Monstermaster13 presents: A Lookback at Beetlejuice
Nathan:
Hello i'm Nathan aka Monstermaster13 and I look at the really monstrous stuff that most people are too afraid to do.
Tonight's lookback is going to be special for two very different reasons. 1. Because it's only month to halloween. And 2. This month is the anniversary of Glenn Shadix's death.
To commemorate this we are going to look at one of the many projects Tim Burton has worked on over the years.
Love him or hate him, Burton is brilliant in his own wonderful eccentric way and his movies show this.
So without further adu, I present to you my lookback on the 1988 classic Beetlejuice (which is spelled Betelgeuse sometimes after the star)
Our protagonists are a newly deceased couple named Adam and Barbara Maitland, played by a young Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis.
While I normally find Alec Baldwin to be creepy especially seeing as in he got cast in bad guy type roles throughout the 90's and not to mention those Hulu adverts where he's an alien, he's actually very likable in this movie.
Both he and Geena do rather well in their performances in this movie and they have a lot of fun.
Adam and Barbara get involved in an accident and drown, only to come back as ghosts and to find out that some rather unwanted visitors are moving in.
The so called visitors in this are the eccentric artist Delia Deetz, her husband Charles, their lovely goth daughter Lydia and of course my personal favorite non BJ character - Otho.
Otho (played by Glenn Shadix) is an interior designer/fashion guru and 'paranormal expert' and he has some of the funniest lines in the movie even though he's a bit of a snob.
Delia and Otho plan on redesigning the Maitland's house into what I could best describe as a "modern art nightmare crossed with Salvador Dali" and this upsets our two ghostly heroes.
The way ghosts are represented in this movie is very intriguing especially seeing what the afterlife is like, it's like a work office with a room you have to wait in.
Also on an interesting sidenote, you can see a cameo in shadow by Jake and Elwood Blues of the Blues Brothers during the waiting room scene.
Even though that appearance is brief - to me it is STILL better than the travesties that were Wired and Blues Brothers 2000.
Lydia is the only one who can see the ghostly couple, and she forms a bond with them - as they treat her like she's their own child which is very endearing. Live people cannot see them because they ignore the strange and unusual...and she is by definition "strange and unusual".
The movie is full of really fun moments as well as scary moments, including some brilliant special effects - no CGI required at all, in fact this is pre-cgi.
This includes when Adam and Barbara pull their faces to make them into their "Scary/Creature" forms, the sandworms, and not to mention Beetlejuice himself.
Which brings me to the title character Beetlejuice, who is played by Michael Keaton - and he is fantastic in the role, bringing the right amount of ghoulish grossness and mischief to the role.
He is a blast to watch on screen and his pranks are ingenius, including what does at the end when he turns into a carousell (with might I add....a very early prototype for Jack Skellington on it).
And it's still funny seeing what he did to poor old Otho, changing his outfit to a blue suit. There's nothing scarier to this guy than clothes that are out of style. Am I the only one who feels sorry for poor Otho? Surely i'm not the only one.
This movie was really entertaining when I was little and it still is to this day, and it spawned a theme park attraction and an animated cartoon series. There was also a planned sequel in the works but it didn't come to fruitition.
There were also two action figure lines, one by Kenner based off the movie and another line based off the cartoon. As well as some figures by Neca including "Stretch-Faced Adam" and "Stretched Faced Barbara" and Beetlejuice with spikes coming out of his body.
The Kenner line had some interesting figures in it with their action figures, why they even had one of Otho! Imagine that...Otho getting an action figure. (note to self: Search on ebay for Otho action figure to go with my Mayor of Halloweentown plush).
The cast is all wonderful, I already mentioned how great Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis were along with Michael Keaton but it's time to mention the other wonderful cast members.
Catharine O Hara (who also starred in SCTV, Canada's answer to SNL alongside my favorite comedian John Candy, as well as being in Home Alone, and the voice of the villainess in Bartok the Magnificent), Jeffrey Jones (who plays Delia's husband, and the year after this movie came out was in Who's Harry Crumb, one of my favorite John Candy movies), Winona Ryder as the lovely Lydia Deetz and of course the late great Glenn Shadix as Otho Fenlock.
I love Shadix's performance in this and I know it's weird but I still tend to quote Otho's lines once and a while (I can actually do a sort of impression of him as well).
The score is beautiful and also very spooky with my favorite piece being the theme tune as well as the Harry Belafonte songs Bananana Boat song and Jump In The Line (okay, I believe you!).
