‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ is a Tim Burton Greatest Hits Halloween Celebration [Blu-ray Review]

More than 36 years after the original 1988 classic debuted in theaters (and I was there!), this year’s highlight anticipated, all-star Halloween-set sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is now out on physical media, a kind of greatest hits celebration of all things Tim Burton and a welcome return to wacky, fun form for the director himself.

This is Tim Burton’s best film in decades, and he’s not been shy about how the whole experience of returning to these characters, this world, these actors and crew – many of whom have worked on his most beloved on his previous films – and even this way of filmmaking, opting to go old school with practical FX gags, reignited his passion for moviemaking.

It is a reunion on many levels, and when Winona Ryder’s now older, wiser, and more accepting Lydia Deetz speaks to her Ghost House TV audience, in the opening and especially the emotional closing moments of the movie, it is clear that it’s actually Burton speaking directly to us.

Michael Keaton slides back into the character of Beetlejuice seamlessly, picking up exactly as we remember him, albeit now constantly longing for his former fiance of five minutes, Lydia Deetz, played once again by Winona Ryder, with all the relatable dark quirkiness that captured our hearts when we first met her as a teenager in the original film.

Catherine O’Hara is also back as Lydia’s stepmother Delia Deetz, now somewhat more mellowed than three decades ago, with a storyline here that is both the most tragic and rewarding of any of the characters.

Jenna Ortega could not be more perfectly cast as Lydia’s high school aged daughter, Astrid, who has all of her mom’s teen angst pointed right at Lydia, echoing a familiar parental karma, with her own dark side and a talent for telling it like it is.

Willem Dafoe has a blast as Wolf Jackson, an actor in life turned detective in the afterlife, always accompanied by his mysterious secretary Janet (played by Georgina Beedle), always with a fresh cup of coffee ready.

Monica Bellucci is the sequel’s total scene stealer as Beetlejuice’s soul sucking ex-wife Delores, on the hunt for her lost love after literally putting her various severed body parts back together, like an evil and angry Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

While some may wish there was more of Adam and Barbara Maitland, the characters played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis in the original, I found the simple one-sentence explanation of their absence to both satisfying and just curious enough to keep a future door open.

The whole film takes place the week of Halloween, featuring beautiful atmosphere (Hallosphere) of pumpkins, yard decorations, and autumn leaves throughout the neighborhoods of Winter River as Astrid rides her mom’s old bike through the town, culminating with a crazy wedding finale at midnight on Halloween Night.

It may not be surprising when it’s stated that Halloween is Lydia’s favorite holiday, but it is undeniably heartwarming (especially among us Hallohearted) when Astrid says it also used to be her and her recently deceased dad’s favorite holiday, because under all the laughs and fantasy there is also a very real theme of grief and how to deal with it at work here, as it’s another funeral that brings the family together in the first place.

Death is definitely not the end, and that is a comfort, even when costumed in the macabre, or, in this case, laugh-out-loud moments with old friends.

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided HDN with an advance copy of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice on Blu-ray, which includes a digital code. The cover art is the main theatrical poster, which itself is an homage to the original Beetlejuice poster, both with the title character sitting on top of the Deetz/Maitland house with his co-stars on each side of him. Our Blu-ray did not include a slip case or any inner artwork.

The bonus features on the Blu-ray, as well as the 4K and Digital releases, are highlighted by a director audio commentary with Burton, in addition to seven short behind the scenes featurettes:

