 2: the movie theater now, the Gremlins and Snow white just
Speaker 2: started playing and they're all like, you know, teasing each
Speaker 2: other or whatever. But then all of a sudden, they
Speaker 2: slowly but surely become captivated. And then now they're like
Speaker 2: bobbing their heads to the high hoe like it's this
Speaker 2: gets me every single time. It's so funny. That's what's
Speaker 2: so great too, Right. They're not these like mindless killers,
Speaker 2: right exactly you were saying earlier. They have personalities, and
Speaker 2: they have senses of humor as twisted as it is,
Speaker 2: you know, yeah, I I mean.
Speaker 1: You referred to Goolies earlier, right, which turned into its
Speaker 1: own little franchise, and that was very clearly inspired by Gremlins, right,
Speaker 1: and but it you know it it lacked the I
Speaker 1: mean that was always going to be kind of a
Speaker 1: niche thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that that's.
Speaker 1: What Spielberg understood, is there was an opportunity to make
Speaker 1: like this is this you have to imagine that this
Speaker 1: was a gateway movie two more, uh you know, extreme
Speaker 1: horror for sure, sure for younger audiences, yeah, right, but
Speaker 1: but it also it plays for people who don't like horror,
Speaker 1: you know, which I you know, that's that's you and me.
Speaker 2: For the cost of us.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Yeah, this is the the yeah, particular type
Speaker 1: of horror I kind of delight in, you know. Or
Speaker 1: it's like I like spooky, you know, like the shining
Speaker 1: and those sorts of things, but like this where there's
Speaker 1: a little cheekiness to it. Or yeah, I don't know,
Speaker 1: like I always I've said a million times, but the
Speaker 1: something crazy in your backyard and using your understandable resources,
Speaker 1: you know, the resources that I have in my own
Speaker 1: tool shed to fight a sinister force.
Speaker 2: I find that one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is a shame we don't really get movies
Speaker 1: like this anymore. It feels like, you know, no, I
Speaker 1: feel like that the room in the marketplace has sort
Speaker 1: of just been carved out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, or everything it can't be it has to fit
Speaker 2: into four neat boxes. You know. This one feels like
Speaker 2: a subversion of a box. Yeah, you know, or playing
Speaker 2: with the notion of a certain box and it's like no, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: well then you might lose these people or you won't
Speaker 2: get those people to go to It's like, no, everything
Speaker 2: kind of has to fit into a box.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Algorithmically, I'm sure that has something to do with it.
Speaker 2: That you look at it, the algorithm and you're like, well,
Speaker 2: could an algorithm predict this movie? Probably not. This movie
Speaker 2: has to exist to prove that it is successful.
Speaker 1: That's a really good point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, kind of sad, that's fun the animated shadows on
Speaker 2: the screen, and then there so that they take that
Speaker 2: gag to the tenth degree, you know, the next one
Speaker 2: right where it's here, it's just a really I thought
Speaker 2: it was a bigger deal in this one where they
Speaker 2: clow through the screen, which would look cool if you're
Speaker 2: watching this in a movie theater. But then in the
Speaker 2: second one, it's like, literally the movie stops in the
Speaker 2: Hulk Hogan yells at them to stop messing.
Speaker 1: With the movie time capsule. No, what you just said
Speaker 1: about the algorithm. I think that's so that's very illuminating, right,
Speaker 1: because that's the creative space we're in now where hey,
Speaker 1: pour one out from Montgomery Ward, first place I ever worked.
Speaker 2: Hey, Yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Think that we're at a place now where creative decisions
Speaker 1: are algorithmically driven or algorithmically allowed. Yes, and we see
Speaker 1: how you know, so much of what this movie is
Speaker 1: comes came down to Steven Spielberg and Joe Dante, between
Speaker 1: them following their muse in these interesting ways and then
Speaker 1: wouldn't you know it most unlikely it becomes the fourth
Speaker 1: highest grossing movie of the year.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Who could have predicted that?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Not a computer? Yeah you know yeah. I mean
Speaker 2: the example I heard years ago that I always think
Speaker 2: about is if it's nineteen seventy seven and you just
Speaker 2: had Jaws come out, O, what's the movie you think
Speaker 2: is going to be the biggest hit, you know, something
Speaker 2: at sea or whale or whatever. But what is it?
