The Corner Penthouse

October is one of my favorite times of the year. I love all of the Halloween movies and specials, and in the lead-up to the 31st, I'm going to tell you about a few new releases perfect for the Ghostbusters' busiest night of the year. Today, I'll take a look at the Gremlins 4K/Blu-ray Combo Pack. Read on to find out more...


While some people will say that 1939 was the best year for movies, Children of the '80s will argue that 1984 was the better year. The year Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Four gave us Ghostbusters, Gremlins, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Beverly Hills Cop, The Terminator, The Karate Kid, and many, many more. US Weekly recently named 50 of them in their The Greatest Movies of 1984 special edition magazine.


That's why I was happy when Warner Brothers announced that they would be releasing Gremlins on 4K UHD in honor of its 35th anniversary. The general plot of the movie is as follows: When Billy (Zach Galligan) receives an adorable, mysterious pet named Gizmo for Christmas, he's given three rules for its care. Inadvertently, he breaks the rules, and a resulting army of duplicate furballs wrecks havoc throughout the town. It's a delightful mix of horror and comedy, dropping these little devils into the idyllic town of Bedford Falls...I mean, Kingston Falls.


Rewatching the movie these many years later, I am reminded of why I love it so much. It's so much fun watching Stripe and his cohorts terrorizing the citizens while having the time of their life. It might be scary for the really young, but for those in their teens and older, it's a delight. Also delightful is the lovely Phoebe Cates as Kate Beringer. I had such a big crush on her...and that was before seeing her fine feminine form in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The cast is rounded out with lots of enduring character actors (some favorites of director Joe Dante), such as Judge Reinhold, Dick Miller, Jackie Joseph, and Keye Luke. Animator Chuck Jones makes an appearance, as do Robby the Robot and Steven Spielberg. Gizmo is voiced by comedian Howie Mandel, who at the time was best known for his role on the medical series St. Elsewhere. His evil counterpart, Stripe, is voiced by the one and only Frank Welker. Other gremlins are voiced by Fred Newman (Skeeter on Doug and one of the adults on the late 1980s Mickey Mouse Club), Michael Winslow (the "voice guy" from the Police Academy movies), Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime himself), and Bob Bergen (the current voice of Porky Pig).


Gremlins is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio with a runtime of 1:46:15. Audio languages include English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Czech, Hungarian, Russian, and Japanese. The film includes English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Cantonese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Hungarian, Mandarin, Norwegian, Russian, Swedish, and Thai subtitles. The first print run includes a beautiful slipsleeve.


Here's a list of all of the bonus features that can be found on the Blu-ray disc. The UHD disc only contains the commentaries.

• Filmmakers' Commentary with director Joe Dante, producer Michael Finnell, and special effects artist Chris Walas
• Cast Commentary with director Joe Dante and actors Zack Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Dick Miller, and Howie Mandel
• Behind the Scenes (6:21) - Vintage EPK-style featurette with interviews with the cast and crew.
• Additional Scenes (10:26) - Various scenes, featuring more Judge Reinhold, with optional commentary.
• Photo Gallery - Still images.
• Theatrical Trailers (4:42) - Two trailers for Gremlins and one trailer for Gremlins 2: The New Batch.

Also included in the 4K UHD + Blu-ray Combo Pack is a second standard Blu-ray disc (originally released back in 2009), which contains the movie and all of the bonus features listed above. Audio languages include English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese. The film includes English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish subtitles.


A digital copy code voucher is also included in the standard two-disc black UHD Blu-ray case.


The press release included with my copy of the 4K/Blu-ray combo pack mentioned several additional bonus features, originally released on a bonus disc in the Diamond Luxe Edition from 2014, that were left out of the final set:

• Cute. Clever. Mischievous. Intelligent. Dangerous: Making Gremlins (29:15).
• From Gizmo to Gremlins: Creating the Creatures (17:48).
• Hangin' with Hoyt on the Set of Gremlins (4:18).
• Digital Comic: Gremlins: The Gift of the Mogwai (7:01).
• Digital Comic: The Last Gremlin (6:40).

These items, which have over an hours worth of considerable material, should have been included, as originally advertised. Warner Bros. should have authored a new Blu-ray disc, from the new 4K transfer (as they did with The Shining), and packed it with all of the bonus features from both previous Blu-ray releases (the 2009 disc that's in this set and the 2014 Diamond Luxe disc).

Better yet! They should have done this as a deluxe set to celebrate the 35th anniversary. Say what you will about Sony, but at least for Ghostbusters' 35th anniversary, we got a new 4K/Blu-ray double feature set with a LOT of new bonus features. Warner should have done the same for Gremlins 1&2. Heck, even if they didn't bother with new bonus features, they could have easily done a five-disc set like Sony's Ghostbusters 1&2 set: Disc 1 is Gremlins on 4K, Disc 2 is Gremlins 2 on 4K, Disc 3 is Gremlins on Blu-ray (the 2009 disc), Disc 4 is Gremlins 2 on Blu-ray (the 2012 disc), and Disc 5 is the bonus disc from the Diamond Luxe set. With that, fans would have EVERYTHING with minimal effort and cost on Warners part.


Gremlins is available on 4K UHD/Blu-ray Combo Pack, 2-Movie Blu-ray, and 3-Movie Blu-ray (with The Goonies). If you want the additional bonus features, you'll also need to buy the Diamond Luxe Edition Blu-ray, which contains the 2009 disc (included in all of the aforementioned sets) and a bonus disc.


All images were taken from the IMDB gallery of the film. The item was provided by Warner Brothers for review on this site.