The 80s were brimming with movies where rough and tough kids went up against all kinds of dangerous shit and on wild adventures and they're all regarded as cult classics these days and are perfectly enjoyable. Dan Aykroyd is writing it, I'm sure it'll be fine. I even liked Evolution despite (or possibly because) it was literally just Ghostbusters with aliens.
Goosebumps, at least the first one (I haven't seen the second yet) is really surprisingly excellent. I went in with very low expectations just hoping that I'd enjoy Jack Black being his goofy self and I've since rewatched it multiple times, it's super fun.
I think it is important to remember that Ghostbusters was indeed a PG movie, spawned a hugely popular cartoon series that lasted like 7 seasons, a PG sequel, another cartoon where the GBs were late teens, early 20s at best, a bunch of excellent comics, and supposedly a third cartoon called Ecto Force that's in the works, and the rookie you play as in the "canon" game is also in his late teens/early 20s. There's adult humor, and it's not aimed directly at kids, but it's very much a family friendly franchise. In that respect, although I did like Answer the Call, I'm really glad Fieg didn't get to push it into an R-Rated horror focused reboot like he apparently wanted.
With that in mind, we also only know the supposed ages of two of the four kids. It's entirely possible that the other two are older, be it mid or late teens. And again, it's not like there was a shortage of movies in the 80s where kids went up against some shit, like Goonies, Monster Squad, Lost Boys, Adventures in Babysitting, ET, just off the top of my head. That one about the haunted house that was a sequel to a legit scary movie but it was really campy with a ghost cowboy grandpa or something, and like a caterpillar dog puppet? One of the guys who did Monster House is working on this too, and that had a cast of kids but was still proper freaky.
If it was anyone else writing it, then I'd share your concerns. But there's nobody that knows Ghostbusters like Dan Aykroyd. It's his baby. He's been fighting for this for almost four decades now. Until he gives me a reason to think he can't do it, I'm ready for whatever he wants to do with the franchise.
But check out Goosebumps! I'm not sure if it's still there but last I checked it was on Netflix.