• The Juice is Loose! The Making of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is the longest and best of the featurettes at 27 minutes, focusing on the return to practical special effects in recapturing some of the magic of the original film, and deep diving into the sets, including lots of on location footage from Vermont, where the production returned to the exact same town and rebuilt the Deetz house on the very same hill where it was (temporarily) built for the fist movie.
• The Ghost with the Most: Beetlejuice Returns runs about eight minutes and focuses on Michael Keaton’s long awaited reprisal of Beetlejuice, with the actor requesting to wear the actual same tuxedo that he wore in the finale of the first film, as he felt that outfit tied him personally to the character more than his more common black and white striped suit.
• Meet the Deetz is about seven minutes, focusing on Catherine O’Hara, Winona Ryder, and Jenna Ortega as three generations of Deetz women, and their bonding off screen.
• Handbook for the Recently Deceased is a fun 12-minute look at the many residents of the Afterlife, beginning with Danny DeVito’s janitor, as Burton acknowledges that his inclusion was even more of what made the whole film feel like a big reunion, as it does to me when I watch it, as well.
• Shrinkers, Shrinkers Everywhere! explains that Burton always wanted to do more with the shrunken head character first seen at the end of the first film in the Afterlife waiting room, as they were all still created practically with no digital FX, with performers on set wearing unique animatronic shrunken heads. Also a returning member of the team from the original Beetlejuice, Costume Designer Colleen Atwood was inspired to base the Shrinkers’ costumes on actual Century 21 realtor uniforms from the 1970s.
• An Animated Afterlife: The Stop-Motion Art of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is all about the animated parts of the movie , the plane crash sequence and the Sandworm’s return, as Burton used the same team that he working with on his previous stop-motion films Corpse Bride and Frankenweenie, again bringing his career full circle in certain ways and creating this “greatest hits” vibe.
• ‘Til Death Do Us Park is an eight-minute look at the wild finale wedding/dance sequence and Burton’s pick of a little known song called “MacArthur Park” (by actor Richard Harris) – one of his favorite’s from his jukebox at home – and his decision to play the entire seven minutes of the song, as much of the action among the cast was improvised on the day.

Read on for highlights of what we learned from Tim Burton’s feature commentary.

• The opening credits are a direct homage meant to harken back to the original film’s front credits.
• On reunion of legacy actors Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara returning for the sequel, Burton says, “I was surprised at how emotional I got seeing them together, because a lot of people thought it may never happen… I fought back tears.”
• East Corinth, Vermont, where the exterior scenes of the fictional town of Winter River were all shot, has not really changed at all in the 36 years since the first movie.
• The black and white flashback to Beetlejuice’s first meeting with Delores comes as a direct result of Burton love of and always wanting to make an Italian horror movie, “so I ticked that off the list.” He said the idea came about late in production, “maybe because Monica’s Italian.”
• This is Burton’s most personal movie in years (probably decades). “The only reason I wanted to make this,” he said, “is because it felt personal… And I was surprised by those feelings.”
• The returning legacy cast members were essential for Burton himself to return to the world of Beetlejuice. “I wouldn’t have done this movie if Michael or Catherine or Winona had said no,” he reveals. “Luckily they said yes.”
• Burton performs the voice of Baby Beetlejuice.
• The same actor who portrayed the kid attacked by piranhas in Wednesday plays the surfer victim of a shark attack in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
• Burton describes the Ghoul Squad as, “like a dead version of CHiPs or Adam 12.”
• On Santa being a victim of death by fire in the afterlife waiting room, Burton says, “Santa Claus has always been scary to me. I’ve always had a fantasy about Santa getting stuck in a chimney, so you get to make your dreams come true here.”
• The lighting in the afterlife is always “breathing” with slight, continuous undulations.
• The soul train in the afterlife comes from Burton’s love of the classic Soul Train dancing series of that aired in syndication in the 1970s and beyond.
• The sandworm, back from the original film, is once again created entirely with stop-motion animation, with different artists but using the exact same process as the first movie.
• Much of the details of the wedding finale come from the lyrics the seven-minute song “MacArthur Park” that it’s all set to.
• The tuxedo Beetlejuice wears at the wedding is actually the same tuxedo that Keaton wore as the character in the finale of the original film, which was at the actor’s request. “I think it helped him get back into it a little bit,” said Burton.
• Beetlejuice’s final line was much debated with various possibilities considered, but “I should’ve got married in Vegas” was ultimately settled on, “Since we’ve all said it.”
• Delia’s death is not seen as sad but uplifting, because the dearly departed can also be “dearly reunited’ in the afterlife. As Burton sums up, “Love makes anything possible.”
• On using the theme from Brian DePalma’s Carrie in the closing nightmare sequence, Burton explained, “All I can say is it just felt better than what was there before.”

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is available to own now on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD, and also on Digital.

You can watch our Blu-ray unboxing video below.

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Related: Watch Our ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ Out of the Theater Reaction [Video]

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