Family Dog and Gizmo (1992)

Family Dog, Gizmo and the Gremlins is a 1992 American animated crossover adventure romantic comedy horror film directed by Barry Cook, Tony Bancroft, Phil Nibbelink and Simon Wells with animation director Chris Buck with music by Bruce Broughton and Danny Elfman and the sequel pilot cartoon to the 1987 short animated film, Amazing Stories and third Gremlins film to the 1984 film of Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch in 1990 for being all films together into crossovers as the hand-drawn animation. The film was and produced and co-conceived by Tim Burton and Steven Spielberg. The animation production was outsourced to Hyperion Pictures, The Baer Animation Company, and Perennial Pictures as well as in London, England by Amblimation Studios in May 1989 while working Fievel Goes West and Bay Lake, Florida by Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida, before in 1991, Walt Disney Studios began to pre-production of The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) as a 76-minute full-length stop-motion musical film in July 1991 in San Francisco.

The animated crossover film was released in theaters November 20, 1992 after the first film from Amblimation was An American Tail: Fievel Goes West.

Film Summary
When the Binsford's nephew Peter and his wife Laura brings home mogwai Gizmo, Family Dog accidently gets him wet. Family Dog and Katie are in love and Now the gremlins are back and running mayham to take over Christmas and led by an old enemy of their's Gerte LeStrange!

Characters
Protagonist Characters:
 * Family Dog/The Dog (Binford's pet dog)
 * Gizmo (Billy and Kate's mogwai)
 * Katie (Binford's Dog's love interest, One of helpers)
 * Snowflake (Binford's Dog and Katie's friend, One of helpers)
 * Fox (Gizmo, Binford's Dog, Katie and Snowflake's friend, One of helpers)
 * Billy Peltzer (Gizmo's owner)
 * Kate Beringer (Gizmo's owner, and Billy's love interest)
 * Skip Binsford (Father)
 * Beverly Binsford (Mother)
 * Chief Forster
 * Greta Gremlin (Forster's love interest, and One of Good Gremlins)
 * Billy Binsford (9 Year Old Son)
 * Julia (Billy's love interest)
 * Buffy Binsford (3 Year Old Daughter)
 * Daffy Gremlin (One of Good Gremlin)

Antagonist Characters:
 * Gerte LeStrange (an cruel dog trainer)(One of antagonists)
 * Brain Gremlin (Gerte's husband)(One of antagonists)
 * Gronka (Gerte's large servant)(One of antagonists)
 * Wolves (One of antagonists)
 * Trio of Wolverines (One of antagonists)
 * Junkyard Dog (One of antagonists)
 * Stripe Gremlin and all of evil Gremlins (One of antagonists)
 * Two Dachshund (One of antagonists)
 * K9 Terror Dogs (One of antagonists)
 * Angel (Binford's Dog's evil brother, One of antagonists)

Production
In September 1989, After the events with success of the original Amazing Stories episode and Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Very little is known about the pilot for the animated TV adaptation of Joe Dante's film Gremlins, possibly titled Gizmo and the Gremlins. According to some sources, such as Toonarific, the series was to involve Gizmo, the one good mogwai of the film and its sequel, fighting against the evil Gremlins. The pilot was the only episode that entered production and a CBS series based on the episode was produced by Steven Spielberg and Tim Burton (who contributed to the production and character designs). It was written by Dennis Klein, Sherri Stoner and Paul Dini and animated by Nelvana, but notably lacked the involvement of the original writer and director, Brad Bird. In April 1990, Largely hyped due to Spielberg's involvement, the series was plagued by production delays. It did not get past its original network order of 13 episodes but the producers were dissatisfied with the results, so they halted production on the thirteen episodes to Nelvana, but the animation was not completed in time for this premiere. It has been suggested that the two TV series were cancelled because of parents complaining about the violence and curse words of the source material, but Joe Dante, the director of the films, says it was never finished. No footage of the Gizmo and the Gremlins television pilot and Family Dog television series were been released. Nelvana would eventually step down in the Memorial Day weekend 1990.

It's stated was not possible until the success of Walt Disney Feature Animation's 1989 film The Little Mermaid and production completed of 20th Century Fox's 1992 film FernGully: The Last Rainforest, which brought Spielberg and Burton decided to help with Phil Nibbelink and Simon Wells to make animated crossover full-length feature film Family Dog and Gizmo in Spielberg's Amblimation animation studio (after the first film, An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991)) as a second film, a collaboration of Amblin Entertainment, whose offices were located in London. There, over 250 crew members worked on the project, which began in July 4, 1990 - June 30, 1991 before animation full-length feature film were finally finished from Amblimation animation house in U.K. At the time, Amblimation was also developing We're Back! A Dinosaur Story, Balto, and a screen adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats which two never saw completion.

The crossover film was released in November 20, 1992. In June 23, 1991, an animation production was completed on the full-length crossover feature film.

Release
Family Dog and Gizmo was released in theaters on November 20, 1992.

Music
The soundtrack was composed by Bruce Broughton and Danny Elfman while James Horner working busy on An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991) and Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1992). Amazing Stories short film Family Dog themed by Elfman, Steve Bartek and John Williams and Joe Dante's Gremlins themed by Jerry Goldsmith.

Box office
Family Dog, Gizmo and Gremlins opened at No. 4 behind Home Alone 2: Lost in New York and Aladdin, it was screened in 1,696 cinemas and ended up as an American box office bomb, grossing only $77,802,165 during it's opening weekend and on it's second week, it earned $194,685,990 worldwide.

Critical response
The film received mixed reviews from critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 40% based on 41 reviews, with an average score of 5.2/10.

Home media
The film was first released on VHS and Laserdisc in April 27, 1993.

Main Transcript

 * Main article: Family Dog, Gizmo and Gremlins/Transcript

Trailer transcripts

 * Main article: Family Dog, Gizmo and Gremlins/Trailer transcripts

International Release Dates

 * USA - November 20, 1992