Review: Beetlejuice

Who saw this coming?

This is a review of both the movie and the TV series. Warning: this contains a rave (the good equivalent of a rant) of an obsession, making this a VERY LONG and ONE-SIDED FANGIRL POST. You've been warned. M'kay, thanks. 8D

Where should I begin...? The first time I ever heard the name "Beetlejuice" was way back when I was knee-high to Chuck E Cheese, watching the often-repeated 60th anniversary version VHS of Disney's Pinocchio during the movie previews. I remember exactly when the name was said, during the preview of The Nightmare Before Christmas's "What's This?" scene. All at once, I wanted to watch three things: that awesome-looking movie with the moving skeleton man, this strange Beetlejuice movie, and then another called Edward Scissorhands, all three by the same man named...Burton? Hm. Fast forward a few years later in the ol' Hollywood Video store and I saw a movie called Beetlejuice! So I picked it up and asked my mom if we could borrow it...and she said no. Unfortunately, I can't remember what my reaction was to the cover of the movie, but I do remember being told a few years later that it was a comedy.

From Google | The second Burton movie I'd ever heard of!

Now fast forward to last year when the movie came on the ABC Family channel and I finally got my chance to watch it for the very first time (and let's not mention that the first time I saw The Nightmare Before Christmas was only about four years ago...). To be bluntly honest...it was all good and well until that damned Otho took the Handbook for the Recently Deceased! After that, I stopped watching it, feeling cheated that a great movie would fall for such an annoying cliche! But guess what? After that...I felt stupid. You see, I have a bad habit of leaving movies once they become awkward or uncomfortable. In this case, like in many cases, I really wanted to know how the movie ended!! So I lamented over that for a while...

I can't quite remember right now, but I think the next time I saw it was on TV (though that doesn't make much sense right now; I'm just going by what my brother said, that I had seen the first half of the movie, never the rest, and then he saw it with me, but only saw the end half...). I think the obsession started from there, but how, even I don't know. So then I looked up Beetlejuice and nearly hit the roof upon learning there was a TV series that came on during the early 90s!! Immediately, I looked up the series on YouTube and watched as many episodes as possible (still haven't seen them all!!). The stripes. THOSE BOOTS.  DAT CACKLE. I was hooked in mere seconds.

Now fast forward to a month or two ago when, overcome with my obsession (which is rare, very very rare), I went ahead and bought the Beetlejuice DVD! Rarely does an obsession hit me so badly I go ahead and buy something related to it on a whim. But do I regret it? NOOO! For crying out loud, the DVD has THREE episodes of the friggin' TV series on it! Including one of my favorites, Skeletons in the Closet. Beej is just....

*Ahem* Since I've just realized this is more of a rave than a review, I'll get to it: Beetlejuice is a perfect example of good ol' classic Burton goodness. Slightly off the rocker, full of whimsy, a dash of revolting, hints of twisted romance, and twistedly perverted yet somehow lovable old men classic stop motion and puppets to scare the shit out of you. What the hell happened to Burton movies..? Michael Keaton steals the movie as Beetlejuice, and my shock when I discovered way back when that the awesome Batman/Bruce Wayne from Burton's 1989 classic Batman movie and Beej are the same people...was...uh...yeah. It was pretty bad. Took me a while to believe it, as I had seen the Batman movie (strangely, considering its gruesome and very adult content) long before I ever saw Beetlejuice. I think it was his mouth, 'cause it sure as hell wasn't his voice! *Ahem* Back to the point. Every Beetlejuice scene is my favorite scene. I go to YouTube all the time just to watch those scenes...

To be plainly honest, aside from the story, in my opinion, the stealer of the movie is, in fact, Michael Keaton. It's no wonder Keaton himself would love to play Beetlejuice again...so where's that damn sequel, Burton? Keaton's not getting any younger, you know, damn it all!! And where the hell IS Keaton? You never hear of him...

And now, a rave/review of the TV series.

From Google|
The people behind this show are all perverted. Believe me. They are.

Completely deviating from the movie, the Beetlejuice series is more of an off-shot. However, as many fans can agree, there are debates as to if the series takes place after the movie or not. The debates of it being canon are often heated with the additional fact that Burton himself developed and produced it, so it has to be canon, right??

As I said in the caption above...the people behind this cartoon are all perverted. From the history of why Beej's fingertips are red (look it up) to all of the underlying double-meanings, puns, the very friendship between Lydia and the ghost with the most, and of course, imagery that wouldn't be in many a kid's cartoon nowadays.

And most fans, from what I've seen, wouldn't have it any other way, including myself~♥ The fact that this cartoon got away with a Y to Y-7 rating is awesome. How many cartoons nowadays are black comedies? The last one, another favorite (as much as I try to deny it) was The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, right? I think like-minded Burton fans, no matter what age, would love the Beetlejuice cartoon. I know I did. Most 80s 90s shows were enjoyable for all ages, anyway...

Oh...and I want to give major props to Stephen Ouimette for giving cartoon!Beetlejuice such an...AWESOME voice.

*Ahem*...once again, I've noticed that I've paid attention to the character Beetlejuice instead of the cartoon and movie themselves...but...I can't help it. I will say, however, that I prefer cartoon!Lydia over her movie self, and as much as I like Adam, I still can't believe that is...Alec Baldwin. What the frakedy frak frak?

And yes...I've tried to summon Beetlejuice. But if you could summon him...what version would you want? The cartoon version...or his original movie self?

....Me...?

...I would have either, but preferably...uh...well, that's a hard one...