Speaker 2: It's a space opera. Yeah, you know, it's like you
Speaker 2: an algorithm would not have predicted that. But that's some
Speaker 2: George Lucas his muse. He was you know, he had
Speaker 2: a gut feeling about something that people would love this thing,
Speaker 2: and he was right. But you couldn't have predicted it.
Speaker 2: But and he instead of making you know, like a
Speaker 2: shark monster movie, his space movie is still raking in
Speaker 2: millions and millions today, you know. And so you know,
Speaker 2: it's you're missing out on potential ip to exploit later on,
Speaker 2: you know, by not letting people create new things.
Speaker 1: Well, and it's like we were talking about Christopher Nolan earlier, right,
Speaker 1: and it's like right now we're probably we're probably at
Speaker 1: the tail end of like the superhero trend, right, sure,
Speaker 1: and yet no one has been able to do what
Speaker 1: he did with The Dark Knight, uh huh, because it's
Speaker 1: the marriage of the concept and the creator.
Speaker 2: Yes, you know, yep, it's not only no one could
Speaker 2: have made that version.
Speaker 1: Of exactly yes, right, yes, And and I think that's
Speaker 1: just as applicable here, right, I mean, conceptually this is
Speaker 1: a pretty straightforward horror flick, but Joe Dante has this
Speaker 1: touch of madness mm hm that makes it sweet and
Speaker 1: funny and and and the idiosyncratic, you know, with that
Speaker 1: the Kate's Dead Dad monologue and you know, all this
Speaker 1: stuff that you said, well, this is this is a
Speaker 1: product of this storyteller.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, yeah, and that's what everyone sparks to
Speaker 2: idio secrecies, like you're saying, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And and I think that's why to some extent
Speaker 1: this movie is still watched to whatever extent it has watched,
Speaker 1: you know, or still know and still remembered to some degree,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, I mean sticking again with the supernatural
Speaker 1: or in the suburbs or a noble area, it's kind
Speaker 1: of fun then seeing like a department store being taken over.
Speaker 1: You know, and using all the resources of a department store,
Speaker 1: like the chainsaw and the baseball bat.
Speaker 2: That's like, that's a really good little gag there, I think,
Speaker 2: I think, you know, because it's it's stopping him, but
Speaker 2: it's also the saw is cutting through, like you have
Speaker 2: a limited amount of time that bat's gonna work. I
Speaker 2: always thought that was very clever.
Speaker 3: Ye.
Speaker 2: Apparently they came up with that while they were there
Speaker 2: just looking at the things that they had.
Speaker 1: That's great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we get a little ET yeah not here. Yeah,
Speaker 2: funny of course, Warner Brothers, Yep, in more ways than one.
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously we literally see an ET doll, but
Speaker 2: that's a gag that's in each right exactly where he's
Speaker 2: hiding amongst stuffed animals.
Speaker 1: So even here you see Dante's love of the the
Speaker 1: Looneytons characters. Yeah, and I just I just want to
Speaker 1: say I missed department stores like this.
Speaker 2: I know, I know, and maybe that's why we well
Speaker 2: I won't speak for you, but I love Target.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean that's sort of like the vestigial remnant
Speaker 1: of what we used to have, right like, Yeah, because
Speaker 1: you go in for you know, one thing, that ship
Speaker 1: right there scares the pants off me.
Speaker 2: Oh the saw blade, the saw blade. Yeah, it's freaking terrifying. Yeah,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, I love him on the tric that's great.
Speaker 1: That's a cool effect, right.
Speaker 2: It's very cool effect, and it's very that's this movie. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm afraid of.
Speaker 1: That thing, but it's also kind of adorable seeing it
Speaker 1: on a tricycle, you know, like going around creating terror. Now,
Speaker 1: well you no, no, I was just saying about target.
Speaker 2: Yeah. You go in for whatever, you know, the hammer
Speaker 2: or something, and then you start looking at books, you know,
Speaker 2: and then you're like, oh, maybe I could buy a hat,
Speaker 2: you know, right, you know it's records and movies and
Speaker 2: it's or groceries even, you know, it's it's great target.
