DVD Box Set Review with James Paradie: Beetlejuice (The Cartoon)

Beetlejuice is a movie from 1988 and is a cult-classic, supernatural comedy that still entertains millions of people almost forty years later. With its Tim Burton trademark characteristics, Danny Elfman's score, and a charismatic cast, it's no wonder this movie made it to AFI's "100 Years ... 100 Laughs" list at number 88. But although the movie had a great cast and supporting cast, it was the ghost with the most, the Beetlemeister, who made this movie such a hit. Funny thing is, Michael Keaton, the man behind the black and white striped suit, only had over 17.5 minutes (according to IMDB.com) of screen time. 15 minutes of this guy in a 90 minute movie made all the difference. If Beetlejuice wasn't in it, you might as just call this movie Scared Sheetless. 

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Riiiiight. Moving along now. 

So, what happened almost immediately after Beetlejuice came out? Warner Brothers decided, let's make a cartoon version! 

Before we start the review ... It has to be done. I can not start it without it. 

In 1989, they did just that. Beetlejuice, the cartoon, launched. Much like previous movies turned cartoons, people thought this was going to flop (minus The Real Ghostbusters, which was good ... the first couple seasons.) Beetlejuice, the cartoon, however did not flop. In fact, kids back in the late late 80's and 90's loved the gross antics of Beetlejuice and wanted Lydia as their best friend. I remember being in elementary school and my classmates talking about the wacky stuff Beetlejuice was getting into. Course, this was a couple years after Beetlejuice had been cancelled, but reruns for the show were still popular. 

But much has changed in the afterlife, or, um, the Neitherworld (yes, it's spelled incorrectly, but that's how it is in the cartoon world of Beetlejuice.) No longer do you have Winter River, the Maitland's, Otho, Juno, or the fact that the Afterlife (or the Neitherworld) is like a bureaucracy. Some of these aspects that are missing will definitely play a hand in my Bad section of the review. But let's get with the Good. 

The Good: 

-The show was Produced by Tim Burton, so obviously he had a role in the cartoon. Much like the movie Beetlejuice, you had dark settings and spooky effects. Even though I'm sure Burton only had his fingertips dipped into this show, his influence was not avoided. They also got Danny Elfman to do the intro music and it's definitely a classic like the movie version. 

-Speaking of cartoon intro classics, this show, in my opinion, has the most kick ass intro for a cartoon EVER (Yes. Yes. I know, The Simpsons does, but I'm talking kids show). Check it out in the video below. 

-This was a high energy kids show. See, kids, cocaine was a hell of a drug in the 80's. Try watching the show after smoking a doobie. It's wicked! Errr. so I'm told. (In all honesty, I've never watched the show high. I've had friends though who did and they said it's trippy.)

-Speaking of trippy, the background and characters were a breed of their own. I haven't seen a show yet that has replicated or caught the same imagination as some of the "sets" on Beetlejuice. 

-The voice cast, particularly Stephen Ouimette (Beetlejuice) and Alyson Court (Lydia), were fantastic. Most voice actors are great at sounding like their movie counterpart. Ouimette sounded a lot like Beetlejuice, course not as gritty, but he did great. Court did an awesome job at Lydia. She didn't sound exactly like Winona Ryder, but she was great enough that you accepted it and didn't want it any other way. I also liked the secondary cast, such as Jacques and Ginger. Tara Strong did a fantastic job as preppy Claire. See Middle Ground for more on the voice acting. 

-Speaking of the cast, you had to love them. My favorites were, of course, the main cast. Beetlejuice and Lydia. But I also liked Jacques. I felt sorry for the healthy skeleton. I mean, to my knowledge, he is the only fitness expert who is a complete skeleton. He was also nice and didn't think he was better than everyone because he's fit. I mean, yeah, he tried to get Beetlejuice to lose a couple pounds, but he's looking out for his friend. Friend being a loose term between Jacques and BJ, because Beetlejuice loved to antagonize him. Tripping him, putting him down holes, and being a dick. But Ginger was also great too. The tap dancing spider. Who comes up with this stuff? It was basically a show that had that dynamic cast that you loved. Even Claire Brewster, the preppy girl of the series. She was voiced by Tara Strong, a household voice actress name. She's played Timmy Turner on the Fairy Odd Parents, Harley Quinn in Arkham City and Arkham Knight (as well as various other Harley roles), and for you Ghostbusters fans out there, she played Kylie Griffin in the Extreme Ghostbusters. She did fantastic at being the antagonist to Lydia. 

