beetlejuice

Beetlejuice
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Jump to: navigation, search
This article or section contains a plot summary that is too long compared to the rest of the article.
Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot.
Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice movie poster
Directed by Tim Burton
Produced by Michael Bender
Richard Hashimoto
Larry Wilson
Written by Michael McDowell
Larry Wilson
Warren Skaaren
Starring Alec Baldwin
Geena Davis
Jeffrey Jones
Catherine O'Hara
Winona Ryder
Michael Keaton
Glenn Shadix
Robert Goulet
Sylvia Sidney
Dick Cavett
Music by Danny Elfman
Cinematography Thomas E. Ackerman
Editing by Jane Kurson
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date(s) March 30, 1988 (USA)
Running time 92 min.
Country USA
Language English
Budget $11,000,000
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile
This article is about the film. For other uses, see Beetlejuice (disambiguation).
For the astronomical object, see Betelgeuse.
Beetlejuice (alternative spelling: Beetle Juice) is a film directed by Tim Burton, first released in the USA on March 30, 1988, and produced by The Geffen Film Company for Warner Brothers Pictures. The plot revolves around two recently deceased ghosts, Adam Maitland (Alec Baldwin) and his wife, Barbara, (Geena Davis), who seek the help of an obnoxious bio-exorcist, Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), to remove the new owners of their house -- a family of metropolitan yuppies from New York City named Deetz. The Deetz family consists of Charles (Jeffrey Jones), his second wife, Delia (Catherine O'Hara), and his teenage daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder). This marks the first time that Keaton and Burton teamed up. The second and third times were in Batman and Batman Returns. The score was composed by Danny Elfman.

Contents
1 Plot
2 Development
3 Reaction
3.1 TV series
4 Sequel
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Plot
The story begins with the Maitlands, Adam (Alec Baldwin) and his wife Barbara (Geena Davis), a young couple living in the small town of Winter River, Connecticut. Adam and Barbara are about to begin their much needed vacation, but first, Adam needs to make a quick trip to the hardware store. Barbara decides to come along. On the way back, they swerve off the road to avoid hitting a dog, and their car goes over the side of the Winter River Bridge. Upon their return home, the couple start to notice some strange things: Barbara's hand catches fire, but she's not burned. No matter what they do, they can't seem to get warm. They have no reflections. No one else can see them. When Adam tries to backtrack their steps from the bridge (how they got back home is still a mystery), he's transported to a desert which is infested with monstrous sandworms that seems to have a time displacement effect. Then, they find a book entitled The Handbook for the Recently Deceased. "I don't think we
survived that crash," Barbara says.

Baldwin in BeetlejuiceAway in the afterlife, Betelgeuse is reading the newspaper and sees the Maitland's obituary. He remarks on how gullible they look. Not long after, Adam and Barbara get a rude awakening: Barbara's sister, Jane, has sold their house to the Deetz family from New York, which she had been trying to do before the Maitlands died. Charles Deetz is a contractor for a major real estate company. His wife, Delia (Lydia's stepmother) is a sculptor known for her creepy art style. She hates the look of the house, and wants to make some major changes. Charles' daughter, Lydia, is a rebellious goth teenager with an interest in photography and a bleak outlook on life. In addition, Delia's friend, Otho, has come along to give her some decorating tips for the old house.

Adam and Barbara want to get the Deetz's out of the house and decide to act like ghosts in order to do so. This proves to be difficult since they cannot be seen, although Lydia appears to notice them. Adam locks the Deetz's out of the attic, which the Maitlands consider to be their sanctuary. After several frustrating attempts to scare the Deetz's away, and after getting several messages from Betelguese, the Maitlands find their way to the afterlife, which is presented as a stuffy bureaucratic office, where they take a number and wait in the Waiting Room of Lost Souls along with ghosts that seem to have died in comically dramatic ways. After waiting, they talk with Juno, their caseworker, who gives them advice on how to do a proper haunting. She also warns them to stay away from Betelgeuse, who she says was once her assistant, but he just couldn't stay out of trouble: the only way to summon him is by calling his name three times. Taking Juno's advice, they try something simpl
e and put on old sheets and moan like ghosts. This is also unsuccessful at frightening the family, but it causes them to meet Lydia. When asked how she can see them, Lydia says she read their handbook, which states that normal people usually ignore things that are strange and unusual. "I myself am strange and unusual," she says. She quickly becomes a friend of the Maitlands and agrees to convince her parents to move out if Adam and Barbara really want their house back. Her parents, however, don't believe her story about the ghosts.

