Why The Ghostbusters Were Real
I ain't 'fraid of no copyright infringement.
written by Mike originally for Poprocks & Coke on August 3, 2002

Pictured above are the four cartoon heroes collectively known as the Ghostbusters. Now watch this... here's a picture of their live-action counterparts on which they were based... with Sigourney Weaver.

Well I didn't say it'd be a good picture, did I? Whoever I found this from via Google saved it as a gif. Regardless, how come the cartoon Ghostbusters didn't look like the movie Ghostbusters? Commence individual comparison sequence... now.

Peter Venkman
Mr. Elvis Hair on the left is supposed to be Peter, who was played by Bill Murray in the movie. While the characters retain pretty much the same personalities & senses of humor from the transition from big screen to small, Toon Peter looks more like John Stamos than Bill Murray. Have mercy. On the plus side, he was voiced by the same guy who does Garfield, & later in the series by Dave "Cut... It... Out" Coulier.

Ray Stantz
As Ray, Dan Aykroyd was taller & slightly thinner than Peter. In the cartoon, Ray was the short pudgy one, while Peter was actually rather thin. Maybe they got switched by accident. That's what I always thought.

Egon Spengler
Forget what I said about Mr. Elvis Hair before. It's really Egon. Cartoon Egon had a blonde jelly roll on his head that looked absolutely nothing like Harold Ramis's hair when he played Egon in the movie. They only way you can tell that this is even Egon is that they're both wearing glasses. That doesn't work. I wear red shoes, & people don't mistake me for Ronald McDonald.

Winston Zeddmore
Cartoon Winston looked much younger than Ernie Hudson ever did in the movie, but I didn't mind as much, because I had this really funny Winston action figure whose head twisted & jaw dropped when you pressed his right arm against his side.

When you get down to it, the only one that looks the same in both the cartoon & the movie is Slimer.

If you recall, the cartoon was actually called "The Real Ghostbusters."

Note the emphasis on the REAL. How come? Because there was ANOTHER cartoon called Ghostbusters that came along first!

After the movie was put out, Filmation released this cartoon to try & cash in on the name. How'd they do it without getting sued? Because Filmation had apparently put out a campy live action kids show in the 1970's called "The Ghost Busters."

The cartoon was based on that show. I didn't know this until I was looking for pictures for this here article. But the original Ghost Busters (right) consisted of Eddie Spenser, Jake Kong, & Tracy the Gorilla. The cartoon (left) featured Tracy again, this time with Eddie & Jake's sons, also named Eddie & Jake.

Jake Kong, Jr.
He was the leader of the team. He always took charge of the situation & stuff.

Eddie Spenser, Jr.
Jake's shorter, chubbier, & clumsier sidekick was a bit of a coward & wore the worst suit ever.

Tracy
The big talking gorilla. Actually, I don't remember him saying too much besides "Okie dokie, Jakey!" I love monkeys.

The three hung out at their base, which they called Ghost Command, waiting for a phone call for their assignment. Then when it was time to head out & bust some ghosts, they'd all jump up in the air, slap each other high five, & shout "LET'S GO, GHOSTBUSTERS!" By the way, those were the only three words in their theme song as well. "Let's goooo, Ghost-buuuuus-ters! Let's go! Let's go!" Then Tracy would make monkey sounds. Rinse & repeat.

After they went through some sort of wacky machine that suited them up into their ghost busting outfits (Eddie always seemed to have problems with this part), they'd slide down an escape chute, bounce off a mattress, & land in their spiffy mode of transportation... the Ghost Buggy! It preferred to be called G.B., though. That's right. The Ghost Buggy had a skull head in the front that could talk. By talk, I mean make wise cracks. G.B. could also fly, sail on water, & travel through time. In fact, the Ghostbusters had a lot of skull-shaped appliances. Check out their videophone.

On the right is the Ghostbusters' main nemesis, the robotic Prime Evil. He had a magic death organ that he used to control spirits & send them through time & space to cause chaos.

Scared Stiff
This wussy little Robot Skeleton dude worked for Prime Evil, who gave him important tasks like being scared of stuff & screwing up his plans. He was very good at what he did.

Mysteria
This evil sorceress helped Prime Evil send ghosts through time. I don't remember what else she did, but I'm sure it involved a lot of evil stuff.

Haunter
LOL GET IT BECAUSE HE'S DRESSED UP LIKE A HUNTER, BUT HE IS DEAD, SO NOW HE WILL BE CALLED HAUNTER! Oh man, how creative.

Brat-a-Rat
This half rat, half dragon, all nasty thing is Prime Evil's pet, because every evil mastermind has to have a pet. It's cartoon law.

The Ghostbusters would use Ghost Buggy to travel through time, hunt down Prime Evil's minions & zap them to oblivion with their big Ghost Dematerializer guns. Luckily, they also had some help on their side.

Jessica
This news reporter girl may look like a ripoff of April O'Neil, but she actually predated the Ninja Turtles' yellow-clad ally by a few years... at least in the cartoon. In the Ninja Turtles comic, April wasn't even a reporter. She was a lab assistant. Jessica tagged along with the team in hopes to get an exciting story along the way.

Futura
You'd totally never be able to figure it out by her name or anything, but Futura is from the future. She often lent a hand to the team on her fancy schmancy little ride called the Time Hopper.

Belfry
This little pink bat hung around Ghost Command. At the end of the show, he & the talking skull TV would explain the moral of the episode, which was usually something along the lines of how teamwork is important, or how you should never talk to strangers.

karen: belfry looks like what would happen if piglet got attacked by a vampire
mike fireball 0: HAH! I like how you caught that before I did even after I did all the damn picture hunting.

Alright kids, it's bonus time! I managed to grab a hold of the theme songs of both Ghostbusters cartoons! Enjoy!

The Real Ghostbusters (.rm 295kb)
Filmation's Ghostbusters (.rm 185kb)