#before this episode i pictured him kinda like the general peter design

[creepyeyesandfrogs]

what a beautiful day to remember that on MAG66 Held in Costumes our man mikaele salesa was canonically wearing a tank top

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Episode Review- The Real Ghostbusters: They Call Me MISTER Slimer

As you can probably tell from the title, this is a Slimer centric episode. It’s about what you’d expect it to be.

The episode opens with Janine informing Peter and Ray that they’re once again in the red according to the latest financial report, as they’re spending more money than they’re earning.  This is because of their standard expenses of covering property damage (good to know they are doing that, as we’ve previously seen they often cause some damages during busts), as well as the cost of utilities, general upkeep of their equipment and food.  The moment Janine mentions food, Slimer zooms in and goes a bit nuts in searching for the food.  Peter stops him after a few seconds of this to berate the green ghost, saying that all he does is eat and doesn’t contribute anything in return. Slimer responds to this by kissing Peter’s hand, and Ray translates this gesture by stating Slimer pays them back for the food with love.  (Ugh, the sappiness of that statement!)  Janine then suggests that Slimer could help out by taking on some simple tasks around the Firehouse, as a way to earn his keep.  So Peter asks Slimer if he can make himself small.  Slimer complies by folding himself down to the size of a post-it note, which is a rather good trick.  But it turns out that Peter was actually trying to trick Slimer, because the moment he’s folded himself down, Peter stuffs him into an envelope with the intention of mailing Slimer to a prank-loving friend of his.  Naturally, Ray steps in and snatches the envelope away from Peter to let Slimer out.  But it seems Slimer’s feelings were hurt by Peter’s trick since he turns and floats out the door.

Slimer proceeds to roam about the city streets.  And by coincidence, a teenage boy named Mike is making his way home with a large stack of comics and magazines around the same time.  Mike’s journey home is interrupted when he is held up by a group of stereotypical bullies, led by another teenage boy named Rick.  Rick’s gang ends up knocking Mike down, with his comics and magazines landing in a puddle.  As Rick’s gang walk off laughing, Mike briefly expresses a desire to get even with Rick and the other bullies, but laments that’s not possible, as they outnumber him.  And, to make matters worse, an aggressive Doberman suddenly appears and starts chasing after Mike.  (Boy, Mike sure is having a bad day!)  By happenstance, Slimer overhears Mike’s cries for help and goes to investigate. He ends up unwittingly scaring off the Doberman, and Mike is clearly grateful for this.  Mike states that he’s read about ghosts and monsters for years, so he’s not afraid of Slimer.  But the fact that Slimer scared away the dog gave him an idea.  He asks Slimer if he’d like to be hired as his ghostly bodyguard, charged with protecting him from Rick and the other bullies.  Slimer, clearly remembering what Peter had said earlier about not pulling his weight, readily agrees.

Mike brings Slimer home with him and begins teaching Slimer how to be scary.  Which seems to be easier said than done, as Slimer is easily frightened himself and even hides upon being shown a picture of a scary Alien monster. However, it seems that Mike’s training eventually was successful because sometime later, Rick’s gang spotted Mike walking around and they decide to harass him again.  Rick and the other bullies end up cornering Mike in an alleyway, but this time, Mike is a bit bolder and throws a few good insults back at Rick.  Before Rick and the other bullies could pummel Mike, Slimer appears and successfully scares the bullies off.

Of course, Rick’s ego is now bruised, and he’s determined to get back at Mike for making a fool out of him.  He decides that, if Mike managed to get a ghost on his side, then he could do likewise.  He leads his gang of bullies to a sealed away entrance to Subway 13. Remembering stories he’d heard from his father about how the subway station was closed down years ago because of creepy things living down there, Rick thinks they can use that to their advantage.  One of the bullies, showing a bit of common sense, questions this, pointing out that whatever’s down there might not listen to them.  But Rick is conceived that the creepy things living down there will naturally follow his lead, because he’s tough.  (Yeah, how’s that for logic?)  Rick and the others break into the sealed-off subway station and quickly find themselves surrounded by a group of troll-like creatures that will eventually be identified as Barrow Wights.  Rick proceeds to tell the Barrow Wights his purpose for coming down to the abandoned subway station.  At first, the obvious leader of the Barrow Wights seems suspicious, thinking Rick’s offer was a trap.  Rick insists it isn’t, and the Leader Barrow Wight soon accepts the proposed alliance.  But the Leader Barrow Wight states that they cannot go aboveground with them unless Rick directly invites them.  Rick, rather foolishly, agrees to this and invites them to come aboveground.

