Sony Animation's Ghostbusters animated film unfolds from the perspective of a ghost, rather than the living and breathing Ghostbusters themselves. This is first significant plot detail for the developing project that has been publicly uncovered since the movie was first announced in 2016, with Clash of Clans short director Fletcher Moules onboard and calling the shots.

The future of the Ghostbusters franchise on the big screen has been somewhat up in the air for much of the past year, following the commercial under-performance of director Paul Feig's live-action Ghostbusters movie reboot in theaters. Original Ghostbusters movie director Ivan Reitman, who has been working on the property in an executive producer capacity over the past few years, has been indicating for a while now that the plan is for a new Ghostbusters movie to hit theaters in 2019. Moules' animated film seems like the most likely candidate for a 2019 launch at the moment, though obviously that could change in the foreseeable future.

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THS has the scoop on the story angle for the animated Ghostbusters movie, though it remains to be seen whether the ghost whose POV informs the story is one that moviegoers will already be well-familiar with (a la Slimer) or a brand-new supernatural entity. Moules' film is expected to harken back to the spirit of the 1980s animated TV series The Real Ghostbusters, where Slimer essentially became a member of the original 1984 Ghostbusters movie team. Whether or not the feature-length animated Ghostbusters film will follow suit in this respect, remains to be seen.

The medium of animation lends itself to the colorful and typically zany Ghostbusters universe, as evidenced by the response to The Real Ghostbusters - itself, a popular cartoon series that ran for seven seasons and even gave rise to a sequel TV show in the late 1990s, titled Extreme Ghostbusters. Animated films in general typically do big business at box office, thanks to their family-friendly tendencies and proclivity for having multi-generational appeal (see Disney and Pixar Animation's continuing success, for case in point). As such, an animated movie sounds like a reasonable way for Sony to try and get the Ghostbusters franchise on the big screen back on-track, financially speaking.

Moules' animated feature may yet succeed in putting a creative spin on the tried-and-true approach of the live-action Ghostbusters movies too, assuming that this new report is accurate. Showing what the Ghostbusters are like from the perspective of one of the specters that they should be "busting" could give rise to a variety of comedic scenarios and situations that deviate from the now-formulaic plot of having the human Ghosbusters do battle with both the dead and certain members of the living (typically, mistrusting figures in positions of authority). Heck, from a ghost's POV, maybe the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man really was just a sailor looking for a good time in New York.

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The Ghostbusters animated movie is currently without an official release date.

Source: THS