Back in the attic, Adam and Barbara get up the guts to summon Betelgeuse, who is living in Adam's scale model of the town. They call out his name three times, causing themselves to shrink down to scale with the model. When they meet Betelgeuse, he turns out to be even worse than Juno described him, and they refuse to do business with him. Barbara transports herself and Adam back to the attic by crying "Home" three times, leaving Betelgeuse still wandering the model. Eventually Adam gets an idea of how to scare off the Deetz's on their own: downstairs, Delia is hosting a dinner party for several of her friends and associates from New York. In the middle of dinner, everyone, except for Lydia, is placed under possession. They begin dancing around the table and sing the calypso, "The Banana Boat Song." Back in the attic, the Maitlands watch, expecting to see the guests running to their cars in terror. Lydia comes to the door and tells them that no one was scared by their little s
tunt; in fact, they loved it. Charles even wants to merchandise it. They want the Maitlands to come down and introduce themselves. When Lydia returns downstairs without the Maitlands, she explains that they want to be left alone. Disappointed, Delia's guests leave. Irritated, Delia leads the family upstairs to confront the ghosts. When the attic door finally opens, the room appears deserted (the Maitlands are hiding outside the window). Otho finds the handbook and steals it, before leaving. Betelgeuse laughs at the Maitlands pathetic attempts to scare people and goes to work himself.

Ryder in a promotional photo for BeetlejuiceDownstairs, Charles is making plans to bring his partner, Maxie Dean, to see the property. Suddenly, Betelgeuse appears in the form of a snake. He attacks the Deetz's, but stops when he gets to Lydia. There's something that he likes about her. Barbara stops him by calling out his name. Lydia is upset, thinking the snake was another of the Maitlands' attempts to scare them away. Back in the attic, the Maitlands confront Betelgeuse until he is distracted by the appearance of a fully staffed brothel in the model town. Adam and Barbara are suddenly transported to Juno's office, where she explains that she set up the brothel as a distraction for Betelgeuse. She is furious at the Maitlands; they've risked the exposure of the afterlife by allowing themselves to be photographed by Lydia, let Otho take their handbook, and they have released Betelgeuse and not put him back. She orders them to return to the house and chase the Deetz's away for
good. On their way back, they begin to question their assignment. They both like Lydia too much to see her go.

Back at the house, the Deetz's are preparing for the arrival of Maxie Dean and his wife Sarah. Otho has something special planned; a spell to summon the Maitlands' spirits. Meanwhile, Lydia is in her room, drafting a suicide note for her parents. She goes up to the attic, looking for the Maitlands, and instead, finds Betelgeuse. He agrees to take her to the other side (killing her), if she lets him out of the model by saying his name. He plays charades with her to help her guess his name, since even he can't say it out loud. After guessing his name, she recognizes him as the snake. Betelgeuse denies this and commands her to say his name again. Just then, the Maitlands arrive and stop her. Betelguese runs away. They convince her not to kill herself and tell her that they've decided to let her family stay. Downstairs, Lydia finds that the Deans have arrived and Otho begins the spell he thought up using the handbook.

The spell summons the Maitlands into the room and causes them to start to wither and decay: apparently it is an exorcism spell. They were warned that for ghosts who are exorcised, it's like a second death. Desperate, Lydia finds Betelgeuse and begs him to help the Maitlands. He agrees, but only if Lydia agrees to marry him -- this is apparently the only way he can get out of the boring afterlife for good. Reluctantly, Lydia agrees, and calls out his name. Betelgeuse appears and removes (in a violent and comic manner) the Deans from the house. As promised, Betelgeuse frees the Maitlands from Otho's spell, although he is anything but gentle about it. As Otho tries to run from the house, Betelgeuse torments him by changing his traditional black outfit into a tacky leisure suit. Having fulfilled his end of the bargain, it's now time for Lydia to fulfill hers. Betelgeuse attempts to marry Lydia to escape from the afterlife. Barbara then ultimately "destroys" Betelgeuse by bringing
a sandworm through the house, which eats him. The Maitlands and Deetz's finally meet and reconcile their differences.

Several months later, things seem to be better. The Maitlands and the Deetz's are at peace and Lydia has a better outlook on life. Betelgeuse, obviously having survived the ordeal, is back where he started in Waiting Room of the afterlife, and is still getting into trouble.

[edit] Development
The financial success of Pee-wee's Big Adventure meant that Tim Burton was now considered a "bankable" director. He had begun working on a script for Warner Brothers for a proposed Batman movie with screenwriter Sam Hamm, but while the studio was willing to pay for the script's development, they were less willing to green-light the project. Meanwhile, Burton had begun reading through various comedic scripts that had been sent his way, and was swiftly becoming disheartened by their lack of imagination and originality, one of which was Hot to Trot.[1]

It wasn't until David Geffen, whose company had a distribution deal with Warner Brothers, handed him a script called Beetlejuice, written by Michael McDowell. McDowell previously wrote the script for "The Jar" on The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents, directed by Burton. Burton was most fascinated by the ghoulish, bizarre, and highly imaginative styles with the potential for outrageous set designs and innovative special effects. This in all, was described by McDowell as, "a feel-good movie about death."[1]

Burton claimed at one time while they were rewriting the scrips that he wanted to cast Sammy Davis Jr as Betelgeuse. McDowell and producer Larry Wilson kept working on the script, but they were eventually getting tired working with Burton. Warren Skaaren was then brought in because Burton claims McDowell and Wilson "were burnt out."[1]

