While the mogwai is furry and omnivorous, the reptilian-looking gremlin is largely hairless and geared toward a more predatory, carnivorous lifestyle. Its claws and teeth easily tear flesh. Its enhanced strength, speed and dexterity enable it to apprehend prey and more effectively fend for itself against other animals.
Given the choice, however, it's also perfectly happy to steal pizza and beer. Curiously enough, the gremlin also undergoes asexual budding but only produces gremlin-stage offspring in the process. How then, you might ask, would this perplexing life cycle ever come back around to the cuddly mogwai? Think back to the hydra: This tiny freshwater predator is capable of both sexual and asexual reproduction.
If this theory holds true, it means the creatures gradually lost the ability to sexually reproduce and depend exclusively on asexual budding for propagation -- a reality that might eventually eliminate mogwai altogether. Mogwai aren't the only organisms capable of reproducing before they undergo metamorphosis. Many invertebrates and even some salamanders experience paedogenesis , in which larvae breed without advancing into full-fledged adults.
Like many nocturnal creatures, mogwai and gremlins are incredibly photosensitive. Yet even the eyeless, subterranean olm salamander merely changes color if exposed to direct sunlight. Ultraviolet UV rays can kill most bacteria, but such a reaction is unheard of in larger organisms. Let in a little sunlight and they immediately fester and melt into a grotesque green sludge. For most people, the only real comparison is the reaction we see when a particularly morbid or curious child pours salt on a slug: The salt crystals draw vital moisture out of the slimy creature, effectively dehydrating it to death.
But that's not what happens when a gremlin melts. If you'll think back to the mogwai's metamorphosis into gremlinhood, you'll remember the process closely resembles a caterpillar's transformation into a butterfly. Once cocooned in their chrysalises, both caterpillars and mogwai produce an enzyme that breaks their bodies down into a rich bath of imaginal cells. Those cells ultimately reconstitute the creature's metamorphosed form.
Needless to say, it's quite an excruciating mode of death for a gremlin or mogwai, especially since the creature remains conscious even after the process reduces it to a pile of slime, bones and brain. Scientists are still unclear why this disgusting physical reaction takes place, but most signs point to it being a congenital mutation common to all mogwai and gremlins. Other aspects of the creature's life cycle are dependent on solar activity.
In fact, as we'll explore on the next page, the position of the sun partially triggers a mogwai's remarkable metamorphosis. While scientists have demonstrated success with the use of genetic sunblock on gremlins, the process is banned in most countries following the great gremlins disaster of While no one wants to see a mogwai turn to goop, sunlight and UV lamps remain one of our best defenses against widespread gremlin infestation.
We all know better than to feed a mogwai after midnight. Even the creatures themselves or at least the more intelligent specimens seem to understand the wages of 3 a. Needless to say, "after midnight" is a bit vague, especially when you factor in time zones. To be clear, the ingestion of food only triggers gremlin metamorphosis in the hours immediately following solar midnight , the opposite of solar noon. In other words, regardless of what the clock says, it all comes down to the position of the sun in relation to the mogwai's location.
In fact, over the course of a year, solar midnight rarely lines up with clock midnight and depends instead on longitude and season. How does the mogwai's body know when solar midnight occurs? As with most animals, it comes down to the creature's circadian rhythm , a hour physiological cycle present in most organisms. Far more than a mere pattern for wakefulness and sleep , it affects a host of biological processes, including hormone production and cell and brain activity.
While mostly dependent on the solar cycle, light levels and temperature also modulate circadian rhythm. Brazilian big-eyed bats Chiroderma doriae and urban European hedgehogs Erinaceus europaeus both engage in post-midnight feeding activity, all thanks to the "programming" of their circadian rhythms.
It's the same with mogwai: Their circadian rhythm triggers the hormonal functions responsible for full metamorphosis. During this state they're essentially primed for transformation -- all they need is a huge meal to trigger the change. If you live north of the Arctic Circle, then you're accustomed to the long stretches of hour darkness and hour daylight that accompany life here.
As you might imagine, these solar patterns make mogwai ownership in the far north a rather risky proposition. It confuses the circadian rhythms of human and mogwai alike.
In humans, this can lead to such ailments as obesity and bipolar disorder. In gremlins, it can both stunt and stimulate the creature's susceptibility for food-induced metamorphosis. Beginning in the early s, Steven Spielberg was reaching the apex of his influence as the preeminent filmmaker of his generation. The gremlins are never shown on-screen during the trailer but are hinted at.
Yet, what begins as a wholesome Christmas story about an adorable owl-like mogwai named Gizmo morphs into a morbid dark comedy-horror when Ben Zach Galligan breaks two of the three rules he was warned not to violate.
First, Gizmo involuntarily spawns clones when water is spilled onto its fur. The content below mixes George Pipe's novelization of Gremlins. Please help to improve the content below, so as to represent the movie version and drop Pipe's novelization into Trivia form. Dante does not consider Pipe's extraterrestrials to be canon For more information, See Project:About.
If a Mogwai gets wet, it spawns new Mogwai from its back; small balls of fur that are approximately the size of a marble pop out from the wet Mogwai's back, then the furballs start to grow in size before unfolding themselves into new and fully grown Mogwai. This process does not take much time but it still usually takes just about a minute. According to the novel, the creator of the species, Mogturmen, wanted the Mogwai to be able to easily reproduce themselves. The cocoon and gremlin stage are unwanted defects from when the Mogwai species was created.
It turned out that all the positive attributes are recessive. The Mogwai known as Gizmo is a perfect Mogwai since he's well-meaning and sweet, he was sent to Earth and was eventually found by Mr. Besides, what do gremlins turn into? The Cocoons made by a mogwai are large, gray-brown objects that resemble a moth's cocoon.
They are made after the mogwai eats food after midnight. After a few hours, the mogwai has now transformed into a scaly gremlin, which hatches from the cocoon. Also, instead of Stripe being a mogwai who becomes a gremlin , there was originally no mogwai named Stripe; rather, Gizmo was supposed to transform into Stripe the gremlin. Spielberg overruled this plot element as he felt Gizmo was cute and that audiences would want him to be present throughout the film.
Gremlins in different colors and with different looks. They are just about one meter tall and they have scaly reptile- like skin, large batlike ears, three sharp claws on their feet and hands and equally sharp teeth. Did Furbies come from Gremlins? In , the hottest holiday toy on shelves was the Furby, an electronic pet released by Hasbro company Tiger Electronics.
The release of a branded Gremlins Furby confirmed suspicions that Hasbro stole the design from the film, and the toy itself made the comparison unmistakable.
What does Mogwai mean? The word mogwai is the transliteration of the Cantonese word?? Jyutping: mo1 gwai2; Standard Chinese:??
0コメント