Well, it’s only taken thirty-six years, but we’re finally, FINALLY getting a sequel to Beetlejuice, with Tim Burton and Michael Keaton returning for Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice (read our review here). With the sequel bound to introduce a new generation to the Tim Burton classic, now’s the perfect time to look back at the movie and figure out why it stands the test of time. So, here are 10 Reasons Why Beetlejuice Is Still The Ghost With the Most!
There’s a reason why Beetlejuice still resonates all these decades following its initial release. From the time we mere mortals realize that our time on earth is limited, we become preoccupied with the afterlife. Beetlejuice tackles the theme with unusual aplomb, imagining the afterlife as just another stop in our soul’s journey to its final resting place, with our heroes, Alec Baldwin’s Adam and Geena Davis’s Barbara, more or less still in limbo for 115 years as the afterlife, which is hampered by bureaucracy, figures out what to do with them, courtesy of a chainsmoking case worker played by former Hollywood Golden Age star Sylvia Sidney.
While Beetlejuice Beetlejuice reportedly doubles down on the number of cameos we see in the afterlife, the original film has some wacky ones that modern audiences may not fully appreciate. During the famous dinner party sequence, the guests include Dick Cavett, a famously urbane talk show host of the sixties and seventies, as well as modern artist Adelle Lutz, who designed all the clothes the Talking Heads performed in during their eighties heyday. And, the financial whiz Jeffrey Jones’s Charles Deetz is trying to court at the end is played by Robert Goulet, one of the most famous crooners of his era, who had a habit of spoofing himself in comedies such as this, Scrooged, The Naked Gun 2 1/2 and even on The Simpsons. Younger audiences may also know him from a series of savage impersonations Will Ferrell did of him on Saturday Night Live while he was a cast member.
Believe it or not, Beetlejuice is only rated PG. You see, back in the eighties, the PG rating had balls. Nowadays, the movie would likely get a PG-13, but it struggles a bit with the MPAA due to the gore effects, scatological humour, and the fact that Beetlejuice even drops an F-bomb, which used to be allowed in PG movies.
One of the most welcome elements of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is that Tim Burton eschews CGI in favour of the more timeless practical effects he used in the original film. This included amazing makeup, prosthetics, animation, and perhaps most iconic of all, stop-motion. Burton said he wanted the FX to look purposefully cheap and like what you’d see in the movies he grew up with, but I’m not sure he ever anticipated how often people would try to rip off his style in the years to come.
Another stunning element of the film’s success is the incredible production design, which was done by a young Bo Welch, who would reteam with Burton on Edward Scissorhands and Batman Returns, as well as establish a long-running working relationship with Barry Sonnenfield. This was an important film for Welch, not only because it launched his career but also because it was where he met his future wife, Catherine O’Hara.
Day-O! Day-O! Harry Belafonte, the great actor/ civil rights activist and calypso singer, found his career as a recording artist revitalized when Burton iconically used several of his songs on the soundtrack to score some of the movie’s most impressive scenes. “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” and “Jump in the Line (Shake, Señora)” became classics to a whole new generation, with the movie’s producer, David Geffen (who was a major music executive at the time), apparently key to licensing the songs.
Of course, it wasn’t only Belafonte’s music that helped define Beetlejuice. It also marked an early score by Danny Elfman, who was then best known for being in the band Oingo Boingo. He had already scored Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure for Burton, but this one put him on another level, and by the time he scored Burton’s Batman in 1989, he was A LOT more famous as a composer than a rock star.
Beetlejuice is one of the best cast movies in history. Outside of the titular character, it offers early roles to Alec Baldwin (who was top-billed) and Geena Davis. While Davis had done The Fly, her career would skyrocket just a few months after Beetlejuice came out when she won an Oscar for The Accidental Tourist. There’s also Catherine O’Hara and Jeffrey Jones as the iconic proto-hipster couple, the Deetz’s, with O’Hara soon to reprise her role in the sequel. Why isn’t Jones back? Well, that’s a long story, but he’s still great at this! Plus, there’s the late Glenn Shadix as Otho, and most iconic of all, a very young Winona Ryder as perhaps the silver screen’s first goth teen, Lydia.
It would be a mistake to say that Beetlejuice made Tim Burton’s career, as he was already a pretty big rising star when this was made, thanks to Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. Yet, this movie firmly established the big-screen Burton style, and it remains one of his most defining films. Also, were this not a major hit, there would be no Batman and perhaps no tentpole superhero movies!
While most think of Beetlejuice as a Michael Keaton film, he only has seventeen minutes of screen time in the movie and is billed with an “and” credit. Yet, it helped propel him to the top of the A-list, although truth be told, he was already a pretty big star at this point thanks to a series of comedies which included Mr. Mom, Gung Ho, and Night Shift. Still, this made him an icon and paved the way for him to play Batman. Notably, Keaton has always said this was his favourite role and his favourite movie of all the ones he’s been in.
Of our ten reasons why Beetlejuice is still the ghost with the most, what do you think holds the key to the film’s timelessness? Let us know in the comments!