It was originally Geffen's idea to cast Michael Keaton as Betelgeuse, and Burton was convinced on the idea after meeting him, calling him a "manic livewire." Burton claims that Geena Davis was very optimistic to sign on. Burton was inspired to cast Winona Ryder after viewing her performance in Lucas.[1]

Beetlejuice's budget was $13 million with just one million of that given over to special effects work. It was always Burton's intention that the special effects "be cheap, creaky illusions rather than state -of-the-art effects," something similar seen in various B Movies Burton saw as a child. Danny Elfman once again collaborated with Burton to score the music.[1]

The studio disliked the title Beetlejuice and wanted to call the film House Ghosts. Burton claims it was very close to being changed. The studio quoted, "Beetlejuice doesn't test, but House Ghosts is going through the roof." As a joke, Burton suggested the name Scared Sheetless and was horrified when the studio actually considered using it.[1]

[edit] Reaction
Beetlejuice opened around April Fool's Day in 1988, and was a surprise success, taking $32 million in its first two weeks,. Eventually it would gross more than $73 million, monstrously beating out its $11 million budget. Ve Neill, Steve La Porte, and Robert Short won an Oscar for Best Makeup. Pauline Kael called the film a "comedy classic."[1]

Time Out London was massively impressed by the film, declaring that "the off-the wall humor and some sensational sight gags make the movie, maddeningly disjointed though it sometimes is, a truly astonishing piece of work."[2] Roger Ebert took a different view, wishing the film had been more character-driven and had "cut back on the slapstick."[3]

The film holds a 7.2/10 on IMDB and a certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, scoring 79%/100%. Warner Brothers finally greenlighted the long-in-development Batman film for Tim Burton upon viewing the box office success from the first week. Burton claims that Alex Baldwin hated the film. Burton quoted, "Alec kind of bad-mouthed the movie and me. While I think he did a good job, I don't think he saw it for what it was. I don't know what he saw."[1]

[edit] TV series
Main article: Beetlejuice (TV series)
Due to the success of the film, an animated television series called Beetlejuice, ran on ABC from September 9, 1989 to December 6, 1991, featuring the voices of Stephen Ouimette, Alyson Court, and Tara Strong. Lydia and Betelgeuse are friends, and she frequently visits him at home in the Netherworld (called the Neitherworld in the cartoon). Many of the jokes revolve around dark humor and visual puns. Beetlejuice had a cast of wacky neighbors: Jacques, a French skeleton fitness buff; Ginger, a tap-dancing spider; The Monster across the Street, a boisterous Texas redneck; and a nasty clown named Scuzzo, who is his arch-nemesis. Notably missing are the characters of Adam and Barbara Maitland

[edit] Sequel
Kevin Smith talks of being offered to rewrite a script for a tentative sequel, titled Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian, which he passed over in order to work on Superman Lives. Smith responded with, "Didn't we say all we needed to say in the first Beetlejuice? Must we go tropical?"[4] Based on Internet rumor, the second movie would have seen Beetlejuice accompanying the Maitlands to Hawaii for various undead tropical hijinks. Before Smith, Mars Attacks! screenwriter Jonathan Gems turned in a draft as well.

[edit] References
^ a b c d e f g h Mark Salisbury (2000). Burton on Burton: Revised Edition. Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-57120-507-0.
^ Beetlejuice DVD review. Retrieved on 2007-02-16.
^ Roger Ebert (March 30, 1988). Beetlejuice review. Retrieved on 2007-02-16.
^ (2002). An Evening With Kevin Smith (DVD). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
Beetlejuice
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article or section contains a plot summary that is too long compared to the rest of the article.
Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot.
Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice movie poster
Directed by Tim Burton
Produced by Michael Bender
Richard Hashimoto
Larry Wilson
Written by Michael McDowell
Larry Wilson
Warren Skaaren
Starring Alec Baldwin
Geena Davis
Jeffrey Jones
Catherine O'Hara
Winona Ryder
Michael Keaton
Glenn Shadix
Robert Goulet
Sylvia Sidney
Dick Cavett
Music by Danny Elfman
Cinematography Thomas E. Ackerman
Editing by Jane Kurson
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date(s) March 30, 1988 (USA)
Running time 92 min.
Country USA
Language English
Budget $11,000,000
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile
This article is about the film. For other uses, see Beetlejuice (disambiguation).
For the astronomical object, see Betelgeuse.
Beetlejuice (alternative spelling: Beetle Juice) is a film directed by Tim Burton, first released in the USA on March 30, 1988, and produced by The Geffen Film Company for Warner Brothers Pictures. The plot revolves around two recently deceased ghosts, Adam Maitland (Alec Baldwin) and his wife, Barbara, (Geena Davis), who seek the help of an obnoxious bio-exorcist, Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), to remove the new owners of their house -- a family of metropolitan yuppies from New York City named Deetz. The Deetz family consists of Charles (Jeffrey Jones), his second wife, Delia (Catherine O'Hara), and his teenage daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder). This marks the first time that Keaton and Burton teamed up. The second and third times were in Batman and Batman Returns. The score was composed by Danny Elfman.

