Welcome to Gremlins, one of the final vestiges of the original “PG” rating! For the first 15 or so years of the MPAA’s system, no step between “PG” and “R” existed. That meant some surprisingly racy flicks ended up in “PG” territory; for example, Logan’s Run and Clash of the Titans offered nudity that would never appear in a “PG” movie today.

However, copious nudity didn’t cause the creation of the “PG-13” rating – it occurred due to allegedly excessive violence and intensity. Two films directly led to the invention of “PG-13”: Gremlins and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The latter tossed in a lot of potentially frightening material, including substantial scenes of child abuse and nasty supernatural events. While I never felt it entered “R” territory – as some folks claimed at the time – it seemed perfect for the then-nonexistent “PG-13”.

On the other hand, I think the case for Gremlins seems less clear. Clearly the movie offers a lot of violence, but the majority of it resides firmly in the “cartoony” vein. Even when humans become injured, this occurs in a way that seems straight out of a Warner Bros. cartoon.

Be that as it may, Gremlins still inspired its own little tempest in a teapot 18 years ago. Does the film deserve to be remembered as anything other than a historical footnote? You bet! Although I actually prefer its 1990 sequel, Gremlins remains a fun and lively experience.

At the start of the film, we meet the Pelzer family of idyllic Capra-esque Kingston Falls. Inventor father Rand (Hoyt Axton) travels a lot to peddle his wares, and during one trip, he seeks a special Christmas present for son Billy (Zach Galligan). In Chinatown he obtains a strange critter called a Mogwai. He gives the adorable beast to Billy and all seems well.

Unfortunately, it ain’t easy to care for a Mogwai, and the Pelzers learn this the hard way. Gizmo (voiced by Howie Mandel) gets wet, and that causes him (?) to reproduce. This creates a few new Mogwai, including the ill-tempered Stripe. These critters aren’t as gentle and even-tempered as Gizmo, and they actively try to cause mischief.

That leads to another problem when Billy inadvertently violates one of the prime Mogwai directives: don’t feed them after midnight. He does so and the Mogwai involved – Gizmo passed on the eats – go into cocoon states. When this ends, they come out as different – and even nastier – beings.

The rest of the movie follows Billy’s attempts to contain and stop the gremlins’ reign of terror. They run rampant throughout Kingston Falls and terrorize the population. Some fatalities and much comic mayhem ensue as Billy tries to take care of the situation.

No, that’s not much of a plot, but Gremlins offers a very entertaining experience nonetheless. Modern movies span genres more readily than they did even back in the Eighties, so Gremlins offered something genuinely unusual. Neither straight horror flick nor simple comedy, the movie fused those elements neatly and created a lively and amusing piece of work.

None of this would have worked without the compelling attributes of the gremlins themselves. Of course, Gizmo’s cuteness instantly attracts us – who wouldn’t want a pet like that? – but it’s the wild gremlins that make the film succeed. The movie’s first half seems entertaining enough, but it all comes across as obvious exposition. That’s not a complaint, for we needed to get all of that information before we could proceed. However, those segments lacked a great deal of spark, as it felt like the movie badly wanted to get to the good stuff.

When it does and all hell breaks loose, Gremlins reaches its zenith. Created by minds who clearly watched too many Looney Tunes in their childhood – and probably adulthood, as well – the movie revels in the lunacy of the gremlins. At turns scary and hilarious, the creatures nicely span both concepts. Creature designer Chris Walas and his crew did an excellent job with the monsters, as they properly achieved the necessary cartoony balance.

The gremlins’ human co-stars fare a bit less well, especially in regard to Galligan. The other actors do reasonably well, but Galligan presents an exceedingly bland presence. Perhaps that was intentional, and it may even be appropriate. After all, the gremlins are the stars of the show, and a more forceful lead actor may have detracted from that. Still, it’d be nice to see a Billy with some personality; I never cared much about him while in Galligan’s hands.

Nonetheless, that’s a small complaint. Most of Gremlins works quite well. A flick packed with giddy cartoon violence and nastiness, it provides a wild ride that rarely slows. A definite classic within its genre, Gremlins remains a very entertaining movie.

Gremlins appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This was a pretty mediocre presentation.

Sharpness seemed erratic. Some parts of the film showed good clarity and delineation, but many appeared a bit fuzzy and soft. Jagged edges and moiré effects presented no issues, and I also noticed no signs of edge enhancement. In regard to print flaws, I witnessed light grain at times, and I also detected periodic examples of grit and speckles. These weren’t dominant, but they distracted.

Although colored lights appeared somewhat runny, the hues otherwise looked fairly positive. The hues showed some of the murkiness that often appeared in Eighties flicks, but they managed to come across as acceptably vivid and distinct. Black levels appeared somewhat muddy, while shadows tended to be a bit thick. In the end, Gremlins presented an inconsistent image that I didn’t think deserved a grade above a “C”.

And maybe that’s about as good as Gremlins can get. I do recognize that it probably never was a particularly dazzling visual movie, but I couldn’t help but think that it should look better than this. Too much of the film appeared moderately unattractive.

