Ghostbusters is an iconic horror comedy that has still solidified in pop culture. Not only the title song, also symbols and certain spirits are known away from fans. Including the marshmallow man.
Everyone has heard of the Ghostbusters before. The mix of absurd humor and horror elements delighted the audience not only in 1984, but also over generations. Not only was the title song in the minds of many spectators. The ghosts also remained in the memory.
In addition to Slimer, the marshmallow man is probably the most iconic monster in the series. But to implement the giant for the film, you used cinematic tricks and no CGI.
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A miniature that could be destroyed
How did the Marshmallow man come about? In the film, the marshmallow man is the big challenge in the final. As a giant, he tramples around in New York and seems almost invincible. Many original ideas for the film were rejected, but the marshmallow man was absolutely wanted for the film, as Cinefix explains on YouTube.
After the production company decided on a design according to various concepts, the scene had to be worked out. Originally it should be significantly larger and climb from the Hudson River. But that would have been too expensive, which is why the Marshmallow man was reduced.
Since no CGI was used here, you had to build a miniature of the city. For this you put on a 1/8 model, but a problem arose. Such scales were unusual, which is why there were no suitable miniatures for the cars. But the supervisor of the models discovered police cars in a toy shop chain that fit.
He called branches of the chain, got the toy cars and adapted them for various purposes. The fine details of the marshmallow man were also no CGI.
You can see the video from Cinefix here:
Foam and a burned head
What is the marshmallow man made of? In order to present the monster well, several foam suits were made. There were 3 sculptures for the head. The heads consisted of fiber optic plastic and a cable system in order to be able to control the different facial expressions.
For the scenes in which the marshmallow man burns, you had to take other precautions again. On the one hand, a suit was built for the climbing scene, which could be worn by a stuntman while burning.
On the other hand, you had to build another miniature to shoot the final death of the monster. To do this, only replaced your head and put it next to a miniature of the roof on which the ghostbusters fight. Then 3 propane heaters were used and filmed the second with a frame for 20 minutes, as the head melted.
Is such an effort worth it? Nowadays, many studios are relying on CGI, but Practical effects, miniatures and built sets have the advantage that they are timeless and also look good decades later. Especially with the CGI you can tell that everything is no longer up to date these days. Star Wars also used ingenious tricks: Star Wars: There are no real spectators in the PoREN race – you tricked with an everyday object