Contents
1 Plot
2 Development
3 Reaction
3.1 TV series
4 Sequel
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Plot
The story begins with the Maitlands, Adam (Alec Baldwin) and his wife Barbara (Geena Davis), a young couple living in the small town of Winter River, Connecticut. Adam and Barbara are about to begin their much needed vacation, but first, Adam needs to make a quick trip to the hardware store. Barbara decides to come along. On the way back, they swerve off the road to avoid hitting a dog, and their car goes over the side of the Winter River Bridge. Upon their return home, the couple start to notice some strange things: Barbara's hand catches fire, but she's not burned. No matter what they do, they can't seem to get warm. They have no reflections. No one else can see them. When Adam tries to backtrack their steps from the bridge (how they got back home is still a mystery), he's transported to a desert which is infested with monstrous sandworms that seems to have a time displacement effect. Then, they find a book entitled The Handbook for the Recently Deceased. "I don't think we
survived that crash," Barbara says.

Baldwin in BeetlejuiceAway in the afterlife, Betelgeuse is reading the newspaper and sees the Maitland's obituary. He remarks on how gullible they look. Not long after, Adam and Barbara get a rude awakening: Barbara's sister, Jane, has sold their house to the Deetz family from New York, which she had been trying to do before the Maitlands died. Charles Deetz is a contractor for a major real estate company. His wife, Delia (Lydia's stepmother) is a sculptor known for her creepy art style. She hates the look of the house, and wants to make some major changes. Charles' daughter, Lydia, is a rebellious goth teenager with an interest in photography and a bleak outlook on life. In addition, Delia's friend, Otho, has come along to give her some decorating tips for the old house.

Adam and Barbara want to get the Deetz's out of the house and decide to act like ghosts in order to do so. This proves to be difficult since they cannot be seen, although Lydia appears to notice them. Adam locks the Deetz's out of the attic, which the Maitlands consider to be their sanctuary. After several frustrating attempts to scare the Deetz's away, and after getting several messages from Betelguese, the Maitlands find their way to the afterlife, which is presented as a stuffy bureaucratic office, where they take a number and wait in the Waiting Room of Lost Souls along with ghosts that seem to have died in comically dramatic ways. After waiting, they talk with Juno, their caseworker, who gives them advice on how to do a proper haunting. She also warns them to stay away from Betelgeuse, who she says was once her assistant, but he just couldn't stay out of trouble: the only way to summon him is by calling his name three times. Taking Juno's advice, they try something simpl
e and put on old sheets and moan like ghosts. This is also unsuccessful at frightening the family, but it causes them to meet Lydia. When asked how she can see them, Lydia says she read their handbook, which states that normal people usually ignore things that are strange and unusual. "I myself am strange and unusual," she says. She quickly becomes a friend of the Maitlands and agrees to convince her parents to move out if Adam and Barbara really want their house back. Her parents, however, don't believe her story about the ghosts.

Back in the attic, Adam and Barbara get up the guts to summon Betelgeuse, who is living in Adam's scale model of the town. They call out his name three times, causing themselves to shrink down to scale with the model. When they meet Betelgeuse, he turns out to be even worse than Juno described him, and they refuse to do business with him. Barbara transports herself and Adam back to the attic by crying "Home" three times, leaving Betelgeuse still wandering the model. Eventually Adam gets an idea of how to scare off the Deetz's on their own: downstairs, Delia is hosting a dinner party for several of her friends and associates from New York. In the middle of dinner, everyone, except for Lydia, is placed under possession. They begin dancing around the table and sing the calypso, "The Banana Boat Song." Back in the attic, the Maitlands watch, expecting to see the guests running to their cars in terror. Lydia comes to the door and tells them that no one was scared by their little s
tunt; in fact, they loved it. Charles even wants to merchandise it. They want the Maitlands to come down and introduce themselves. When Lydia returns downstairs without the Maitlands, she explains that they want to be left alone. Disappointed, Delia's guests leave. Irritated, Delia leads the family upstairs to confront the ghosts. When the attic door finally opens, the room appears deserted (the Maitlands are hiding outside the window). Otho finds the handbook and steals it, before leaving. Betelgeuse laughs at the Maitlands pathetic attempts to scare people and goes to work himself.

Ryder in a promotional photo for BeetlejuiceDownstairs, Charles is making plans to bring his partner, Maxie Dean, to see the property. Suddenly, Betelgeuse appears in the form of a snake. He attacks the Deetz's, but stops when he gets to Lydia. There's something that he likes about her. Barbara stops him by calling out his name. Lydia is upset, thinking the snake was another of the Maitlands' attempts to scare them away. Back in the attic, the Maitlands confront Betelgeuse until he is distracted by the appearance of a fully staffed brothel in the model town. Adam and Barbara are suddenly transported to Juno's office, where she explains that she set up the brothel as a distraction for Betelgeuse. She is furious at the Maitlands; they've risked the exposure of the afterlife by allowing themselves to be photographed by Lydia, let Otho take their handbook, and they have released Betelgeuse and not put him back. She orders them to return to the house and chase the Deetz's away for
good. On their way back, they begin to question their assignment. They both like Lydia too much to see her go.

