Beetlejuice (film): Difference between revisions
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{{work}}
[[File:Beetlejuice-Poster.jpg|frame|Go ahead. Make his millennium.]]
{{quote|[[It's Showtime!|''"It's showtime!"'']]}}
Meet the Maitlands, Barbara and Adam. They're a young couple, crazy in love, and trying to have a baby to fill up their idyllic home in a sleepy little Connecticut town. One day, they run to town for an errand...and crash through the covered bridge over the river.
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The ghosts of the Maitlands return home, not knowing how, and find that they can no longer leave it (unless they want to be beset by [[Sand Worm|sandworms]]). Even worse, their house has been sold to the Deetzes -- an eccentric, upscale yuppie family who want to do a complete overhaul. Not knowing what to do, and getting little-to-no real help from the [[Celestial Bureaucracy]] known as the afterlife, Barbara and Adam learn of a being known as Betelgeuse (pronounced, of course, "Beetlejuice"). They release him after [[Speak of the Devil|saying his name]] [[Rule of Three|three times]]. [[Hilarity Ensues]].
The movie was so popular that [[Beetlejuice (animation)|it spawned an animated]] [[Recycled: the Series]] on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] and [[Fox Kids]]. It [[In Name Only|bore little resemblance to the movie]], however; the Maitlands were eliminated entirely, the title character's name was changed to "Beetlejuice", he and Lydia were ''best friends'', and the stories largely took place in Beetlejuice's home dimension of "the Neitherworld". However, the show kept a lot of the film's manic energy and clever visuals (as well as [[Tim Burton]] as a producer and [[Danny Elfman]] as theme music composer), so it is considered one of the better film-to-TV translations out there. Beetlejuice remained a [[Jerkass]], but at least he was a [[Badbutt|family-friendly]] [[Jerkass]].
In 2019, it was [[Beetlejuice (theatre)|adapted for Broadway]] as a musical that was unfortunately shuttered prematurely by the [[COVID-19]] pandemic; when the worst of the pandemic passed, it re-opened in 2022.
In 2023, a sequel, entitled ''[[Beetlejuice Beetlejuice]]'', entered production. Still in the hands of [[Tim Burton]], the file reunites most of the cast (excluding Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin, whose aging would be hard to explain for ghosts) and adding [[Jenna Ortega]] as Lydia's daughter Astrid. Although much of the film was shot on sets in England, tiny East Corinth, Vermont was once again [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVs0CNw-4jk converted into the town of Winter River] for exterior location shooting.
{{tropelist}}
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* [[Hormone-Addled Teenager]]: Completely and utterly averted with [[Emotionless Girl|Lydia]].
* [[I Just Want to Be Special]]: Lydia longs to be a ghost.
* [[Invisible to Normals]]: Which is why their spooks didn't work. Luckily for them, Lydia isn't normal.▼
* [[I See Dead People]]: Lydia
** According to The Handbook, anyone can if they ''choose'' to believe in ghosts. The entire Deetz family at the end can see Adam and Barb.
▲* [[Invisible to Normals]]: Which is why their spooks didn't work. Luckily for them, Lydia isn't normal.
* [[It's Showtime!]]: When Lydia Deetz finally invokes him at the climax of the film, Betelguese looks up from the miniature headstone on which he's been sitting, grins, and growls, "It's showtime."
* [[Jacob Marley Apparel]]: All of the ghosts except Betelgeuse.
{{quote|'''Barbara:''' Adam, is this what happens when you die?
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{{quote|'''Barbara''': ''Why did you disappear when you stepped off the porch? Are we halfway to heaven? Are we halfway to hell? And... how long is this gonna last?''
'''Adam''': ''I don't see anything about heaven OR hell. This book reads like stereo instructions. Listen to this: "Geographical and temporal perimeters. Functional perimeters vary from manifestation to manifestation.'' }}
{{quote|'''Juno:''' Okay, have you been studying the manual?
'''Adam:''' Well, we tried.
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* [[The Scarpia Ultimatum]]: Betelgeuse to Lydia.
* [[Sealed Evil in a Can]]: Betelgeuse is trapped in the hereafter.
* [[Small Secluded World]]: The main characters are stuck in their house, unable to have any contact with the surrounding world. At first, they do not realize that they are dead and haunting the house in which they lived.
* [[Smug Snake]]: Otho.
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* [[Take Our Word for It]]: Betelgeuse's "scary face."
* [[Tear Off Your Face]]: Barbara pulls her own face off in an attempt to frighten off the Deetzes. Unfortunately they can't see her.
▲* [[Ted Baxter]]: Delia thinks she's a great artist.
* [[Theme Music Power-Up]]: When Lydia summons Betelgeuse to save the Maitlands at the end.
* [[The Unmasqued World]]: The Maitlands are roundly criticized by their caseworker for letting the living get solid evidence of ghosts, while the Deetzes look to find a way to monetize their haunted house.
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* [[Wafer-Thin Mint]]: The dog on the bridge.
* [[Weirdness Censor]]: Lydia is the only one who normally sees the dead couple; just about everyone else completely filters them out.
{{quote|'''Lydia''': "I've read through that ''[[Encyclopedia Exposita|Handbook for the Recently Deceased]]''. It says: '[[Muggles|Live people]] ignore the strange and unusual.' I, myself, am... strange and unusual.
* [[Weirdness Magnet]]: Lydia, she's initially the only one who can see the Maitlands, and is nearly forced into a marriage with an undead bio-exorcist. Not too many people can say that's happened to them...
* [[Wipe That Smile Off Your Face]]: At the end, when Barbara tries to banish BJ, she's able to get his name out once before he zips her lip...literally. She unzips her lip to say his name a second time, which pisses him off enough to seal it up with a metal plate.
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{{reflist}}
{{AFI's 100 Years 100 Laughs}}
[[Category:Films of the 1980s]]
[[Category:Hugo Award]]
▲[[Category:Film]]
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