At least I liked the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack of Gremlins. Not surprisingly, the soundfield maintained a general emphasis over the forward channels, though the imaging picked up as the movie progressed. Music showed good stereo separation, and effects displayed nice breadth and localization. At times, the material seemed somewhat speaker-specific, but the track displayed a few fine moments, such as the appropriate placement of the Volkswagen engine. For the first half or so of the flick, surround usage seemed to tend toward general reinforcement, but the action picked up when the gremlins entered the film in force. The track showed solid life during those scenes, and they even offered some cool split-surround usage.

Audio quality appeared moderately dated but it held up fairly well. Speech seemed natural and distinct, with no issues related to edginess or intelligibility. Music demonstrated somewhat limited dynamics, but the score and songs appeared acceptably vivid and lively. Effects also came across as a little thin, but they generally were accurate and crisp. Bass response popped some punch into the material; for example, the gremlins’ metamorphosis showed solid low-end information. In the end, the audio for Gremlins worked well after all these years.

How did the picture and audio of this Blu-ray compare to those of the 2002 Special Edition DVD? I thought the audio was a wash, as the dated sound of Gremlins didn’t really benefit from the lossless treatment here. As for the picture, it actually looked better than the DVD, but not to a tremendous degree. The Blu-ray came across as a little tighter, but don’t expect it to impress.

The Blu-ray replicates the supplements from the prior SE. We open with two separate audio commentaries, the first of which came from director Joe Dante, producer Michael Finnell, and special effects artist Chris Walas. All three sat together for this running, screen-specific track. I enjoyed the commentary for Dante’s Innerspace, and Gremlins also provided a lively and entertaining affair.

As with the Innerspace track, Dante dominated the piece, but not to a tremendous extent. All three men contributed a lot of good information. Given the heavy amount of effects required for the movie, the focus remained on technical elements, and I learned what an ordeal it was to make the flick; Walas still sounded as though he could fall into a Gremlins-related nervous breakdown at any minute.

In addition to the details of the taxing process caused by the creation of the critters, they talked about the film’s genesis and different story elements that changed along the way. Particularly interesting was Dante’s tale of how much pressure he received from the studio to cut the scene in which Phoebe Cates’ character explains her hatred for Christmas. Unfortunately, the track included a few too many empty spaces – Dante even joked about this tendency at one point – but it still managed to offer a very entertaining and informative discussion.

During that commentary, the participants rarely discussed the cast. That would be a major oversight were it not for the second track. It featured Dante along with actors Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Dick Miller and Howie Mandel. All five were recorded together for this running, screen-specific piece. The track started off well and managed to remain interesting from start to finish, but it did peter out somewhat as it progressed.

Dante and Galligan dominated the commentary, but not to the exclusion of the others. Miller offered little information; it got to the point where Mandel jokingly harassed him about his silence. Mandel mostly tossed in wisecracks, many of which were actually fairly funny. Cates took more of a “speak when spoken to” approach, but the presence of an off-microphone helped get more information out of her. A light tone manifested itself throughout the piece; on one occasion, Dante even half-jokingly disparages a Galligan story with the remark that no one cares about it.

Not all of the actors commentary was quite so potentially surly, but it seemed wonderfully free of happy talk; I can recall almost none of the usual “that was great” nonsense. The participants added a lot of nice material about the movie. They discussed their casting and their experiences on the set, and this made the track quite informative and entertaining most of the time.

On the negative side, Dante repeated a few stories. This didn’t happen frequently and it didn’t really bother me, but I thought I’d mention it. More problematic were the occasional empty spots. That tendency grew as the movie progressed; although it never became severe, it seemed much more distracting in the second half of the film. Actually, one pause during the first act proved illuminating; Galligan did an impression of actor Glyn Turman, and due to the blank spot, I heard Turman speak and could appreciate what a dead-on mimic Galligan was. Pauses aside, the actors commentary for Gremlins offered a largely entertaining and informative program.

Next we discover a collection of Additional Scenes. The package includes eight different segments, and these run as one 10-minute and 26-second piece. None of the scenes is terribly compelling. Since I’m a fan of the film, I’m happy to see them, and it’s interesting to learn what happened to Gerald. Otherwise, nothing special occurs here, though “there’s more to life than macaroni” may become my new motto.

The “additional scenes” can be viewed with or without commentary from Dante and the same crew heard on the actors’ track, though I’m not sure Mandel still stayed in the room. These remarks add some good notes about the scenes, even if Galligan and Cates can’t remember when they shot some of them. Dante lets us know why the material failed to make the final cut, and we hear some good anecdotes along the way.

From 1984 comes a vintage featurette. This six-minute and 15-second piece shows shots from the set and sound bites from Dante, gremlin designer Chris Walas, executive producer Steven Spielberg, and actors Hoyt Axton, Phoebe Cates and Zach Galligan. Those elements don’t offer much information, but the material on the set seems reasonably interesting. There isn’t much depth here, but the show appears worth a look.

The Gallery includes 30 stills. Most of these feature production photos, but some storyboards appear as well. Lastly, the trailers domain provides three ads. We get the original clip for Gremlins as well as a reissue promo and a clip for Gremlins 2: The New Batch.

After 25 years, Gremlins remains a frantic and fun piece of work. It nicely mixes horror, action and comedy and packages the different elements into one entertaining piece. The Blu-ray presents mediocre picture and good sound along with a fairly solid set of supplements. I think Gremlins remains an entertaining movie, and despite the erratic visuals, this becomes a good release.

To rate this film, visit the Special Edition of GREMLINS