The cover for The Gremlins Storybook.
The Gremlins Storybook was a storybook based on the 1984 film Gremlins. It was written by Mary Carey, and was published by Western Publishing Company in 1984. It was a Golden Book. The book and the film had several differences, as listed below.
Differences[]
Below is a list of differences between the book and film:
- Some scenes were cut out of the book, including the beginning of the film when Billy is seen talking to Murray Futterman, who is instead introduced much later on in the book, when gremlins are attacking his house with a snowplow.
- The book introduces a new character, Douglas Deagle, the nephew of Mrs. Deagle, although he was only mentioned when Mrs. Deagle and Billy Peltzer began arguing after Mrs. Deagle intruded into the Kingston Falls Bank and demanded that Billy hand over to her the Peltzer family dog, Barney. Mrs, Deagle also appears mad because he chased her cats, not because he broke her imported Bavarian snowman, like in the film.
- In the book, it is stated that it takes Barney a while to get used to Gizmo before finally accepting him as a member of the Peltzer family, although in the film, Gizmo has an interest in the dog and appears to consider him a friend. Barney did not mind Gizmo, either, in the film, although they only appeared in a few brief scenes together.
- The book states that when Pete came over to Billy's house and first met Gizmo, the two had carried a tray full of brownies and orange juice up to Billy's attic bedroom, which never happened in the film. After Gizmo spawns more Mogwai, Billy pours a drop of orange juice on Gizmo to see if it is just water that will make them reproduce, although Gizmo did not reproduce any more Mogwai, and instead only licked the drop off of his skin, appearing to enjoy the taste, although this (obviously) did not happen in the film, either.
- The book states that Billy worked at Dorry's Pub without pay, along with Kate, although in the film, Billy did not work at Dorry's Pub, because he had been unaware that Kate was working there without pay so that they could save the pub from Mrs. Deagle selling it.
- In the book, Billy had never told Lynn, his mother, that the Mogwai had accidentally been fed after midnight and were now in cocoons, however, when he called her after discovering that the Mogwai (who were now gremlins) hatched and one of them had killed Mr. Roy Hanson (his former science teacher), although she appeared to have already known that this had happened when he told her.
- The book claims that Mr. Hanson was crushed by a model of the Earth, although in the film he was stabbed to death by a hypodermic needle.
- In the book, Billy finds that Gizmo had fallen down the laundry chute as an escape method after he was attacked by Stripe and the other gremlins, and Billy begins to weep, believing Gizmo to be dead, which never happened in the film.
- According to the book, Stripe fell into the swimming pool at the YMCA, although in the film, he jumped into it on purpose.
- Mrs. Deagle yells at Christmas carolers in the book who are described as children, although in the film they are shown to be grown men and women, although most of them appear to be very young.
- The book states that Billy ran to the sheriff's office to find it empty, although in the film, he got into an argument with the sheriff, who believed his gremlin story to be a hoax.
- The book states that upon rescuing Kate from Dorry's Pub, Billy took Gizmo and Kate to the Kingston Falls bank, which was located next door to Dorry's. In the film, not only did this never happen (except appearing in a deleted scene), but Dorry's and the Kingston Falls bank were not next door to one another.
- In the final confrontation between Billy and Stripe in the department store (although Billy is aided by Gizmo and Kate), the book says Stripe sends a toy robot, a toy truck, and a wind-up tin duck after Billy, although this did not happen in the film. It also says Stripe had taken the time to wind up a bunch of wind-up toys that he sent at Billy, including a wind-up bird that flew directly into his face.
- The book says that Gizmo had to stand on a flower pot to reach the rope that would open the canvas tarp blocking the sunlight that would come right at Stripe and kill him if the tarp was opened. In the film, Gizmo crashed his Barbie car and flew up into the air and tugged it.
- When Mr. Wing comes to get Gizmo at the end of the film, he says to Billy, "Someday, you may be ready [to handle a Mogwai]." In the book, he leaves with only a warning and a lecture.
- In the book, it says that the last word Gizmo says to Billy before meeting him again in the Clamp Tower not long after is "Billy." In the film, he says "Bye-bye, Billy."