Ah, the Summer of ’89…
When I first saw this movie in theaters, twice, I was left thrilled. And confused. And maybe a little bit let down. But mostly thrilled.
I was a huge ‘Busters fan in the mid 80s, and I religiously watched every episode of The Real Ghostbusters, both on Saturday mornings and in syndication. Hell, I even watched the Filmation series just because it carried the legacy name, and I learned to love that too. But I’d mostly been absorbing The Real team in action for about 3 years and in my head, the cartoon added to the canon – Even if it takes place in an alternate reality where the ’84 movie was an in-world fiction. So when the sequel was announced, I was ecstatic that the characters would be jumping back into their live-action skins, and I naively assumed they would somehow reflect having had Real Ghostbusters-style ongoing adventures… but no. On release, we find that nothing had happened in 5 years. The business was shuttered, everyone went on their way, and they certainly didn’t have any more adventures. Real or otherwise. The filmmakers were going to straighten that slinky.
Maybe that was the meta-point they were trying to make, and it’s perfectly echoed in the theme song: “Had ’em throwin’ a party for a bunch of children”. The name Ghostbusters was now kids stuff like He-Man. And Ivan, Bill and the gang didn’t seem to like it, although they went along with it. For… reasons. But they were taking away the puppy.
So Slimer – now actually called Slimer – makes a couple of unexplained cameos, Janine is made to resemble the cartoon… kinda, and the popular beats from the original are hit again, for the kids. They decided that was enough lip service to legitimize the younger fans of the franchise, and honestly, that was more than we were used to. I relished it. But that opening party scene felt like it was written to manage our expectations – and that we should be grateful this even happened.
I certainly was. -Pop
Ghostbusters II hit theatres 36 years ago today.