Beetlejuice Playlist3/28/2021
Please enable JavaScript in your browser to use the site fully.The scores stylized world also includes the ironically perky Travel Music; Incantation, a tensely percussive cue that unfolds into exaggerated brass and ghostly vocals and organs; and the eerily pretty but still whimsical Lydia Discovers.
The tip-toeing pizzicato strings and pianos, and the theatrical brass, organs, harps, and percussion that appear on every track -- most definitively on tracks like Enter.The Family Sand Worm Planet -- underline the films live-action cartoonishness, with the musics hyperactive shifts, and the addition of Harry Belafonte s Jump In Line and Banana Boat Song (Day-O) just adding another layer of quirkiness to the whole thing. A perfect mix of silliness and spookiness, Beetlejuice remains one of Elfman s most consistent scores. Expect a lot of twenty-somethings to buy the set and say something along the lines of, Well this was weirder than I remembered it being. A funnyscary ode to both the potential liveliness of haunted houses and the deathly drudgery of everyday life, it stars Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis as the Maitlands, a pair of suburban Connecticut softies who, after their death in a tragi-comic automobile accident, have to try and spook the upper crust Manhattanites named the Deetzes who have taken up residence in their home (the all-star family consists of Jeffrey Jones and Catherine OHara as the parents and Winona Ryder as Lydia, their sullen daughter). Since they dont have what it takes to scare away their new houseguests, they have to call on Betelgeuse (an unstoppable Michael Keaton ), a self-styled bio-exorcist, to get rid of them. Released on March 30, 1988, the film proved to be a smash hit (the tenth biggest grossing of its year), won terrific reviews (no less than Pauline Kael called it a comedy classic), and helped Burton land the biggest job around, directing Batman. To commemorate the occasion, weve compiled a list of five things that you might not know about the endlessly quotable, wonderfully inventive Beetlejuice. And for more Tim Burton, heres his 5 Essential Films, 10 of His Unmade Movies and lets not forget a reported sequel is on the way. Screenwriter Michael McDowell, who originally worked with Larry Wilson on the story (they were both replaced by Warren Skaaren at Burtons behest more on this in a minute) and who was a well-known and respected writer of paperback novels, originally conceived of the script as a much bleaker, more horror-driven piece. The original script featured a much more intense version of the Maitlands car crash (in this version Geena Davis characters arm gets smashed in graphic detail; subsequent drafts kept a reference to this), while the Betelgeuse character isnt a charming (if skeezy) used car salesman of the undead; instead he was envisioned as leather-winged demon whose humanoid form is that of a squat Middle Eastern man (subsequent drafts had him talking in a kind of African American pidgin dialect). Imagine: instead of that great climactic wedding sequence, where Betelgeuse tries to tie the knot with Lydia, it was replaced with one in which Betelgeuse attempts to rape Winona Ryder. Skaaren (who would go on to heavily rewrite Sam Hamm s original Batman script for Burton) added playfulness to the original Beetlejuice screenplays more existential dread (instead of a moon of Jupiter, the Maitlands would open the door and see giant gears grinding up the fabric of time against a pitiless black void). Beetlejuice Playlist Movie Ended UpIt was still more violent than what the movie ended up being, but you can see where everyone was headed. And before McDowells tragic death in 1999, at the age of 49, due to complications related to AIDS, the two would work together again. Burton would call upon McDowell to help with the script for an ambitious stop motion project for Disney that would end up being the beloved The Nightmare Before Christmas. For The Title Role As is stated above, the Betelgeuse character was drastically different than what ended up on screen. Originally conceived as a winged and demonic presence, taking human form as a small Middle Eastern man, subsequent drafts made him more African American, and he spoke in a kind of pidgin dialect that probably been downright Jar Jar Binks-ish. Thankfully, producer David Geffen, who had been developing the script under his shingle at Warner Bros, stepped in and suggested Michael Keaton. Keaton also wound up in the title role of Burtons next movie, Batman, a decision that would cause an outcry in fans, since Keaton was primarily known as a comic actor ( Mr. Mom had been a big hit a number of years earlier). Burton, the story goes, suggested Scared Sheetless as a joke (a reference to the scene where the Maitlands attempt to scare the Deetzes out of the house by wearing bed sheets something they consider spooky but comes off as utterly laughable). Much to Burtons horror, the studio actually liked his idea, and tried to rename the movie. Burton finally put his foot down and said that the movie would be called Beetlejuice. In the show, Betelgeuse (who Lydia referred to as BJ) and Lydia would travel between the real world and The Netherworld and get into all sorts of creepycuddly adventures. What you might not remember is how phenomenally popular the series was. At one point, new episodes were airing on ABC s Saturday Morning line-up while additional episodes ran during the week on Fox. Historically, only a handful of shows have aired at the same time on two different broadcast networks.) In other words: it was huge. The show still airs on the AOL channel Toontopia TV, and in May, the entire series will be released on DVD courtesy of Shout Factory.
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