The Ghostbusters Thread (Old, New, Animated, Whatever)

[Creep3r]

Replies ain't working for your post @Dom Cruise

when are the Ghostbusters supposed to have gone defunct? Ray's conversation on the phone was pretty dense and I feel like I might have missed a few details, Egon is supposed to have died only a week prior to the events of the movie, right?

Making the Ghostbusters defunct and having Egon leave his partners and take all the equipment for no reason while allowing no room for ghost occurrences in the last 30 years feels like the movie's biggest flaw imo. Anyway I could be wrong but it looks like they were at least still in contact with each other regardless of the lack of ghost activity until a decade ago before the movie it seems.

That's the only thing that really bugs me about Ghostbusters II.

I never really thought of the cartoon as being the same continuity as the movies, but I guess you can kind of consider it a version of events that did happen to them.

I think it did a great job of following the movies until Q5 happened and turned the show into a slimey disaster. Ghostbusters II sort of throws a wrench into things but unlike Q5, bridging the pre-Q5 seasons of the cartoon with the sequel is nothing a few small retcons can't fix.

How does the 2009 game reference Tiamat?

In the game it mentions that the babylonian cult of Tiamat and the sumerian cult of Gozer clashed with each other since both Tiamat and Gozer were rival chaos gods and that it was through Tiamat that the ancient people were able to banish Gozer from our dimension. There's also some kind of item in the game's haunted island level that implies that the island was once called Tiamat island or that Ivo Shandor once went to an island named after Tiamat. I think they even expanded on this in Tobin's Spirit Guide (which is a great read). So maybe Shandor wanted to use Tiamat to destroy the world at some point before settling on Gozer?

 

[Dom Cruise]

Replies ain't working for your post @Dom Cruise

Making the Ghostbusters defunct and having Egon leave his partners and take all the equipment for no reason while allowing no room for ghost occurrences in the last 30 years feels like the movie's biggest flaw imo. Anyway I could be wrong but it looks like they were at least still in contact with each other regardless of the lack of ghost activity until a decade ago before the movie it seems.

This is definitely a big frustration, a big part of the appeal of this franchise is imagining these dudes going on many different adventures, why do the movies keep wanting to blue ball us? It's kind of unreal to think that Afterlife would repeat the same mistake as II, why not just say they went defunct in 1999, leaving a window of time open to our imaginations? I definitely feel like in the Ghostbusters world there's no way some shit didn't go down in 1999 to where they would be needed.

But it seems like it's pretty vague to me, Paul Rudd's character says "there hasn't been a ghost sighting in 30 years" but maybe that refers to a major event like Gozer/Vigo? Doesn't necessarily mean no one, nowhere saw a ghost, just no major public events.

It'd be nice if they gave us some sort of exact timeline of events.

But I also find it silly to think of the Ghostbusters being semi-forgotten by the present day to where kids haven't even heard of them, I'm pretty sure a giant marshmallow man walking through NYC would be pretty undeniable evidence of the paranormal and have a bigger impact on the world, but your average person in the Ghostbusters universe seems weirdly cynical, so who knows.

I think it did a great job of following the movies until Q5 happened and turned the show into a slimey disaster. Ghostbusters II sort of throws a wrench into things but unlike Q5, bridging the pre-Q5 seasons of the cartoon with the sequel is nothing a few small retcons can't fix.

It's a shame this series doesn't have a cleaner and more fan pleasing canon, but hey, it could be worse and yeah, nothing a few retcons can't fix.

What exactly happened with season 5 of the cartoon? I've only seen a few episodes but I do remember hearing about some changes that left fans unhappy, like they changed the title to "Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters" and changed Janine's design.

In the game it mentions that the babylonian cult of Tiamat and the sumerian cult of Gozer clashed with each other since both Tiamat and Gozer were rival chaos gods and that it was through Tiamat that the ancient people were able to banish Gozer from our dimension. There's also some kind of item in the game's haunted island level that implies that the island was once called Tiamat island or that Ivo Shandor once went to an island named after Tiamat. I think they even expanded on this in Tobin's Spirit Guide (which is a great read). So maybe Shandor wanted to use Tiamat to destroy the world at some point before settling on Gozer?
View attachment 2734207

Cool, I checked Steam and it's been coming up on 9 years since I played it, wowsers, so I forget some of the details, I need to get the remaster.