Speaking of the theme tune, I heard it in an episode of the 2002 revival of the Basil Brush show, it was in the episode where Basil and Stephen become mad scientists.
Providing you with laughs from here to the Neitherworld, Beetlejuice is sure to make you scream and laugh at the same time all at once.
There have been numerous comedies that have tried to be like this movie, including one from the UK 1990's Drop Dead Fred with Rik Mayall (which coincidentally is getting a remake with...Russell Brand).
Speaking of Russell Brand...does anyone find it weird that he's signed onto to be in two different ghost themed comedies? One of which being Rentaghost (which like Tim Burton's version of Dark Shadows is an adaptation of a horror themed tv show) and the other being The Hauntrepeneur that definitely has a Tim Burton feel to it according to what i've read about on various entertainment websites.
Even the plot of the latter sounds very ummmmm....Beetlejuice-ish. Take a look for yourself:
"It revolves revolves around a family that has trouble adjusting to a new town hires a peculiar man who calls himself the Hauntrepreneur to help them. In an attempt to bring them together, the man creates a haunted house filled with an odd cast of characters."
So from the sound of it...the Hauntrepeneur is going to be like this huge Tim Burtonesque horror comedy, about a family that has trouble adjusting to a new home and they hear this oddball character to help them.
I'm guessing Russell's character the Hauntrepeneur is going to be that movie's version of BJ.
Again it does sound a LOT like a Tim Burton movie, especially considering that I think Russell himself is very Burtonesque in the way he looks and moves. He's tall and lanky with very messy hair, not to mention the dark eye makeup and the sometimes wearing of black clothing (especially in his standup videos and movie appearances) and his performance during the 2012 Olympics closing ceremony. I'm pretty much convinced that he is a Tim Burton character come to life.
Although there are many movies that try to be like Beetlejuice, some have tried to copy it and some have paid homage to it.. but remember this my friends.
They can try all the like, but nothing can top the spectacle of ghoulish wonders that is Beetlejuice, say it once, say it twice, third time's the charm - Beetlejuice is sure to bring you lots of laughter from the hear-after.
So I heavily reccomend watching Beetlejuice around the halloween season or just around any time of year actually.
I give it 5 out of 5, 10 out of 10, 2 monstrous clawed thumbs up, and 1000 out of 1000 and a Monstermaster13 Official Seal of Brilliance.
Check it out if you have the chance.
Hello i'm Nathan aka Monstermaster13 and I look at the really monstrous stuff that most people are too afraid to do.
Tonight's lookback is going to be special for two very different reasons. 1. Because it's only month to halloween. And 2. This month is the anniversary of Glenn Shadix's death.
To commemorate this we are going to look at one of the many projects Tim Burton has worked on over the years.
Love him or hate him, Burton is brilliant in his own wonderful eccentric way and his movies show this.
So without further adu, I present to you my lookback on the 1988 classic Beetlejuice (which is spelled Betelgeuse sometimes after the star)
Our protagonists are a newly deceased couple named Adam and Barbara Maitland, played by a young Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis.
While I normally find Alec Baldwin to be creepy especially seeing as in he got cast in bad guy type roles throughout the 90's and not to mention those Hulu adverts where he's an alien, he's actually very likable in this movie.
Both he and Geena do rather well in their performances in this movie and they have a lot of fun.
Adam and Barbara get involved in an accident and drown, only to come back as ghosts and to find out that some rather unwanted visitors are moving in.
The so called visitors in this are the eccentric artist Delia Deetz, her husband Charles, their lovely goth daughter Lydia and of course my personal favorite non BJ character - Otho.
Otho (played by Glenn Shadix) is an interior designer/fashion guru and 'paranormal expert' and he has some of the funniest lines in the movie even though he's a bit of a snob.
Delia and Otho plan on redesigning the Maitland's house into what I could best describe as a "modern art nightmare crossed with Salvador Dali" and this upsets our two ghostly heroes.
The way ghosts are represented in this movie is very intriguing especially seeing what the afterlife is like, it's like a work office with a room you have to wait in.
Also on an interesting sidenote, you can see a cameo in shadow by Jake and Elwood Blues of the Blues Brothers during the waiting room scene.
Even though that appearance is brief - to me it is STILL better than the travesties that were Wired and Blues Brothers 2000.
Lydia is the only one who can see the ghostly couple, and she forms a bond with them - as they treat her like she's their own child which is very endearing. Live people cannot see them because they ignore the strange and unusual...and she is by definition "strange and unusual".
The movie is full of really fun moments as well as scary moments, including some brilliant special effects - no CGI required at all, in fact this is pre-cgi.