Meanwhile, the Ghostbusters have noticed Slimer’s prolonged absence from the Firehouse and are growing concerned, as Slimer has never been gone this long.  And Egon had been planning to run some electothermal tests on him, too. Only Peter seems to be unconcerned over Slimer’s absence. But then Janine comes in, announcing they’ve just received an envelope in the mail.  An envelope filled with some money. And because the money is covered in slime, it’s very clear that Slimer is the one who sent it.  They quickly realize that Slimer has been trying to earn some money on the side, and everyone immediately starts giving Peter the stink-eye, considering it was his earlier comment that must have given Slimer the idea to do such a thing.  Anyway, the Ghostbusters wonder how they’d be able to track down where Slimer went off to, as he didn’t include a return address on the envelope of money.  Ray suggests they start searching the area covered by the zip code of the post office who handled the envelope.  They begin to search the designated area, but still have trouble locating Slimer.  Although, Egon does start to pick up an increased level of psychokinetic energy in the area, which was obviously the result of the Barrow Wights escaping from the closed-down subway station.  But the energy spike was too diffused to get a precise location, so Egon had to recalibrate the PKE Meter in order to pinpoint the source.

Elsewhere, Mike is walking around when one of Rick’s bullies spots him and calls him over to a nearby warehouse. The bully tells Mike that they want to make amends with him, stating anyone who can get a ghost like Slimer on their side must be an okay guy, and they want to hang out with him now.  Mike is naturally hesitant, but decides to go into the warehouse anyway.  Although, he tells Slimer, who is with him, to circle around the warehouse, just in case. When Mike enters the warehouse, Rick and the bullies appear on a catwalk, with Rick gloating over how he has his own group of ghosts on his side now.  He then gestures to the Barrow Wights, as they emerge from the shadows.  But when Rick orders the Barrow Wights to attack Mike, the Leader Barrow Wight turns on Rick, revealing that he never planned on working with Rick after all.  He had only intended to trick Rick into inviting them aboveground.  And now that they’re free, nothing can stop them from causing all matter of mayhem.  And to start things off, the Barrow Wights begin moving threateningly towards Mike, Rick and the other bullies.

Fortunately, the Ghostbuters just happened to be driving by the warehouse at that exact moment.  And they’re alerted to the danger when a frightened Slimer flies out and collides with the Ecto-1’s windshield.  Upon reuniting with the Ghostbusters, Slimer tells them about the Barrow Wights, which enables us to learn what they’re called and how they operate, as Egon and Ray know all about them.  Ray even points out how they share some similarities with vampires, as they can only come above ground if someone directly invites them to do so.  

The Ghostbusters enter the warehouse and begin to get to work in busting the Barrow Wights.  But up on the catwalk, Mike, Rick and other the bullies are still surrounded by Barrow Wights.  Slimer flies up to join them, but reacts to the Barrow Wights with fear. Until Rick mocks him for being a chicken.  This prompts Slimer to show a bit of courage, and he manages to fashion a baseball bat out of his slime, which he uses to try and fend off the attacking Barrow Wights. Before long, the combined efforts of Slimer and the Ghostbusters leads to all the Barrow Wights being caught inside Ghost Traps.

In the aftermath of the incident, Mike and Rick decide to call a truce.  As for Slimer, Ray praises him for his display of bravery, stating he’s proven he’s worth his weight in gold.  But Peter, perhaps jokingly, states he’s not so sure of that.  Slimer responds to this by going after Peter with his slime baseball bat.

As far as Slimer centrics go, this is probably the best we could have expected. And it was nice to see Slimer showing some courage.  And he even stands up to Peter in the end.  Although, I’m not entirely sure why the episode seemed to be suggesting it was wrong for Peter to want Slimer to earn his keep around the Firehouse. Because he did kinda have a point. Considering how much Slimer eats, it wouldn’t hurt for him to contribute something.  As for the stuff with Mike and Rick, I personally felt it was a bit eye-rolling. The whole stereotypical bullies picking on the obvious nerd is really overplayed and unoriginal.  And the way they resolved things made it feel like one of those afterschool specials. There was no acknowledgement of how Rick tormented Mike for who knows how long or why he saw fit to bully him in the first place. We’re just supposed to accept the fact that things are cool between them now.  It was a bit unrealistic.  The inclusion of Barrow Wights was an interesting touch though, as they apparently were taken straight out of J.R.R. Tolkien’s famous Lord of the Rings trilogy.  And Tolkien reportedly gained inspiration for them from the Draugar, which were spirits in Norse mythology.  Interesting bit of trivia there.

