Customer Reviews

The Real Ghostbusters - Slimefighters

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I, for one, think it's great this show is finally getting some DVD treatment. It was fun for kids with the adventure, but also intelligent enough for adults to get a little something out of it. Now this DVD is NOT part of a season 1 set or anything like that. It's just four episodes from the series. They aren't in any particular order either. Two of the episodes were written by Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski. My sources say the episodes on this DVD are as follows (all from season 1):

Adventures in Slime and Space - Slimer gets caught in one of Egon's inventions and becomes millions of little Slimers.

They Call Me Mister Slimer - (JMS) Slimer gets a bodyguard job from a kid who gets picked on by bullies.

Victor the Happy Ghost - The boys adopt a cute little ghost, but Slimer finds out the spirit is not all it appears to be.

Slimer Come Home - (JMS) Slimer gets in trouble at Winston's birthday party and runs away from home.

Apparently this particular DVD is themed on episodes that feature Slimer (the green and lumpy vacuum cleaner with teeth of a ghost from the 1st movie). No word on any extra features and I fear there won't be any to speak of. Let's just hope they made a good video transfer and did some remastering on the sound. I give it a "just okay" since it's not a comprehensive collection. If you're a fan of the series (and a particular fan of Slimer) then this should be worth the money considering the value pricing.

I am very disappointed about Sony releasing this great show on measily 4 episode DVD's at a "low, low price." I wish they would have released it in 30 episode volumes at least like other cartoon shows. Having four episodes on one DVD doesn't utilize the space a DVD has and it's also not economical to pay the "high" price. Reminds me of a certain first season of the show that introduced us to reruns. It was released the same way and was eventually released like all the other seasons. Wait for the larger volumes in which you pay less per episode.

FOUR whole episodes... What is this, 1997?


Sony has no concept of how to release a decent DVD.

Look at how they recently treated the live action GB franchise with their crappy reissues and horrendous looking box art. They are completely clueless.

When the release was first announced, I was prepared to pick this up on street date... until I found out the specs.

Either send these properties over to your Classic Media division or auction them off to a more apt studio because save for the recent Pink Panther films and cartoons (which conveniently tie in to promote the new Steve Martin movie), your releases the past couple of years have been entirely insignificant.

Whereas I applaud the release of Ghostbusters in any form (the show lasted for SIX YEARS after all, thats a lot of fans), I wish the person who picked the episodes to be the first to be released had exercised a little more thought. All 3 DVDs follow the pattern of 1 ep from the ABC 1st season, and 3 eps from the syndicated 1st first season. The problem is that the syndicated eps, albiet there being about 3 times as many to choose from, are of drastically lower quality in both animation and storytelling. Far too many of them are 8 minutes of sparkling entertainment spread out over a half hour. With drab colors to boot. Not to say that they are all bad. A number of episodes were written by the creator of Babylon 5, J Michael Stakzynski, and by the creator of the Star Trek Tribble, David Gerrold. Any episode writtem by these guys is virtual white gold, and these should have been the first to be released, in order to show the general public how good this show was at its best.

A couple by each author does make it onto this first release, so thats so far so good. But even if it is a DVD necessity to include at least 3 syndicated episodes on one DVD, I would implore the people picking the eps to actually WATCH the eps first, for "Murray the Mantis," "Drool the DOg Faced GOblin" "Lost and FOundry" etc are C+ AT BEST, and there are plenty more syndicated eps not worthy to housetrain a dog with. But on the OTHER hand, "Cabinet of Calamari," "No one goes to Lupisville," "Knock Knock" "Collect Call of the Cthulu" are A+, and they can do a LOT worse than to release those.
In fact jsut release the show by season. Almost everything in the ABC 1st season is an A or better, and thank god that we got three of those episodes here with these 3 DVDs, (but once again "Killerwatt" wouldnt have been my first choice when there were so many better options such as "Citizen Ghost" and "When Halloween Was Forever," both written by, you know who, J Micheal Straczynski).

Make a THEMED DVD for next Halloween
When Halloween Was Forever from Season 1
Halloween 2 1/2 from Season 2
The Halloween Door from Season 4

and then surprise us, something like "Flip Side" to round it out (where the ghostbusters land in an alternate dimension where ghosts rule and people are thrown into containment units), or the Lupisville ep, where a town of werewolfs is at war with invading Vampires. A+ stuff, and EXACTLY what would get these DVDs to fly off the shelves. Tour the ghostbuster message boards for more suggestions.

The Real Ghostbusters is one of the best series I have ever seen, and I've been waiting pretty much my whole life for a definative release of the episodes,as I'm sure have many other fans so why Sony insist on releasing random episodes on DVD with no features escapes me! they do it with the movies as well, it's about time they got it together and brought out the two original movies as ultimate editions and The Real Ghostbusters as proper box sets, with features and in order! practically every other classic kids series have done so, just look at Thundercats! that's how it should be done! I cannot wait any longer, stop shunning this classic show and give it the proper release it deserves! I give it five stars because the show is so great, but this DVD just ain't good enough!

