Beetlejuice (1988) Retrospective / Review

if you want to support the channel then please check out my patreon page to gain access to exclusive videos take part in q and a's and watch my retrospectives before they go live on youtube i received word that you allowed yourself to be photographed and you let beetlejuice out and didn't put him back and you let other get hold of the handbook never trust the living we cannot have a routine haunting like yours provide proof that there is existence beyond death [Music] that fire wasn't burning left handbook for the recently deceased press you know what i don't think we survived the crash [Music] jane i can't see you right uh-uh in the book rule number two the living usually won't see the dead won't you can't just says won't barb honey we're dead i don't think we have very much to worry about anymore [Music] and look at that kitchen you're finally going to be able to cook a decent meal ten minutes i'm already perfectly at ease i could live here is this a punishment or something what are you gonna do let's get one thing straight you're right we're here to enjoy the country setting not to trash the place if you don't let me cut out this house and make it my own i will go and stay and i will take you with me yeah well you know maybe the house could use a little remodeling uh what do you want we need some help already you just bit the big one two months ago and you want help you spend 125 years on earth actually in that house during which you get only three class one day 90 intersessions with jonah we're very unhappy what did you expect you're dead we want to get rid of the people who have moved in here barbara and i worked very hard on this house fatal geist the bio exorcist what about that guy in the flyer you know beetle don't even say his name you don't want his help we might he does not work well with others the only way he can be brought back is by calling his name three times but i strongly suggest that you remove the pizzas yourselves [Music] this can you be scary what do you think of this [Music] sand worms you hate them right i am a zombie it's showtime beetlejuice arrived on the big screen on the 30th of march 1988 in the usa and made its way to uk cinemas five months later in august budgeted at 15 million dollars and directed by tim burton making it his second feature as a director beetlejuice would go on to do great numbers at the box office bringing in over 74 million dollars worldwide after its run and when it arrived on home video it was a massive hit on the rental market despite its good numbers it wasn't warmly received by the critics getting mixed reviews the new york times said the film tries anything and everything for effect and only occasionally manages something marginally funny and is about as funny as a shrunken head roger ebook gave it two stars out of four saying it would have been more interesting if the screenplay had preserved alec baldwin and gina davis's sweet romanticism and cut back on the slapstick but the highly respected critic pauline kale said the film was a comedy classic when it came to the academy awards it won for best makeup and received nominations for best visual effects and makeup at the baftas due to the film's commercial success especially with younger viewers warner brothers commissioned a cartoon series that would follow the continuing adventures of betelgeuse but it would change the direction instead of beetlejuice being seen as a villain he would be best friends with lydia lydia and beetlejuice throughout the episodes would often travel to the netherworld to have wacky adventures the series premiered in september of 1989 and was a success with kids and lasted four seasons this brought on a wealth of merchandise such as food tie-ins with burger king action figures based on the film by kenner oddly the other toys in the line shared similar traits to the real ghostbuster figures mimicking their silly transformations and of course there were video games that will be discussed later to my surprise beetlejuice popped up in the pilot episode of storm the castle the us version of takeshi's castle in 1993. for years there had been talk of a sequel called beetlejuice goes hawaiian that was jokingly talked about by kevin smith during the early 2000s when he was asked about his involvement in a new superman film he felt what else was there more to say about beetlejuice tim burton hadn't worked with michael keaton for years after batman returns and they collaborated again on dumbo and talks again started about another beetlejuice film keaton and burton both expressed an interest in making a sequel and things started to kick into motion but as of april 2019 plans had been shelved despite there never being a sequel beetlejuice did hit the stage in 2018 with the show following the plot of the film the show received mixed reviews by critics feeling it was flashy and rowdy and produced with love for the source material but some felt it was overstuffed with gags and silly antics the show was postponed in early march of this year due to the kovid pandemic as beetlejuice has been released countless times on video formats over the years and with a recent 4k release the film has never been given that special edition treatment but a fan has gone out of their way to produce a documentary on its production called for the recently deceased the making of beetlejuice it was successfully crowdfunded on kickstarter and a trailer