RGB report
Mar. 9th, 2005 09:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
camwynOkay, so, last night I got up enough nerve to watch the first two episodes of Real Ghostbusters on my DVD- 'Ghosts R Us' and 'Killerwatt'.
Short version: the Suck Fairy did not succeed. The cartoon was good. I was happy.
We'll start with the stuff that the Suck Fairy couldn't attack because there wasn't anything worth attacking to begin with.
The background animation, for one. Even as a kid I remember not being terribly impressed by the crowd scenes, in that 'um, that's really sad' kind of way. I think the average crowd scene in this cartoon must've had maybe two, maybe three cels that just got run back and forth for as long as the scene had to last. I never liked that effect, but I never expected better, so no disappointments there.
Then there was the music. Their music was… how do I put this nicely? … also sad. To a kid raised on 1980's music and 1980's cartoons, it was sad. When I introduced my RL friend Deirdre to the cartoon many years ago (I believe the episode we first saw together was "Ragnarok and Roll", though it may have been "Collect Call of Cthulhu"- that, or CCoC was one we saw together not long after R&R), I remember warning her that the instrumental music came in about four different varieties and that we'd be hearing the same stuff over and over a lot. This was still true when I watched last night. I had forgotten about their tendency to insert random, not-very-relevant vocal music, though; that cropped up in both eps and left me blinking, but after I determined the lyrics didn't have anything to do with anything I wrote it off and ignored it.
Understand that as a kid I was also very fond of the cartoon "Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors", and was therefore exposed repeatedly to the idea that cartoons only had to get by on four or five pieces of music. We ain't talkin' BTAS here.
On the front of 'things that I had hoped would be better, but weren't':
The writing. These were okay episodes, but not great. I did not have high hopes when I saw the title screen, though, since neither of the two episodes was written by JMS- or any other name I recognized. Oh, well, can't win 'em all, right? The first episode made me wince; it involved three escaped Class Fives and an inexplicable fit of Lois Duh syndrome. (Glasses/clothing on: harmless, if ugly, human. Glasses off: oh yeah, they're those Class Fives we captured yesterday! No other changes in appearance.) It also featured a character who was the spectral equivalent of Baby Huey. Here's a hint to you aspiring screen writers: adult sized talking babies AIN'T FUNNY. Don't care whether they're ghosts, ducks, or anything else. THEY AIN'T FUNNY.
The second episode involved ghosts invading New York City's power grid, causing blackouts, and possessing electrical machinery. Not too bad writing-wise, although it featured a bit I had hoped I was misremembering: 'this is a kid's cartoon, right, and it's got five main characters, right, so we can only really have one brain on the team, okay, so Ray isn't going to be particularly smart'. I'd forgotten that they were adhering to the anime-derived Five Character Formula, which generally sticks to the Hero, the Brain, the Big Guy, the Other Guy, and the Chick. In this case they traded 'big' for 'pudgy' and 'chick' for 'talking animal', since Janine wasn't in most of the ep, but it was really annoying to see the genius kicked out from under Dr. Stantz in favour of a vague 'enthusiastic and sorta smartish, but easily deceived'. I'm hoping further episodes remedy that.
And then there are the things I really appreciated. . .
- An American cartoon that was willing to let the characters use the word 'die' and mean it. Not just things like Ray telling the Big Bad in "Killerwatt" that it would succeed 'over our dead bodies', either. I mean Egon staring at a containment unit about to burst, looking at his PKE meter, and saying, "Gentlemen, I hate to be the one to say this, but in fifty seconds, we all die." *adjusts something on PKE meter* "Forty-eight. . ."
- Egon's voice was a lot less exaggerated and cartoony than I remembered, although he had comparatively few lines in these two episodes.
- The New York landmarks that cropped up. Yeah, there were only two really recognizable ones- the Brooklyn Bridge in "Ghosts R Us" and the Twin Towers in "Killerwatt"- but Ghostbusters is rooted in New York the way Hellblazer is rooted in London. You can change the setting for a while, but it always belongs to the same place in the end. (I admit, too, that I had a brief pang when "Killerwatt" showed the power going out light by light, building by building, across the bridge and then up to the Towers.)
- Janine was better as a character than I remembered, but then, they really did mangle her as the series went on.
- The mandatory dig at New Jersey, in "Ghosts R Us". Deirdre and I once noted that it really wasn't a Real Ghostbusters episode unless the guys had to a) run screaming from something or b) make fun of New Jersey. Look, I've lived here since 1986 and I can still appreciate it. It's a New York thing. Hush.
