Ghostbusters 3: Thoughts and Feelings on Continuing the Series

I originally posted this on the Ghostbusters.net Discussion Forum. I am reposting it here, in a slightly edited form, along with my follow up, and some extra thoughts. It is edited only for punctuation purposes only.

On the New Potential Production of Ghostbusters 3

A film where the original team is replaced with new Ghostbusters will bring in a group of guys that none of us has known for the past 25 years, and thus not really care that much about.

It’s something that we’ll all have to take into consideration, should this film get made. We’ve known the original team for 25+ years, and if a new team is assembled, then we’ll have to get to know them. But it’ll never really be the same, or really fit right, unless they can capture the feel of the original films well. We’ve got this feeling like they’re part of our family, and it’s like part of that family is moving out and we won’t be seeing them again. We’re probably going to get a new group of guys that look like some of our friends, because face it, they’re probably going to be about our age, by now. The original Ghostbusters were always older, and something we could grow up to become.

The new team would make it impossible to aspire to become that, in our own minds, and may even be younger than many of us.

It’s probably going to be a natural reaction that effects whether or not each of us enjoys the new film.

I think that was part of the problem with the new Indy. It had been about 19 years between films, and had it come out in like 1992 or 1993, I think we’d probably have just seen Indy 5, and thought that nothing was really too out-there in Indy 4 (it would have been different without Shia, though, and Indy’s age would have put him into slightly different situations). People would have compared it more to Temple of Doom’s supernatural feel than wondering if Indy still had it.

I’d wager that we’re all going to be very split on our own reaction to the film. For some of us, it’s going to be like an old pair of pants. They may not fit as well, but they are broken in some. They may fit just as well, and we love wearing them. For others, it’ll be like a new pair of pants, however. You know how to wear the pants, but it takes a while to get used to them.

And that’s only half of it. The other half is that a new film means new ownership by a younger generation. The new generation will claim ownership of the franchise in their world, and start treading on well established territory. There will be some that claim the new team is better, and probably younger and if they go there, “hotter” than the original team. It’s going to frustrate a lot of us fans of the original.

I just say, we have to be prepared for anything.

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Ghostbusters.net’s Doctor Venkman replied to this, saying:

You make a lot of very valid, very well-though-out points. You verbalized a lot of what a lot of the community is feeling…. very torn between whether or not they want a new film and the reasons behind it.

You… you’ve earned it:

And then I followed up with this:

Thanks! Granted, in looking over my original post, I would like to add more punctuation to it, and split up some of the run-ons. But it was a stream of consciousness of what I feel about the film and how I feel reaction will be. It’s kind of well-informed as well. Analyzing fan reaction from Indiana Jones, Star Wars and even Prince Caspian and Terminator and the casting of Avatar: The Last Airbender; you get a lot of various feedback and it all plays a role. Being a fan of all of those series of films, books or tv shows, but not a super-fan to the point of rabid, has afforded me the chance to take a step back and ask why fans might feel the way that they do about certain properties.

I’m a big fan of Ghostbusters and The Karate Kid for very different reasons. I grew up watching both films hundreds of times. I know how the fans of each of the previously mentioned series feel, and claim the same type of ownership of GB and Karate Kid. Case in point, I created a mock DVD cover of what they’re doing with The Karate Kid franchise: http://www.sweetpaul.com/more-karate…ain-no-thanks/

I am very thankful that Ghostbusters isn’t just heading the route of re-make, because we’ll never know what might’ve been. I wish that Karate Kid went the same route, with Larusso teaching the kid.

—–

After posting that, I found an article regarding Karate Kid in which original star Ralph Macchio is quoted:

Macchio, now 47, said he expected the new version to flop. “It feels pretty good that some people are pretty angry that they’re trying to remake The Karate Kid,” he said. “It feels good that the public feels you don’t touch certain things. Some times you go back to that, and probably shouldn’t.”

He added: “From my personal view, the filling the void of what Mr Miyagi was – and the magic of that character – is going to be the toughest task.”

It’s a different set of circumstances, and I am very thankful that Dan Aykroyd is looking after the Ghostbusters series while he still can. I think we just have to wait and see how it all turns out.

Personally, I am happy that they’re going to do a new Ghostbusters film, and excited at the potential of Dr. Venkman’s idea for Ghostbusters franchises come to fruition. Having new recruits to take the series on can help give Ghostbusters the legs to last for generations to come.