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We've got one more Watchcast for you in 2025, and we're closing out a cursed year the only way we know how: with Gremlins. Join us as we take a trip back to a simpler time when zonked out suburbanites could shrug off the enormous implications of a lifeform like a mogwai in favor of taking cute photos and dumping water all over it.

CHAPTERS:

(00:00:00) - The Nextlander Watchcast Episode 163: Gremlins (1984)(00:00:15) - Intro.(00:05:23) - How we all experienced Gremlins back in the day.(00:09:20) - Some Gremlins 2 comparison chat, and the wild list of names involved in making this movie happen.(00:20:08) - Some production stories and voice cast chat.(00:28:54) - Our remaining cast.(00:42:04) - Break!(00:42:29) - We're back, and it's time to do some shopping in Chinatown.(00:49:54) - Welcome to backlot America.(00:58:12) - Bringing home a Mogwai.(01:02:26) - We told you not to get them wet! It's only been like five minutes!(01:07:28) - You can't even trust a science teacher in this day and age.(01:14:25) - Gross pods, and a number of check-ins with dad.(01:23:02) - We should all be so lucky to have a mother who can dual wield.(01:29:27) - Let's kill off all our minor townspeople right quick.(01:37:37) - Phoebe Cates, everyone. Let's give her a round of applause.(01:40:53) - Burning down the theater.(01:43:06) - Not an amazing finale, but definitely an amazing melting puppet skeleton.(01:46:45) - Once again, suburbanites cannot be trusted to handle unusual wildlife.(01:49:35) - Final thoughts.(01:54:59) - A teaser (not full schedule) for next month's movies.

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Comments

Kevin Marshall

Watched this for the first time this year and the scene with the “…some people open their wrists” might as well have slapped me across the face. Thank god I wasn’t drinking something.

Bob

Just watched this yesterday with my GF (her first time). She absolutely refused to believe it was a Christmas movie until the opening credits hit.

Robert Denby

The story behind Kate's Santa Claus story being left in is wild. Warner Bros. wanted it cut out of the movie, and even went to Steven Spielberg to try and pressure Joe Dante into cutting it. Spielberg wasn't personally fond of the scene but left the decision up to Dante because it was his movie. Warner was so sure this scene was going to be cut that instructions were printed and were to be sent to the shipping companies handling the prints that the scene was to be physically cut out of prints, much like what happened with that original The Shining ending. Just a quick correction; that's Robby the Robot from Forbidden Planet not the robot from Lost in Space. Glad Vinny noticed the extra gag with the time machine.

WulfBane

The 2023 Gremlins animated series did adjust a few of the rules and Mogwai lore. They did modify it to something like don’t feed them late at night and even make a joke about an arbitrary time would be silly. And undisciplined, Mogwai are wild and chaotic but in proper environments, they can be friendly. The show is set in early 1900’s China when 10 year old Sam Wing first finds Gizmo and encounters with various bits of Chinese lore and mythology creatures. James Hong plays the grandpa and they do have a Big Trouble reference when he does a magic battle linking his pinkies. And then George Takei is their version of the brain named Noggin and they follow him to San Francisco for the second season.

Brian Streleckis

Just getting into this as a Ground Control patron. No clue this came out the same time as Ghostbusters! It was Leonard Maltin in Gremlins 2, not Gene Shalit (who I just saw is still alive at 99).

Haley Higgins

If you read the novelization they reveal that Mogwai are actually aliens. Weirder, that were invented by an alien mad scientist who was trying to invent the perfect pet, but goofed up so badly that only 1 out of every 10,000 isn’t inherently evil, and so he yeeted the whole species into space and they crashed landed on Earth.