Beetlejuice (1988)
Say it one… Say it twice… But we dare you two say it THREE TIMES!
There is a never ending quantity of movies that I’ve watched where I swear I at some point already dealt with them on this website as a review - only to find out that I, across the 600 or so ones I have done, in fact have not done so. It’s been a bit of a theme for the last two years now, and honestly it’s starting to make me feel a bit senile. Well, my brain and memory might think I’m as old as dirt, but I’m not dead yet -unlike some of our characters tonight. Let’s take a trip back in time to that movie that spawned a cartoon for a character that really should not have been pitched to kids - tonight we hang with Beetlejuice.
We have a few stories happening in the house this time around. Our initial story is that of a married couple going about a happy existence, until ti’s upset by a random assassin dog that causes them to become dead after a bridge" “accident”. There’s is a story of coming to terms with their now afterlife, and the quirks of it. This becomes more intricate when our second story begins - the second family. A father looking to relax after loosing his nerves, his wife who has an absolutely bizarre sense of art as only an artist would, and their little morbidly goth daughter. Of course, our dead couple would rather not share the house - in specific with the horrendous vision of art of the mother - but the daughter starts to grow on them a bit, being the only one that seemingly can see them. When things start getting a bit heated between the two parties that don’t want each other around, the title character get’s wrapped in - the pervy anti-human loner whose all about getting rid of them pesky residents for a price. Will the parties involved make it out with a deal, or is this entire house about to go to the sandworms?
Acting here is pretty good. The dynamics the actors give between the two different married couples really covers some good ground and allows for quite the contrast between healthy, loving relationship and stressfully not really being eye to eye on things. Our main titled character hits all the gross bits like an ace - but he does great with the comic delivery as well. Heck, most the deliveries do a good job with being serious although edged with comedy the entire time, and if you find yourself not liking someone it’s most likely beacuse that’s what was desired out of the actors and not just a phoned in job. If anything, i feel like the part that might have the highest chance of fail rate for the acting is if the jokes land for people - but that’s less because of the actors delivering the lines and more just because not everyone finds the same things funny.
Character department has a bunch going on. There’s a ton of characters, but most are background fodder that aren’t entirely relevant. Many are still interesting thanks to the ghost and undead nature, particularly with many folks having looks dependent on how they died - like being flat and having tire tracks on them, or the magicians assistant who was cut in half. For the main batch of folks though, there is some level of progression as they have to come to terms with each other, but most of the voyage feels like it’s on the initial introduced couple, who have to come with terms with being scary from their old very non-threatening ways in their attempts to spook off the family, but also the shift towards deciding to befriend the family all while they go about the constant footfalls of not reading enough of their how to be dead guide to really know what they are doing. Of course, our little goth character would be right in the line of any Tim Burton lead, and yet she also isn’t incredibly overplayed - even though she also gets a little bit of growth thanks to the main couple. What can we say about the villain? Well, he certainly isn’t really all that charming with how he acts - but the character does nail that sort of scummy car salesman pitch that makes him a good tool and villain on some level without getting to overly invested in character development and depth.
Just another fine day.
On the effects side of things we’ve got a whole lot going on. Miniature work - both as far as miniatures existing as props but also scenes getting shot with miniatures and tying into the not-miniature stuff. We got some clay stuff, we got some costume designs and hidden magician tricks (like hands coming up from a hole in a table we can’t see), and some fun compositing stuff. It all holds up mostly well despite it’s age as well. There are totally a few scenes where this isn’t nearly the case and usually deals with the more extreme transformation stuff - and yes, some folks will see the stop motion stuff and just be like “that’s bad” just because it’s not some seamless effect - but I do like stop motion stuff, and it didn’t bother me that much because the movie already has a lot of whimsy and supernatural stuff to help balance it against things that aren’t “real” breaking your movie immersion. Costumes tie in well also, with a good range from casual modern (for the time) and slightly crazier stuff from our artist and her posh crowd - and of course the more costume oriented dead folks in the after life.
Audio is balanced well, no problems hearing lines for me. There are some songs in there that somewhat stick around with me afterwards, but since i saw this in a time back when I had a memory before coming back to it today, I’m not entirely sure how much of that nostalgia adding an extra chain to remembering Day-o or that Hop in the Line song. The Elfman scoring also sounds great though - and although I can’t remember it enough to hum or whistle it to someone, I do remember enjoying it while watching the movie, so there is that. Things sound the appropriate amount of busy and lived in with the background audio as well. Our setting, despite only being one house in the majority of screen time, also gets to have a few different phases so it doesn’t feel too same-same the entire movie. We do also get some afterlife office action, and a bit of Saturn in there as well - so visuals and audio both don’t slack about too much.
Comedy is hit or miss, you’ll like it or not like it depending entirely on you. This one is kind of a bit raunchier than I remembered it - probably because i was oblivious to it and it went over my head in earlier watchings - although still not as bad as it could have been or some of the stuff you see in the “raunchy comedy” movies of later times. Slap stick and things like failed scares are pretty safe bets most the time, but there is some other little bits dark humor or not in there for the chuckles. The thinking person can probably find a ton to pick apart in here if they so chose to. Family dynamics, paranormal stuff, after lifes, what is art, what is life, good and evil - you know, some of the classic and not so classic stuff. Although it is all there, the movie might be a bit better off if you take it as a lighter enjoyment flick rather then delving too deep into things like just how often the daughter gets ignored by her actual parents compared to the ghost couple. The biggest mystery to this is how a character so raunchy ended up being marketed to kids enough to have his own cartoon - but I assume it has at least one something to do with toning down the more perverted side and playing of the comedy goofy side of the old ghost with the most.
The day did not go as planned.
Looks, maybe it’s not as kid friendly for a modern audience, folks are a bit more picky about what they show their kids. That being said, it’s a pretty solid movie with something for everyone to enjoy, but it’s certainly one that you could probably do with double checking before throwing your kids into it. Heck, I don’t even know if modern kids would like it as much anymore, as I can only assume stuff like stopmotion and some of the effects are a bit of a dying art that are more frowned upon than rightfully enjoyed. That said, it’s still a funny situation that a couple of ghosts have gotten themselves into, so older types can probably still have a good time with it.