The set for Kingston Falls is the same one used for Back to the Future (1985). Both movies were filmed on the Universal Studios backlot.
Originally, Stripe and Gizmo were the same character. This changed when executive producer Steven Spielberg insisted one of the Gremlins be a good guy with whom the audience could identify. Director Joe Dante expresses that this decision was the reason why the film is fondly remembered.
In Cantonese, "mogwai" means "devil," "demon," or "gremlin." The Mandarin pronunciation is "mogui."
The Santa speech proved to be controversial and studio executives insisted upon its removal because they felt it was too ambiguous as to whether it was supposed to be funny or sad. Director Joe Dante however stubbornly refused to take the scene out saying it represented this movie as a whole, which had a combination of horrific and comedic elements. Executive producer Steven Spielberg did not like the scene, but despite his creative control, he viewed this movie as Dante's project and allowed him to leave it in.
An earlier attempt to have monkeys play the gremlins was abandoned because the test monkey panicked when made to wear a gremlin head.
Steven Spielberg: As the man in the electric wheelchair at the science convention when Randall is on the phone.
Chuck Jones: The Warner Bros. animation legend makes a brief on-screen cameo in the scene with Billy (Zach Galligan) and Gerald (Judge Reinhold) trading insults. During this scene, the Oscar-winning cartoon For Scent-imental Reasons (1949), directed by Jones, can be seen playing on a TV in the bar.
Jerry Goldsmith: The film's composer is the man in the telephone booth at the science convention who glances at the camera.
Joe Dante: [small things running amok and causing chaos] In this film, small creatures called Mogwai ends up turning into Gremlins and causes all kinds of destruction. The film's sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), and Small Soldiers (1998) also follow this same pattern. The latter film deals with action figures coming to life and going rogue due to a malfunction.