was released in april of this year but its release date has not been confirmed the building blocks of beetlejuice started with the late michael mcdowell's original script mcdowell was best known as an author of many horror novels and in the 80s he was commissioned to write for tv and film due to the success of ghostbusters and its mix of comedy fantasy and horror many studios wanted something similar to capture that energy and mix of genres and michael was asked to come up with something of that nature that could be the next big thing which was for universal pictures at the time mcdowell's original version is far less comedic and much darker in tone and a lot more graphic with its violence than what we eventually got the original conception of beetlejuice was as a winged demon who takes on the form of a short middle eastern man who is on tent on killing the deet's family and wanting to sleep with lydia instead of wanting to marry her the idea of calling out his name three times was not in the original script beetlejuice only needs to be exhumed from his grave to be summoned after which he is free to wreak havoc and can wander the world freely appearing to torment different characters in different manifestations mcdowell's script also featured a second deet's child nine-year-old kathy the only person to be able to see the maitlands larry wilson who would go on to produce the film and help co-write it was working at universal pictures under water hill he caught wind of mcdowell's script and the negative reaction it got from the studio the heads of universal hated it but larry saw its potential and it was eventually sold to the geffen company who had a deal with warner brothers larry would begin to reshape the script and started looking for a director pee wee's big adventure by tim burton put him on the list of new bankable directors burton had been sent loads of scripts often with the word adventure in the title and when beetlejuice finally landed in his lap he felt this was the project for him which he mentioned in his interview with starlog magazine burton felt it wasn't really a horror comedy or fantasy feeling it was one of those movies that does not fit any place tim was on board but wasn't happy in the direction larry was taking the script so the late warren skarin who wrote beverly hills cop 2 and would later work on batman with burton was hired to rewrite the script to tell you it to more of burton's ideas scarring's rewrites drastically shifted the film's tone eliminating the graphic nature of it while depicting the afterlife as a complex bureaucracy he removed the young girl and just made lydia the one who could see the ghosts skaron's first draft retained some of the more sinister characteristics of beetlejuice but toned down the character to make him a troublesome pervert rather than a mad killer when it came to casting tim burton originally wanted to cast sammy davis jr as beetlejuice but the studio executives didn't like the idea and the headset geffen recommended michael keaton tim was unaware of michael's work at the time and agreed to meet him but michael was unsure about the role saying tim wasn't good at articulating himself and he found the beetlejuice concept weird and unclear and decided to turn the role down but was pursued again and tim started to explain more about the part describing the characters having lived in every time period but no time period this intrigued keaton who used this as a jumping off point to create the character and further refined him with such features as a shock hairdo mould makeup and large teeth michael would become the number one choice for tim when it came to his next feature batman michael as the caped crusader turned him into a superstar overnight alec baldwin stars as adam maitland alex started out his career in tv and made the leap to film with forever lulu the same year of beetlejuice he also started married to the mob alex's career took off in the early 90s with a hunt for red october but he struggled with feature films with box office flops like the shadow alec would eventually return to tv where he found more success and would still star in films often in a supporting role such as in the mission impossible series he would make a name for himself in more recent years spoofing donald trump gina davis plays as barbara maitland gina's first role of film was in tutsi she also starred in fletch and cronenberg's remake of the fly throughout the 90s her career like baldwins took off with a league of their own for example but her career derailed a bit starring in two commercial failures with one being one of the biggest box office bombs of the 90s cutthroat island jeffrey jones stars as charles dietz a former real estate developer who is looking to settle down in a quiet town geoffrey was a big star during the 80s with his roles in amadeus ferris bueller's day off and also appeared in the hunt thread october along with alec jeffy worked again with tim burton in possibly my favorite film of tim's ed wood and he also popped up in sleepy hollow he also starred alongside gina davis in stuart little catherine o'hara plays as delia charles's second wife who was a struggling artist and having difficulties finding buyers of her work catherine quickly signed on while burton claimed it took a lot of time to convince other cast members to take part as they didn't know what to think of the weird script catherine was known for doing comedy on tv and