Dan Aykroyd recently teased that a new Ghostbusters movie is in the works, along with the highly anticipated animated series coming to Netflix, but it seems that someone couldn’t wait and enlisted the help of some AI-animation to create a “live-action” interpretation of the original cartoon series in the franchise, The Real Ghostbusters.
While the controversy around the use of AI continues to rage on, and despite YouTube drastically pulling back on revenue made, there are still several creators who continue to use various AI-driven programs to create non-profit videos paying tribute to, or reimagining, some iconic franchises. AI Fanatics is such a creator, and their new Ghostbusters video features plenty of familiar-looking spooks for anyone who grew up watching The Real Ghostbusters.
Along with Peter, Egon, Ray, Winston, Janine, Lewis Tully, and Slimer, the video runs through an incredible range of classic and obscure spooks from the cartoon. From the Boogeyman to Samhein, through those that you will recognize but not be able to name, and to the iconic Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, this nostalgia-fueled two-and-a-half-minute video will have Ghostbusters fans hunting down The Real Ghostbusters to relive some of the classic stories. You can check out the full video below.
The ‘Ghostbusters’ Franchise Has Been Reborn
Ghostbusters was a massive hit in 1984, leading to a hugely popular animated spinoff in The Real Ghostbusters, a sequel, and other animated adventures for new Ghostbusting teams. While Aykroyd reprised his role as Ray Stantz for a fun cameo in the live-action Casper movie in 1994, the chances of seeing the Ghostbusters getting back together seemed destined to remain a big “what if” to fans.
Then, after the 2016 reboot of the franchise did not exactly take off, the unthinkable happened and the Ghostbusters returned to cinemas in 2021 with Ghostbusters: Afterlife. The film delivered a lot of throwbacks to the original 1984 movie, with Terror Dogs and Gozer being the focus of the story, and this was more than enough for fans to welcome back the team with open arms.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire was released in 2024, delivering a continuation of Afterlife, with the old team reuniting with new ‘busters Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, and Mckenna Grace, to take on a new threat to the world, the Death Chill. The film played out like a live-action episode of The Real Ghostbusters, with a new villain and less of a reliance on the franchise’s past.
Despite neither movie becoming a massive blockbuster, the Ghostbusters are not going anywhere just yet. Netflix is set to release a brand new animated show, which may or may not feature the original cast providing their voices to the characters they brought to life over 40 years ago, and, as Aykroyd recently teased, it looks like another new movie is also in development. Jason Reitman, son of original director Ivan Reitman, has been a driving force behind the Ghostbusters franchise’s rebirth, directing Afterlife, executive producing Frozen Empire, and having a big role in Ghost Corps, the company that now produces Ghostbusters content in various forms.
We have no idea what the next official entry in the Ghostbusters franchise might look like, but it certainly won’t look like the AI video above. Whether you see that as a good or bad thing will depend on your view of AI, but it seems almost certain that whatever the next iteration of the franchise looks like, it will be created by some very talented humans and not the next version of Grok.
- Release Date
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June 8, 1984
- Runtime
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105 Minutes