But yeah, that's Gozer's skull he's holding, but if Gozer could come back once, why not twice? To me the biggest contradiction is finding Shandor's skull since his body is in Afterlife, but maybe that skull is just a fake?

 

[Creep3r]

This is definitely a big frustration, a big part of the appeal of this franchise is imagining these dudes going on many different adventures, why do the movies keep wanting to blue ball us? It's kind of unreal to think that Afterlife would repeat the same mistake as II, why not just say they went defunct in 1999, leaving a window of time open to our imaginations? I definitely feel like in the Ghostbusters world there's no way some shit didn't go down in 1999 to where they would be needed.

But it seems like it's pretty vague to me, Paul Rudd's character says "there hasn't been a ghost sighting in 30 years" but maybe that refers to a major event like Gozer/Vigo? Doesn't necessarily mean no one, nowhere saw a ghost, just no major public events.

It'd be nice if they gave us some sort of exact timeline of events.

But I also find it silly to think of the Ghostbusters being semi-forgotten by the present day to where kids haven't even heard of them, I'm pretty sure a giant marshmallow man walking through NYC would be pretty undeniable evidence of the paranormal and have a bigger impact on the world, but your average person in the Ghostbusters universe seems weirdly cynical, so who knows.

That's my gripe as well, but I guess its possible that it could all be corrected with a few retcons, like maybe have it so that the 30 year ghost absence, Egon's behavior, the "disbandment" and the complete memory hole of the Ghostbusters from history was because the government went into overdrive to cover everything up, but without something like an MIB neuralyzer I have a hard time believing that the whole of New York could forget a giant marshmallow man, the statue of liberty marching about, or dozens of ghosts, dragons and other monsters popping up now and again, especially when cameras and video cameras were already a thing in the 80s and it would be even harder to cover ghost attacks in New York in the 90s and 00s, unless of course none of it showed up properly on film due to their inter-dimensional natures. Guess only time will tell how well it will be handled in the future and if Sony is smart enough to pull it off, although my faith in sony and modern Hollywood is not particularly high if I even have any left.

It's a shame this series doesn't have a cleaner and more fan pleasing canon, but hey, it could be worse and yeah, nothing a few retcons can't fix.

Yeah its a bummer but as long as they don't handle it like the IDW comics did, it can still be easily salvaged with a few continuity tweaks unlike other properties that have been fucked by modern Hollywood.

What exactly happened with season 5 of the cartoon? I've only seen a few episodes but I do remember hearing about some changes that left fans unhappy, like they changed the title to "Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters" and changed Janine's design.

It was more around season 3 when the problems started and season 4 is when they remade themselves into "Slimer & the Real Ghostbusters" with even more emphasis on Slimer and trying to make him into an even more obnoxiously cutesy mascot type character for merchandising. This was all because of Q5 which was a consulting firm that ABC hired to make the Ghostbusters franchise and their other cartoons more popular with kids and the results were disastrous to say the least.

Here's a basic copypaste of the events along with a link to an interview with the show's head writers.

HOW IMAGE MAKERS SHAPE KIDS' TV : Q5 Firm Advises ABC on the Look and Style of Cartoon Shows; Some Writers Call It Intrusion

Saturday mornings on ABC will look a little different this fall.

www.latimes.com

ABC hired a consulting firm called Q5 to evaluate its entire Saturday morning lineup in hopes that they could "fix" the shows to make them more broadly appealing and get better ratings (and this was ordered in spite of the show already actually doing very well in both ratings and toy sales). Real Ghostbusters came under scrutiny, even though it was already a runaway hit. According to J. Michael Straczynski, the head writer at the time, Q5 didn't do any audience research or focus testing but demanded changes based on what they themselves believed would made a cartoon successful. Janine was changed to be more feminine and meek, and received round glasses because it was claimed her pointy ones could scare children. More changes were forced upon the writing staff starting with Season 3. The Junior Ghostbusters, a group of recurring child characters, were added. More focus was placed on Slimer, who spun off into his own (doomed) cartoon in Season 4. This was enough to make Straczynski leave his position after Season 3 (though he wrote some later scripts for the show as a free-lance writer).

