Information AboutGremlin |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT GREMLIN | |
| fictional species | |
| american folklore legendary creatures | |
| european legendary creatures | |
| in-jokes | |
| technology folklore | |
| cryptids | |
This article is about the fictional creature. For other uses of the name, see Gremlin (disambiguation) . A gremlin is a mythological mischievous creature. Gremlins are depicted as mechanically oriented and extremely devious. The concept of the Gremlins as responsible for sabotaging aircraft was coined by Roald Dahl . The story attempted to explain the accidents which often occurred during their flights. THE GREMLIN IN POPULAR CULTURE The Lore of the gremlin was thought up by Roald Dahl following his military service in the 80th squadron of the Royal Air Force in the Middle East. Dahl had his own experience in an accidental crash-landing in the Libya n Desert . He was believed to have recovered and briefly resumed serving in Greece and Syria but his frequent headaches soon caused him to be relieved of active duty. In January, 1942 he was transferred to Washington, DC as Assistant Air Attache. There he eventually authored his novel '' The Gremlins '', in which he described male gremlins as " Widget s" and females as " Fifinella s". He showed the finished manuscript to Sidney Bernstein , the head of the British Information Service. Sidney reportedly came up with the idea to send it to Walt Disney . The manuscript arrived in Disney's hands in July, 1942 and he considered using it as material for a film. The film project never materialised but Disney managed to have the story published in the December, 1942 issue of ''Cosmopolitan'' Magazine . About half a year later a revised version of the story was published in a picture book published by Random House . The book is going to be republished in 2006 by Dark Horse Comics . Thanks mainly to Disney, the story had its share of publicity which helped in introducing the concept to a wider audience. Issues #33-#41 of '' Walt Disney's Comics And Stories '' published between June, 1943 and February, 1944 contained a nine-episode series of short silent stories featuring a Gremlin Gus as their star. The first was drawn by Vivie Risto and the rest of them by Walt Kelly . This served as their introduction to the Comic Book audience. It was at this point Robert Clampett created his 1943 Bugs Bunny film, '' Falling Hare ''. With Disney's film being the inspiration,this short has been one of the early Gremlin stories shown to cinema audiences. Bugs is featured as relaxing at an air field, reading the book '' Victory Through Hare Power '' and is amused when the book mentions gremlins, accusing them of "diabolical sabotage". Bugs then hears (and feels) odd clanking sounds which upon investigation reveal a gremlin trying to detonate a Blockbuster Bomb with a mallet. Bugs pursues the gremlin aboard a bomber which is then put into uncontrolled flight by the gremlin. Bugs tries to keep the plane from crashing even as he is violently assaulted by the gremlin at every turn. The Bugs Bunny cartoon was followed in 1944 by ''Russian Rhapsody'', another short showing Russian gremlins sabotaging an aircraft piloted by Adolf Hitler . A 1963 episode of '''', in which John Lithgow played the passenger watching in terror as the gremlin ripped apart one of the passenger jet's engines in mid-flight (the shared experience would be alluded to when Shatner guest-starred on Lithgow's television series '' 3rd Rock From The Sun '' in 1999) . The 1995 " Treehouse Of Horror IV " episode of '' The Simpsons '' included a segment titled "Terror at 5½ Feet", an obvious parody of the ''Twilight Zone'' episode. In the segment, Bart Simpson played Shatner's role, watching as a gremlin worked at removing the bus's left rear wheel. A movie called '''' in 1990. The gremlins in these movies had nothing obvious to do with aircraft in particular, although they were portrayed as adept at subverting or sabotaging mechanical systems, especially in the second movie which took place in a high-tech office tower. Also, a reference to the earlier mythologies was mentioned in the first film. But especially in the second movie you can find some refrences to the mythologies, the Gremlins have been unleashed into a high-tech office skyscraper. This building has talking elevators and all sort of contraptions that often malfunction. The owner of the building later says; ''It was not a place for humans but for Things. And when you build something for Things, Things come.'' The fact that Gremlins mess with machinery harks back to the old myths. OTHER GREMLIN REFERENCES
EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|