Cartoon Classics: The Real Ghostbusters
True confession time: I only saw this a few times back when I was a kid. I stumbled upon it recently because at the age of two, my kid’s already a massive Ghostbusters fanatic and he and I spotted a DVD containing The Real Ghostbusters one day when we were out shopping for cartoons.
Yes, that is a perfectly legitimate father/son activity.
Anyway, the moment he saw it on the shelf, I knew I wasn’t going to get out of the store alive without that DVD in hand.
The Real Ghostbusters is so named because of another Ghostbusters cartoon by Filmation, which was based on a completely different property but presumably put into production to cash in on the success of the movie. In order to avoid confusion, this one was named “The Real Ghostbusters.” Clever, eh?
The main characters from the movies are here, including Ray, Egon, Peter, Winston, and their secretary Janine. But because every cartoon needs a lovable mascot, DiC (the producers) added Slimer as the trouble-making comic relief and foil to Peter Venkman. Plots here are fairly standard 80s cartoon stuff: ghosts and/or other nefarious figures plot to take over the city and/or Slimer gets the gang into some sort of trouble and the Ghostbusters heroically save the day.
The cartoon stands up pretty well today, especially if you’re a Ghostbusters fan to begin with. But the behind-the-scenes stuff is also of interest. Many episodes were written by noted writer J. Michael Straczynski, and at certain points the voice cast included Dave Coulier and Arsenio Hall. In fact, Arsenio Hall was awarded the role of Winston after Ernie Hudson auditioned for it! Crazy…
The set I purchased can be found here:
The Real Ghostbusters – Slimefighters
The Real Ghostbusters is also available by season, or you can go nuts and buy the complete series:
The Real Ghostbusters: Complete Collection
One of my favorite sights to see on the internet is when raging fan boys flip their shit over something of little relevance, and one of the best examples of this from the past few years was when Slovenian developer Zootfly released a video of what looked like a 3rd person shooter based on Ghostbusters. I knew right off the bat this was a unlicensed tech demo made by a small team in bumfuck Europe for the sole purpose of making a name for themselves and that it would never ever see the light of day, but try to tell that to the dregs of whichever forums you tend to frequent. These people were already digging out the little plastic proton pack toy they had when they were eight so they could be first in line at GameStop. Of course, the game was crushed by the rights holders the very next day, but it was too late. We were already dreaming of the possibilities of wielding the proton pack in videogame form. Well not long after that, we found out that there was, indeed, a Ghostbusters game in the works.