Back at the house, the Deetz's are preparing for the arrival of Maxie Dean and his wife Sarah. Otho has something special planned; a spell to summon the Maitlands' spirits. Meanwhile, Lydia is in her room, drafting a suicide note for her parents. She goes up to the attic, looking for the Maitlands, and instead, finds Betelgeuse. He agrees to take her to the other side (killing her), if she lets him out of the model by saying his name. He plays charades with her to help her guess his name, since even he can't say it out loud. After guessing his name, she recognizes him as the snake. Betelgeuse denies this and commands her to say his name again. Just then, the Maitlands arrive and stop her. Betelguese runs away. They convince her not to kill herself and tell her that they've decided to let her family stay. Downstairs, Lydia finds that the Deans have arrived and Otho begins the spell he thought up using the handbook.

The spell summons the Maitlands into the room and causes them to start to wither and decay: apparently it is an exorcism spell. They were warned that for ghosts who are exorcised, it's like a second death. Desperate, Lydia finds Betelgeuse and begs him to help the Maitlands. He agrees, but only if Lydia agrees to marry him -- this is apparently the only way he can get out of the boring afterlife for good. Reluctantly, Lydia agrees, and calls out his name. Betelgeuse appears and removes (in a violent and comic manner) the Deans from the house. As promised, Betelgeuse frees the Maitlands from Otho's spell, although he is anything but gentle about it. As Otho tries to run from the house, Betelgeuse torments him by changing his traditional black outfit into a tacky leisure suit. Having fulfilled his end of the bargain, it's now time for Lydia to fulfill hers. Betelgeuse attempts to marry Lydia to escape from the afterlife. Barbara then ultimately "destroys" Betelgeuse by bringing
a sandworm through the house, which eats him. The Maitlands and Deetz's finally meet and reconcile their differences.

Several months later, things seem to be better. The Maitlands and the Deetz's are at peace and Lydia has a better outlook on life. Betelgeuse, obviously having survived the ordeal, is back where he started in Waiting Room of the afterlife, and is still getting into trouble.

[edit] Development
The financial success of Pee-wee's Big Adventure meant that Tim Burton was now considered a "bankable" director. He had begun working on a script for Warner Brothers for a proposed Batman movie with screenwriter Sam Hamm, but while the studio was willing to pay for the script's development, they were less willing to green-light the project. Meanwhile, Burton had begun reading through various comedic scripts that had been sent his way, and was swiftly becoming disheartened by their lack of imagination and originality, one of which was Hot to Trot.[1]

It wasn't until David Geffen, whose company had a distribution deal with Warner Brothers, handed him a script called Beetlejuice, written by Michael McDowell. McDowell previously wrote the script for "The Jar" on The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents, directed by Burton. Burton was most fascinated by the ghoulish, bizarre, and highly imaginative styles with the potential for outrageous set designs and innovative special effects. This in all, was described by McDowell as, "a feel-good movie about death."[1]

Burton claimed at one time while they were rewriting the scrips that he wanted to cast Sammy Davis Jr as Betelgeuse. McDowell and producer Larry Wilson kept working on the script, but they were eventually getting tired working with Burton. Warren Skaaren was then brought in because Burton claims McDowell and Wilson "were burnt out."[1]

It was originally Geffen's idea to cast Michael Keaton as Betelgeuse, and Burton was convinced on the idea after meeting him, calling him a "manic livewire." Burton claims that Geena Davis was very optimistic to sign on. Burton was inspired to cast Winona Ryder after viewing her performance in Lucas.[1]

Beetlejuice's budget was $13 million with just one million of that given over to special effects work. It was always Burton's intention that the special effects "be cheap, creaky illusions rather than state -of-the-art effects," something similar seen in various B Movies Burton saw as a child. Danny Elfman once again collaborated with Burton to score the music.[1]

The studio disliked the title Beetlejuice and wanted to call the film House Ghosts. Burton claims it was very close to being changed. The studio quoted, "Beetlejuice doesn't test, but House Ghosts is going through the roof." As a joke, Burton suggested the name Scared Sheetless and was horrified when the studio actually considered using it.[1]

[edit] Reaction
Beetlejuice opened around April Fool's Day in 1988, and was a surprise success, taking $32 million in its first two weeks,. Eventually it would gross more than $73 million, monstrously beating out its $11 million budget. Ve Neill, Steve La Porte, and Robert Short won an Oscar for Best Makeup. Pauline Kael called the film a "comedy classic."[1]

Time Out London was massively impressed by the film, declaring that "the off-the wall humor and some sensational sight gags make the movie, maddeningly disjointed though it sometimes is, a truly astonishing piece of work."[2] Roger Ebert took a different view, wishing the film had been more character-driven and had "cut back on the slapstick."[3]

The film holds a 7.2/10 on IMDB and a certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, scoring 79%/100%. Warner Brothers finally greenlighted the long-in-development Batman film for Tim Burton upon viewing the box office success from the first week. Burton claims that Alex Baldwin hated the film. Burton quoted, "Alec kind of bad-mouthed the movie and me. While I think he did a good job, I don't think he saw it for what it was. I don't know what he saw."[1]