(Click here for more Ghostbusters reviews)

[usm-analysis-headcannons]

My thoughts on: Spider-Man (2017)

Okay, so I just got through watching the new Spider-Man series on Disney XD’s Youtube page and considering how someone asked me about it I figured it was time for me to share my input on it thus far.

And my thoughts?

It’s a good start.

A rough one, as I can point out quite a number of problems that I had with it, but a good one nonetheless. I’m getting a lot of foreshadowing instances throughout this episode that I’m eager to see unfold and I’m really excited to see what’s gonna happen next in the series. It’s grabbed my attention and has left a positive impression on me.

But it’s FAR from perfect.

I understand that’s rich coming from a blog that analyzes Ultimate Spider-Man (the black sheep of the Spidey series) but even I’m willing to admit that USM isn’t the greatest thing since sliced bread. Plus, this is the first episode and usually, pilots aren’t the best but are mainly there to get the audience interested and set things up for future events. It’s a rare occasion that a person can find a downright perfect first episode, especially in a kids show, which is much harder to do since you can only get away with so little.

In fact, if I’m being totally honest and wanted to point out a good first episode, I would direct people to two shows that I worship on a daily basis. Those shows being Nickelodeon's animated series: Avatar: the Last Airbender (the original one, not The Legend of Korra) and the anime Attack on Titan (also known as Shingeki no Kyojin)

So without further ado, let’s take a look at Spider-Man 2017’s pilot.

I’ll start with the good stuff because there’s actually quite a lot of stuff that I did like.

First, I do like the art style of the series because it reminds me a lot of “Voltron: Legendary Defender”, and it has a bit more of an anime-esque feel to it (which if you hadn’t noticed from my Attack on Titan recommendation, yes, I am an avid anime fan). It’s a good start because it allows itself to be more distinct from USM’s art style and lets viewers tell the difference between the two. In some ways, it does look similar, but not enough to be confusing. (HOWEVER, I WOULD IMPLORE YOU TO KEEP THAT IN MIND FOR LATER)

Second, I do like a lot of the bonding moments that happen in this episode. Every conversation that Peter has with Harry, Ben, and Aunt May are done very well. I especially like the bonding moments done between Harry and Peter as you can tell that they are pretty close friends in this version. Plus, it’s nice to see a good memory of Peter with Ben that’s not a flashback and actually, involves them talking to one another. This gives the viewer a chance to actually see for themselves how close Peter and Ben were before Ben’s death, and it does feel very effective. (Side note: I kinda liked how the “with Great Power comes great responsibility speech was written in an equation. I actually thought that was kinda cute.)

Third, the way the Spider Sense in this version is utilized is actually pretty cool. You can actually see how Peter’s going to figure out the solutions to an issue, and it was a pretty neat callback to the “Amazing Spider-Man” film with Andrew Garfield where they did the exact same thing but in a different situation.

Vulture’s pretty cool with his design resembling the comics more, and I find it kind of ironic that he’s voiced by Josh Keaton who, if you don’t know, was the original voice of Peter Parker in “Spectacular Spider-Man”. Ironically, Keaton also voices Shiro from the current Voltron series that I mentioned earlier.

Finally, I found it a bit weird that Miles was mentioned in this episode but I still thought it was a pretty cool hint of foreshadowing on the writer's part. Plus it’s nice to see a female character, Liz Allen in this case, that isn’t Mary Jane for once in a Spider-Man series. Don’t get me wrong I love MJ but I do feel like having someone else in her place is a breath of fresh air. Also, I like that the male character is a reporter instead of it usually being the other way around. These are small things but they are pretty noteworthy in my opinion.

And now for my problems with the episode and, brace yourself, because there are quite a lot of them.

Let’s get to my biggest issue with the show, and it’s something that I know A LOT of people who hated USM are probably going to have, but here it is:

I thought that the character designs for “Ultimate Spider-Man” were better than the ones in this series.

Yeah… I said it.

Do I hate them? No....

...but I do feel like they’re a bit lazy and could’ve been better.

LEAGUES better.

Let’s start with Peter’s design because I have quite a few problems with his.

The main one being, it’s not original.

