Christmas Carols
Dec. 24th, 2022 09:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
johnckirkI've been following my Christmas tradition, by watching an episode of "The Real Ghostbusters": Xmas marks the spot. Basically, this is their version of "A Christmas Carol".
There are various adaptations of this story, and most of them fall into 2 categories:
1. Played straight as a costume/period drama, the same way that you might see a Jane Austen story.
2. Re-casting the roles for existing characters, e.g. Bob Cratchit is played by Mickey Mouse in "Mickey's Christmas Carol", and by Kermit the Frog in "A Muppet Christmas Carol".
The Ghostbusters version is different, because it's basically a crossover. So, it takes the original story as a starting point, then goes in a different direction. Some of the lines come directly from Dickens, e.g. Scrooge saying that "There's more of gravy than of grave about you" when he's sceptical about the ghosts.
The episode was written by J. Michael Straczynski (who later went on to create "Babylon 5"); generally, I'd say that he and Kathryn M. Drennan wrote the best episodes of the series.
Digressing slightly, I've read a lot of superhero comics where the basic premise is that two heroes will meet, fight each other, then team up. Typically the initial fight is due to a misunderstanding, but it works better when they have proper character motivations. A good example comes from when Acclaim did the Valiant heroes (in the late 90s), and Magnus Robot Fighter met X-O Manowar. Magnus was a time-traveller, from a future where humans has become completely dependent on technology to the extent that they were subservient to robots. Donovan Wylie had the X-O armour (similar to an Iron Man suit), and he relied on that technology to solve problems. So, they both had good reasons to be at loggerheads with each other.
Coming back to this episode, the basic premise is that the Ghostbusters travel back in time to 19th century London, where they hear Ebeneezer Scrooge being troubled by spirits in the night. That's business as usual for them, so they run into his house to offer assistance, and catch the ghosts in proton streams:
The ghosts try to explain that this is a bad idea: "Release us, or you will pay the price!" However, the Ghostbusters interpret this as a threat rather than a warning, so they ignore it. Again, this is solid character motivations on both sides, rather than a contrived misunderstanding.
I think the music also works really well here. Aside from the soundtrack from the movie (with one song played per episode in season 1 of the animated series), there was also a set of orchestral music, to set the scene for various moods. E.g. they had their melancholy music, which would be the same in every episode. Ditto for their spooky music, or their cheerful music, etc. They also had the "triumphant action" music, which would typically be used at the end of an episode, where the Ghostbusters have figured out how to deal with this particular ghost.
In this case, the triumphant music was used for the scene with the Christmas ghosts, even though it was only about 5 minutes into the episode. From the characters point of view (in universe), they don't know whether they're in the first or the third act of the story. So, this reinforces the idea that as far as they're concerned, this is all over and done with.
When they get back to the present, they realise what they've done, and then they have to solve the problem they've solved. This has some genuinely funny scenes, involving the cutting edge of 1980s technology: the View-Master! It also introduces some new concepts into the "lore" of the series, i.e. what's inside the containment unit.
So, if you've never seen this episode, I highly recommend it. I've got the DVDs, but you can stream it via Amazon.
There are various adaptations of this story, and most of them fall into 2 categories:
1. Played straight as a costume/period drama, the same way that you might see a Jane Austen story.
2. Re-casting the roles for existing characters, e.g. Bob Cratchit is played by Mickey Mouse in "Mickey's Christmas Carol", and by Kermit the Frog in "A Muppet Christmas Carol".
The Ghostbusters version is different, because it's basically a crossover. So, it takes the original story as a starting point, then goes in a different direction. Some of the lines come directly from Dickens, e.g. Scrooge saying that "There's more of gravy than of grave about you" when he's sceptical about the ghosts.
The episode was written by J. Michael Straczynski (who later went on to create "Babylon 5"); generally, I'd say that he and Kathryn M. Drennan wrote the best episodes of the series.
Digressing slightly, I've read a lot of superhero comics where the basic premise is that two heroes will meet, fight each other, then team up. Typically the initial fight is due to a misunderstanding, but it works better when they have proper character motivations. A good example comes from when Acclaim did the Valiant heroes (in the late 90s), and Magnus Robot Fighter met X-O Manowar. Magnus was a time-traveller, from a future where humans has become completely dependent on technology to the extent that they were subservient to robots. Donovan Wylie had the X-O armour (similar to an Iron Man suit), and he relied on that technology to solve problems. So, they both had good reasons to be at loggerheads with each other.
Coming back to this episode, the basic premise is that the Ghostbusters travel back in time to 19th century London, where they hear Ebeneezer Scrooge being troubled by spirits in the night. That's business as usual for them, so they run into his house to offer assistance, and catch the ghosts in proton streams:
The ghosts try to explain that this is a bad idea: "Release us, or you will pay the price!" However, the Ghostbusters interpret this as a threat rather than a warning, so they ignore it. Again, this is solid character motivations on both sides, rather than a contrived misunderstanding.
I think the music also works really well here. Aside from the soundtrack from the movie (with one song played per episode in season 1 of the animated series), there was also a set of orchestral music, to set the scene for various moods. E.g. they had their melancholy music, which would be the same in every episode. Ditto for their spooky music, or their cheerful music, etc. They also had the "triumphant action" music, which would typically be used at the end of an episode, where the Ghostbusters have figured out how to deal with this particular ghost.
In this case, the triumphant music was used for the scene with the Christmas ghosts, even though it was only about 5 minutes into the episode. From the characters point of view (in universe), they don't know whether they're in the first or the third act of the story. So, this reinforces the idea that as far as they're concerned, this is all over and done with.
When they get back to the present, they realise what they've done, and then they have to solve the problem they've solved. This has some genuinely funny scenes, involving the cutting edge of 1980s technology: the View-Master! It also introduces some new concepts into the "lore" of the series, i.e. what's inside the containment unit.
So, if you've never seen this episode, I highly recommend it. I've got the DVDs, but you can stream it via Amazon.
