Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		2.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Gremlins 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Cute. Clever. Mischievous. Intelligent. Now in 4K—but with Less.

Reviewed by Michael Reuben October 1, 2019

What is it with Warner's UHD group and extras? They keep screwing up. For no obvious reason, they drop individual items (e.g., the shivery trailer from The Shining) or omit entire discs (see, for example, I Am Legend). In the botched Blade Runner 4K set, they left out two discs of critical items, including the in-depth documentary exploring how that very version of Blade Runner was created.

Now the Warner UHD clown car has spit out another absurdity with its new 4K edition of Gremlins—and once again this troupe doesn't even seem to know what they've previously released and what's in their own library. Gremlins was first issued on Blu-ray in 2009, and that badly dated disc has been dusted off for inclusion with the new 4K version. But Warner already re-released the 2009 disc in 2014 as part of its short-lived effort to create a premium line called "Diamond Luxe". As an incentive to buy the Diamond Luxe edition of Gremlins, an entire disc of worthwhile new extras was created, which I reviewed here. When Warner put out its press release for the 4K, all of those 2014 extras were listed, which naturally led one to assume that either the Diamond Luxe extras disc would be included or (better) the extras were being added to a new 1080p disc of the film remastered from the new 4K scan. (The latter hope was not improbable, since Warner has included remastered 1080p discs with many of its UHDs, including Unforgiven, the Matrix trilogy and, most recently, The Shining.)

But no. Once again, Warner has demonstrated the folly of relying on its press releases for information. The informative extras included in the Diamond Luxe edition of Gremlins are nowhere to be found in this UHD package. If you want them, you still have to buy the Diamond Luxe, thereby acquiring yet another copy of the original Blu-ray. (I'm told that a hastily revised press release is floating around somewhere, but I have yet to see it.)

The only consolation for this now-typical Warner bungle—let's call it "Stupid Extras Omission" or SEO™—is that the 4K disc is pretty good. As has often been the case with titles brought to Blu-ray in the early days of the format, the benefits of a new 4K scan would no doubt be obvious even if the scan were down-rezzed to 1080p. But in true, native 4K, the result is by far the finest presentation of director Joe Dante's unique blend of comedy, whimsy and horror that I have ever seen. The disc has some issues (discussed in the Video section), but overall it's a worthy upgrade.

Once again, I refer readers to Dustin Somner's discussion of Gremlins in his 2009 review. The film wears its age more gracefully for me than it did for Mr. Somner, possibly because I'm such a fan of imaginary characters created "in camera" instead of with CGI. The gremlins and their progenitor, Gizmo, may be animatronic puppets, but they were so skillfully brought to life, and their presence on set so enhanced the live actors' performances, that Gremlins serves as an enduring reminder of the extent to which special effects miracles can be accomplished without the aid of computers. Indeed, instead of copying the initial review's feature score, as I did previously, I'm substituting my own, which is higher.

Gremlins 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

(Screenshots accompanying this review are taken from the 2009 1080p Blu-ray.)

Gremlins was shot by director Joe Dante's usual cinematographer, John Hora, and as Dustin Somner noted in his original review, much of the film has a haze cast over the image. The gauzy overlay both enhances the fable-like quality of the tale (reflected in Hoyt Axton's voiceover opening and closing) and also helps conceal some of the wires and other mechanical elements used to bring the film's title characters to life. The haziness is still there on Warner's 2160p, HEVC/H.265-encoded UHD disc, but now there's an impressive level of detail that shines through the nostalgic coating and brings the world of the film more vividly to life (with some key exceptions that I'll discuss in a moment). You can see details of the assorted bric-a-brac in Mr. Wing's shop that were previously obscured, and the enchanted small-town world of Bedford Falls—excuse me, Kingston Falls—is more textured and tactile than I've ever seen it before. This is particularly true in well-lit scenes, where facial pores, fabric patterns and the individual hairs on everything from Gizmo's ears to Mrs. Deagle's cats are more distinctly visible. Mrs. Peltzer's fight with the creatures that have invaded her kitchen (one of the film's best sequences) has new immediacy and intensity, and it feels even more dangerous, even though you know she's just battling puppets.

