Chapter Two - Gremlins 2: The New Batch
By Brett Beach
August 19, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com

He still looks less ridiculous than Robert Pattinson.
There are almost as many differences as there are similarities between Gremlins 2: The New Batch and Gremlins. That fact in and of itself is worthy of commentary as we are all familiar with sequels that exist simply as retreads or amped-up versions of their younger selves. Both films fall squarely into the horror comedy slot, although the second film has more of the latter and the original has more of the former. Both clock in at around 105 minutes. Three of the key cast members from the first - Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates and Dick Miller - reprised their roles and Howie Mandel once again provided his unique vocal stylings for the voice of the furry Mogwai would-be hero Gizmo. Jerry Goldsmith's wonderfully catchy carnivalesque score from Gremlins is featured in The New Batch although not as frequently and not to nearly the same joyous effect. Joe Dante occupied the director's chair on both occasions and Steven Spielberg (along with Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy) executive produced. But here is where things diverge, in my opinion. To really understand how the sequel veers off in a different direction, one need only look at how the gremlins are portrayed within the frameworks of the respective films. More on that in a moment.

First, the requisite extended introduction that is fast becoming a staple of Chapter Two. Back in the summer of 1984, the first Gremlins debuted a mere two weeks after Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (featured in last week's column) and after a strong second place opening with $12.5 million, proceeded to hang out for five more weeks in the bridesmaid's position (kept out of the top spot all that time by Ghostbusters) and spent a total of 16 consecutive weeks in the top ten, finishing out the year with nearly $150 million. Released almost exactly six years later, Gremlins 2 transplanted the creatures from small-town America to big city New York. It debuted with only $9 million and closed out its domestic run with $41 million. Chris Columbus scripted the first film, while a writer named Charlie Haas (who also penned the script for Dante's delightful 1993 comedy Matinee) worked on the second.

The difference in sensibilities between those two scribes is roughly the gap between throwing a grab bag of movie clichés on screen and having nasty, icky fun with them (which is what Gremlins did) and poking satirical fingers at storytelling/cinematic conventions and clichés (The New Batch, natch). Satire, it has been famously observed, is what closes on Saturday night, meaning the "kids" are not at all down with it and the general public won't be standing around the water cooler at church or the office talking it up. I consider it an achievement that Warner Bros. not only allowed the sequel to head in the direction it did but also — from observing the original theatrical trailer and poster work featured on the DVD Special Features - understood precisely what they had on their hands and used the marketing tools to convey that. There was honesty in advertising from the team in marketing. You have been served notice that it has happened at least once. That The New Batch grossed what it did is a small victory as well. It's a comic romp more than an adventure or an action film, satirical but not pushing over into cynicism, with jokes both subtle and embedded coming fast and furious almost as if this was a ZAZ production. Or, perhaps, a live action cartoon?

Dante's work on both films is idiosyncratic and engaging, but his heart (and Haas') is clearly into what's on screen the second time around, perhaps because the style is closer to his own personal stamp, and this makes sense as he was apparently given near complete creative control in return for agreeing to direct again. The man who would later direct Looney Tunes: Back in Action and had, prior to the first Gremlins, directed Piranha, The Howling and one of the more well-received segments in Twilight Zone: The Movie approaches part two as if it was merely a Looney Tunes animated tale in an alternate live-action universe. If Steven Spielberg was the "presenter" of the original film, than Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig are the patron saints of The New Batch. Bugs and Daffy appear briefly, apropos of nothing, at the start of the film, engaging in their familiar wise-acre/flustered give and take banter. Porky attempts to sign off at the film's end but is scuttle-butted by an annoyed Daffy, who has been popping up during the closing credits expressing Ferris Bueller-like incredulity that anyone in the audience might be wading/waiting through all the names. The deleted and outtake scenes push this even further with Daffy fighting Bugs for the right to name and design the artwork for the film's title and Bugs adding The New Batch as a subtitle after deciding that Gremlins 2 just isn't long enough.