to many who grew up in the 90s she is best known as kevin's mum in home alone she would work on other tim burton productions providing her voice in the nightmare before christmas and frankenweenie catherine would meet her future husband production designer beau welch while making the film winona ryder stars as charles's daughter lydia beetlejuice was an early role in her career first getting parts in lucas and square dance she would go on to become a familiar face of 90s cinema working again with burton on edward scissorhands she also starred in mermaids dracula and alien resurrection most recently she is best known for her role in stranger things the late sylvia sydney a star of the golden age of cinema plays as juno who works as a legal representative to the maitlands in the afterlife sylvia worked constantly throughout her career with her last acting role in the tv series fantasy island in 1998 she worked again with tim burton on mars attacks the late robert goulet plays as maxi dean charles's previous boss who is fascinated with ghosts robert was a well-known singer that turned to acting first starting out in tv and appeared in a popular show fantasy island and had roles in other movies such as scrooged and naked gun two and a half dick cavett plays as bernard delia's agent who turns up at the house to witness the ghostly figures of the maitlands dick was a popular show host interviewing many stars of hollywood dick would often appear as himself in movies such as annie hall elm street 3 and forrest gump and last but not least we have the late glenn shaddix as otho who works as an interior designer who was brought in by delia to redesign the maitland's house glenn again worked with burton on the nightmare before christmas and planet of the apes you may also recognize him from demolition man as associate bob shooting started in march of 1987 taking place in east corinth a village in the town of vermont that would fill in as the fictional town of winter river in connecticut all the interiors were filmed in culver studios in california the shoot would come to an end in june of that year burton had wanted to hire anton first as a production designer after being impressed with his work on the company of wolves and full metal jacket but anton was unavailable so he hired bo welch who we would work again with on edward scissorhands and batman returns the test screenings were met with positive feedback but warner brothers disliked the title beetlejuice and wanted to call the film house ghosts as a joke button suggested the name scared sheetless and was horrified when a studio actually considered using it but thankfully they settled on beetlejuice though it spelt beetle guys in the film no idea why at this time warner brothers had agreed for tim to direct batman but he hadn't been given the green light so during the editing stages of beetlejuice he was already preparing batman with storyboards working on a script he managed to get anton first on board as well with beetlejuice doing good numbers on its opening weekend warner's felt confident tim could handle batman the success of batman would make tim burton and michael keaton household names [Music] the film opens with barbara and adam enjoying their time off work renovating their house located in a small town in connecticut while driving back from the hardware store they swerve to narrowly avoid a dog and their car plunges into the river they return home at night and don't recall how they got back adam gets confused and attempts to retrace their steps and leaves the house and finds himself in another world he is quickly grabbed by barbara who informs him that he's been gone for hours which only felt like seconds for him barbara shows him a book titled for the recently deceased and they realized they drowned in the crash unsure if they are in heaven or hell they struggle to understand the information in the book what seems like a few days later they awaken by the arrival of the deep's family from new york city the maitlands attempt to frighten the family away so they can get their house back but fail because they cannot be seen and decide to retreat and hide in the attic beetlejuice who has been keeping an eye on the maitlands and has taken up residence in adam's model of the town tries to get their attention with a leaflet hidden in the book and tries again with a tv advertisement offering his services as a bio exorcist consulting the handbook the maitlands open a door to the afterlife which is ruled over by a complex bureaucracy their caseworker juno informs them it's their responsibility to get rid of the deets the two inquire about beetlejuice and juno explains that he is a troublemaker and they should not seek his help the maitlands return to their home and attempt to scare the family and yet again fail but realise lydia can see them the three become friends but the maitland still want their house back and hate how delia has changed it they call out beetlejuice's name three times and get teleported into the model town and free beetlejuice but they quickly realized they made a mistake but he is eager to get to on the juice and see what work loose when it came to the visual effects it was reported only one million dollars was allocated to the effects budget they made use of stop motion animation miniatures prosthetic makeup puppetry and blue screen tim burton said it was always his intention to make the style similar to the b movies he grew