Two years ago Netflix and Sony announced they were working together on making some kind of new Ghostbusters cartoon. We don’t think there was ever any doubt an animated streaming show based on a popular IP was going to happen, but today was the day Netflix confirmed the cartoon has been greenlit and is moving to full production.
There’s still a lot we don’t know about this. The final title is unlikely to be just plain “Ghostbusters,” but it hasn’t been revealed (or possibly decided). We also don’t know which period of the franchise it’s basing itself around, but according to Variety, it’s highly likely to be a continuation of the most recent sequels, Afterlife and Frozen Empire.
What we do know is who’s been put in charge. Elliott Kalan, who most recently wrote for the new seasons of MST3K and The Daily Show before that, has been hired as showrunner. Also, the animation will be CG.
Now here’s the interesting thing: it wasn’t MST3K that launched Kalan’s career, it was The Flophouse, a long-running movie review podcast that he co-hosts. There was an episode of The Flophouse that reviewed Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, and Kalan said he didn’t like it. And as of now, that episode has mysteriously disappeared for some reason!
To be honest, if this cartoon is really based around the “new” bunch of characters, I’d rather have somebody who didn’t like those movies in charge, rather than someone who thought “Podcast” was the most clever name for someone ever. Kalan would know what was wrong with the revival and take steps to fix it. Ideally, he could actually get me to care about the Spengler family instead of just wishing Spengler was alive.
When you think about it, there is yet to be a bad Ghostbusters cartoon — both Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters were pretty good. Let’s hope Kalan can keep the streak going!