- Peter was a little more quick-witted in both episodes than I remembered, despite everybody having Lois Duh syndrome in "Ghosts R Us". Which is fine, since the guy is supposed to be a double Ph.D., and even if his degrees are from Tony's House of Post-Graduate Paperwork, he's also supposed to be slick and fast on his feet.
- Nice to see Winston getting lines and screen time. I always rather liked him.
Totally unrelated to any of the above is the fact that I could feel the effects of other fandoms kicking in as I watched. See, for all that I love the main character, "Challenge of the Yukon" was not a good show. It was a radio show written to please an audience that wasn't particularly discriminating; its listeners wanted a clear-cut good guy, an adventure in fifteen (later thirty) minutes, and a nicely dramatic resolution. This is not a formula for great writing or heavy character development. I listened to quite a lot of the series and came away determined to create a viable, realistic version of Sergeant Preston that was still recognizable as the character from the show. The skills involved started patching over a lot of the holes in the two RGB episodes I watched last night. One of the skills in question involved taking what I was listening to or seeing, and mentally rewriting it into something more workable at the same time that I was listening/watching. That helped. So did the fact that if a scene didn't visually ring right, I still had the movie fresh in my head and could easily patch in a live-action version.
In summation: I was relieved that what I saw was still good, and my brain wanted very much to make it even better, so now I can breathe easy and watch other episodes later. Especially if![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ladymondegreen still wants to get together for that next week. (Or anyone else in the NYC/NJ area, for that matter.)
Short version: the Suck Fairy did not succeed. The cartoon was good. I was happy.
We'll start with the stuff that the Suck Fairy couldn't attack because there wasn't anything worth attacking to begin with.
The background animation, for one. Even as a kid I remember not being terribly impressed by the crowd scenes, in that 'um, that's really sad' kind of way. I think the average crowd scene in this cartoon must've had maybe two, maybe three cels that just got run back and forth for as long as the scene had to last. I never liked that effect, but I never expected better, so no disappointments there.
Then there was the music. Their music was… how do I put this nicely? … also sad. To a kid raised on 1980's music and 1980's cartoons, it was sad. When I introduced my RL friend Deirdre to the cartoon many years ago (I believe the episode we first saw together was "Ragnarok and Roll", though it may have been "Collect Call of Cthulhu"- that, or CCoC was one we saw together not long after R&R), I remember warning her that the instrumental music came in about four different varieties and that we'd be hearing the same stuff over and over a lot. This was still true when I watched last night. I had forgotten about their tendency to insert random, not-very-relevant vocal music, though; that cropped up in both eps and left me blinking, but after I determined the lyrics didn't have anything to do with anything I wrote it off and ignored it.
Understand that as a kid I was also very fond of the cartoon "Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors", and was therefore exposed repeatedly to the idea that cartoons only had to get by on four or five pieces of music. We ain't talkin' BTAS here.
On the front of 'things that I had hoped would be better, but weren't':
The writing. These were okay episodes, but not great. I did not have high hopes when I saw the title screen, though, since neither of the two episodes was written by JMS- or any other name I recognized. Oh, well, can't win 'em all, right? The first episode made me wince; it involved three escaped Class Fives and an inexplicable fit of Lois Duh syndrome. (Glasses/clothing on: harmless, if ugly, human. Glasses off: oh yeah, they're those Class Fives we captured yesterday! No other changes in appearance.) It also featured a character who was the spectral equivalent of Baby Huey. Here's a hint to you aspiring screen writers: adult sized talking babies AIN'T FUNNY. Don't care whether they're ghosts, ducks, or anything else. THEY AIN'T FUNNY.
The second episode involved ghosts invading New York City's power grid, causing blackouts, and possessing electrical machinery. Not too bad writing-wise, although it featured a bit I had hoped I was misremembering: 'this is a kid's cartoon, right, and it's got five main characters, right, so we can only really have one brain on the team, okay, so Ray isn't going to be particularly smart'. I'd forgotten that they were adhering to the anime-derived Five Character Formula, which generally sticks to the Hero, the Brain, the Big Guy, the Other Guy, and the Chick. In this case they traded 'big' for 'pudgy' and 'chick' for 'talking animal', since Janine wasn't in most of the ep, but it was really annoying to see the genius kicked out from under Dr. Stantz in favour of a vague 'enthusiastic and sorta smartish, but easily deceived'. I'm hoping further episodes remedy that.
And then there are the things I really appreciated. . .
- An American cartoon that was willing to let the characters use the word 'die' and mean it. Not just things like Ray telling the Big Bad in "Killerwatt" that it would succeed 'over our dead bodies', either. I mean Egon staring at a containment unit about to burst, looking at his PKE meter, and saying, "Gentlemen, I hate to be the one to say this, but in fifty seconds, we all die." *adjusts something on PKE meter* "Forty-eight. . ."
