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AWESOME-tober-fest 2017: The Real Ghostbusters S1E11 – Citizen Ghost

Posted in cartoons, Ghostbusters, ghosts, monsters, nostalgia, pop culture, TV shows with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, Awesome-tober-fest 2017, cartoon, Ghostbusters, Halloween, holiday, nostalgia, TV shows on October 11, 2017 by Paxton

So last time I reviewed J Michael Straczynski’s season 1 episode “Take Two”. It was a super meta episode about Hollywood making a movie about the cartoon Ghostbusters that included actual footage from the Ghostbusters movie. Next up is another super meta episode by Straczynski involving the cartoon Ghostbusters and the aftermath of the actual events in the first movie.

Season 1 – Episode 11. Citizen Ghost. I wanted to watch this episode because, as I alluded to, it’s supposed to be a direct sequel to the original 1984 movie.

Peter is interviewed by a reporter for a news story. Peter tells the story about how Slimer came to be the mascot of the Ghostbusters. This involves flashing back to immediately after the first movie fight against Gozer.

So we flash back. Gozer has been defeated, but the GBHQ is still destroyed from when Walter Peck had shut down the containment grid and the ghosts escaped. You see the holes created by the escaping ghosts.

We see the Ghostbusters are still in their all gray movie suits. Egon mentions that they need to destroy these suits due to all the ectoplasmic radiation they absorbed in their fight with Gozer.

Janine announces that luckily right before their fight with Gozer they got delivery of their brand new uniforms. We see the guys pull out their new, more colorful, cartoon versions of the Ghostbusters suits. I love that already this cartoon is explaining why the cartoon’s suits are different than the movie.

Peter is in charge of destroying the irradiated uniforms. He kicks the box aside and completely forgets about it. The box slides right up next to the new containment unit and starts absorbing some ectoplasmic radiation that happens to be leaking from it.

The irradiated suits absorb so much ectoplasmic energy that they start glowing and get up and walk out of the box!

The suits generate ghostly versions of the Ghostbusters that shoot ectoplasm out of their proton packs. The fellas must fight their ectoplasmic doppelgangers with the help of Slimer who, instead of escaping with the other ghosts during the movie sequence, decided to stick around the headquarters with the guys. Slimer ultimately helps defeat the spectral Ghostbusters.

This is a fun episode that attempts to explain the several differences between the movie and the cartoon. And they are pretty good explanations. I liked this episode quite a bit. I’m surprised this wasn’t used as the very first episode right out of the gate.

Also, evil spectral Ghostbusters. You know I’m all over that.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

AWESOME-tober-fest 2017: A Night of Fright is no Delight! (1970)

Posted in cartoons, TV shows with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, Awesome-tober-fest 2017, cartoon, ghosts, Halloween, holiday, monsters, pop culture, Scooby-Doo on October 3, 2017 by Paxton

I’m a big fan of Scooby-Doo Where Are You? I watched it as a kid and I find even now it’s still fun to watch. I covered a Scooby Doo episode last year for mummies, so I thought I would do one again this year. So I picked one of my favorite episodes that involved…ghosts.

And the episode I picked was only four episodes after the mummy episode. It’s from Season 1, episode 16 – A Night of Fright is no Delight. It aired in early 1970.

Scooby Doo title

I love this episode. The design of the ghost is so cool. I remember seeing it when I was a kid and thought that it was just so awesome. Obviously, I liked it so much I used it for my AWESOME-tober-fest banner this year.

Enough talk, let’s take a look at the episode.

The Mystery Inc crew is sent to an old Southern mansion which seems to be on an island in the middle of a lake somewhere? Col Beauregard Sanders (yep, Col Sanders) has included Scooby in his will for saving him at some point in the past.

The lawyer is Mr Creeps. Perfect name. Col Sanders’ will is recorded on a long playing record because it’s 1970. All of the relatives plus Scooby must spend the night in the haunted house to get their share of the Colonel’s money.

Getting ready for bed, Shaggy, in keeping with his M.O. of trying to eat things that are inedible to normal humans, tries to put fish food on his sandwich. See also “Liver a la Mode sandwich with an olive garnish” in Scooby Doo and a Mummy Too!

While Shaggy eats his fishy sandwich, Scooby decides to take a bath and gets kidnapped in the most Scooby Doo way possible. I love that there’s a second bathtub FULL OF WATER behind the false wall ready to take the place of the missing Scooby.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2017: Mickey Mouse in Lonesome Ghosts (1937)

Posted in cartoons with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, Awesome-tober-fest 2017, cartoon, Disney, ghosts, Halloween, holiday, Mickey Mouse on October 2, 2017 by Paxton

This is it. The 10th year of AWESOME-tober-fest begins TODAY! And we are going to start with an old Mickey Mouse cartoon.

On Christmas Eve 1937, three days after Snow White‘s theatrical release, Disney released the cartoon short Lonesome Ghosts.

Walt Disney himself provided the voice for Mickey. I have a fond nostalgia for this short. I remember it well because it came on a cartridge that was released with the Fisher Price Movie Viewer. And I had one.

The viewer had a crank on it that you moved to advance the film footage. There were a ton of cartridges available but for some reason the only cartridge I remember owning was Lonesome Ghosts. One of the cool features of the viewer was that if you ran the crank backward, the footage would run backward. So I would alternate scenes running them forwards and then backwards. It was endlessly entertaining.