[edit] TV series
Main article: Beetlejuice (TV series)
Due to the success of the film, an animated television series called Beetlejuice, ran on ABC from September 9, 1989 to December 6, 1991, featuring the voices of Stephen Ouimette, Alyson Court, and Tara Strong. Lydia and Betelgeuse are friends, and she frequently visits him at home in the Netherworld (called the Neitherworld in the cartoon). Many of the jokes revolve around dark humor and visual puns. Beetlejuice had a cast of wacky neighbors: Jacques, a French skeleton fitness buff; Ginger, a tap-dancing spider; The Monster across the Street, a boisterous Texas redneck; and a nasty clown named Scuzzo, who is his arch-nemesis. Notably missing are the characters of Adam and Barbara Maitland

[edit] Sequel
Kevin Smith talks of being offered to rewrite a script for a tentative sequel, titled Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian, which he passed over in order to work on Superman Lives. Smith responded with, "Didn't we say all we needed to say in the first Beetlejuice? Must we go tropical?"[4] Based on Internet rumor, the second movie would have seen Beetlejuice accompanying the Maitlands to Hawaii for various undead tropical hijinks. Before Smith, Mars Attacks! screenwriter Jonathan Gems turned in a draft as well.

[edit] References
^ a b c d e f g h Mark Salisbury (2000). Burton on Burton: Revised Edition. Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-57120-507-0.
^ Beetlejuice DVD review. Retrieved on 2007-02-16.
^ Roger Ebert (March 30, 1988). Beetlejuice review. Retrieved on 2007-02-16.
^ (2002). An Evening With Kevin Smith (DVD). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
Beetlejuice
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article or section contains a plot summary that is too long compared to the rest of the article.
Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot.
Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice movie poster
Directed by Tim Burton
Produced by Michael Bender
Richard Hashimoto
Larry Wilson
Written by Michael McDowell
Larry Wilson
Warren Skaaren
Starring Alec Baldwin
Geena Davis
Jeffrey Jones
Catherine O'Hara
Winona Ryder
Michael Keaton
Glenn Shadix
Robert Goulet
Sylvia Sidney
Dick Cavett
Music by Danny Elfman
Cinematography Thomas E. Ackerman
Editing by Jane Kurson
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date(s) March 30, 1988 (USA)
Running time 92 min.
Country USA
Language English
Budget $11,000,000
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile
This article is about the film. For other uses, see Beetlejuice (disambiguation).
For the astronomical object, see Betelgeuse.
Beetlejuice (alternative spelling: Beetle Juice) is a film directed by Tim Burton, first released in the USA on March 30, 1988, and produced by The Geffen Film Company for Warner Brothers Pictures. The plot revolves around two recently deceased ghosts, Adam Maitland (Alec Baldwin) and his wife, Barbara, (Geena Davis), who seek the help of an obnoxious bio-exorcist, Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), to remove the new owners of their house -- a family of metropolitan yuppies from New York City named Deetz. The Deetz family consists of Charles (Jeffrey Jones), his second wife, Delia (Catherine O'Hara), and his teenage daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder). This marks the first time that Keaton and Burton teamed up. The second and third times were in Batman and Batman Returns. The score was composed by Danny Elfman.

Contents
1 Plot
2 Development
3 Reaction
3.1 TV series
4 Sequel
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Plot
The story begins with the Maitlands, Adam (Alec Baldwin) and his wife Barbara (Geena Davis), a young couple living in the small town of Winter River, Connecticut. Adam and Barbara are about to begin their much needed vacation, but first, Adam needs to make a quick trip to the hardware store. Barbara decides to come along. On the way back, they swerve off the road to avoid hitting a dog, and their car goes over the side of the Winter River Bridge. Upon their return home, the couple start to notice some strange things: Barbara's hand catches fire, but she's not burned. No matter what they do, they can't seem to get warm. They have no reflections. No one else can see them. When Adam tries to backtrack their steps from the bridge (how they got back home is still a mystery), he's transported to a desert which is infested with monstrous sandworms that seems to have a time displacement effect. Then, they find a book entitled The Handbook for the Recently Deceased. "I don't think we
survived that crash," Barbara says.

Baldwin in BeetlejuiceAway in the afterlife, Betelgeuse is reading the newspaper and sees the Maitland's obituary. He remarks on how gullible they look. Not long after, Adam and Barbara get a rude awakening: Barbara's sister, Jane, has sold their house to the Deetz family from New York, which she had been trying to do before the Maitlands died. Charles Deetz is a contractor for a major real estate company. His wife, Delia (Lydia's stepmother) is a sculptor known for her creepy art style. She hates the look of the house, and wants to make some major changes. Charles' daughter, Lydia, is a rebellious goth teenager with an interest in photography and a bleak outlook on life. In addition, Delia's friend, Otho, has come along to give her some decorating tips for the old house.