- Egon's voice was a lot less exaggerated and cartoony than I remembered, although he had comparatively few lines in these two episodes.
- The New York landmarks that cropped up. Yeah, there were only two really recognizable ones- the Brooklyn Bridge in "Ghosts R Us" and the Twin Towers in "Killerwatt"- but Ghostbusters is rooted in New York the way Hellblazer is rooted in London. You can change the setting for a while, but it always belongs to the same place in the end. (I admit, too, that I had a brief pang when "Killerwatt" showed the power going out light by light, building by building, across the bridge and then up to the Towers.)
- Janine was better as a character than I remembered, but then, they really did mangle her as the series went on.
- The mandatory dig at New Jersey, in "Ghosts R Us". Deirdre and I once noted that it really wasn't a Real Ghostbusters episode unless the guys had to a) run screaming from something or b) make fun of New Jersey. Look, I've lived here since 1986 and I can still appreciate it. It's a New York thing. Hush.
- Peter was a little more quick-witted in both episodes than I remembered, despite everybody having Lois Duh syndrome in "Ghosts R Us". Which is fine, since the guy is supposed to be a double Ph.D., and even if his degrees are from Tony's House of Post-Graduate Paperwork, he's also supposed to be slick and fast on his feet.
- Nice to see Winston getting lines and screen time. I always rather liked him.
Totally unrelated to any of the above is the fact that I could feel the effects of other fandoms kicking in as I watched. See, for all that I love the main character, "Challenge of the Yukon" was not a good show. It was a radio show written to please an audience that wasn't particularly discriminating; its listeners wanted a clear-cut good guy, an adventure in fifteen (later thirty) minutes, and a nicely dramatic resolution. This is not a formula for great writing or heavy character development. I listened to quite a lot of the series and came away determined to create a viable, realistic version of Sergeant Preston that was still recognizable as the character from the show. The skills involved started patching over a lot of the holes in the two RGB episodes I watched last night. One of the skills in question involved taking what I was listening to or seeing, and mentally rewriting it into something more workable at the same time that I was listening/watching. That helped. So did the fact that if a scene didn't visually ring right, I still had the movie fresh in my head and could easily patch in a live-action version.
In summation: I was relieved that what I saw was still good, and my brain wanted very much to make it even better, so now I can breathe easy and watch other episodes later. Especially if
ladymondegreen still wants to get together for that next week. (Or anyone else in the NYC/NJ area, for that matter.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-03-09 02:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-09 03:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-09 03:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-09 04:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-09 04:26 pm (UTC)Oh, and I caught a glimpse last night of a Feng Shui supplement last night I hadn't seen before - Gorilla Warfare: the Jammers Sourcebook. If you're at Jim Hanley's, cross - what is that, 6th? - and go to the Complete Strategist, they should have it.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-09 04:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-09 04:39 pm (UTC)BTW, if you don't mind, seeing it would be cool. I could see about bringing foodstufflike things.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-09 04:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-09 06:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-09 06:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-09 07:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-09 07:11 pm (UTC)Possessed!Ecto was fun, though. "No! You can't shoot the car! It's practically family!"
no subject
Date: 2005-03-09 07:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-09 08:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-09 08:57 pm (UTC)*considers*
Actually, my neighbourhood has a LOT of Pakistani video places. I wouldn't be surprised if they offered PAL-NTSC conversions. Let me check around and I'll get back to you on that, okay?
no subject
Date: 2005-03-09 09:05 pm (UTC)One among many images stuck in my brain: the subway construction tunnel crew that uncovers a wall marked DO NOT OPEN UNTIL DOOMSDAY. So what do they do? They open it of course.
The evolution of Janine was eventually addressed, canonically, in the show itself. I'm not sure if you remember the episode but it turned out quite shmoopy and touching and Egon/Janine shippy :)
no subject
Date: 2005-03-09 09:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-10 01:01 am (UTC)I. *coughs* Quite like the random 80's music. It's catchy!
... Yeah, I have no musical taste. So sue me.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-10 01:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-10 05:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-10 05:43 am (UTC)Jayce! "There's a power that comes from deep inside of you... When every day you're reaching for the light... And you know there's no one there to find you... But if your wheels get you there, things will turn out right!"
Wow, that takes me back. Visions of an entire galaxy entwined in the grip of vines that grow faster than light... funky...
Ah, the unappreciated classics. Jayce... Spiral Zone...
...On another note, I've got a WYGO question: is France subject to the plague of ghosts? If so, why?
no subject
Date: 2005-03-10 02:07 pm (UTC)And in WYGO, the plague is largely confined to Britain so far as the Ministry currently knows.