Stay Puft Marshmallow Man
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The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is a character in the movie Ghostbusters and the animated series The Real Ghostbusters. He was the cartoon mascot of the fictitious Stay Puft Corporation which produced marshmallows. He was a parody of the real-life Pillsbury Doughboy and slightly resembles Bibendum, the Michelin tire man, as well.
In the film, an ancient Sumerian god called Gozer arrives atop an apartment building on Central Park West in New York City, where it tells the Ghostbusters that the next thing they think of will be the form Gozer will assume to destroy their world. Despite their efforts to clear their minds, Ray Stanz imagines the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. As he explains, Mr. Stay Puft "just popped in there" as "something that could never possibly destroy us." Moments later a giant (112 feet 6 inches (34.3 meters) tall) Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is seen walking towards the apartment building. The Ghostbusters shoot at Stay Puft with their proton packs, setting him on fire, but not stopping his advance. The Ghostbusters eventually stop Stay Puft when Egon suggests that the Ghostbusters cross their proton pack streams as they fire at Gozer's portal—although Egon himself had warned them early in the film that crossing the proton streams "would be bad," he does assure them that there is a very slim chance in this case that they could survive. The plan succeeds in causing "total protonic reversal", destroying the gate. The explosion generated by the event incinerates the Stay Puft man, raining molten marshmallow down onto the roof of the skyscraper they are on and the street below.
The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man also appears in the animated series The Real Ghostbusters, contradicting the events of the original film. In contrast to the film, Stay Puft serves as a heroic figure, helping the Ghostbusters defeat an evil grasshopper demon and a stingray demon. The episode "The Revenge of Murray the Mantis" explains that after imprisoning him in the Ghostbusters' containment unit, the Ghostbusters managed to control Mr. Stay Puft through experimentation and to render him harmless, allowing him later to develop a friendly persona. It is even revealed that he is a good friend of Slimer and communicates with him now and then. The character was voiced by John Stocker, and later by Frank Welker.
Over the years, a moderate amount of merchandise has focused around the character and has become an icon for the Ghostbusters film. A number of McDonald's Happy Meal toys have featured the character. To coincide with the film's release, Kenner released an action figure with limited articulation that included rotation in the head and arms in 1986. A Japanese vinyl kit of the character was also released by Tsukuda as was Kenner's plush Marshmallow Man.
In 2004, company NECA licensed the Ghostbusters franchise to produce a number of modern Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (and other Ghostbusters related) merchandise such as a Bobble-head toy, a resin statue and a 15 inch roto-cast plastic action figure. The NECA version of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man displayed a more menacing and evil version of the character compared to that of Kenner's, which portrayed the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man as a more gentle looking figure. This was probably what he would have looked like as he was destroying New York, rather than Kenner's, which would portray him as the more consumer friendly version that would appear on packages of Stay Puft Marsmallows.
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[edit] Parodies and references in popular culture
- On the television series Lost, one of the nicknames Sawyer gives Hurley is 'Stay Puft', due to his weight.
- On the MTV Show Viva La Bam, Don Vito is referred to as the Stay Puft Man due to his weight.
- The movie Shrek 2 includes a scene with a giant gingerbread man that is intended as a spoof of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
- In one Halloween toon on the popular website cartoon, Homestar Runner, one of the characters, Pom Pom, dressed up as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man for his Halloween costume.
[edit] Trivia
- The person inside the Stay Puft costume during shooting was the costume's creator, Bill Bryan.
- According to the Ghostbusters DVD special features, the 10 second scene of Stay Puft climbing the building while on fire cost almost $100,000. The first take was ruined when the costume caught fire too quickly and Bill Bryan had to be extinguished. A new suit had to be constructed, at the cost of around $50,000 a piece.
- A bag of Stay Puft marshmallows can be seen early in the film, in Dana's apartment.
- In the scene where the containment grid is shutdown in the first film, a Stay Puft poster can be briefly seen on a wall.
- Mr. Stay Puft has appeared etched microscopically on several Weitek chips, along with other famous characters (such as Waldo.) [1]They were discovered by Michael Davidson, a photographer of microscopic items.[2]
[edit] External links
| Ghostbusters | |
|---|---|
| Movies: | Ghostbusters | Ghostbusters II | Ghostbusters III |
| Television: | The Real Ghostbusters | Extreme Ghostbusters |
| Video Games: | Ghostbusters (Activision) | Ghostbusters II | Ghostbusters (Sega) | Ghostbusters (Xbox 360) |
| Technology: | Proton pack | Ectomobile | Ghostbusters equipment |
| Characters: | Peter Venkman | Egon Spengler | Ray Stantz | Winston Zeddemore | Janine Melnitz | Ivo Shandor |
| Ghosts: | Slimer | Stay Puft Marshmallow Man | Vigo the Carpathian | Scoleri Brothers | Samhain | Bogeyman |
| Misc: | Ghostbusters: Legion | Ghostbusters: The Return | Ghostbusters (role-playing game) | Filmation's Ghostbusters |
