By Perhaps I’m in the minority here, but my first run-in with the trickster known as Betelgeuse didn’t happen in a packed movie theater or on some grainy VHS rented from the local video store. No, my introduction to the “ghost with the most†was via the Saturday morning animated series Beetlejuice, based on the 1988 Tim Burton classic of the same name.  It was only after becoming enamored with the cartoon that I dared to give its live-action namesake a try.
Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice opens with the sickeningly happy married couple of Adam and Barbara Maitland (Alec Baldwin and Gena Davis), currently enjoying some vacation time at their home in Winter River, Connecticut. We’re treated to several minutes of wide-eyed smiles and acknowledgements of love before the couple is sent to their demise when a stray dog in the road causes them to swerve off of a bridge and into the creek below. After returning home and finding The Handbook for the Recently Deceased on an end table, the pair soon realizes that they have in fact died, and cannot leave their home.
Perhaps I’m in the minority here, but my first run-in with the trickster known as Betelgeuse didn’t happen in a packed movie theater or on some grainy VHS rented from the local video store. No, my introduction to the “ghost with the most” was via the Saturday morning animated series Beetlejuice, based on the 1988 Tim Burton classic of the same name. It was only after becoming enamored with the cartoon that I dared to give its live-action namesake a try.
Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice opens with the sickeningly happy married couple of Adam and Barbara Maitland (Alec Baldwin and Gena Davis), currently enjoying some vacation time at their home in Winter River, Connecticut. We’re treated to several minutes of wide-eyed smiles and acknowledgements of love before the couple is sent to their demise when a stray dog in the road causes them to swerve off of a bridge and into the creek below. After returning home and finding The Handbook for the Recently Deceased on an end table, the pair soon realizes that they have in fact died, and cannot leave their home. {{page_break}}
Enter the Deetz family. Opportunistic land developer Charles (Jeffrey Jones), looking for refuge from the hustle and bustle of New York City, drags his sculptor wife Delia (Catherine O’Hara) and his death-obsessed daughter — and Tim Burton’s goth dream girl — Lydia (Wynona Ryder) to the remote New England town to take up residence in the Maitland’s (now former) home. After Delia’s displeasure with the house causes her to make drastic changes to the home’s modest aesthetic with the help of interior designer Otho (the late, great Glenn Shadix), the Maitland’s decide they have no choice but to use their newfound abilities as ghosts to scare the Deetzes away. When their initial attempts to run the Deetzes off fails, the Maitland’s must turn to the self-professed “bio-exorcist” called Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton) in an effort to get rid of their unwelcome guests once and for all.
Beetlejuice, in many ways, serves as a primer for the bulk of Tim Burton’s career. The visual style is darkly cartoonish and unique, and while not really threatening or scary in any way, it strikes that wonderful balance between comic and creepy. This can especially be seen when the Maitland’s must visit the “other side” in order to meet with Juno (Sylvia Sydney), their chain-smoking afterlife case worker whose gaping neck wound causes smoke to billow after each exhale. This sort of government office of the dead is brimming with so many interesting looking characters — such as the messenger that apparently met his end after being flattened by a car — you’re almost disappointed when Adam and Barbara have to return to the dreary attic they’ve been hiding in.
This flair extends beyond its set design and Oscar-winning makeup, however. A large portion of the visual effects employ the use of stop-motion animation. It’s not the most stunning use of the technique you’ll see, but the creature designs tend make up for it. Also of note is Danny Elfman’s tremendous score, which manages to be equal parts mischievous and sinister.
Of course, all that style would be for naught if it weren’t for the film’s outstanding cast. Wynona Ryder’s Lydia is immensely charming every step of the way, even while she’s brooding in her room writing poetry about death and despair while presumably listening to The Smiths’ The Queen Is Dead on repeat. The hilarious Catherine O’ Hara is lovingly despicable as Delia, and you almost feel bad that Charles has to put up with her until Jeffrey Jones turns on his old Ferris Bueller slimeball routine when he attempts to exploit the haunted house as a tourist attraction.Then there’s Michael Keaton, who plays the film’s title character with the reckless abandon of a deranged and perverted Bug Bunny. Every moment he’s on screen is a delight, which is why it’s so perplexing to me that he’s given so little screen time.
And I’m still waiting for Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian.
8.65 – Spectacular. (Movies that score between 8.50 and 9.00 are some of the best films its genre has ever created, and fans of any genre will thoroughly enjoy them.)
Beetlejuice is arguably Tim Burton’s best film, far and away his funniest. Featuring stand out comedic performances from Michael Keaton and Catherine O’ Hara, it’s a wonderful example of what Burton can do when he isn’t tripping over his own bloated vision.