Chapter Two - Gremlins 2: The New Batch
By Brett Beach
August 19, 2009
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.
Continued:
1
2
3
|
|
|
|
Print this column