Speaker 2: You know this commentary track brought to you by targeting exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well this gets to what you talk about all
Speaker 1: the time, right where you introduced something supernatural, super normal
Speaker 1: into into suburbia. And what a better example than this, right,
Speaker 1: His Billy's in a sporting good section. He's just baseball
Speaker 1: bat whatever's around. And I love this. But Stripe's got
Speaker 1: the the crossbow.
Speaker 2: And that's terrifying, you know, h yep, but something you
Speaker 2: could get at a sporting good store.
Speaker 1: I used to have this radio, by the way, did
Speaker 1: you really Yeah it was Yeah, I had it all
Speaker 1: the way until I lived in CHICAO.
Speaker 2: Wow, that's cool man to walk.
Speaker 1: Around with it on my shoulder, you know, walking down
Speaker 1: the street blasting you know, peopling fight the power. Yeah,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, of course, Yeah.
Speaker 2: This is this is great. I mean even at that
Speaker 2: that was a cool shot from over the gremlin shoulder
Speaker 2: as he's racing toward him with the chainsaw. Yeah, but
Speaker 2: I was I was reading about how much the puppeteers
Speaker 2: were suffering making this movie. Oh interesting, you know, and
Speaker 2: I mean it must have been a nightmare. That's adorable.
Speaker 2: The barbie for our ev well.
Speaker 1: And I love that they set this up earlier because
Speaker 1: you have Gizmo watching Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Clark Gable movie, right,
Speaker 1: Indianapolis Speedway, I think it's called. Yeah, they kind of
Speaker 1: they do something similar next one where he's watching Rambo.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I do remember that. Yeah, it's good, like, yes,
Speaker 1: that's cool, dragged.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, this does remind me of a certain
Speaker 2: sort of feeling that I'm going to try to put
Speaker 2: into words. But like with Spielberger especially makes me think
Speaker 2: of him where he found that balance. Oh, we talked
Speaker 2: about it. I think about with Jurassic Park, where he's introducing,
Speaker 2: if you take away a certain sort of element, it
Speaker 2: is straight horror. But he does keep the horrifying elements
Speaker 2: of a dinosaur, you know, chomping a guy off of
Speaker 2: a toilet, you know, or or a monster with a
Speaker 2: chainsaw trying to saw a boy. But then he adds
Speaker 2: in a little cute creature and a Barbie Corvette and
Speaker 2: there's like whimsy, you know, like it reminds you you
Speaker 2: can laugh. It reminds you you're having fun, right, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean? And I feel like Spielberg was
Speaker 2: the master of that. And in in Jurassic Park, you
Speaker 2: know where you got the you still got the wise cracks,
Speaker 2: you got Jeff Goldblum saying the sort of funny lines
Speaker 2: and the whatever. And it's like he allows you to
Speaker 2: catch your breath and doesn't just pummel you over the
Speaker 2: head with intensity. He's like he gives you intensity more
Speaker 2: than some people might expect, but then he reminds, he
Speaker 2: keeps reminding you you're having fun, and so you get
Speaker 2: to exhale and kind of nervous chuckle to yourself, and
Speaker 2: then you walk out with this really rounded out experience
Speaker 2: of horror slash fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I always thought he was. He was just the master
Speaker 2: of that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's a kind of it's it's it's a
Speaker 1: magic trick, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, And not everybody has those proper gut instincts.
Speaker 2: They go too far this or too far that. But
Speaker 2: he knows how to ride that line just right.
Speaker 1: What's interesting is is when we look at like the
Speaker 1: the the canon of Steven Spielberg presents movies in the eighties.
Speaker 1: So you got this, you get Back to the Future,
Speaker 1: you got uh, Goonies, Poltergeist. It is interesting how well,
Speaker 1: let's put poultry get to the side for one second.
Speaker 1: But like they are, the movies are very distinctly the
Speaker 1: product of their director. Yeah, Like you're not going to
Speaker 1: confuse like this, this has Spielbergian influences, but it's clearly
Speaker 1: a Joe Dante movie, totally same Gouenis, et cetera. And
Speaker 1: I would say Poultrygeist to me does not feel like
Speaker 1: a Spielberg movie. It feels like Toby Hooper.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say, only in camera work, but yeah, right.
