- October 8th, 2022, 10:19 am#4973204
Hello all. First, I’d like to summon the all knowing GB behind the scene spirit known as D_Osborn. Perhaps he knows what this is all about.
Ok. Let’s talk GB2 deleted scenes. My favourite topic. Now I’m going to get deep in the weeds here folks, so bare with me.
So how many of you watched the end credits of GB2 back in the day and saw the end credits shot of Slimer and thought “what the hell?”. I know I did. Why in gods name did Ivan Reitman choose that shot out of all the cut Slimer footage? It literally makes the least amount of sense to include. Why not show Slimer eating the chicken? Or licking Louis? Any of that would make more sense than a random shot from Louis Tully’s POV looking in a rear view mirror. Plus we know those scenes were taken all the way to completion. So why the rear view mirror shot?
Thinking about this has made me rethink about what we know, or what we think we know, regarding the cut Slimer Footage from GB2. Most of the info we have stems from the Cinefex “making of” article. That article features the infamous cut “Slimer eating chicken” shot. It’s a 100% finished shot. They also say in the article all the Slimer shots were completed. I’ve always assumed this was true because A) Cinefex has to source that chicken shot from somewhere and B) out of all the scenes Reitman could’ve picked to have in the end credits he picks that random ass one!?! That couldn’t have been the only fully complete composited Slimer shot cut from the film could it..?
…Could it?
Now that I think about it, the fact that they chose that shot, the rear view mirror shot, makes me think…maybe not all the Slimer shots were finished. If they were…where are they? The deleted scenes released on home video feature crude temp effects. But what about the Slimer eating chicken shot? Well that’s all it is. It’s a still image. We don’t know where Cinefex sourced that shot from. Maybe that shot was included in the end credits because…that’s all they had. That one random shot. Because you’ll notice…it’s just Slimer. No humans. So it’s relatively easy from an FX POV. No humans to be rotoscoped. So it makes sense this shot would be one of the first finished. Maybe.
So..what do we think? Why did Reitman chose that shot for Slimer in the end credits? Was it the only 100% finished shot they had that wasn’t used? And where did Cinefex get that cut Slimer shot from? A work print? Or was it a mock up used in the article?
This is one of those mysteries that the upcoming GB2 documentary could solve. Or maybe we will never know. But perhaps somewhere, in some archive or basement, there sits an entire reel of finished ILM Slimer shots from GB2. Sitting in the dark unseen for over 30 years. Now that’s a documentary I’d love to see. “Hunting Slimer” a search for the missing Slimer footage, if it exists at all. It would go deep on the FX aspects of GB2. Man…
Ok. Let’s talk GB2 deleted scenes. My favourite topic. Now I’m going to get deep in the weeds here folks, so bare with me.
So how many of you watched the end credits of GB2 back in the day and saw the end credits shot of Slimer and thought “what the hell?”. I know I did. Why in gods name did Ivan Reitman choose that shot out of all the cut Slimer footage? It literally makes the least amount of sense to include. Why not show Slimer eating the chicken? Or licking Louis? Any of that would make more sense than a random shot from Louis Tully’s POV looking in a rear view mirror. Plus we know those scenes were taken all the way to completion. So why the rear view mirror shot?
Thinking about this has made me rethink about what we know, or what we think we know, regarding the cut Slimer Footage from GB2. Most of the info we have stems from the Cinefex “making of” article. That article features the infamous cut “Slimer eating chicken” shot. It’s a 100% finished shot. They also say in the article all the Slimer shots were completed. I’ve always assumed this was true because A) Cinefex has to source that chicken shot from somewhere and B) out of all the scenes Reitman could’ve picked to have in the end credits he picks that random ass one!?! That couldn’t have been the only fully complete composited Slimer shot cut from the film could it..?
…Could it?
Now that I think about it, the fact that they chose that shot, the rear view mirror shot, makes me think…maybe not all the Slimer shots were finished. If they were…where are they? The deleted scenes released on home video feature crude temp effects. But what about the Slimer eating chicken shot? Well that’s all it is. It’s a still image. We don’t know where Cinefex sourced that shot from. Maybe that shot was included in the end credits because…that’s all they had. That one random shot. Because you’ll notice…it’s just Slimer. No humans. So it’s relatively easy from an FX POV. No humans to be rotoscoped. So it makes sense this shot would be one of the first finished. Maybe.
So..what do we think? Why did Reitman chose that shot for Slimer in the end credits? Was it the only 100% finished shot they had that wasn’t used? And where did Cinefex get that cut Slimer shot from? A work print? Or was it a mock up used in the article?
This is one of those mysteries that the upcoming GB2 documentary could solve. Or maybe we will never know. But perhaps somewhere, in some archive or basement, there sits an entire reel of finished ILM Slimer shots from GB2. Sitting in the dark unseen for over 30 years. Now that’s a documentary I’d love to see. “Hunting Slimer” a search for the missing Slimer footage, if it exists at all. It would go deep on the FX aspects of GB2. Man…