Dante and Haas carry this "it's only a film" subtext up to a natural conclusion halfway through as the film "breaks" (the result of gremlins in the projection booth) and a parent rushes out of the theater to confront a manager all the while complaining how Gremlins 2 is "worse than the original." The problem is solved only when an appeal is made to Hulk Hogan, who happens to be in the theater, to stand up and threaten the gremlins with bodily harm, which he proudly and forcefully does. (Coming as this appearance did between Hogan's own films No Holds Barred and Suburban Commando, I can only gather that he was selected either for his recognizability quotient or his own resemblance to a live-action cartoon. It should be noted that home video versions feature an alternate sequence where it is suggested that the VCR showing the movie is breaking down.)

The gremlins are arguably villains in the first film, presented as a teeming mob of destructive, caterwauling outsiders spoiling the pristine small-town quaintness of Kingston Falls. The fact that they are so closely tied to Chinatown (where Gizmo resides) and that the xenophobic Mr. Futterman (Miller) talks about gremlins as a tool of war employed by the Japanese suggests elements of coded racism that may have been glossed over by me in my youth, but as an adult leaves a slight bitter taste in the mouth. However, they do love Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and send the risible Mrs. Deagle to her memorable through-the-roof death, so they have that in their corner.

In The New Batch, nothing escapes Dante's and Haas' thrusts of their satiric poker. The capitalist at the heart of the story, Daniel Clamp (a spirited and smug John Glover at his smarmiest), is an unholy amalgamation of Donald Trump, Ted Turner and Lee Iacocca, but he is hardly painted as a bad guy. Rather, he is simply an emblem of the vulgar nature of capitalism and its desire for grandiosity and profits at any cost, such as skyscraping towers and, perhaps, unnecessary sequels? Clamp sends a gremlin to the sequel's most memorable death via a shredder without breaking a sweat, an obvious and game attempt to outdo the microwave demise from Gremlins. Grandpa Fred (Robert Prosky), the kindly, aging host of Clamp's cable network's horror movie show winds up breathlessly reporting on the goings-on as the gremlins take over Clamp Tower, and winds up being promoted to news show anchor by the film's end.

Billy (Galligan) and Kate (Cates) are still together, but even as the "heroes" of the story, their characters still endure some ribbing. Kate delivers a tale of being flashed by an adult while she was a child that is meant as a parody of her "why I hate Christmas" monologue in Gremlins, but this time around no one pays attention. Billy is viewed as a rube from a small town and people are slow to believe he knows anything about what to do with the gremlins. Galligan is an appealing non-entity in both films, testament to which is the fact that his name is actually misspelled on the back of the Gremlins Special Edition DVD (check it out). Cates' quiet humor in the throwaway girlfriend role serves as a reminder that Kevin Kline's gain was the movie world's loss.

Targets and topics as varied as genetic testing, colorization of black and white films, musicals, merchandising and the impact of violence in the media on television viewers, all pop up on the radar in Gremlins 2. The latter in particular relates to Gizmo as multiple viewings of Rambo: First Blood Part II apparently turn him from a pacifist into a deliverer of flaming-arrow justice. And the Gremlins themselves? Well, thanks to the aforementioned genetic testing, we are treated to a flying bat Gremlin, a spider gremlin, a female gremlin (whose pursuit of a male Clamp Tower employee inspired thoughts in me of Pepe Le Pew chasing aggressively after that cat he was always wooing) and a brainy gremlin that speaks in the stentorian tones of Tony Randall. As he pontificates on what exactly the gremlins want in the world, and Billy et al. work fervently to keep the creatures from making it out of the tower and onto the streets of NYC, it is only natural that the gremlins would break into song ("New York, New York", duh!) and show that everyone has a song-and-dance number in their heart. One is almost sad to see them perish this time around, done in by call waiting as it were. If the Muppets were able to make it on Broadway with their college show, imagine what their less cuddly counterparts could have accomplished!