I am a huge dork for the Harry Potter series. I love both the books and the movies. Well, this week is the home stretch to the premier of the fifth Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I absolutely can’t wait. The movies have been coming along with the same high quality as the books so I’m very happy to see them continue. There was a scare after the first two movies that they were going to replace the 3 main characters because they were getting “too old”. Absolutely stupid and I probably would have stopped watching the movies. However, Warner Bros has gratefully decided to keep the main 3 actors and are continuing with the series unabated. I think Daniel Radcliffe as Harry has signed on for the final 2 films. Very exciting. I also have enjoyed the practice of switching directors every movie as it keeps things fresh (although 1 and 2 were directed by the same man, Chris Columbus). I’m stoked to see this 5th installment this weekend.
That makes this week Harry Potter Week here on my blog. On Wednesday or Thursday I’ll have a review of the first 4 Harry Potter movies. Also, since the seventh and final book is released NEXT Saturday, that would make next week Harry Potter week also. Which means next Wednesday or Thursday I’ll have reviews of the first 6 books up in anticipation of the final chapter in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (UK cover shown to the left). I normally wait a few weeks or months to read a new Harry Potter book, but since this is the last one I plan on beginning reading it the moment I buy it. I can’t risk reading spoilers on the internet. It’s just too risky.
Anywho, hope everyone else is as excited for these two weeks as I am. I’m fit to burst, man.
Click here for reviews of the Harry Potter movie franchise
Oh, here’s something having absolutely nothing to do with Harry Potter. I found this at Walgreens the other day. Reese’s “King” Size Big Cups with peanut butter and banana creme. And there’s a picture of Elvis on it! Haha, get it, cause Elvis liked Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwiches. Awesome. Well, the candy is okay, probably not something I’d eat everyday, but not bad. I love the packaging though, obviously.
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Imagine you are a kid, at home, after a long day of school in 1986. You are sitting mindlessly watching the TV enjoying your favorite cartoons when the announcer says to stay tuned for the Ghostbusters. What? Hellz Yeah, Ghostbusters cartoons? Bring It! You are sitting there with your pouch of Capri-Sun ready to watch Slimer and the Ghostbusters kick some spectral butt. The show comes on and something looks off……..I didn’t realize the Ghostbusters hung out with …….is that a……..gorilla?! WTF?! This is what happened to me when I was about 12 years old. I was greeted with a Ghostbusters cartoon that was foreign to me. Was this just simple greed by a company looking to ride the wave of ghostbustin’ popularity, or was there more to it? This cartoon even used the actual name GhostBusters. What was this cartoon’s story? Well, after much research, I finally found out.
The Ghostbusters are pop culture icons. Ray, Peter, Egon and Winston. 
The phenomenally successful movie that spawned this group has entertained people of all ages. However, surprisingly enough, Columbia did not have the rights to the name “ghostbusters” before or during the filming of their titular 1984 blockbuster. Who owned the rights to the name, Ghostbusters? It was a production company called Filmation. After Ghostbusters hit it big in 1984, imitators began coming out of the woodwork. Companies were trying to ride the coattails of the hit movie with toys, games and cartoons with a similar theme. As stated earlier, if turned on your tv in 1986 you may have caught a show involving two friends and their gorilla using crazy equipment to capture ghosts. This cartoon was called Filmation’s GhostBusters. This series was created by Filmation, the aforementioned rights holders to the name Ghostbusters. Why did they have the rights and how did this cartoon come about? It all starts in 1975.
During the ’80s and ’90s, the Filmation studio was an immensely popular Saturday morning cartoon producer. They created the cartoons He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Fat Albert, She-Ra, Star Trek The Animated Series, The Batman/Superman Hour and many, many more. With this pedigree, and the fact that they owned the name Ghost Busters, they naturally thought that they would get first crack at producing the animated Ghostbusters show. After much negotiation, Columbia backed down and said that they were going to focus on a live action Ghostbusters sequel and not do a cartoon series. Rebuffed, Filmation decided to capitalize on the Ghostbuster name by creating their own cartoon but based it on their original tv series. The cartoon’s premise had the sons of the original tv characters inheriting the business and continuing the fight against supernatural evil. For the first five episodes (technically a mini-movie), Larry Storch and Forrest Tucker reprised their roles and voiced their characters for the first time in 10 years in order to pass the torch to their sons. Bob Burns, the actor behind Tracey the Gorilla, would continue to voice Tracey in the new cartoon. The concept was set and the show debuted in February 1986.
Columbia, having gone through some changes in management since the negotiations with Filmation, were a little perturbed that another studio would get a cartoon bearing the name of their cash-cow movie franchise on the air before them. Especially the studio that owned the name Ghost Busters. This lead to Columbia partnering with cut-rate studio DIC Animation to get their Real Ghostbusters cartoon on the air. Filmation had to add “The Original” to their cartoon to make it stand out from Columbia’s cartoon. Needless to say, this still causes confusion amongst Ghostbusters fans who have no idea about the 1975 tv show.
Do you remember any of the other products in the Rubik family? The original Rubik’s Cube is a 3x3x3 cube. I remember a keychain version of the 3x3x3 cube being extremely popular in my elementary school. Did you know they also made a standard Rubik’s Cube in braille (
Speaking of time wasters, does anyone remember the Saturday morning cartoon show Rubik, The Amazing Cube? Anyone? Hello…? Well, for some reason, I remember it. Before writing this article I remember thinking the theme song kicked all kinds of ass and that it was a really cool show. Well, after a little searching, I found a clip on YouTube from the show. If you 
Apparently there’s a cube sculpture in Astor Park in New York (see pic left). It constantly gets de-faced with graffiti by the neighborhood youth. For a really good prank, a group of guys got together and turned it into a Rubik’s Cube. 
Well, that’s some of the ca-RAZY crap you could find thanks to the international phenomenon that was Rubik’s Cube. Do you still have yours? I have mine. I never actually solved it the “correct” way, I just took it apart and put it back together so it is in it’s solved state. Hey, it may not be the way IDEAL intended you to solve it, but it works.
Cavalcade of Awesome 
