director joe dante proudly wear his influence on his sleeve in this excellent spielberg produce demented comedy or horror about mischievous creature that run riot in the sleepy town of kingston fall . reference all of his favourite film and cartoon and include the wizard of oz ( the film villain be oz mrs. gulch in all but name ) and looney tune ( check out the sound effect dante us ) and disney ( snow white and the seven dwarf feature heavily in the story ) and and invasion of the body snatcher and joe have a blast allow his toothy critter to ( very amusingly ) wreak havoc in typically spielbergian small town america . hoyt axton play rand peltzer and a less than successful inventor who buy his son billy ( zach galligan ) a most unusual christmas gift represent a creature call a mogwai ( which he name gizmo ) . this impossibly cute bundle of fur come with a strict set of rule which be inevitably break . the result be a horde of vicious foot high monster that set out to cause trouble wherever they can . with the help of gizmo and and gorgeous workmate kate ( the always stunning phoebe cates ) and billy set out to destroy the gremlin . although perhaps a bit too scary in place for more sensitive youngster ( the kitchen attack scene and in particular be quite frighten ) and gremlins be great fun for monster movie addict of all age . my kidsaged four and sixlove this film ( although i admit that i have be gradually condition them represent one of the toy they have have from birth be a bendy gremlin . ) . it really be hard to resist the movie non stop manic and zany comedy ( the gremlin be a hoot a they break dance and get drunk and play poker and and sing christmas carol . ) . sure and some moment be perhaps a little too daft ( personally and i do not understand that rule about not feed a mogwai after midnight and and i can not fully accept the scene where gizmo drive a fully function barbie car ) but excellent animatronics courtesy of chris walas and a nifty script from chris columbus and load of in joke for fan of fantasy film ( look out for blink and you will miss them appearance from gremlin producer steven spielberg and animator chuck jones and an appearance from forbidden planet robbie the robot and a stuffed et toy sit between a cuddly sylvester and bug bunny and and the time machine from the 60 george pal movie ) all go to make gremlin an unmissable treat . and it get phoebe cates in it too . which mean it get the full positive .