Speaker 1: But it's weird how that one really got pegged as
Speaker 1: no Spielberg goes directed it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, which is weird kind of you know, yeah, totally.
Speaker 2: But the tone itself, yes, it feels like yeah, Toby Hooper.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and and the man this is probably the goorious
Speaker 1: part of this movie is pretty horrifying when you see
Speaker 1: Stripe sort of decompensating over here. But I my point is,
Speaker 1: like I think Spielberg was very good at Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: that's nightmare juice right there. So yeah, yeah, if you're
Speaker 1: a five year old, that ship, that shit gonna stay
Speaker 1: with you. Yeah, but Spielberg was very good at being
Speaker 1: the blocker m hmm and sort of keeping the studio
Speaker 1: at bay because he was Steven Effing Spielberg and letting
Speaker 1: the directors that he had brought on do.
Speaker 2: Their thing, right, you know, yeah, totally. Yeah, I mean, yeah,
Speaker 2: I want to be clear, like, I mean, I'm commenting
Speaker 2: on that that line that I think Spielberg does so well,
Speaker 2: you know with the horror. Yeah, sorry, I want to
Speaker 2: make it clear. I don't think he goes directed this anyway.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is very much a Joe Dante movie. Yeah,
Speaker 2: So I was implying that you were saying that. Sorry, yeah, no, no, no, no, yeah.
Speaker 2: I gotta give Dante his props on this. This is
Speaker 2: clearly a Joe Dante movie, I think.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's sort of that was the genius
Speaker 1: of Steven Spielberg during this era was he found the
Speaker 1: right people to do these things.
Speaker 2: You know, yeah, his Zamechass and yeah, yeah, his Dante's.
Speaker 1: And that what a great effect when you see the
Speaker 1: the skeleton just kind of just deflate. What a cool
Speaker 1: practical effect, you.
Speaker 2: Know, Yeah, you know, like the bubbling there as it's
Speaker 2: slowly dying. That's great. And this is just and it's
Speaker 2: so funny too, because now you can imagine and I'm
Speaker 2: sure it could be fun but you could do a
Speaker 2: lot more. You can make a much bigger climax. But
Speaker 2: there's something so visceral about don't let that thing get
Speaker 2: near the fountain, right, and then it does? Oh no,
Speaker 2: you know, and so then what do you do? You
Speaker 2: just all they do is they get a shaft of
Speaker 2: light on it. But it's the way that it's executed
Speaker 2: at the last second, and it's so thrilling and seeing,
Speaker 2: you know, give mo in his car fling up and
Speaker 2: pull the thing. You know, it doesn't have to be
Speaker 2: a huge set piece, right, you know, in scope, it's
Speaker 2: just the tension is perfectly thrilling enough. Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 2: just missed it. I guess there's that newscast but maybe.
Speaker 1: There Yeah, no mention of the fetterman's.
Speaker 2: Oh really okay, I had read that somewhere, so I
Speaker 2: can't back that up.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's it's not explicitly stated that they
Speaker 1: are dead in the film, That's true. We just see
Speaker 1: the the you know, the snowplow coming at them, and
Speaker 1: then it cuts to outside, so there's.
Speaker 2: Room, you know, you know, we don't see him impaled
Speaker 2: or anything, so right.
Speaker 1: Right, right, right, all right, now I want to see
Speaker 1: because he's still talking about Oh yeah, he's still but yeah,
Speaker 1: so this shop keeper let himself in to their home.
Speaker 2: Well it's like how did he know where they lived? Too?
Speaker 2: That's a good That is a great point because even
Speaker 2: the boy wouldn't know.
Speaker 1: He has mysterious.
Speaker 2: Chinese powers, you know, like mister Mayagi's mysterious Japanese powers.
Speaker 2: There you go where he can clap his hands. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: but this this is a nice ending. You know, I
Speaker 2: do kind of like that. It's you can imagine a
Speaker 2: version where you're like sad, or you can a test
Speaker 2: audience like, well, I don't want Billy and Gizmo to
Speaker 2: be separated, but this feels right. It's like, you can't.
Speaker 2: I told you the rules. You prove you're not responsible.
Speaker 2: So it feels almost like a Twilight Zone episode where
Speaker 2: there's a lesson at the end. You're not ready for
Speaker 2: something like this, so we have to take it away
Speaker 2: from you.