up watching as a child he said in star log magazine i wanted to make them look cheap and purposely fake looking they were not up to the standard of industrial light and magic they may seem a step back and crude but were more personal to him so with tim's attempts to make the effects look a bit creaky and old school the film can get away with looking rough around the edges the opticals have always been a bit washed out and exhibit matte lines and having sand against blue screen is always problematic the makeup effects are definitely the highlight and strongest aspect of the visuals with the creepy stop-motion as the maitlands transform their faces and seeing the other ghostly folk in the afterlife such as the guys being run over and the smoker who was just made of ash it's creepy but funny at the same time that sums up a lot of the makeup work throughout comedic and gross there are a couple of standout moments the transformation of beetlejuice into a snake is a great scene of stop motion they had wanted to use the go motion technique which was the process used on n209 in robocop but it was deemed too expensive the original design of the beetlejuice snake was to actually have a face of a snake but it was changed as the studio felt it should resemble beetlejuice so it didn't feel like a random monster that he has called forth from the afterlife i do love it when they cut to the miniature of the town as we see beetlejuice trying to entice a fly with a chocolate bar i love the use of the fake grass and i pop it off the fly to make it look like you're zooming in on the miniature it just totally sells the scene the style and direction of the production design for the afterlife feels like you're watching a cartoon come to life so to speak which is thanks to tim burton's training at walt disney studios thus making the film really unique to look at danny elfman composed the score to beetlejuice danny got his big break as a film composer working with tim burton on peewee's big adventure dany was already a successful pop singer for his band eingo boingo but was shifting his career to focus on composing music to tv and film between peewee and beetlejuice he had provided music to amazing stories wisdom and summer school tim sent danny the script to beetlejuice early on wanting to work with him again danny wanted to get ahead of the schedule and started writing straight away not seeing any footage and was just thinking of ideas just based around the script when it came to seeing the rushes the music didn't work at all as the tone was completely different to what he had written and felt a lot was never going to get used he learned then on not to trust his instincts when reading a script dany said nobody had an idea what they were doing on the movie and the team were left completely on their own it had no model at all for how to score it and what it was tim couldn't find any temp music for beetlejuice that would work danny said further that the title character doesn't appear until more than half an hour into the movie and he had to let the audience know what the film was even before they got to the first scene they had to know they are watching a raucous film even though it doesn't get raucous for another 40 minutes or so so the main titles march really pushes to inform the audience of what to expect then he felt that it helps to get the audience in the right frame of mind because then they are prepped for what happens later even though they know it's low-key in the beginning it's going to get wacky the film would also feature two existing songs performed by harry belafonte deyo the banana boat song and jump in the line sheik shannora soundtrack was first released in 1988 on lpcd and cassette and features around 36 minutes of material years later it was reissued on vinyl in 2015 and then put out again for its 30th anniversary by wax work records surprisingly the complete score has been made available since its 20th anniversary for the dvd release which has an isolated track on the disc and then it was reissued again for the recent video formats what can i say about beetlejuice and its score it's fantastic loads of character unsettling moments and a great theme that will get stuck in your head dany really helps set the tone of the movie and creates a great atmosphere throughout especially for the house when the maitlands return and their journey to the afterlife the more tender moments work a treat in really boosting the emotional angle of the film between the maitlands and lydia i adore dany's early work batman a year later blew people away including myself and he became the go-to guy to score many of the big blockbusters of the 90s sure he couldn't help but repeat himself on a few scores you would say oh this score sounds identical to his previous one but it's clear that one of others was so impressed with his work they included it as a separate audio track on the dvd and it demonstrates its strength to stand on its own [Music] due to the success of the cartoon series video games were quickly put into production for the us market with two focused on the cartoon and one based around the film the first game arrived on the pc in 1990 titled adventures of beetlejuice skeletons in the closet it's a simple puzzle game that honestly feels like a shareware title totally bizarre as well as beetlejuice a player must battle various skeletons and other monsters by shooting projectiles and protecting lydia as she