Gremlins and Tarsiers

Dateline June 8, 1983: "Gremlins," premiered,   an  American horror comedy film directed by Joe Dante, released by Warner Bros. The film is about a young man who receives a strange creature called a Mogwai as a pet, which then spawns other creatures who transform into small, destructive, evil monsters.The film stars Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates, with Howie Mandel providing the voice of Gizmo.Steven Spielberg was the film's executive producer and the screenplay was written by Chris Columbus.

Do you want to take care of the Mogwai? Remember three specific instructions:  never expose it to bright light (especially sunlight, which will kill it); never get it wet (which will make it multiply); and, most importantly: never, ever feed it after midnight.  It is believed to have been the inspiration for, or at least similar to, several later unrelated films about small monsters including  Critters,Ghoulies, Troll, Hobgoblins, Beasties,Kamillions, Spookies,and Munchies.However, many of these films were not critical successes,

One interesting Wikipedia  information  is that a gremlin is considered  an imaginary creature commonly depicted as mischievous and mechanically oriented, with a specific interest in aircraft. Gremlins' mischievous natures are similar to those of English folkloric imps, while their inclination to damage or dismantle machinery is more modern.

 

Most tourists  labeled photos of our very own Philippine Tarsier (Tarsius syrichta) as "gremlins" found in my province Bohol.. Perhaps, this is one of the creatures used  for the conceptualization of the gremlins character : a tiny creature with huge flashlight-like  eyes and long, thin limbs covered with very short hair. It resembles an emaciated koala bear or a very big-eyed lemur, whichever way you prefer to look at it. They are oftentimes referred to as gremlins because of their resemblance to a movie creature with that name, The tarsier is actually one of world’s smallest primates. It’s not a monkey per se, although you can often hear people refer to it as the smallest monkey on earth. It’s certainly small enough to fit inside an adult’s hand.

 Like their fictional doppelganger the Gremlins,  tarsiers are nocturnal. Using their claws, the tarsiers leap throughout the night from tree to tree.Their head and body has an average length of 10 to 15 cm in length and the hind limbs are about twice this long (including the feet), . Their hind limbs are quite long with extremely elongated tarsus bones, thus the "tarsier" name. Their slender tail ranges from 20 to 25 cm in length. They have elongated fingers, with the third finger having about the same length as the upper arm. Tasiers have an average weight of 80 to 150 g. Tasiers have been reported to live up to 16 years of age.Tasiers are known for their round heads with large eyes that are directed forward. Each of their eyeball has an approximate diameter of 16 mm approximately and ,depending on the species, it can be as large as their entire brain!

Froggy the Gremlin was a character on the Smilin' Ed's Gang radio and TV show and later Andy's Gang TV show in the 1940s and 1950s. Froggy was a troublemaker on the shows. He was known for being disrespectful of adult authority figures and enjoyed playing practical jokes and disrupting other guests, repeating two-word phrases ("you will, you will") and giving commands that the guests had to follow despite their efforts to resist. He achieved immortality as a rubber squeak toy. no two seem to be exactly alike. Sometimes the rubber has hardened completely. Sometimes portions of the body have changed color or darkened. Sometimes the body or face is deflated, fingers or joints full of holes, or the legs warped to the point where the creature can't stand up on his own.

http://www.froggythegremlin.com/

  I