Speaker 1: You know, it'd be funny if he comes in and
Speaker 1: suddenly he's like, you white people ruin everything, and it's
Speaker 1: like it goes in this really weird racial dimension at
Speaker 1: the end.
Speaker 2: Wow, Okay, they took a turn, you know. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: oh I'm really really sorry.
Speaker 1: First you drop a bomb on Hiroshima, you know, like
Speaker 1: like what this the little the thing that Gizmo says
Speaker 1: at the end. Yeah, it's really cutest thing ever.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is nice. So you do even if he
Speaker 2: is being taken away, you know, they truly bonded. Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Bye Billy. Oh so. Quentin Tarantino talked about the time
Speaker 1: he met Joe Dante. Oh okay, he was like seventeen
Speaker 1: years old, and he was just writing to movie directors
Speaker 1: because of course Quentin Tentertaino did.
Speaker 2: That right totally, and.
Speaker 1: He's like, oh, I'm writing a book about movie directors.
Speaker 1: And so Joe Dante invited him to visit while they
Speaker 1: were making Gremlins.
Speaker 2: Really yeah, So young Tarantino was on this set.
Speaker 1: I think this was this is during post okay, and
Speaker 1: so they were they were showing him. They were showing
Speaker 1: Dante the the effects for the sequence coming up where
Speaker 1: where Key Luke is walking away and it's a matt
Speaker 1: you know, it's a processed shot, right, and he's like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: come come watch it, you know. And Tarantino talked about
Speaker 1: how you know, they're watching the scene where where the
Speaker 1: grandfather's walking away, and the effects people are like, oh,
Speaker 1: if you want, we can add like a shot, like
Speaker 1: we can add like Santa and his reindeer to like
Speaker 1: the skyline kind of thing, you know. And Joe Dante
Speaker 1: was like, don't tell me stuff like that, because I
Speaker 1: might just think it's a good idea. And and I
Speaker 1: like that story, like right here you would see like
Speaker 1: Santa that you know. Yeah, And I like that story
Speaker 1: because it to me, it puts in context first of all,
Speaker 1: like Tarantino just happens to be there when that's like
Speaker 1: quite remarkable, right yeah, yeah, but it contextualizes his sense
Speaker 1: of whimsy totally. Yeah, right, Like he viewed this as
Speaker 1: like a fairy tale, you know, and it's and the
Speaker 1: wrap around of white accidents narration makes this whole thing
Speaker 1: like did it even really happen? Maybe it's just a
Speaker 1: tall tale that quite accident told you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah yeah, especially his folksy demeanor or delivery,
Speaker 2: you know, it just sort of it does se Yeah,
Speaker 2: it sound like a like a neighborhood legend.
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly, just like thing about the man who tried
Speaker 1: to climb down the chimney.
Speaker 2: Yeah exactly, exactly. Yeah, you know that's really funny though,
Speaker 2: you're you're totally right. I love that about Joe Dante.
Speaker 1: Like Peter Cullen too, he was one of the gremlins. Wow,
Speaker 1: Megatron and Optimus Prime, we're both in this.
Speaker 2: It's amazing. They are great though. I like that they
Speaker 2: don't necessarily speak. They just kind of repeat words like
Speaker 2: one or two words.
Speaker 1: It feels well, I love yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 1: Sean always does that.
Speaker 2: That's funny.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, Gremlins, Brian, Yeah, what a what a fun,
Speaker 1: quaint little classic.
Speaker 2: You know it really is.
Speaker 1: This does not get talked about, you know, right around
Speaker 1: this time of year, events arguing over the proper Christmas
Speaker 1: action movie or whatnot.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, you got your diehards
Speaker 2: and your your lethal weapons. Nobody talks about Gremlins. Well,
Speaker 2: and that's that's why we did it. We you know,
Speaker 2: we've got Christmas upon us, the holiday season, and we
Speaker 2: thought this would be a fun sort of holiday themed
Speaker 2: movie to put out as our little gift to you.
Speaker 1: And it's a little PSA. Don't try to climb down
Speaker 1: the chimney dressed as Santa.
Speaker 2: It's not worth it, It's right, please.
Speaker 1: It's It's not worth traumatizing your kids.
