Ghostbusters and Pokémon

In late December, or possibly early January, I forget which, I found one of my childhood teddy bears and had some sort of epiphany about a part of myself I had lost.

Specifically, that childlike - note, childlike, not childish - part of myself which can still be innocent.

I've expressed this in the last week or so through a couple of media - Pokémon, and tonight (well, late last night I suppose now technically) the film Ghostbusters.

Ghostbusters is the kind of film they don't really make any more outside of Pixar.

Although there's an undertone of Bill Murray's character basically hitting on anything that moves, that aside, Ghostbusters is that rare film that's just outright daftness.

The concept is insane, the characters are almost all idiots, the whole film is crazy and Bill Murray is clearly riffing on every single line in the script, having the time of his life.

But it all comes together to make a film that's not too dumb for adults and not too smart for kids.

As I said, aside from Murray's hitting on people it's totally innocent on every other level.

There's a kind of purity in that; comedy that's just funny and timeless without needing to be breaking the fourth wall or overly shocking or dating itself with political references.

Speaking of purity, I recently started playing through a borrowed Pokémon Yellow on my Game Boy Colour.

For all the offensive nicknames I gave to both my character and Gary's, Pokémon is totally innocent and even pure in so many ways.

I'm not a huge fan of the depressing Lavender Town (ALL MY POKEMON ARE DEAD), but the game is mainly just about running about doing the quests, raising your Pokémon, having fun with it.

The creator of the game always made sure that there was no blood in the game and no Pokémon die in battle, they only ever faint. He said there was too much violence in the world already and I think there's something quietly beautiful in that.

This appreciation of something childlike is something that can go hand in hand with adulthood and maturity and a personality trait we could all use.

I know I've been missing it for far too long.