“The Real Ghostbusters” cartoon was, and still is, an amazing show. Clever writing, brilliant character design and perhaps the perfect choice of voice actors (at least, pre season 3!) all helped create an animated show that has well and truly stood the test of time. But how exactly was the show made? Read on to find out more..

Every single episode of The Real Ghostbusters started as a story idea at the DIC studio in Burbank, California. Stories that were deemed interesting enough would then be turned into scripts and worked on by the script editors until they were approved. Locations, backgrounds, props and character designs for the story would be chosen and the scripts were then transferred into storyboards by DIC artists.

The audio was recorded by the voice actors using the art produced for the storyboards and then everything was sent over to Japan to the animation studio where the cels were created for each episode.

There are a couple of nice featurettes on the animated series produced by DIC & Columbia that anyone interested in the show should definitely look up.

“Who You Gonna Call? The Heroes of The Real Ghostbusters” is a short film which featured on the Time Life DVD release in 2008. It includes interviews with the script writers, voice actors and the wonderful Gabi Payn who was of course the character designer for the show. Click here for part 1 & part 2.

The other interesting short film is called “Slimer Won’t Do That: The Making Of The Real Ghostbusters” which focuses more on how the show was animated. From the storyboard artists of DIC in America to the animation studios in Japan, click here to take a look!

Both films give a great insight into just how much work was required to create a successful show like The Real Ghostbusters and I highly recommend watching them.