Cool, I checked Steam and it's been coming up on 9 years since I played it, wowsers, so I forget some of the details, I need to get the remaster.

Dew it.

But yeah, that's Gozer's skull he's holding, but if Gozer could come back once, why not twice? To me the biggest contradiction is finding Shandor's skull since his body is in Afterlife, but maybe that skull is just a fake?

I think Gozer coming back in the game works better because she isn't the main villain in that one, just a foe early on and a tool for Shandor's own plots to set him up as the real new villain and to show how far more dire the situation is now with an unstable ghostly madman way in over his formerly mortal head using Gozer's powers without rhyme, reason or constraint and who doesn't play by any rules or rituals, not even giving the heroes a fair chance to pick a destructor form.

 

[Tasty Tatty]

But it seems like it's pretty vague to me, Paul Rudd's character says "there hasn't been a ghost sighting in 30 years" but maybe that refers to a major event like Gozer/Vigo? Doesn't necessarily mean no one, nowhere saw a ghost, just no major public events.

I haven't yet watched the movie, but this could simply mean that the ghostbusters were very good at their jobs, even if they worked solo. IICR, they said that the increase of paranormal activity was due to the big events during the movies, but that doesn't mean this paranormal activity was zero without these events. Some people likely did see ghosts, but they immediately called them and that was it. No need to get media or the city involved. Or maybe people simply got used to it and didn't make a big deal out of it. In this world, ghosts are as common now as dinosaurs for the Jurassic Park franchise.

 

[BrunoMattei]

Next up Jason Reitman needs to make his own Heavy Metal movie (his dad was producer on the 1981 one), the world needs the return of Harry Canyon!

You just want a reboot because of the cartoon titties.

 

[Travoltron]

Can't reply to the person who asked, but yes, there are scans of the NOW comics. Also, IDW collected most of them into graphic novels as "The Real Ghosbusters Omnibus".

 

[Dom Cruise]

I haven't yet watched the movie, but this could simply mean that the ghostbusters were very good at their jobs, even if they worked solo. IICR, they said that the increase of paranormal activity was due to the big events during the movies, but that doesn't mean this paranormal activity was zero without these events. Some people likely did see ghosts, but they immediately called them and that was it. No need to get media or the city involved. Or maybe people simply got used to it and didn't make a big deal out of it. In this world, ghosts are as common now as dinosaurs for the Jurassic Park franchise.

This is what I'm thinking, the "30 years" comment refers to big public incidents like Gozer and Vigo, doesn't meant the Ghostbusters went defunct again soon after the second movie and didn't go on other adventures, they were just smaller ones.

I think that's kind of what Ray's telephone call implies, would love to be able to see that scene again or read a transcript, in fact, while I get you don't want too big an info dump, it's kind of lame how the movie rushes past that info, we finally get to know what happened to the Ghostbusters after decades but it's kinda rushed past?

You just want a reboot because of the cartoon titties.

I won't deny it, couldn't modern American movies use some cartoon boobs?

But Heavy Metal weirdly feels like a cousin movie to Ghostbusters to me, similar themes of sci fi, fantasy and horror, Harold Ramis is in the voice cast and Elmer Bernstein's score sounds similar at times, tell me the Loc Nar's theme doesn't sound like it could be the theme music of some entity from the Ghostbusters world?

 

[XYZpdq]

the world needs the return of Harry Canyon!

HOIYA HARRY
but really we already had The Fifth Element and it was pretty good

 

[Dom Cruise]

I forgot to mention another connection between Ghostbusters and Heavy Metal is the redheaded secretary, Gloria, looks and sounds similar to Janine (except we get to see Gloria naked tee hee)

And John Candy is also part of the voice cast, who was originally slated to play Louis Tully before Rick Moranis signed on.

HOIYA HARRY
but really we already had The Fifth Element and it was pretty good

Imagine Ghostbusters, but in that rundown future NYC of 2031.

