It's a
Jungle Out There
Original
Air date September
19, 1987
Writers:
Len Janson and Chuck Menville
Director:
Charles Grosvenor
Main
Cast:
- Dave
Coulier as Peter Venkman
- Frank
Welker as Raymond Stantz
- Maurice
LaMarche as Egon Spengler
- Arsenio
Hall as Winston Zeddemore
- Kath
Soucie as Janine Melnitz
- Frank
Welker as Slimer
(Rating
4 of 5)
Summary: A crew
unloading a ship drops a box with a valuable statue; the statue appears to be
okay but the demon named Rall who was trapped in it has escaped. A dark cloud comes over the city and a lost dog whimpers as the cloud passes by the
firehouse that the dog is seeking shelter.
 |
| Rall |
Upstairs
the Ghostbusters are watching Lassie
on TV. They all become nostalgic for a
dog, so they become excited when Slimer finds the dog in front of the station. They take the dog and it seems to be well
behaved at first but Slimer notices something.
The dog rejects the food given and he gets up on two legs and takes
Slimer’s sandwich. Slimer is scared and
hides in Peter’s bed. When Peter asks
Slimer what’s going on and Slimer points to the dog, Peter tries to show Slimer
the dog isn’t dangerous. The dog however
starts talking back to Peter and Peter runs back with Slimer. The other three Ghostbusters wonder what is
up but they get their answer when the dog threatens them with one of their
proton packs.
 |
| Slimer is not going to like what happens to this sandwich. |
The dog
then steals Ecto-1 after dumping the pack.
Janine shows the guys that her fish are becoming very people-like
arguing amongst themselves. Calls come
in from all over the city about animal issues.
The Ghostbusters take a taxi to the zoo but the taxi driver is a gorilla
who takes them the wrong way. While
stopped the Ghostbusters notice Ecto-1 abandoned so they exited the cab and
grabbed their car.
At the
zoo they noticed it was very quiet. It
turns out it was a trap and an army of animals corners them. Not wanting to blast the possessed animals
they were captured, their packs were taken, and they were put in a cage. The animals after gawking and throwing
peanuts at the Ghostbusters took off.
 |
| Zoo animals make them zoo animals. |
Janine and Slimer showed up to free
them. They put their packs back on and
came up with a plan. Janine and Slimer
use Ecto-1 as a ruse to lure the animal army away from Rall and when Rall was
alone the Ghostbusters attacked using Ecto-2 and crazy power skates. The Ghostbusters captured Rall in the nick of
time just as the animal army was going to stomp Janine and Slimer. The original dog was found by his real owners. To compensate, when they were back at the firehouse, Janine gave them an
electronic toy dog.
My Take: There
are many stories in science fiction of the animals of the world rising up to
displace the humans. The famous and
misnamed Planet of the Apes series
and the serious political work Animal Farm by Orwell are both good examples of the genera. I think it has to do with the fact that we see
ourselves as a part from the animal kingdom but in reality we are animals just
like them. These stories tend to reflect
on these duel views. But the notion of
humans vs. animals is rather silly because a lion has nothing in common with an
elk. They would never see eye to
eye. In fact the lion would just attempt
to kill it. So I don’t think we should ever see them combining forces. Not with Rall in the Containment Unit at
least.
Now for
my stray observations:
·
The new voices aren’t bothering me anymore.
·
I miss my boyhood dog: Rexy boy
 |
| Picture of my family with my dog Rex during my early teenage years. |
·
I am glad with all changes to Janine she is
still very helpful to the Ghostbusters.
·
I am sorry those skates were ridiculous and
there is no way they could actually ride up a wall. This episode was five up to
that point. Gravity guys.
A very good episode, with
interesting new villain.
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