Editing Gremlins (section)

=== Special effects ===
[[File:HowieMandelM07.jpg|upright|thumb|Comedian [[Howie Mandel]] provided the voice of Gizmo.]]
Some of the performances were shot on the [[Courthouse Square]] and [[Colonial Street]] sets of the [[Universal Studios Lot]] in [[Universal City, California|Universal City]], California (Mrs. Deagle's house was one such set as well as the opening street scenes in Chinatown, which were filmed on the [[Warner Bros. Studios Burbank|Warner Bros. Studios]] backlot). This required fake snow; Dante also felt it was an atmosphere that would make the special effects more convincing.

An earlier attempt to use [[monkey]]s to interpret the gremlins was abandoned because the test monkey panicked when made to wear a gremlin head. [[Puppet]]s and [[marionette]]s were used instead, so the actors worked alongside them in most scenes.<ref name=Empire>{{cite web |url=https://empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=41383 |title=Gremlins Reunion: First Look At The Empire Photoshoot |work=[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]] |date=25 June 2014 |access-date=26 June 2014 |archive-date=September 24, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924130414/http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=41383 |url-status=live }}</ref> Nevertheless, after the actors finished their work for good, a great deal of effort was spent finishing the effects.

[[Chris Walas]] designed numerous small rubber puppets to portray Gizmo and the gremlins. There was more than one Gizmo puppet, and occasionally Galligan, when carrying one, would set him down off camera, and when Gizmo appeared again sitting on a surface it was actually a different puppet wired to the surface. These puppets had many limitations. The Gizmo puppets were particularly frustrating because they were smaller and thus broke down more. While Walas recommended making the ''mogwai'' larger to make their creation and functioning easier for the special effects team, Dante insisted on keeping their size small to enhance the cuteness of the creatures.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/Fangoria_038|title=Chris Walas|last=Martin|first=R. H.|publisher=Fangoria (38)|date=October 1984|pages=[https://archive.org/details/Fangoria_038/page/n44 44]–45}}</ref> Consequently, to satisfy the crew, a scene was included in which the gremlins hang Gizmo on a wall and throw darts at him. This was included on a list that the crew created known to them as the "Horrible Things to do to Gizmo" list.<ref name="DVD"/> [[Rob Bottin]] and [[John Dykstra]] were originally considered to do the special effects, Bottin was Dante's first choice; but he was busy working on ''[[Legend (1985 film)|Legend]]'' (1985).<ref name="theringer.com"/>

Other effects required large ''mogwai'' faces and ears to be produced for close-ups, as the puppets were less capable of conveying emotion. Consequently, large props simulating food were needed for the close-ups in the scene in which the ''mogwai'' feast after midnight. An enlarged Gizmo puppet was also needed for the scene in which he multiplies. The new ''mogwai'', who popped out of Gizmo's body as small, furry balls which then started to grow, were balloons and expanded as such. Walas had also created the exploding gremlin in the microwave by means of a balloon that was allowed to burst.<ref name="DVD"/>

[[Howie Mandel]] provided the voice of Gizmo and prolific voice actor [[Frank Welker]] provided the voice of the gremlins' leader, Stripe. It was Welker who suggested Mandel perform in ''Gremlins''. The puppets' lines were mostly invented by the voice actors, based on cues from the physical actions of the puppets, which were filmed before the voice work. When developing the voice for Gizmo, Mandel explained, "[Gizmo was] cute and naive, so, you know, I got in touch with that... I couldn't envision going any other way or do something different with it".<ref name="Mandel">{{cite AV media |people=[[Howie Mandel|Mandel, Howie]], [[Joe Dante|Dante, Joe]] |date=2002 |title=Steven Spielberg presents ''Gremlins'' Special edition audio commentary |medium=DVD |publisher=Warner Home Video}}</ref> The majority of the other gremlins' voices were performed by [[Michael Winslow]] and [[Peter Cullen]], while the remaining voices were done by Mandel, Welker, [[Bob Bergen]], [[Fred Newman (actor)|Fred Newman]], [[Jim Cummings]], [[Sonny Melendrez]], [[Mark Dodson (actor)|Mark Dodson]], [[Bob Holt (actor)|Bob Holt]], Michael Sheehan and even Dante himself.<ref name="Jim Cummings 1" /><ref name="Sonny Melendrez"/><ref name="Joe Dante"/><ref name="Howie Mandel"/>