cleans up the resulting mess that's basically it not really worth your time to be honest the nes game would be the only one based on the film and would feature characters and visuals from the movie developed by rare who moved on from the days of the zx spectrum they knew the 8-bit nintendo console was the next big thing and popped out at least nine titles for the system in 1991 alone the game puts to play in the role of beetlejuice as he explores locations like the maitland's house the sam worm infested deserts of saturn and the afterlife the game is a frustrating platformer that doesn't really do anything new a simple fetch quest you can purchase extra power-ups that don't last long and you often have to make leaps of faith when trying to progress further into the game often falling to your death and it has irritating music throughout the developer rare didn't attempt to use any of the music by danny elfman with the nes being bombarded with endless amounts of platformers this one is best avoided as there are far better quality games on the system and finally we have beetlejuice horrific hijinks from the netherworld for the gameboy released in 1992. this was another game developed by rare and this fared better with the gamers and critics and was a far more competent platformer with puzzles thrown in for good measure this one followed the style of the cartoon the game begins with the player taking control of beetlejuice as he attempts to get rid of all the ghosts and he has to rescue lydia out of all the games available this one is certainly worth a go if you want to get your fix of beetlejuice action [Music] i saw beetlejuice around late 1990 when it had been on vhs for over a year i was eight years old at the time and my parents were pretty strict on what i could watch anything 15 or 18 rated was certainly out of the question luckily like most of us growing up we had friends whose parents were far more lenient my friend chris who lived down the road from me became the place to go to watch anything over a pg and beetlejuice was to be one of the first horror related movies i would see we watched it during the day so any intended scares and visual imagery that would work wonders in a darkened room had no effect and honestly i didn't find the film scary but recall being a bit creeped out by it for a bunch of eight-year-olds watching it the most exciting part was beetlejuice himself jumping into action to scare the deet's family at that age i thoroughly enjoyed the film and returned to it over the years on dvd then blu-ray and the movie still holds up really well today the comedic aspects are still the highlight for me it's an odd beast however as mentioned earlier the filmmakers felt it wasn't a straight out comedy or horror to my eyes it played more on the comedy and that's its strength for me it's very tim burton in its visual design this norman rockwell town with shades of german expressionism with a slice of a mad circus act thrown in for good measure with beetlejuice being heavily featured in the marketing with the posters and trailers he doesn't really have much screen time about 15 minutes in total he is a supporting character in all of this and never really gets to push what he can do he never fully lets loose to show off something truly horrific to drive the family out you get a sense he's about to do something nasty but it's cut short his big moment to save the maitlands just results in him creating this fairground amusement act as he slams the guests through the ceiling then it comes to an end as he attempts to marry lydia to remain in the real world so that was the biggest letdown for me with this sort of unspectacular finale this is probably the only issue i've had with the film since i was a kid everything else however is an absolute joy michael keaton's moments as beetlejuice are certainly very funny michael often talks at top speed and sometimes mumbles his words you can sometimes miss what he said and have to go back to hear the joke this somewhat fits with a character who is erratic and anarchic i do love the moments he has asked about his credentials he puts on a well-spoken voice and suddenly goes crazy i always wanted to know more about beetlejuice however we are informed he worked for juno and pushed his services to get rid of the living and got himself into more trouble and the maitlands are warned that he doesn't work well with others that's about it really i know there was talk of burton shooting a prologue with beetlejuice but i'm unsure if it was filmed as no deleted scenes have been released but i think more screen time could have been given to beetlejuice to really explore juno's disliking for him to help build on his backstory the rest of the cast is spot on geoffrey jones for example plays his character as this burnt out businessman who just wants to relax and wants to change his life straight away acting impatient as he just wants to settle down in this idealistic home kathy o'hara is just superb as she's so good at going into fits of rage and then suddenly becomes totally calm it seems a familiar style throughout this film everyone has a short fuse alec baldwin doesn't really get to flex his comedic skills and is played straight with his performance being the most calm and sensible whereas gina davis is seen as more desperate to get the house back to normal taking charge in getting beetlejuice involved plus she gets the most laughs out of the pair i love the