Adam and Barbara want to get the Deetz's out of the house and decide to act like ghosts in order to do so. This proves to be difficult since they cannot be seen, although Lydia appears to notice them. Adam locks the Deetz's out of the attic, which the Maitlands consider to be their sanctuary. After several frustrating attempts to scare the Deetz's away, and after getting several messages from Betelguese, the Maitlands find their way to the afterlife, which is presented as a stuffy bureaucratic office, where they take a number and wait in the Waiting Room of Lost Souls along with ghosts that seem to have died in comically dramatic ways. After waiting, they talk with Juno, their caseworker, who gives them advice on how to do a proper haunting. She also warns them to stay away from Betelgeuse, who she says was once her assistant, but he just couldn't stay out of trouble: the only way to summon him is by calling his name three times. Taking Juno's advice, they try something simpl
e and put on old sheets and moan like ghosts. This is also unsuccessful at frightening the family, but it causes them to meet Lydia. When asked how she can see them, Lydia says she read their handbook, which states that normal people usually ignore things that are strange and unusual. "I myself am strange and unusual," she says. She quickly becomes a friend of the Maitlands and agrees to convince her parents to move out if Adam and Barbara really want their house back. Her parents, however, don't believe her story about the ghosts.

Back in the attic, Adam and Barbara get up the guts to summon Betelgeuse, who is living in Adam's scale model of the town. They call out his name three times, causing themselves to shrink down to scale with the model. When they meet Betelgeuse, he turns out to be even worse than Juno described him, and they refuse to do business with him. Barbara transports herself and Adam back to the attic by crying "Home" three times, leaving Betelgeuse still wandering the model. Eventually Adam gets an idea of how to scare off the Deetz's on their own: downstairs, Delia is hosting a dinner party for several of her friends and associates from New York. In the middle of dinner, everyone, except for Lydia, is placed under possession. They begin dancing around the table and sing the calypso, "The Banana Boat Song." Back in the attic, the Maitlands watch, expecting to see the guests running to their cars in terror. Lydia comes to the door and tells them that no one was scared by their little s
tunt; in fact, they loved it. Charles even wants to merchandise it. They want the Maitlands to come down and introduce themselves. When Lydia returns downstairs without the Maitlands, she explains that they want to be left alone. Disappointed, Delia's guests leave. Irritated, Delia leads the family upstairs to confront the ghosts. When the attic door finally opens, the room appears deserted (the Maitlands are hiding outside the window). Otho finds the handbook and steals it, before leaving. Betelgeuse laughs at the Maitlands pathetic attempts to scare people and goes to work himself.

Ryder in a promotional photo for BeetlejuiceDownstairs, Charles is making plans to bring his partner, Maxie Dean, to see the property. Suddenly, Betelgeuse appears in the form of a snake. He attacks the Deetz's, but stops when he gets to Lydia. There's something that he likes about her. Barbara stops him by calling out his name. Lydia is upset, thinking the snake was another of the Maitlands' attempts to scare them away. Back in the attic, the Maitlands confront Betelgeuse until he is distracted by the appearance of a fully staffed brothel in the model town. Adam and Barbara are suddenly transported to Juno's office, where she explains that she set up the brothel as a distraction for Betelgeuse. She is furious at the Maitlands; they've risked the exposure of the afterlife by allowing themselves to be photographed by Lydia, let Otho take their handbook, and they have released Betelgeuse and not put him back. She orders them to return to the house and chase the Deetz's away for
good. On their way back, they begin to question their assignment. They both like Lydia too much to see her go.

Back at the house, the Deetz's are preparing for the arrival of Maxie Dean and his wife Sarah. Otho has something special planned; a spell to summon the Maitlands' spirits. Meanwhile, Lydia is in her room, drafting a suicide note for her parents. She goes up to the attic, looking for the Maitlands, and instead, finds Betelgeuse. He agrees to take her to the other side (killing her), if she lets him out of the model by saying his name. He plays charades with her to help her guess his name, since even he can't say it out loud. After guessing his name, she recognizes him as the snake. Betelgeuse denies this and commands her to say his name again. Just then, the Maitlands arrive and stop her. Betelguese runs away. They convince her not to kill herself and tell her that they've decided to let her family stay. Downstairs, Lydia finds that the Deans have arrived and Otho begins the spell he thought up using the handbook.

The spell summons the Maitlands into the room and causes them to start to wither and decay: apparently it is an exorcism spell. They were warned that for ghosts who are exorcised, it's like a second death. Desperate, Lydia finds Betelgeuse and begs him to help the Maitlands. He agrees, but only if Lydia agrees to marry him -- this is apparently the only way he can get out of the boring afterlife for good. Reluctantly, Lydia agrees, and calls out his name. Betelgeuse appears and removes (in a violent and comic manner) the Deans from the house. As promised, Betelgeuse frees the Maitlands from Otho's spell, although he is anything but gentle about it. As Otho tries to run from the house, Betelgeuse torments him by changing his traditional black outfit into a tacky leisure suit. Having fulfilled his end of the bargain, it's now time for Lydia to fulfill hers. Betelgeuse attempts to marry Lydia to escape from the afterlife. Barbara then ultimately "destroys" Betelgeuse by bringing
a sandworm through the house, which eats him. The Maitlands and Deetz's finally meet and reconcile their differences.