Speaker 2: Absolutely not.
Speaker 1: But hey, I hope what this also means that we'll
Speaker 1: get to come back and at some point and talk
Speaker 1: through the second one.
Speaker 2: I can't wait, because, like I said, I don't remember
Speaker 2: it very well, and now that I really understand what
Speaker 2: it is, I think I will be on its wavelength. Yeah,
Speaker 2: more so than probably when I first saw it.
Speaker 1: Well that's that's a conversation I look forward to having
Speaker 1: at some point. Yeah. Uh, and we mentioned again, we
Speaker 1: mentioned before about Jerry Goldsmith. But but you know, they
Speaker 1: have a like the complete score, it's available on Apple Music,
Speaker 1: and so it is fantastic. It's just a really it's
Speaker 1: a very good score. It's one of Goldsmith's best.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And I.
Speaker 1: Think the Gremlins, you know, the Gremlins rag that theme.
Speaker 1: It's it is, at least for me. It's it's very
Speaker 1: very distinctive and it's very emblematic of that era for me,
Speaker 1: you know, absolutely.
Speaker 2: You know, and now that I'm looking at the credits
Speaker 2: and the you know, the rights and the songs and whatever,
Speaker 2: we didn't really comment on how crazy it is that
Speaker 2: snow White is in this movie. Yeah, right, they had to.
Speaker 1: That's a that they got permission for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. That feels also like a Spielberg Ye height of
Speaker 2: his Powers sort of thing, you know, because if you're
Speaker 2: making goolies and you want them to watch snow White,
Speaker 2: you can bet that Disney's not going to give that
Speaker 2: to them.
Speaker 1: You know, that's good.
Speaker 2: But here you can get the exact precise gag that
Speaker 2: you want, you know, watching them sing along with the
Speaker 2: Seven Dwarves. Because Spielberg says naked, So.
Speaker 1: That's and and when when when back then when he
Speaker 1: said it, it happened.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's how we got Roger Rabbit. Just a couple
Speaker 2: of years later, and four years.
Speaker 1: Later I forgot about Roger Rabbit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, where they mix the Warner Brothers and Disney characters,
Speaker 2: because no one else could have pulled that off.
Speaker 1: See Roger Rabbit. That's a good one, right, like, like
Speaker 1: that's that is. Obviously there is a Spielberg influence, but
Speaker 1: it is a mechus through and.
Speaker 2: Through totally, totally.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but hey, let us know your thoughts on gremins.
Speaker 1: You can email us at Movie Film Podcasts at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com. You know, also hit like on our Facebook
Speaker 1: page Facebook dot com slash movie Film Podcast. If you
Speaker 1: like what we're doing, please go to Apple Music and
Speaker 1: leave review, leave a star rating. Every little bit helps.
Speaker 2: We also have a Patreon briant that's right at patreon
Speaker 2: dot com Slash Movie Film Podcast. You can find every
Speaker 2: commentary we've ever done without any ads in every episode
Speaker 2: of the regular show, and commentary we'll do in the future,
Speaker 2: absolutely ad free for only five dollars a month.
Speaker 1: Plus occasional special episodes that are Patreon only.
Speaker 2: That's right. Yeah, when we were recording this, the Superman
Speaker 2: James Gunn trailer just dropped this past week, and we thought, well,
Speaker 2: we were going to talk about it anyway, just as friends.
Speaker 2: Why not make like an extra little recording and have
Speaker 2: that be a bonus feature available exclusively for Patreon subscribers.
Speaker 2: So I we enjoy doing that, and I can definitely
Speaker 2: see us doing more things like that in the future.
Speaker 1: I would expect more.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: As for me, if you're looking for you online, you
Speaker 1: can find me on social media at Zaki's Corner. That's
Speaker 1: the Akis Corner. Brian's also got his stuff going on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Episodes I've written of Puppy Dog Pals
Speaker 2: and Young Jedi Adventures are available on Disney Plus.
Speaker 1: There we go with that. On behalf of my partner
Speaker 1: Brian Home. My name is Zachi.
Speaker 2: You sound this has been our movie from a commentary
Speaker 2: track for Gremlins.
Speaker 1: We'll catch you next time.
Speaker 2: Thanks folks,