Sun, Oct 30, 2005
Petty real estate agent Kronkel is delighted when dodgy count Puree De Carotte hires him to sell his run-down castle, even if it takes 99 years. Smart teenage son Jonas Kronkel is suspicious the owner didn't turn to a more reputable firm, and during clean-up finds out what's wrong: it's haunted by ghosts, which hide for dad. Secundo explains the spectacles he invented and Jones tried on out of curiosity, meant as sun-shades, render ghosts visible to 'lijven' (Dutch for bodies), as ghosts call the mortals they rather avoid, especially their ruthlessly strict boss, don Carlos. Jonas doesn't want the castle bought by baroness De Cro de Quodile, who is known for her cruel taste for exotic furs, so he teams up with the specters bunch to save the poor animals and their haunting home...
Mon, Nov 6, 2006
Despite Jonas's justified skepticism, dad Kronkel insists to hold the teenagers's birthday party, using second hand Christmas-decorations, in the count's castle for sale, however run-down. Ghost Philomena van Zurenborg predicts disaster when she hears her 'vervaldag' (Durch for 'lapse day'; a spirit's death anniversary), when she must relive her gruesome end, coincides with a mortal birthday. Dad also expects another client, industrialist Van Boechout, but only his snooty spoiled daughter Bianca turns up, who is even less impressed then Jonas -none of his friends came- the star of which is the cheap bumbling 'magician' Clandestino, whose tricks would all fail if the ghosts didn't help a bit. Nevertheless Jonas, who dad hoped in vain to charm fellow teenager Biaca, is fascinated by Clandestino's girl-assistant Aagje 'Agora', but the showstopper in an unrehearsed Chinese sawing box disaster, for which the manual gets mixed-up while the ghosts chase pestering fairies accidentally released from a bottle mistaken for 1,000 years old Jerusalem wine...
Aagje wakes up to discover she's sawn in half and a ghost; Jones hoped to have a resident girlfriend, she fulminates she wants to go to art school. Don Carlos objects to anyone paying attention to her, until Secundo's remark Carlos's painting -of his late great love Manuela, deceased for centuries- looks familiar makes him realize she has a similar face, then she's his instant favorite while everyone is sent trough ghost training. Dad Kronkel has another prospective castle buyer, 'ballet king' Slobodan Kanidanski III, so he feigns cultural interest, but when the ghosts unpack and 'try out' Sir's Paris-handmade dance costumes...
Sun, Nov 6, 2005
The ghosts have always avoided their castle being sold by keeping it disgustingly dirty, an inversion of former devoted baron's maid Filomena's lifelong job she equally excels at equally, but impish feminist novice-ghost Aagje stupidly convinces her to strike. Secundo invents a brown mess up-matter, but as Jonas feared when applied to everything it's really soap. Pa Kronkel's latest buyer for the castle, a mattress king with a dust allergy, arrives when it's all squeaky clean; at least Jonas brought a secret weapon...
Sun, Nov 27, 2005
Clandestino, the bumbling magician whose failed Chinese box sawing in half-trick caused his assistant Aagje 'Agora' to die, has found out she remained as a ghost in the castle and brings in a cameraman and a sound-man, wanting to buy it to be turned into a magic show theatre, where she would be his invisible assistant. Don Carlos warns her the punishment for bringing a live 'body' intruder is imprisonment in a 'buta' bottle, unless she chases him herself. Still, a famous career is very tempting for a vain dumbo like her, none of the ghosts can scare Clandestino away and pa Kronkel even sells him Jonas's magical glasses...
Jonas has to write a class presentation for history, and dad failed to pay the Internet bill. When he asks the ghosts for help, each considers his time most interesting, good-for-nothing Aagje 'women in history'. Jonas wisely prefers Don Carlos's library to the improbable 'eye-witness testimony' bragger Woeste gives on the attractive topic of the crusades, but accidentally finds the knight's secret diary, hidden in another cover. Woeste and Don Carlos get wind of it, so Jonas's rehearsal becomes a strange mix of Woeste's embarrassing true story -death by dysentery in view of Jerusalem- and what the spirits audience wants to hear. Meanwhile dad has another client, connoisseur Bertrand, who is however only interested in antiques, especially the library books, and the ghosts make those appear moldy...
Sun, Dec 11, 2005
Dad Kronkel brushes up his -poor- disco dancing before the arrival of rich potential castle-buyer Kenny G, but doesn't even notice that the pop-singer and his manager return to Diest when they see his bumbling. Aagje however is a Kenny-groupie, so she wants to throw a disco party in his honor and expects Witte Jos, from the Seventies, to be her disco-teacher. Jonas puts his palaeontology homework and Jos's tail together and realizes that he's not from the 1970s but from the caveman-time, yet promises to keep that silent for the other ghosts. Woest overhears them however and blackmails Jos into becoming his instead of Don Carlos's servant. Jonas counters with the dysentery death-secret...
Sun, Dec 18, 2005
Dad Kronkel has a bad cold, so Jonas volunteers to receive -and scare off- the next castle buyer, who will cancel anyway. However Dees, a robber who just stole the Mona Lisa, arrives there first, for an appointment with a buyer. As Dees looks for a drink, he unknowingly opens the butas bottle, which preoccupies the ghosts, except Secundo, who is eager to prove la Guocunda was his lover and he made all his master Leonardo Da Vinci's inventions, including working wings, the second of which is missing somewhere in the castle. When Jonas, who takes Dees for the buyer, recognizes the painting, he's tied-up...
Wed, Dec 28, 2005
Dad's latest buyer for the castle is TV comedian Rob Vanoudenhoven, but when Jonas sees fan Aagje only has eyes for the celebrity calls her a scarecrow and gets so gloomy that his inability to laugh at his jokes depresses Rob enough to reconsider if the place is inspiring for him. Don Carlos decides the insult, from a prohibited list, is a good occasion to get rid of him, but the other ghosts object. A hide and seek game don Carlos next allows sees Jonas's magical glasses disappear. Don Carlos's investigation by torture, alas inefficient on incorporeal suspects, finds nothing, but Secundo makes new spectacles, with the additional power to hear ghosts's thoughts, including the surprising thief's...
Pa's latest prospective castle buyer is the German-speaking psychiatrist Von Geisteren, who sees mental illness everywhere, right now suspects Jonas to be a psychopath. The boy decides to play along as 'love-sick', so he can learn the cure for it and help Filomena, who got deeply depressed after the discovery her beloved master the baron doesn't speak to her trough his portrait, it's just another of Secundo's inventions. Don Carlos sees another chance to get rid of (busy)body Jonas if he's committed to a lunatic asylum..
Sun, Jan 8, 2006
Jonas has entered an invention, the 'remote control ironing board', under Secundo's name in reverse, and won. Dad has seen the letter and poses as a crazy professor to pretend he's the inventor. Secundo is angry Jonas entered and modified one of his inventions -as he claims his master Leonardo da Vinci always did- but after a failed intervention by Filomena the two smart boys make up...
Tue, Jan 3, 2006
Dad Kronkel has accepted to let the gypsies stay on the castle grounds, paid in kind -junk- and thrown in some babysitting, dumping the bleater on Jonas, who actually has to study for his exams. Secundo tries to help him hide the child, as 'bodies' aren't allowed by ghost law. Witte Jos is tricked by the butas, who promised to stop singing obnoxiously if he let them out of the bottle, and gets sentenced for it by Don Carlos to joining them. After reading a name card 'Diego' with the baby-boy, Don Carlos starts acting out of character...