Several months later, things seem to be better. The Maitlands and the Deetz's are at peace and Lydia has a better outlook on life. Betelgeuse, obviously having survived the ordeal, is back where he started in Waiting Room of the afterlife, and is still getting into trouble.

[edit] Development
The financial success of Pee-wee's Big Adventure meant that Tim Burton was now considered a "bankable" director. He had begun working on a script for Warner Brothers for a proposed Batman movie with screenwriter Sam Hamm, but while the studio was willing to pay for the script's development, they were less willing to green-light the project. Meanwhile, Burton had begun reading through various comedic scripts that had been sent his way, and was swiftly becoming disheartened by their lack of imagination and originality, one of which was Hot to Trot.[1]

It wasn't until David Geffen, whose company had a distribution deal with Warner Brothers, handed him a script called Beetlejuice, written by Michael McDowell. McDowell previously wrote the script for "The Jar" on The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents, directed by Burton. Burton was most fascinated by the ghoulish, bizarre, and highly imaginative styles with the potential for outrageous set designs and innovative special effects. This in all, was described by McDowell as, "a feel-good movie about death."[1]

Burton claimed at one time while they were rewriting the scrips that he wanted to cast Sammy Davis Jr as Betelgeuse. McDowell and producer Larry Wilson kept working on the script, but they were eventually getting tired working with Burton. Warren Skaaren was then brought in because Burton claims McDowell and Wilson "were burnt out."[1]

It was originally Geffen's idea to cast Michael Keaton as Betelgeuse, and Burton was convinced on the idea after meeting him, calling him a "manic livewire." Burton claims that Geena Davis was very optimistic to sign on. Burton was inspired to cast Winona Ryder after viewing her performance in Lucas.[1]

Beetlejuice's budget was $13 million with just one million of that given over to special effects work. It was always Burton's intention that the special effects "be cheap, creaky illusions rather than state -of-the-art effects," something similar seen in various B Movies Burton saw as a child. Danny Elfman once again collaborated with Burton to score the music.[1]

The studio disliked the title Beetlejuice and wanted to call the film House Ghosts. Burton claims it was very close to being changed. The studio quoted, "Beetlejuice doesn't test, but House Ghosts is going through the roof." As a joke, Burton suggested the name Scared Sheetless and was horrified when the studio actually considered using it.[1]

[edit] Reaction
Beetlejuice opened around April Fool's Day in 1988, and was a surprise success, taking $32 million in its first two weeks,. Eventually it would gross more than $73 million, monstrously beating out its $11 million budget. Ve Neill, Steve La Porte, and Robert Short won an Oscar for Best Makeup. Pauline Kael called the film a "comedy classic."[1]

Time Out London was massively impressed by the film, declaring that "the off-the wall humor and some sensational sight gags make the movie, maddeningly disjointed though it sometimes is, a truly astonishing piece of work."[2] Roger Ebert took a different view, wishing the film had been more character-driven and had "cut back on the slapstick."[3]

The film holds a 7.2/10 on IMDB and a certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, scoring 79%/100%. Warner Brothers finally greenlighted the long-in-development Batman film for Tim Burton upon viewing the box office success from the first week. Burton claims that Alex Baldwin hated the film. Burton quoted, "Alec kind of bad-mouthed the movie and me. While I think he did a good job, I don't think he saw it for what it was. I don't know what he saw."[1]

[edit] TV series
Main article: Beetlejuice (TV series)
Due to the success of the film, an animated television series called Beetlejuice, ran on ABC from September 9, 1989 to December 6, 1991, featuring the voices of Stephen Ouimette, Alyson Court, and Tara Strong. Lydia and Betelgeuse are friends, and she frequently visits him at home in the Netherworld (called the Neitherworld in the cartoon). Many of the jokes revolve around dark humor and visual puns. Beetlejuice had a cast of wacky neighbors: Jacques, a French skeleton fitness buff; Ginger, a tap-dancing spider; The Monster across the Street, a boisterous Texas redneck; and a nasty clown named Scuzzo, who is his arch-nemesis. Notably missing are the characters of Adam and Barbara Maitland

[edit] Sequel
Kevin Smith talks of being offered to rewrite a script for a tentative sequel, titled Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian, which he passed over in order to work on Superman Lives. Smith responded with, "Didn't we say all we needed to say in the first Beetlejuice? Must we go tropical?"[4] Based on Internet rumor, the second movie would have seen Beetlejuice accompanying the Maitlands to Hawaii for various undead tropical hijinks. Before Smith, Mars Attacks! screenwriter Jonathan Gems turned in a draft as well.

[edit] References
^ a b c d e f g h Mark Salisbury (2000). Burton on Burton: Revised Edition. Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-57120-507-0.
^ Beetlejuice DVD review. Retrieved on 2007-02-16.
^ Roger Ebert (March 30, 1988). Beetlejuice review. Retrieved on 2007-02-16.
^ (2002). An Evening With Kevin Smith (DVD). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.