Ok this set is good if you are a slimer fan. Im not but I do love the show so im took one for the team and bought it so they sony would FINALY put the show on dvd. Its good quality and hey its somthing to feel my fix.... lol

I bought this disk because here and elsewhere it is described as containing "Fright at the Opera." It is not on this disk, manufacturer's number COL013799. The actual episodes are listed by one of the other reviewers.

The "Real Ghostbusters" DVD releases have been controversial among longtime fans of the show because they are not season boxed sets and contain only one or two of what are considered the best episodes of the series. Some fans have theorized that the best way to increase the likelihood of boxed set releases is to purchase the DVDs that are already out. What of the episodes themselves?

Perhaps surprisingly, "Slimefighters" is the best of the three currently available "Real Ghostbusters" DVDs. While many fans of the show feel that the increased emphasis on Slimer as the series went on resulted in its becoming too childish in tone, in the early seasons Slimer's uniqueness as a character challenged the writers to come up with especially imaginative storylines for him. As a result, "Slimefighters" is a stronger collection of four episodes than either of the other DVDs.

"Adventures in Slime and Space" gets the DVD off to a slightly weak start. While David Gerrold's script is enjoyable, it is far too obviously nothing more than a riff on two famous fantasy/SF scripts of the past, one of them written by Gerrold himself. (I do like Venkman's disgust at the thought of moving to France, and the running "Pittsburgh" joke.)

"They Call Me MISTER Slimer" is a better episode, but suffers somewhat from sidelining the regulars other than Slimer in favor of a boring guest character. In episodic television, whether animated or not, writers need to keep in mind that viewers' primary interest is in the regular characters. However, the use of barrow-wights is a good example of RGB's regular use of themes from folklore and traditions about the paranormal, and Ray understanding Slimer because he watched "Lassie" movies as a kid raises a smile.

With the final two episodes on this DVD, we enter classic RGB territory. "Victor the Happy Ghost" manages to take an extremely cliched premise (the naughty child who makes his better-behaved sibling look responsible for his own mischief) and revitalize it by having two ghosts as the "siblings". The sequence of Slimer being tricked into one of the ghost traps by Victor and nearly placed in the Containment Unit must have been especially terrifying and memorable for children who saw the episode when it first aired, and Janine's role in the denouement epitomizes her depiction in the early seasons of RGB as an extremely strong character in her own right. The episode's opening sequence is set at the Hayden Planetarium, also the setting for the climax of Sholly Fisch's original novel, "Ghostbusters: The Return".

"Slimer Come Home", written by Story Editor J. Michael Straczynski, is one of the two or three best RGB episodes available on DVD. The characterizations of all six regulars are perfect, and Slimer's self-exile is quite touching. The story conveys an extremely important message to children: that their families love them no matter how badly they behave, and that they shouldn't run away from home just because their parents might be angry about something. One can see how fully Straczynski had gotten into the groove of adapting the "Ghostbusters" concept to the environment of Saturday morning television without compromising its essence. After the voice roles of Janine and Peter were recast, "Slimer Come Home" was redubbed with the new voices; the version on this DVD, however, is the original, featuring Laura Summer as Janine and the late, great Lorenzo Music as Peter.

The animation quality of all four of these episodes tends to be higher than average for this series, perhaps because of their focus on the non-human character of Slimer. (As animators have known since at least the 1930s, normal adult humans are far harder to animate than animals or fantastic creatures, which is why so few American cartoon shows feature adult human main characters, as RGB does.) If you're only going to buy or rent one "Real Ghostbusters" DVD, make it "Slimefighters", even if you don't think you like Slimer.

These dvds could be the doorway to the full season sets. If you want to see season sets, then stop whining and BUY THESE DVDS. The more sales that Sony sees, the more of a chance that the market will catch their eye and finally give us what we want. If you don't buy the dvds, you're hurting the chances of seeing season sets. It's plain and simple. No sales means no market, and no market means WE GET NOTHING.

Stop whining and buy them, support the cause.

In terms of the dvds themselves, they are not that bad. 4 episodes on each disc isn't bad, considering the only alternative is either bootleg dvds or my old vhs tapes. Visually, it looks like it was cleaned up quite a bit. I wish there were extra features or something more than just episodes, but it's better than nothing!

I am happy to be getting these copies on DVD. I could care less if it four episodes. At least they are putting them on DVD. I mean this is how it was released on vhs.My only problem was they could at least put better episodes like Boodunnit and when Halloween was forever.Great Series and one of my favorite cartoons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11