“We’re not cartoons!”

Who're You Calling Two-Dimensional?

Original Air date: November 24, 1987^[1]

Writer: J. Michael Straczynski

Director: Dale Schott

Main Cast:

• Lorenzo Music as Peter Venkman
• Frank Welker as Raymond Stantz
• Maurice LaMarche as Egon Spengler
• Arsenio Hall as Winston Zeddemore
• Laura Summer as Janine Melnitz
• Frank Welker as Slimer

(Rating 5 of 5)

Summary: The episode begins with the Ghostbusters running tests on Slimer.  Little do they know that Slimer has just eaten a boat load of popcorn kernels and as result of the heat from the experiment they all pop and the top floor of the station is over run by a flood of popcorn from Slimer's little green body.

This is why they need Slimer! Poor Slimer!

                The Ghostbusters are then called down to a job at the Walt Fleischman Studios.  The Studios' namesake, founder, and pioneer into classical cartoons, Walt Fleischman, went missing forty years ago.  Ever sense he vanished the studio has been haunted, however lately incidents have been getting worse and worse.  Ray, a fan of Fleischman’s work, is just excited to be there.  While exploring Fleischman's personal office a magic door appears and sucks the Ghostbusters inside.

At this moment Ray is living the dream!

                It turns out the Walt Fleischman’s work was so magical he ended up creating an entire world in another dimension where his characters were real. He was able to contact them, and film them so his animated movies appeared almost as live action.  However one of his creations, Winchester Wolf, becomes powerful enough to kidnap Walt. For the last forty years the Wolf has been torturing him, in revenge for all the things that he made his cartoons go through. (Think Wile E. Coyote wants revenge for both everything that ever happened to him in the Road Runner cartoons and everything that had to happen to every cartoon character ever.)  The Ghostbusters try to save Walt but are caught by a trap door.  After their fall they end up in a random desert.  Ray wonders where the "good" characters are and does the Dopey Dog chant.  Dopey Dog, a cartoon dog dressed like the Flash, who was the primary hero of Walt’s cartoons.  With Ray's summons he appears.  Dopey Dog helps them navigate the cartoon world, such as helping Egon move a pond with his hands to save his fellow Ghostbusters from a big fall, to showing them the can dry and heal off screen, and recruits other cartoon characters to their aid.

Winchester Wolf

                With the cartoon forces for good they battle and defeat the “bad” ones and when they escape from the cartoon, under Dopey Dog’s orders, they destroy the film.  Now Walt was safe and back in the world  that left it forty years ago, but is exactly as he was when he first disappeared.  When asked if there was anything he could do to thank them, Ray suggested one thing and later gets a package with giant Dopey Dog from the U.S Post Office.

Conqueror Duck, Winchester Wolf's #1 Duck

My Take: I really enjoyed this episode after watching it there were two main things that came to mind.  The first was the difference of certain types of cartoons.  The Real Ghostbusters at its best is a cartoon like the Batman: The Animated Series.  It is animated but it is set in a universe that has pre-established rules. Although it is often humorous, serious things and plot lines still happen.  The humor is generated through the interaction of characters with their unique traits reacting to what is going on.  As opposed to the Loony Toons, which is just goofball comedy, where anything can happen because physical rules don’t matter.  Some writers on this show didn’t always understand this and that misunderstanding led to some of the shows weakest moments.

Winchester Wolf is so bad!

                The other thing that stood out to me is maybe it’s a bad idea to let Walt go.  Yes, I realize he was a prisoner for over forty years but he managed to create a real life cartoon universe complete with evil villains out of his own mind.  I think they should bring him back to the firehouse and do a very thorough study on him before letting him go anywhere. 

Epic conflict of good vs.evil!

                Speaking of which, if he can create a cartoon universe out of his own mind, the character of Walt Fleischman becomes a lot more interesting.  Could it be that he created Winchester Wolf out guilt?  That he felt bad for making his creations go through horrible things in the name of entertainment?  What if the whole cartoon universe he created was just a projection of his own sub-conciseness?  He felt bad making senseless violent imagery in the name of laughs that he was just punishing himself for his actions.  After all, Dopey Dog could have shown up at anytime why didn’t he?  Why did he only show up for the Ghostbusters?  Was it because the Ghostbusters reminded him of the good he did therefore his mind created a way to rescue himself?

                In the end, I don’t think they should have just let Walt walk out of there.  Or at the very least when he asked what he could do to repay them they could have sent him a bill.  The Ghostbusters always need money.  

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[1] Listed original air dates for entire syndicated season may not be correct.