However, there are some negatives to the 4K presentation, and they generally relate to the HDR grading. The scene that I expected to look bad, namely the horde of gremlins approaching the town, comes through surprisingly well; it's animation, it's always looked like animation, and it still does. But many of the following scenes with large numbers of creatures are exceptionally dark, e.g., the Dory's Tavern sequence and the movie theater gathering with Snow White playing on the screen. Particularly in the latter sequence, you would expect the 4K presentation to enable better visibility of the remarkable variety that creature-designer Chris Walas and his team put into the gremlin crowd. That detail may well be in the scan, but the colorist has made the scene so dark that you have to struggle to make it out. The same darkness pervades the department store battle between Billy and the gremlin leader known as "Stripe". Yes, the store is supposed to be shut down for the night, but in scene after scene, Billy's adversary remains a dark figure in outline far more than in prior presentations of the film.

The added darkness shouldn't be allowed to detract from one's overall enjoyment of the newly enhanced vividness in the bulk of the film, but it's an unfortunate limitation, since it obscures some of Gremlins' most elaborate and memorable creature effects. The darkness is clearly a choice on the part of the colorist, because it isn't pervasive. In the final scene, for example, Mr. Wing's lone figure walking through the snowy remains of the town late at night is brightly visible.

The colorist has also made a few other questionable choices, and they will reinforce the oft-heard charge against Warner of color revisionism. In a number of scenes, the grading has acquired a distinct cyan push that is perhaps most obvious in the ominous sequence where Stripe plunges into the high school swimming pool. Fortunately, such scenes are the exception rather than the rule.

Despite these issues, I consider the UHD of Gremlins to be a significant and worthwhile upgrade, if only because the 2009 Blu-ray is so obviously dated. It would have been interesting to see how the new 4K scan translated to 1080p and SDR, where the colorist might not have had the same freedom to darken so many of the creature sequences, but Warner chose not to remaster the standard Blu-ray.

(Additional note: As far as I can tell, the 4K disc does not include Dolby Vision encoding.)

(Further addendum: The "Video" score of 2.5 has been copied from Dustin Somner's 2009 review. I have not newly evaluated the 1080p disc's video, nor can I say whether I would have given it the same score as Dustin, had I been the reviewer at the time.)

Gremlins 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Gremlins was released to theaters in Dolby Stereo, with a six-track mix created for 70mm exhibition. For video, the soundtrack was remixed for 5.1. The 2009 Blu-ray encoded that mix in Dolby TrueHD, while the new 4K disc encodes it in DTS-HD MA.

A review of the Dolby TrueHD presentation can be found here. The UHD's version does not present any obvious difference, other than the change in lossless format.

Gremlins 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The 1080p disc contains the same supplements that it did in 2009. They are listed here. The 4K disc duplicates the two commentaries but contains no other extras.

The following extras from the Diamond Luxe edition were listed in Warner's press release but are MIA in the final release package:

• Cute. Clever. Mischievous. Intelligent. Dangerous: Making Gremlins (1080p; 1.78:1; 29:15). Omitted.
• From Gizmo to Gremlins: Creating the Creatures (1080p; 1.78:1; 17:48). Omitted.
• Hangin' with Hoyt on the Set of Gremlins (1080p; 1.33:1; 4:18). Omitted.
• Digital Comics (1080p; 1.78:1). Omitted.
• Gremlins: The Gift of the Mogwai (7:01).
• The Last Gremlin (6:40).

If you want to know more about what you're missing, see the Diamond Luxe review for further discussion.

Update on Oct. 5, 2020: I have been advised by a Blu-ray.com member that these Diamond Luxe features are available for streaming, if one redeems the digital code included with this release at Movies Anywhere.

Gremlins 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Gremlins is a good 4K disc. The package in which it arrives is lousy, with an antique 1080p Blu-ray and extras that were promised but not delivered, even though they already exist. Maybe one day the gang that brought you Stupid Disc Authoring (SDA™) and continues to engage in Stupid Extras Omissions (SEO™) will learn how to get these things right. For now, Gremlins on 4K is recommended, as long as you know what you're getting (and what you're not).