 

[Rotollo 2]

@The Gangster Computer since replies are broken lol

but without something like an MIB neuralyzer I have a hard time believing that the whole of New York could forget a giant marshmallow

Don't fucking tempt them, remember sony wanted to make a cinematic universe connecting ghostbusters, MIB, and 21 jumpstreat and they sure as shit might still try

 

[Adamska]

Well the reason that people forget the events are because that way you can just remake the same fucking movie beat per beat, and from what people are stating that is very much the case here despite going "UGH, GB2 IS SOOOO BAD IT ISN'T CANON, BIG YUCKO"... very cool to then do the same thing but seemingly with even less reason to explain the doubters. At least 2 had the idea that the big explosion at their HQ was used by Peck to blame them for a mass hallucination caused by gas storage or something.

I'm sorry, I just can't like this movie due to them literally using Harold Ramis' corpse. Fuck Zombie Hollyweird.

 

[Dom Cruise]

I just realized something, doesn't the fact that the Ecto-1 has a gunner seat and a remote control trap on wheels does imply the Ghostbusters had other adventures beyond the first 2 movies (or even the game) since that's not something we've seen before?

Also, maybe Shandor's skull was a forgery to make people think he was dead and keep the real location of his body secret?

Well the reason that people forget the events are because that way you can just remake the same fucking movie beat per beat, and from what people are stating that is very much the case here despite going "UGH, GB2 IS SOOOO BAD IT ISN'T CANON, BIG YUCKO"... very cool to then do the same thing but seemingly with even less reason to explain the doubters. At least 2 had the idea that the big explosion at their HQ was used by Peck to blame them for a mass hallucination caused by gas storage or something.

I'm sorry, I just can't like this movie due to them literally using Harold Ramis' corpse. Fuck Zombie Hollyweird.

It is a comedy at the end of the day, so you don't have to take everything too seriously, the disbelief could be read as a satire of the cynicism of New Yorkers, the people of Summerville also seem weirdly cynical.

And look at it this way, think of how radical proof of the paranormal would change people's beliefs and society, what do you think would be easier for most people to do? Just handwave it away and say that "Oh, I'm sure it's some kind of hoax", again, people meeting this stuff with cynicism is kind of funny and fitting for Ghostbusters, I mean we're talking ghostbusting, this amazing thing, but it's portrayed as a blue collar job like exterminator or firefighter, that contrast between the fantastical and the mundane is just part of what Ghostbusters is.

And I think Harold Ramis would be thrilled that a character he loved portraying would get a proper send off and a franchise that he loved and helped create would get a proper revival, if this was the 2016 movie that did this you would have a point, but if you want to think deeper about this movie, it's message seems to be that "the past has value and is worthy of respect and preservation" which could be read as a pretty good political message in these days of Woke people tearing down statues and running rickshaw all over culture, the tagline of the movie is literally "Discover the Past. Save the Future.", kind of makes you think.

Point is the filmmakers had their hearts in the right place, so I wouldn't take offense as their using of special effects to give Harold Ramis and the character of Egon a proper sendoff.

 

[BrunoMattei]

I just realized something, doesn't the fact that the Ecto-1 has a gunner seat and a remote control trap on wheels does imply the Ghostbusters had other adventures beyond the first 2 movies (or even the game) since that's not something we've seen before?

Hey EVERYONE check out this nerd!

 

[Vyse Inglebard]

Point is the filmmakers had their hearts in the right place, so I wouldn't take offense as their using of special effects to give Harold Ramis and the character of Egon a proper sendoff.

Again, they did it the best possible way they could, I'll give you that, but at the same time, I would've preferred it if they hadn't done it at all. Throughout the entirety of the movie, you couldn't see Egon, but you knew he was there, subtly guiding the characters. That's powerful, and it pays respect to his character (and Ramis) while also not being too saccharine. By showing him at the end, they crossed that saccharine line, and it cheapened that power that him being invisible had. Maybe have the proton blaster have a subtle tug, so that Phoebe knows he's beside her, holding it with her? And maybe have it be a subtle gust of wind, so that the 3 original Ghostbusters, Trevor, and Spengler Mom know he's there as well? I dunno, anything but making him visible at the end.

 

[Dom Cruise]

Hey EVERYONE check out this nerd!

I got no shame about being a nerd for Ghostbusters.