This includes when Adam and Barbara pull their faces to make them into their "Scary/Creature" forms, the sandworms, and not to mention Beetlejuice himself.
Which brings me to the title character Beetlejuice, who is played by Michael Keaton - and he is fantastic in the role, bringing the right amount of ghoulish grossness and mischief to the role.
He is a blast to watch on screen and his pranks are ingenius, including what does at the end when he turns into a carousell (with might I add....a very early prototype for Jack Skellington on it).
And it's still funny seeing what he did to poor old Otho, changing his outfit to a blue suit. There's nothing scarier to this guy than clothes that are out of style. Am I the only one who feels sorry for poor Otho? Surely i'm not the only one.
This movie was really entertaining when I was little and it still is to this day, and it spawned a theme park attraction and an animated cartoon series. There was also a planned sequel in the works but it didn't come to fruitition.
There were also two action figure lines, one by Kenner based off the movie and another line based off the cartoon. As well as some figures by Neca including "Stretch-Faced Adam" and "Stretched Faced Barbara" and Beetlejuice with spikes coming out of his body.
The Kenner line had some interesting figures in it with their action figures, why they even had one of Otho! Imagine that...Otho getting an action figure. (note to self: Search on ebay for Otho action figure to go with my Mayor of Halloweentown plush).
The cast is all wonderful, I already mentioned how great Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis were along with Michael Keaton but it's time to mention the other wonderful cast members.
Catharine O Hara (who also starred in SCTV, Canada's answer to SNL alongside my favorite comedian John Candy, as well as being in Home Alone, and the voice of the villainess in Bartok the Magnificent), Jeffrey Jones (who plays Delia's husband, and the year after this movie came out was in Who's Harry Crumb, one of my favorite John Candy movies), Winona Ryder as the lovely Lydia Deetz and of course the late great Glenn Shadix as Otho Fenlock.
I love Shadix's performance in this and I know it's weird but I still tend to quote Otho's lines once and a while (I can actually do a sort of impression of him as well).
The score is beautiful and also very spooky with my favorite piece being the theme tune as well as the Harry Belafonte songs Bananana Boat song and Jump In The Line (okay, I believe you!).
Speaking of the theme tune, I heard it in an episode of the 2002 revival of the Basil Brush show, it was in the episode where Basil and Stephen become mad scientists.
Providing you with laughs from here to the Neitherworld, Beetlejuice is sure to make you scream and laugh at the same time all at once.
There have been numerous comedies that have tried to be like this movie, including one from the UK 1990's Drop Dead Fred with Rik Mayall (which coincidentally is getting a remake with...Russell Brand).
Speaking of Russell Brand...does anyone find it weird that he's signed onto to be in two different ghost themed comedies? One of which being Rentaghost (which like Tim Burton's version of Dark Shadows is an adaptation of a horror themed tv show) and the other being The Hauntrepeneur that definitely has a Tim Burton feel to it according to what i've read about on various entertainment websites.
Even the plot of the latter sounds very ummmmm....Beetlejuice-ish. Take a look for yourself:
"It revolves revolves around a family that has trouble adjusting to a new town hires a peculiar man who calls himself the Hauntrepreneur to help them. In an attempt to bring them together, the man creates a haunted house filled with an odd cast of characters."
So from the sound of it...the Hauntrepeneur is going to be like this huge Tim Burtonesque horror comedy, about a family that has trouble adjusting to a new home and they hear this oddball character to help them.
I'm guessing Russell's character the Hauntrepeneur is going to be that movie's version of BJ.
Again it does sound a LOT like a Tim Burton movie, especially considering that I think Russell himself is very Burtonesque in the way he looks and moves. He's tall and lanky with very messy hair, not to mention the dark eye makeup and the sometimes wearing of black clothing (especially in his standup videos and movie appearances) and his performance during the 2012 Olympics closing ceremony. I'm pretty much convinced that he is a Tim Burton character come to life.
Although there are many movies that try to be like Beetlejuice, some have tried to copy it and some have paid homage to it.. but remember this my friends.
They can try all the like, but nothing can top the spectacle of ghoulish wonders that is Beetlejuice, say it once, say it twice, third time's the charm - Beetlejuice is sure to bring you lots of laughter from the hear-after.
So I heavily reccomend watching Beetlejuice around the halloween season or just around any time of year actually.
I give it 5 out of 5, 10 out of 10, 2 monstrous clawed thumbs up, and 1000 out of 1000 and a Monstermaster13 Official Seal of Brilliance.
Check it out if you have the chance.
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