Gremlins are back!

Overseas in the UK those nasty critters, including Stripe, are having a blast destroying an office department to their exhilarating tune by composer Jerry Goldsmith. The TV spot uses ingenious computer animation to digitally transfer the original puppet-controlled monsters seamlessly from the Joe Dante 1984 original into a new modern setting. It is a marvel to behold. For instance, the gremlin going head first in the waste basket is the exact same one going into the bowl of frosting attached to the blender in the first movie’s notorious kitchen sequence. There are even some new actions performed by the gremlins that look convincing on part of the effects animators here. That tap dance sequence doesn’t exist, not even in the deleted scenes on the DVD.

Watching the TV spot only confirms the marketing department for BT, a Britain-based internet connection support company, are wicked masterminds. They even got Timothy Spall (Tim Burton’s Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street) to do the voice-over.

I hope Hollywood and Joe Dante are paying attention. Here’s the pitch: Move Gizmo and the gang to Japan and call it: Gremlins: Lost in Transmogrification. And do it while Dick Miller is still around to play Mr. Futterman.

UPDATE (May 2nd, 2008) :

I was just informed by an insider involved with the Gremlins BT TV Spot that no gremlins from the original 1984 film were lifted (or harmed) for the advertisement. All of the effects work was created using new Gremlin puppets. The attention to detail and the superb homages to the original are simply astonishing.