 

[Adamska]

Again, they did it the best possible way they could, I'll give you that, but at the same time, I would've preferred it if they hadn't done it at all. Throughout the entirety of the movie, you couldn't see Egon, but you knew he was there, subtly guiding the characters. That's powerful, and it pays respect to his character (and Ramis) while also not being too saccharine. By showing him at the end, they crossed that saccharine line, and it cheapened that power that him being invisible had. Maybe have the proton blaster have a subtle tug, so that Phoebe knows he's beside her, holding it with her? And maybe have it be a subtle gust of wind, so that the 3 original Ghostbusters, Trevor, and Spengler Mom know he's there as well? I dunno, anything but making him visible at the end.

See that's cool and all, but you don't understand: we need to get the corpse of actors past to supplement our eternal entertainment abortion parades.

I see this as crass as when LFL shuffled Carrie Fisher's corpse, and just as disgusting a precedent since it's essentially trying to convince people it's okay to defile the dead and have their corpses act endlessly in computer bullshit vomit.

 

[Newman's Lovechild]

I just realized something, doesn't the fact that the Ecto-1 has a gunner seat and a remote control trap on wheels does imply the Ghostbusters had other adventures beyond the first 2 movies (or even the game) since that's not something we've seen before?

I think it implies Jason had the toy as a kid.

 

[Creep3r]

I'm seeing some salt over "a severe lack of queer and trans representation". Love, like or hate it, its at least generating some good new salt.

Well the reason that people forget the events are because that way you can just remake the same fucking movie beat per beat, and from what people are stating that is very much the case here despite going "UGH, GB2 IS SOOOO BAD IT ISN'T CANON, BIG YUCKO"... very cool to then do the same thing but seemingly with even less reason to explain the doubters. At least 2 had the idea that the big explosion at their HQ was used by Peck to blame them for a mass hallucination caused by gas storage or something.

Its basically the easiest and laziest way to tell a story because the people behind it are too lazy to actually to watch what came before in detail, and if they did watch it then they just want to repeat everything to avoid any "nerdy" or unnecessary thinking and world building. And when its not that, its because they think the audience is too lazy and brain dead to remember anything and needs to have everything be handed to them on an easy to digest plate, even for something as simple as watching the movie that came before the sequel.

@The Gangster Computer since replies are broken lol

Don't fucking tempt them, remember sony wanted to make a cinematic universe connecting ghostbusters, MIB, and 21 jumpstreat and they sure as shit might still try

They were actually considering that? Geez fuck. Also why the hell was 21 Jumpstreat tossed in? Its not even a scifi flick.

 

[Vyse Inglebard]

I'm seeing some salt over "a severe lack of queer and trans representation". Love, like or hate it, its at least generating some good new salt.

These people really are petulant children, aren't they? Everything HAS to include them, otherwise it's a bunch of isms and phobes. Different people are into different things, and Ghostbusters has a pretty general audience, meaning that not every single thing in that particular franchise is going to be alphabet friendly. That's true of every piece of fiction, whether it be a book, movie, video game, what the fuck ever. Fiction happens to belong to EVERYONE and Ghostbusters, by extension, belongs to EVERYONE. And unlike the faux-tolerant Left, "everyone" in this case also includes those who don't purchase COEXIST bumper stickers that have every available political heiroglyph but the hammer and sickle they actually mean, then slap it next to an EAT THE RICH bumper sticker. The sooner these crybabies realize that, the better our media will be in the future. Until then, aside from special cases like Afterlife, media will forever be neutered by the alphabet Board of Media ClASSification.

In other words, as a duly designated representative of the Ghostbusters fanbase, I order these faggots to cease any and all trans and queer screeching and return forthwith to their place of origin or to the nearest convenient parallel dimension.

 

[Rotollo 2]

They were actually considering that? Geez fuck. Also why the hell was 21 Jumpstreat tossed in? Its not even a scifi flick.

I couldn't find proof of ghostbusters crossing over after looking for it but I remember fieg really wanted to emphasize "Ghost Aliens" during the big apple scenes in 2016 busters in the email leaks, weirdly its more the 21 jump street and mib connection that has more solid evidence

No matter what happens when I watch after life, at least it will be better than that crossover dumpster fire