I mean, I understand that character designs can only go so far but this one I find to be particularly outrageous because all I see is Pidge from “Voltron”, without the glasses and with darker hair. Also, I’ll pour some salt in the wound by saying that I see a tinge of Ben Tennyson in there from the Ben 10 series. Heck, there are even a couple of aspects that they, in some ways, directly ripped off from Pidge’s character that I noticed a bit, and we’ll get to that in a minute.

But back to the designs, I’ll be honest in saying that I had higher hopes for this series when it came to how the characters looked and were drafted. I, in particular, had a major problem with Harry’s. His is the one that I find to be the most atrocious in my eyes and is the main reason why I’m about to throw a mini hissy fit.

Brace yourselves, because this my opinion on this topic:

When you’re designing a character, particularly one of, or THE main one, there has to be something in said design where a viewer can look at a picture of them and understand who they are or a bit about them. This is something that Ultimate Spider-Man excelled at, in my opinion, and this one really didn’t.

Let’s compare Harry in both versions.

Here’s Harry from “Ultimate Spider-Man”

Now for people who don’t know about the character, or Spider-Man in general can tell that he’s a rich kid. He’s got spiffy clothes, he’s handsome, and he’s got a suave haircut to match. Easily identifiable.

Now let’s look at Harry from the new Spider-Man series.

What can you tell me about him?

Nothing.

Nothing at ALL.

And now, allow me to pour some more salt in the wound and smear it by saying that his design is basically just Sam Alexander’s/Nova’s from USM with lighter skin.

That is a new level of lazy in my eyes.

Heck, there’s even a redheaded kid in the episode that looks like Harry Osborn, dresses like Harry Osborn, but isn’t Harry Osborn. By all means, he SHOULD be Harry because his design reflects his image.

I know they’re going for a more prestigious rival against Peter but it’s pretty distracting from a design level.  

So why am I rambling about this? Why have I wasted almost two pages worth of material on this ONE topic?

Simple.

Because the character designs are what got me INTO Ultimate Spider-Man.

As someone who was immensely tired of seeing the same old look from most cartoons like Star vs. The Forces of Evil, Regular Show, and even Steven Universe, not only were USM’s designs a breath of some much-needed air, but they were INTERESTING.

They had flare. They popped.

But why am I making such a fuss on Harry’s design? Well, when I first saw the show in the wee hours on a school morning, I ran across Season 1’s “Venom” episode and, what a surprise, it was the scene between Harry and Peter arguing in the hallway.

I was actually pretty shocked at the way that Harry looked and really liked his design, heck I thought he was really nice looking! (Give or take this was before I saw the way he looked in season 2 and loved his look even more than the former.)

So I can make the argument that HARRY was the reason I started watching the show in the first place, and it really irks me when I see how squandered his design in this new one turned out to be. But that’s not to say all of them were bad, in fact, I actually quite liked May’s design in this one just as much as her counterpart in USM, but the point still stands.

Anyway, rant over, moving along…

What else didn’t I like?

Well similar to USM I thought some of the dialogue, specifically with Peter, could’ve been cut out mainly when it came to his scientific talk. I know they’re trying to make him sound all smart and whatever but it gets a little overbearing and, dare I say it, is a little too similar to Pidge from Voltron.

I know I keep going on about Pidge and whatnot, but I’m sorry, the similarities are too noticeable. Heck, they even do the whole, “I’m going to lecture on everything I’m about to do instead of letting the audience figure it out for themselves” type of deal. It can work if you want to set up the stakes of what the character is up against but it gets really distracting if used too frequently. Also, the whole “popping and dropping” line from Vulture was a little weird and I hated that he was defeated so easily. However, I give it a bit of a pass considering the episode’s main focus was on characterization and USM had the same problem in the past.

(*Shakes fist at Disney XD for their over abundance in commercials*).

The animation, for the most part, is a pretty mixed bag as sometimes it looks pretty good and sometimes it looks like it needed a bit more polish to it. I kinda have mixed feelings about the non-shading approach that the series is going for as it makes the animation feel a bit flat but I suppose it’s something I have to get used to.

So overall, what are my thoughts?

Again, while I ranted on about the designs and some other aspects, I do think it’s a good start and heading in the right direction. Is it perfect? No, but it has a lot of potential, and I’m really eager to see how this story unfolds.

Overall I’d give it a 7/10 on a 1 to 10 scale (1 being horrible and 10 being perfect).

If you guys haven’t seen it yet, you can watch the first episode here on Disney XD’s Youtube Page and let me know what you guys think of it so far!