Is this a film aimed predominantly at young children?
All the media I have seen (not seen the trailer, on purpose) show very young children as the cast, firing proton packs, etc.
The packs (going by GB1) were supposed to be beserk 55lbs nuclear accelerator power packs with insane destructive capability. Having young children firing them makes me think this movie is predominantly aimed at a younger audience as opposed to adults.
What do people think? (Ps: preferably no spoilers).
I can understand fans who have kids who would love a kids movie to entertain their children so their kids can share their own passion.
I can also understand fans who want to be reminded what they themselves loved about GB1 and see an actual continuation of that story (GB1-GB2-GBTVG). But from an adult perspective as they are adults now.
With as little “kiddyfication” as possible. Remember what happened to Ghostbusters 2?
Full disclosure: I belong to the second group, as the kid friendly / childish aspect of GB2 was what I disliked most about that movie.
No I don’t think Ghostbusters Afterlife will be predominantly a kids film. I think we are getting a film much like the original film. A film aimed at adults, but had a lasting appeal for children of that generation. Taking into consideration the kind of stories Jason likes to tell I would say that GBA will do what the original film did and appeal to all audiences, but will have a lasting impact on kids of this generation. Even though the story has a focus on the younger stars I believe that it will appeal to everyone new fans old fans and general audience. In my opinion this film could be the perfect storm in this time.
The main new cast is two children, teen teens, two adults. Then there will be those from the original cast appearing. So no, I don’t think so. If anything, Jason picked a fair balance of perspectives.
I don’t know if “kiddified” would be the term that I would use, but I do expect this to be a family-friendly-ish movie. Now, to be fair, what qualifies as family-friendly has changed drastically in the last 15 years. I think what we saw with Ghostbusters II was indicative of a stricter divide between what is considered “for adults” and “for kids.” Nowadays, the PG-13 Marvel action movies are considered family-friendly, and those have room to tackle relatively serious material.
That said, it seems obvious that the underlying impetus of this movie is Jason wanting to filter his feelings about his father’s legacy through his art. The parent-child themes are probably going to be pretty strong, and I think it’s going to be pitched in a way that parents and children will both get something out of it. On top of that, my question would be whether or not Ivan thinks of the original Ghostbusters as a family movie more than we might think of it that way. It makes sense to guess that Jason would believe that making Ghostbusters: Afterlife the same type of audience experience that his dad believes the original Ghostbusters was would be the best possible tribute to him and his work.
I find Ghostbusters 2 waaaay scarier than Ghostbusters. Always have. So beyond the less swearing and smoking, it kind of evens out. I mean…Ghostbusters 1 doesn’t have impaled heads, a freaky tub monster, freaky slime tendrils and the creepy as hell Vigo. Vigo is nightmare fuel. When his face gets all twisty? The growls and sounds he makes? Plus Janosz when he lights up to see in the dark? Wowzer. Ghostbusters 1 has the Dana chair sequence. But I don’t find it scary.
Anyways, just because the movie has kids firing proton packs doesn’t mean it’s going to be a kiddy film. Stranger Things focus’s on kids and it is not at all for children. It’ll be PG-13. There will be swearing.
I think your concerns will prove unwarranted, One Time. Ghostbusters II was in a few ways the pendulum swinging too far in the opposite direction from Ghostbusters in terms of tonal content in order to include the new younger audience generated by the explosion in popularity of The Real Ghostbusters.
The second movie kinda overcompensated, and was laying foundations into a territory that was pretty new. I think Afterlife will find a more satisfying middle ground between the two movies directed by Ivan, and like Droid noted earlier, the bar has been set for family-friendly films which can also deal with some of the heavier stuff.
The original had some pretty salty language in it and I don’t think was ever meant as a “kid’s film”. That was just sort of a happy accident and I’ve thought before how odd it is that the ADULTS who watched the original in 1984 don’t really have the same attachment to it that we, who watched it as kids at the same time, do. Me and my buddy have often talked about how there were lots of movies from that period that weren’t really “meant” for kids but still heavily resonate with our generation. I think it was because lots of them became cartoons. There are actually a lot of movies from that period that are still popular today that I wouldn’t even let my kids watch now. Rambo was incredibly violent but became a cartoon. RoboCop was incredibly violent but kids loved it. Back to the Future had sexual things and some foul language in it but kids loved it as well. The Karate Kid also had some salty language but was also a huge hit with kids and also became a cartoon. Beetlejuice also had an F bomb in it and was a kid’s cartoon later. I just think that parents then didn’t really pay as much attention to the things their kids watched as they do now. I watched all those as a kid but am not really comfortable with letting my kids watch them because I personally don’t want my kids hearing foul language. I genuinely hope this new film isn’t profanity laden like the new It was. I know it won’t be to that degree but I hope there aren’t any F words or overtly sexual things. I will ask this though. Do you think that IF there had never been a cartoon for Ghostbusters that we would all still have our extreme devotion to the franchise? I think the cartoon is what put our love for the franchise over the top and had endeared us to it for as long as it has.
[quote=StarSpengledBanner82 post_id=4932995 time=1585403621 user_id=42377]Do you think that IF there had never been a cartoon for Ghostbusters that we would all still have our extreme devotion to the franchise? I think the cartoon is what put our love for the franchise over the top and had endeared us to it for as long as it has.
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I think we owe a lot to The Real Ghostbusters, had someone not had the bright spark to capitalize on how popular the movie was by following it up with a tie-in cartoon, Ghostbusters would have stood a good chance of being a big 80s hit, but then petering out as the decade continued.
