Beetlejuice

Tim Burton had it down dab. Hair frowzled, pallid features, the theater director of Pee-Wee�s Big Adventure surprised Hollywood with a goth-geek stylus that could only be described as quirky earlier everything became quirky. He was the animator from the shadows who brought macabre and heartbreaking life to his early animated shorts, toy box allurement to his first feature film film. While Pee-Wee�s Big Adventure was a hit, it was only a brief glimpse of the sideshow theatricality Burton would use on his second feature, the fast and ghoulish Beetlejuice.

Beetlejuice is really a simple fairy tale. Two newly dead newly weds, Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara Maitland (Geena Davis), want to rid their rustic home of the gaudy yuppie transplants, the Dietz�s, who�ve taken up residence. When old-fashioned ghost moves like rattling chains in the attic fails, they come up they indigence the avail of a "bio-exorcist," a grungy ghost named Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton), who will guarantee to rid the home of unwanted occupants. That is, for a price.


This is one of Keaton�s finest roles. The actor topper known for his smarmy smile and plunging eyebrows imbues the appalling Betelgeuse with an almost lovable charm. Belching, farting, and scratching his crotch with ferocious abandon, he�s the disgusting child that every 12-year-old boy wants to be. But Keaton doesn�t let Beetlejuice become a elementary parody; he also gives him soul, a confidence that electrifies the chalky face paint and mould. Keaton inhabits Betelgeuse. Nearly all of the ghoulish prankster�s lines were jury-rigged and though the character is only in the film for a mere 17 transactions, they are the film�s most exhilarating and amusing minutes.

Beetlejuice is a vehicle perfectly trim for Burton�s peculiar eye. He delights in the small, Gorey-ian touches of the storey. Every frame is filled with gonzo set pattern and candy-colored nightmares, from the eccentric post-apocalyptic world waiting just outside the front door to the decadent sculptures of the Dietz menage. Much of this success is due to the collaborative nature of the film. The score, and in many ways the tone of the film, is set by composer Danny Elfman. Burton was a fan of Elfman�s rock band Oingo Boingo and the carnival atmosphere of the Elfman�s early work (in particular with the cabaret, Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo) invigorates the picture. The two would afterwards go on to an even more collaborative elbow grease, Tim Burton�s The Nightmare Before Christmas, which actually should have been called Burton and Elfman�s The Nightmare Before Christmas. Bo Welch�s lay out design (he did design work on The Lost Boys) cleanly captures Burton�s goth-gone-fun parkland vision.


A subsequence to Beetlejuice has been batted around for o'er a dozen years (I saw a print ad for Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian a decennium ago and writer Warren Skaaren, wHO penned the first film, wrote a script called Beetlejuice in Love) just despite promises from every camp the world is simply left field to admiration what would, or could, happen next. For those obsessed with the film, and desperate for a sequel, thither is a healthy spattering of "fan fiction" on the net to soma out every aspect of the pageantry world of Beetlejuice.


For its 20th Anniversary Edition DVD, the only extras ar (surprisingly) a music-only audio track and three episodes of the Beetlejuice cartoon.


Aka Beetle Juice.




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