Maybe I Do Believe In Santa Claus

So, today I was all primed to discuss one of my random topics when someone shared a link so lovely, so special, that it pre-empted my thoughts and forced me to address it. See, for each generation, there is a set of icons - those figures that someone become something more than their fellows. For some reason when I was a kid, one of those icons for me was actually four guys, dressed in coveralls, being everything a young, impressionistic man could ever want to be - funny, suave and heroic.

I speak, of course, of the Ghostbusters.

Ghostbusters was somehow a perfect blend of action and humor. We got Harold Ramis as the extremely intelligent scientist. We got Ernie Hudson as a perfect, straight talking, in-it-for-a-check working man. We got Dan Akroyd at his best, bumbling simpleton led by his friends. And we got Bill Murray, the brilliant, sublime Bill Murray, as the opportunistic smart aleck along for the ride.

Ghostbusters, and for me anyway, Ghostbusters 2, were nearly perfect movies. They were silly enough for laughs, serious enough for suspense, and overall completely engrossing. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this movie really shaped me a little. If nothing else, I remember taking cues from Bill Murray on the proper dispensing of humor to diffuse tense situations.

A few months ago, in wondering why they never went for a trilogy, I did a little Googling and discovered that there was some feud between Bill Murray and Harold Ramis as a result of Groundhog Day (another classic), and that they had declared that they would never work together again. My heart broke a little at the thought that, without the four of them, a third movie would be somehow lacking. It would be like a lead singer of a great band declaring that he's reforming the band without any of the other original members and then taking ten years to release an album that is widely criticized as mediocre at best. Why would anyone bother?

Today, however, finds me filled with hope. You see, through the healing power of video games, we now have the upcoming Ghostbusters video game, and the linked trailer seems to be filled with promise. Presumable taking advantage of the fact that voice work does not require the actors to be together, they have brought back the original four Ghostbusters in game form. It's all of them...and..and it's a game. I didn't actually wet myself with excitement, but it was a near thing. Another cup of coffee, and I probably would have embarrassed myself.

So there you have it. Once again, video games have stepped up to create something magical for me. Even better - there's talk that if the game renews enough interest, they may actually try and bust out a third movie after all. My childhood heroes, reunited. I'm...I'm just so happy now.

You'll have to excuse me...I seem to have something in my eye.