The gist of the cartoon involves four ghosts living in an old abandoned mansion. They are bored because they’ve scared off all the people. They see an advertisement in the newspaper for ghost exterminators and they call them in so they can scare them off.

You can watch the short in its entirety here.

Here are the opening title cards.

As I said, these four ghosts are bored having scared away all the people. So they see in the newspaper an ad for a ghost extermination company and decide to call them in and have some fun.

They imitate a scared lady and ask Mickey, Donald and Goofy to come help.

Our ghost exterminator crew arrives all geared up. Mickey has brought a shotgun. To use. On a GHOST. I wonder if they’ve ever actually been out on a call before?

So, as I thought, we see the shotgun didn’t work on a ghost. However, not because the ghost is incorporeal. The ghost actually sticks his fingers in the barrels to make the gun explode. Interestingly these ghosts are everything except incorporeal as later on Donald actually punches a ghost in the face. And it lands.

This sequence is the one I remember most with that Movie Viewer above. The ghosts go in the closet and when Mickey opens it to go after them a ton of water falls out. I remember watching and reversing this sequence over and over again to see the water rush in and out of the door frame.

One has to wonder if this particular cartoon had any influence whatsoever on the movie Ghostbusters. Or even the original TV show The Ghost Busters. Probably yes, on the latter. For the former, I can’t say for sure. However, at one point, Goofy does say the line, “I ain’t scared of no ghosts.”

The cartoon is a short eight minutes and change. It’s a fun watch. Check it out.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2016: The Mummy: The Animated Series (2001)

Posted in cartoons, holiday, monsters, movies, mummy, nostalgia, pop culture, TV shows with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2016, cartoon, Halloween, holiday, monsters, nostalgia, The Mummy on October 18, 2016 by Paxton

This year, despite my theme being mummies, I decided not to watch or review the most recent Universal The Mummy movies starring Brendan Fraser as Rick O’Connell. I liked those movies okay, but I had other lesser known movies I wanted to watch and talk about first. However, as a compromise, I decided to mention the animated series that is based on those movies.

In 2001, the WB aired The Mummy: The Animated Series. It was loosely based on the first two Stephen Sommers The Mummy movies.

the mummy animated

The main characters are, of course, Evie and Rick O’Connell, their son Alex, Evie’s brother Johnathan and the evil mummy Imhotep. Rick O’Connell, surprisingly, is not voiced by Brendan Fraser (what, was he busy?). He’s voiced by none other than Bo Duke himself, John Schneider. There’s another character in here called The Minotaur that is voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson who voiced The Joker in the 2004 animated The Batman series as well as a slew of other roles in super hero cartoons like Avengers Assemble, Hulk and the Agents of SMASH, Ultimate Spider-Man, Young Justice, etc.

The plot somewhat retcons the movies a little. Back in ancient Egypt, Imhotep is in possession of the Scrolls of Thebes and is searching for the Manacle of Osiris. Just as he’s about to steal it, he’s caught and sentenced to be mummified alive (again, why ALIVE?!). Flash forward to present day, Imhotep is revived by Colin Weasler and he begins the hunt for the Manacle anew. Like in The Mummy Returns, Alex gets the Manacle on his own arm which causes Imhotep to hunt him to obtain it. Rick and Evie battle Imhotep to keep the Manacle away from him with the help of the Medjai, sacred protectors of ancient Egypt.

mummy-the-animated-series-wallpaper

There’s a lot of Medjai back story in the cartoon as well as plenty of searches for things with “of” in the title (Manacle of Osiris, Scythe of Anubis, Lake of Eternity, etc, etc). It’s a not bad, if not great, animated cartoon adventure series. About as good as those last two Fraser Mummy movies.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

AWESOME-tober-fest 2016: Mummies Alive! (1997)

Posted in cartoons, holiday, monsters, mummy, nostalgia, pop culture, TV shows with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2016, cartoon, Halloween, holiday, The Mummy, TV shows on October 12, 2016 by Paxton

In 1997 DIC Entertainment released the animated series Mummies Alive!

Mummies Alive title card

The premise is very mummy-y. Evil sorcerer Scarab kills the Pharaoh’s son but is entombed alive for his crime (why do they never KILL these guys? It’s always entombed ALIVE). He revives in modern day (1997) and searches for the reincarnation of the prince he killed. However, the prince’s protectors are also revived to protect him from harm. It’s a constant battle to keep Scarab from getting his hands on the reincarnated prince.

The prince’s guardians are all mummies each with the power of an Egyptian god. Ja-Kal uses the spirit of falcon, Rath uses the spirit of snake, Armon uses the spirit of ram, and Nefer-Tina uses the spirit of cat. They are able to call upon these powers for magical armor and abilities.

And in typical “cartoon magical transformations” form they call on the powers when they are in immediate danger but then it takes 30 seconds or more for all four mummies to fully transform and by then, in reality, they’d all be dead.

mummies-alive-team-transformed-2

To trigger their powers, the mummies call out the phrase “With the Strength of Ra!” Using these magical abilities depletes their strength, so once their strength is exhausted, they must rest in their sarcophagi to regain their abilities.

Along with Scarab, the mummies had to contend with a litany of Egyptian gods and monsters like Anubis, Set and Sekhmet. But the best episode has to be the one where the mummies actually take a tour of Alcatraz (not even kidding). Here’s the cartoon version of Alcatraz Island.

alcatraz