There’s an alternate 2020 where our smaller cult community is cheering over the fact that Funko is the first company to ever produce figures based on Ghostbusters, as part of their ReAction range, and us lamenting on how so many other (and much more inappropriate) properties were given the animated treatment, whilst our one-hit-wonder was never considered.
I think we owe a lot to The Real Ghostbusters, had someone not had the bright spark to capitalize on how popular the movie was by following it up with a tie-in cartoon, Ghostbusters would have stood a good chance of being a big 80s hit, but then petering out as the decade continued.
There’s an alternate 2020 where our smaller cult community is cheering over the fact that Funko is the first company to ever produce figures based on Ghostbusters, as part of their ReAction range, and us lamenting on how so many other (and much more inappropriate) properties were given the animated treatment, whilst our one-hit-wonder was never considered.
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Yeah I feel the same about the show. I’d say my utmost favorite way to enjoy the entire franchise is to watch the first 2 seasons of the show. It just fleshes out the characters so well and gives them a really cohesive universe to live in. I enjoy the films to the moon and back but the show just seems to really deepen the whole franchise and it still holds up tremendously well to this day. Probably holds up the best of any vintage cartoon not named Batman The Animated Series. At least the Lorenzo Music episodes do. The quality started dipping after some cast and writer departures but the initial wave of the show was incredibly well done.
I think GBA IS being aimed at a younger audience given how much Stranger Things has blatantly influenced it. Seeing kids driving the Ecto-1 while blasting the town square with a proton pack is something I would expect from the likes of Slimer! and The Real Ghostbusters.
Many fans have been unanimous throughout the years regarding GB2 being scarier than GB1. I think many people, from Ghostheads to casual viewers, are going to reevaluate their dislike for GB2 when they account for how bad Feigbusters was and how far removed GBA will be.
Not a big fan of the dislike button. . Not sure it’s worth debating which one is scarier, when they’re both not that scary. Now if you want to talk about Alien vs Aliens, those are movies that scarred my childhood.
I wrote out a whole reply thinking you wrote “Alien Vs Predator” and were talking about how those movies scarred your childhood and I was thinking “Huh? Because of how awful they are?” I was just about to hit “submit” when I decided to re-read what you wrote. Thank goodness.
Alien never bothered me much as a kid, but Aliens?? The scene when Newt & Ripley are loose with the two face huggers? Or when Newt falls in the water? Aliens kicks all the ass.
Sometimes as a kid I would be trying to get to sleep and for no reason at all the thought would just pop in my head that Vigo was going to appear out of nowhere. I woke my parents up and my dad (RIP) would tell me to ■■■■■■■■ my blue KennerReal Ghostbustersproton pack & we’d scare any ghosts away. He would go down stairs and get this battery meter that looked like GB tech from the movie, it had a dial on it that looked like something Egon used. Anyways my Dad would pretend to take measurements with the battery meter while I sat up in bed, neutrona wand in hand, trap at the ready, just in case Ol Viggy came a knockin. My Dad would show me that the meter dial wasn’t moving and on the red portion and thus I was safe for one more night. Needless to say the next morning I always woke up with that battery meter clutched in my hand and my proton pack by the edge of my bed. Vigo never did show up. I still have that battery meter too. No proton pack tho.
I almost wrote aliens and predator, changed it just to keep it in the same franchise. Those are the two movies that stayed with me the most. Made me run down the hall to use the bathroom in middle of the night. Waking up to a rat in the Attic about gave me a heart attack. Watching those movies at 3-4 pretty much desensitize me to everything else. Probably have to agree Vigo is more traumatizing villain. More build up where Gozers only a few minutes.
I think aliens was a scarier movie, but predator was scarier thought as kid. That the predator could be anywhere watching
Predator didn’t scare me as much because Arnold was in it. For some reason my kid brain thought “If Arnold’s in this, I’ll be ok”. I still LOVED the movie though. Heck I even like Predator 2, which did kinda scare me(No Arnold this time for my Kid brain to hide behind, plus now Mr. Predator was in the city. He could show up in my room since I also lived in a city, oh no!).
What year were you born if you don’t mind me asking?
It’s crazy to think that Kids these days won’t grow up with the weekend tradition of going to rent a movie from the video store. That was my favourite thing as a kid. My Dad was a huge movie fan so he made seeing all the “classics” like Jaws, Indiana Jones, Star Wars huge moments from my childhood. Oddly enough I don’t remember seeing either Ghostbusters film for the first time. They were always just there apart of my childhood. Like the ‘89 Batman. But my Dad made sure to “save” certain movies for me until I was old enough to remember them and appreciate experiencing them for the first time. When we watched the Star Wars trilogy for the first time, I swear he was watching me react to the movie over watching the movies themselves lol.
Aliens always felt more action movie with a few mild scares here and there. Maybe it has something to do with people seeing Aliens before Alien? Same reason why a big part of people who prefer GBII over GB84 is because they saw II before one.
I will never forget the tension building and finally seeing the facehugger jump at Kane, the chestburster was a horrible surprise the first time I saw that and Dallas running towards the alien instead of away and getting jumpscared in the vents was the stuff of nightmares.
Not to mention the horrible sounds Lambert made when the xenomorph ripped her apart with his tail of screen.
Alien certainly felt way more scary then the second one to me. Mostly because the xenomorph became canonfodder.
