Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai

As a massive fan of the two Gremlins movies, I was excited for this new animated series and it lived up to my expectations.

Positives for Gremlins: Secret of the Mogwai (2022-): This show gives fans of the movies all of the wild and fun shenanigans you can expect from these creatures. The animation is something you'll have to get used to for a while and once you do that, the show is fun to watch. I really enjoyed the cast of characters as they go on these wild adventures with Gizmo and his fellow gremlins. The show has a bingable feel to it and it helps that the seasons are 10 episodes and the episodes are under 30 minutes long. And finally, this show serves as a good gateway for younger audiences to the movies and possibly the horror genre.

Overall, Gremlins: Secret of the Mogwai (2022-) is a fun continuation of the franchise for older fans and a good time for younger audiences.

Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai (2022) is a series that my daughter and I recently completed on MAX. The storyline follows a young boy in Shanghai who is gifted a Mogwai by his grandfather. Shortly after he gets it a sorcerer of sorts arrives and eats his grandfather whole and the boy barely escapes. The boy, now on the streets and an unlikely journey, will need to work with an untrustworthy orphaned girl he encounters and his Mogwai, named Gizmo, to uncover why the sorcerer wants the Mogwai so bad and stop him.

This series was cocreated by Stephanie Gonzaga (Duck Tales), Alexandra Chiu (Guardians of the Galaxy: Animated Series), Vaughn Ross (The Clone Wars) and Michael Chang (Teen Titans). This contains the voices of James Hong (Big Trouble in Little China), George Takei (Star Trek), Zach Galligan (Gremlins), Sandra Oh (Umma) and Gabrielle Nevaeh (Monster High).

This series was released with the launch of MAX and my daughter and I love the Gremlins movies...so we had to watch it. This series started a bit slow but by the end of episode 3 we were absolutely hooked. The animation is excellent and very well done. It reminded me of a Dreamworks project. The universe was fascinating and they did a good job telling an origin story that contained magic, new elements and aspects you know from the movies. When they incorporated hopping vampires from the martial arts movies my heart jumped a beat. I also loved the gods storylines and the family dynamics. There ends up being multiple villains in this that made the dynamics seem impossible to overcome. Our green gremlins friends were tremendous, hilarious, and I could watch their hijinks all day.

Overall, this was very well done by MAX and better than Velma. It was smart to involve Spielberg and Joe Dante in the making of this project. I would score this an 8/10 and recommend it as a fun, family series that's more intense than you may expect.

Known as Secrets of the Mogwai in the first season and The Wild Batch in the second, this show is a good entry in the Gremlins franchise. It feels like a mature series aimed at kids, never talking down to its audience, not shying away from cursing, alcohol or violence and portraying social issues in the Prohibition both in China and later the US.

The animation is gorgeous. A form of painted CGI, some of the backgrounds and animation are true 2D; this is best exemplified by water in the second season.

Where it falters a bit is that Sam's voice actor seems have an issue with intonation. I don't know if it was because he's going through puberty or something, but he sounds a bit off. An overall trivial detail.

A strong recommendation.

As a long time gremlins fan I was thoroughly impressed by how this show managed to capture the spirit of the original movies, while also adding tons of original content that now makes the gremlins universe feel so much more richer.

Each episode is well written and perfectly paced, there's lots of interesting Chinese mythology and creatures thrown in, and plenty of dark and gruesome moments to appease fans of the original movies. The main characters are great, I never feel like any of them are just standing around with nothing to do, each one has a goal that keeps you engaged and the plot moving forward. I especially enjoyed the villain for this show, who feels heavily inspired by classic Disney villains. In this day and age, it's nice to finally have an animated villain that actually enjoys being evil and having fun with it. And of course, the gremlins are lots of fun too.

The animation style isn't for everybody and this is perhaps my only nitpick for the show. I feel like it would have been received better had the creators gone in a different direction with the art. At first glance, it definitely looks like a show for little kids. But if you can get past it and give it a chance I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised. All in all, it's a perfect prequel to the Gremlins movies and I'm excited to see what the writers come up with next.

A decent season. This movie does a decent job of being a gremlins prequel, to me the biggest problem is the story, the story is very generic episodic childrens show, filled with a generic adventure with one big bad but many secondary bads throughout. With that being said, I like the animation, it's not the prettiest but I think it is more than serviceable I also do for the most part really enjoy the characters personalities, outside of a couple random people most characters are really enjoyable, likeable and interesting to watch. The gremlins are very similar to the original films, admittedly not quite as chaotic, but they definitely still do a good job portraying the gremlins. I think the show does have a bit too much of a reliance on magic but that's a small nitpick. Finally this show is a bit violent, but there isn't really any blood, just creepy bodily horror and non bloody mutilation, it's still surprisingly dark and accurate to the originals. If you like gremlins, or your kids to young to watch it this is a pretty good show for you.