The Gremlins are the fictional and unknown reptile-like creatures who are the primary antagonists of the entire Gremlins franchise. They made their debut in the 1984 film Gremlins and then reappeared in its 1990 sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch. They are also based upon the creatures with the same name of old English folklore.
In both movies, the Gremlins have a leader that is smarter than all others. Stripe is the leader in the first movie and though the Brain Gremlin is the smartest, Mohawk is briefly the leader in the second movie (before being replaced by the smarter Brain Gremlin).
History and Biography[]
A Gremlin is the last stage of the Gremlin life cycle which goes from Mogwai-Cocoon-Gremlin. It is said that the gremlins are considered to be an unwanted side-effect from when the Mogwais were created on a far away planet to be used as ambassadors of peace on other planets.
They are just about one meter tall and they have scaly reptile-like skin, large batlike ears, three sharp claws on their feet and hands and equally sharp teeth. Their looks and color may vary; which can be in either various shades of green, brown, and black. Their intelligence and strength varies and they are all very mischievous, dangerously violent and craziness fun loving. They are capable of working (and sabotaging) complex machinery and devices, as apparent in folklore where they were believed to have brought down hundreds of planes. No gremlin has so far proved to be good-willed and nice and most of them don't seem to regard the life of their fellow gremlins, sometimes even killing or beating others for fun. Even though they are dangerous and fun loving they don't seem to hurt any human who are not afraid of them (example: when Grandpa Fred was doing a inside scoop of what was happening inside the building, not a single gremlin behind him laid a finger on him). Also in the deleted scenes when Grandpa Fred was doing his section George, Lenny and Daffy were present but didn't try to scare or hurt him, rather joining him for fun.
Mogwai evolve into gremlins by eating after midnight. It would appear that mogwai are aware of this as many show to be determined to eat after midnight. Even after their metamorphosis, gremlins still retain traits they had as mogwai, such as their dislike to bright lights and their vulnerability to sunlight and most dangerously their ability to multiply upon getting wet. Unlike the mogwais, where small furballs that pop out from their backs and quickly inflate to turn into new mogwais, the backs of the wet gremlins get riddled with big blisters that contains small gremlins that rather quickly break free and starts to grow. The gremlins that are giving birth to new gremlins are often more vulnerable than other gremlins because the birthing process is often extremly painful for the creatures. Afterwards, they continue to live as if nothing happened, often along with the newly born gremlins that have quickly grown to full gremlin size. Like Mogwai, they can dissolve when exposed to sunlight.
Diet[]
It is unknown if they are omnivorous or carnivorous. However, they don't usually eat food other than candy and other junk food. But while as Mogwai, Stripe and his brothers ate chicken legs (which is meat) and Mohawk, Lenny, and George ate frozen yogurt or ice cream (which is dairy). Daffy has eaten corn, but doesn't like chicken or mashed potatoes. Earl liked eating a sandwich that had lettuce, meat, and possibly cheese as he said, "Yum yum" when he grabbed a sandwich and ate it. Earl also liked the chocolate candy bar that Mr. Hanson gave him. However, Earl did not like the apple that he took a bite out of in Mr. Hanson's office. But he did like eating the glass test tube. they also seemed to like Dr. Catherer's serums from splice o life.