moment where she is sleeping and floating in the air suddenly awakens and plummets to the floor winona ryder plays a classic goth and her character would get on really well with tim burton it's clear lydia has been desperate for love from her family her parents have separated and delia her new mother is totally unsympathetic towards lydia's issues so she gravitates towards the maitlands who make an effort to listen to her and as their lives were cut short they are clearly written to be her surrogate parents by the end and i really like this angle lydia probably has the biggest arc of the story as she manages to break out of her depression as she becomes close with the maitlands well everyone really manages to live better lives by the end with charles and delia getting on better in their relationship also with the maitlands accepting the deets into the home by the end surely things will become a bit problematic the house is big enough i suppose for both families to live in but the maitlands will be on the earth for another 150 years going by the rules the receptionist explained earlier on i'm sure after a while they'll get sick of each other right the world of beetlejuice is clearly designed with tim burton's love for the 1950s and 60s having this kitsch look and appeal this is classic americana white picket fences in a small town where everyone knows each other tim would go one step further with his love for those decades with edward scissorhands and ed wood filmmakers during the 80s all had a love for the past it was the pop culture of their youth we saw robert zemeckis do that with back to the future david lynch with blue velvet and joe dante with gremlins to burbs and come the 90s with matinee the afterlife is visually very stylish and bizarre it's an animated world come to life with crazy paths and doors all misshapen as mentioned earlier it channels german expressionism in its approach and tim also brings over visual designs he used in his short movies at disney when it comes to the horror its strength is in its atmosphere and sense of creepiness which is pushed to great effect at the house when they return after the crash it just has this strange emptiness and a sense they are being watched and the sky outside has gone red and danny elfman's music just elevates the scenes to further enforce the horror aspect we do have some graphic moments that do the job in throwing in quick stabs of shock to the audience but it often quickly shifts to play on the comedy as it's balancing the line of not going too far for it to be giving a stronger rating it appears to me as a careful juggling act and tim plays it out well in the editing to maintain the tone of the movie beetlejuice is an odd film and that's what makes it work but it's also the same reason it's been difficult for warner brothers to pursue a sequel the 1988 film sort of covered everything where else could you go with beetlejuice as a character without him having to change his relationship with the deets and the maitlands i suppose it would follow the direction of the cartoon he could be deployed by a new set of ghosts to scare new victims but there needs to be more than that to continue with another film maybe they could explore more of the afterlife perhaps so you can kind of see why it's been difficult to do any sort of follow-up the film beetlejuice turns in fine performances from the cast and tim burton demonstrated a visual style that would make him a very unique director many studios wanted to work with him throughout the 90s he has had success and hiccups throughout his career but he has always remained true to what he loves his style may not be for everyone or some may have tied of his work over the years as he rarely breaks away from what's comfortable for him if you hired tim to direct a film you kind of know what to expect especially on a visual level beetlejuice is pure unfiltered tim burton little to no interference from the studio and due to its crazy script it could have been a massive disaster but tim manages to mould it into a unique picture that still works wonders after 30 years [Music] maybe this was all a bad idea i didn't say anything i'm not sure that this is the right environment for lydia snakes ghosts [Music] of course they're dead they're ghosts no i mean they're gone split out of here afterlife kids you look like somebody i can relate to i was just wondering could you help me get out of here i don't want to get in why you've got other things to worry about maxie dean's coming up here tonight you've got to figure out a way to sell these ghosts charles we're here to see some ghosts they're not here anymore don't worry we're not relying on her we have oh so are they still here oh though oh they're still here they're just hiding out it'll be tricky but i think i can handle it no and we rise to be happening to them can you stop this oh though it's too late charles i'm sorry help them please [Music] sure i can help i went out for good in order for me to do that hey i gotta get married hey these aren't my rules come to think of it i don't have any rules that's so fast brown boy we're gonna have some laughs beetlejuice [Music] you

Channel: Oliver Harper

Views: 109,830

Keywords: beetlejuice, 1988, oliver harper, retrospective review, tim burton, michael keaton, danny elfman, documentary, beetlejuice review

Id: wWX-k-7h6ME

Length: 33min 16sec (1996 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 05 2020