31 Days of Horror 2016, Day 12: Beetlejuice the Animated Series

I needed something light after several days of serious horror. I have had fond memories of this cartoon for some time, and received the first season as a Halloween Secret Santa gift just at the right time. Thanks to my mystery giver! Unlike so many other shows of my childhood, I was not disappointed in how the Beetlejuice cartoon held up. It’s still everything I remember, albeit with off-kilter voice acting.

The reason the Beetlejuice cartoon works is that it truly builds off of the movie, instead of simply picking up the characters but giving them all the wrong lines, and putting them in the wrong situations. In just the first few episodes, I saw several winks at the movie. Beetlejuice saves bugs in his pocket “for later” and makes hideous, gag inducing faces that the audience can’t see. And Lydia; she writes in her diary and complains when her mother redecorates her room. There are sandworms to contend with. There’s calypso music. In one of my favorite segments a closet comes open to release skeletons, reminiscent of the beings in the lost souls room, that tell on Lydia and Beetlejuice for all their lies. It’s all just wonderful, truly. All this, and the added bonus of the freedom of animation, which allows Beetlejuice to turn into a wide variety of different objects and creatures for the sake of puns. Well, puns covered in stripes.

Now it’s true…sometimes the animation is cheap. Mouths don’t always move when they should and expressions get recycled. Perhaps I was simply enamored with seeing hand drawn cartoons for the first time in a long time, but I didn’t really mind. And no, Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder weren’t available to voice their characters. But…I presume they had better things to do, and I’m happy for their success. In the end, the flaws of this show are forgivable. How can I be mad when just moments into the series, upon her mother’s proclamation that “not every day can be Halloween”, Lydia voices what’s inside all of us (or at least inside of me) when she replies “for me it is”.

Challenge fulfilled: Unrated Movie

31 Days of Horror: Day 23 – Beetlejuice

If you have never seen this fine piece of cinema, you aught to be ashamed of yourself! Seriously, Beetlejuice is my childhood incarnate and I have seen this movie so many times in my life that I could probably say all of the actors lines with them. Beetlejuice is the best thing Michael Keaton has ever made, and it’s the reason I don’t even mind it when people tell me that I look like Winona Ryder. The following is a list of my top ten favorite things I love about this movie, in no particular order.

1. Sandworms. Seriously, they look so cool. The whole of those scenes whenever Adam and Barbara leave their house and are suddenly standing in another dimension (Mars, presumably), are an ethereal perfection.

2. Otho. Glenn Shadix totally kills it as this character. Otho is an absolute tool that you love to hate.

3. The room of lost souls. Even as a kid, this scene in the movie struck me as utterly terrifying and deeply sad. When the janitor on the other side comes over and pulls down the shade to the lost souls room window, it’s like those exorcised ghosts are forgotten to the world yet again, and their faces are so tormented and desperate. For a comedy, this concept is touchingly dark.

4. Barbara and Adam’s scary faces. This is my dream costume. To try and scare the Deetzes out of their house, Barbara and Adam basically turn themselves into Spy vs. Spy caricatures. I just love the look of them.

5. The model city. This tiny little town allows for a lot of great gags and sets. Adam and Barbara even get shrunken down and have to dig up Beetlejuice from under layers of rubber grass and cardboard dirt. Of course, I have to mention that scene when Beetlejuice grabs the fly and pulls him under, and the fly screams “help me!” Classic.

6. The receptionist and the dead in the waiting room of the deceased. So many awesome characters are shown in this scene. Shrunken head explorer, burnt smoker, prostitute cut in half, suicidal beauty queen (who is GORGEOUS with her blue skin and pink hair), flattened clerk who slides through cracks in the walls, and of course Juno. I’d love to see comic books that told the stories of these characters.

7. Calypso music. Dammit, this soundtrack is just perfect.

8. The resurrection scene. Once again, this is a fairly spooky and equally sad scene, when Otho attempts to exorcise Barbara and Adam from the house, and we see them begin to deteriorate. I always thought that he was unknowingly sending them to be with the other lost souls, which is a horrifying notion because they’re such likable characters. But then, it gets funny again when Lydia stops the seance and Barbara tries to put Adam’s jaw back on.

9. Delia Deetz’ art and interior design. I would buy a Delia Deetz.

10. Beetlejuice’s commercial. I have had this jingle stuck in my head for at least twenty-three years. Hilarious, and adds such a sense of atmosphere with that blue TV haze seeping under the locked door.

Seriously, if you have not seen this movie, treat yourself!

Halloween Countdown: Day 12 – Beetlejuice

From: October 17, 2011

If you haven’t seen Michael Keaton dance around in his Beetlejuice duds, you haven’t lived! October is the best month for this Tim Burton masterpiece, but I personally like to watch it about once a month. I can’t even begin to imagine my childhood without this movie, and it’s Calypso beats! 

Now, I know what you may be thinking; “Tim Burton is horrible! He doesn’t come up with any of his own ideas!” And for the most part, you would be right. Though Beetlejuice has a number of distinct Tim Burton qualities, including a score by Danny Elfman, Burton is not responsible for the story or the screenplay. But, let us not forget that Burton is responsible for a number of charming films, spread throughout his working career, including Ed Wood, and his delightful adaptation of Big Fish. And honestly, how many directors are responsible for their own writing as well? Not many. Put away your feelings of hatred for Charlie and Chocolate Factory, and Alice in Wonderland, and give Beetlejuice a shot. It has the charm and the originality you’re hoping for. If you’re one of those who, like me, has seen this movie an excessive amount of times, then you already know what I mean.

If you have not seen it, here’s a little run-down: Danny Baldwin and Geena Davis play an everyday couple (Adam and Barbara) who meet an unfortunate end when they drive off of a covered bridge during their stay at home vacation. They soon find that being dead is much more confusing than they hoped, as they are stuck in their home with a new family, the Deetzes. The Deetzes are of course nothing like them, and in an attempt to run them away Adam and Barbara inadvertently release the bio-exorcist who resides in their model city; Betelguise. Despite the advice of their caseworker Juno, played by Sylvia Sydney with a throat stoma, they employ Betelguise to help them and quickly find that more than anything he is a hindrance. In the meantime the Deetz’s daughter, Lydia, discovers Adam and Barbara and is enthralled with their supernatural world. She can even understand their copy of “The Handbook for the Recently Deceased”, because being portrayed by Winona Ryder means that she herself it “strange and unusual.”

Beetlejuice is also full of Sandworms,  Shrunken Heads, The Room of Lost Souls, and of course, Otho. Seriously, if you reading this and have never seen Beetlejuice, go stream it from Netflix right now. If you don’t I will attack you with cocktail shrimp.