Who can hate the cast? Beetlejuice was for the trouble making boys, who learned new prankster techniques. Lydia was for the girls, but also for the boys, because she is a wicked tomboy. She likes gross things. From worms to dead people. She's a nerds dream, because she won't judge you base on what you like or your appearance. I mean, she's best friends with Beetlejuice for crying out loud. I've always considered Winona Ryder's Lydia my first crush, so the cartoon's Lydia was no different. 

My favorite episodes: 

-Some classic, nostalgic episodes from Beetlejuice. I'm going to make a list with a few of my favorites (in no specific order). 

Skeletons in the Closet: Most of season 1 I actually wasn't too crazy about. Granted, this is the season that they won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program. But Skeletons in the Closet is one that I really enjoy. Think of the episode like this, literal skeletons in your closet are going around, telling people your lies. The only way to get rid of them? Tell the truth. 

Stage Fright: Lydia is trying out for the role of Juliet in a school play of Romeo and Juliet. But when Claire Brewster sabotages Lydia's performance with bugs, Lydia takes the job as the custom designer. Cue Beetlejuice to get revenge on Claire with hilarious results. 

Poe Pourri: One dreary night Beetlejuice is reading an Edgar Allen Poe book and wouldn't you know it? Poe himself shows up looking for his lost Lenore. Beetlejuice, the greedy scum he is, purposely makes Poe sad, because every time Poe weeps, he let's the money rain down. Beetlejuice let's him stay at the Roadhouse until he finds his Lenore and as long as he's 'making it rain', Poe can stay for as long as he wants. There is a catch though, Poe brings his stories and Beetlejuice is right in the middle of this ongoing nightmare. 

Robin Juice of Sherweird Forest: Loved this episode. This it probably the only episode where I'm not LOL, I'm LMAO. It is a spoof of Robin Hood, so I don't think I have to explain the story, but it is funny. 

Wizard of Ooze: You might see a pattern here. The show loved to spoof movies. And most of their spoofs were actually pretty funny. This one is one of the funnier ones. Not as funny as Robin Juice, but right up there. Again, I don't need to explain the story. It is a Wizard of Oz spoof. 

But there you go. I have more, but this review is already long enough.

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Middle Ground: 

-Back to voice acting. Now where the voices of Beetlejuice and Lydia were great. Even if not crystal like say Michael Keaton or Winona Ryder, they were great enough that you barely notice once you go deep into the episodes. But I do have some issues with one particular voice. Not specifically the voice actor, I know she was just doing her job. But Delia. Delia sounded nothing like her movie counterpart and was like listening to nails on a chalkboard sometimes. Granted, and this is why this is considered Middle Ground, her voice does fit the role. Because Delia went from bitch, richy-rich stepmother to yuppie, care free "mother." So, it was fine for what the role called for (and you bet I'm going to go in deep about Delia in the Bad section. Be prepared!) Charles didn't sound like his movie counter part, but then again, he did fine. You accepted it. It's a lot like The Real Ghostbusters, not everyone sounded like their movie counterpart. Lorenzo Music didn't sound exactly like Bill Murray (Peter Venkmen), but you accepted it. Until David Cloutier came in and shat all over that role. Thanks Joey Gladstone.

But of course, the show is not without it's faults (some of these are more in my opinion and some may not agree with them.) 

(Grumpy Lydia for the Bad section. Win!) 

The Bad: 

-This ones a big one, so prepare for a long rant. Like I said before, from movie to cartoon they lost a lot of things. It's not a good thing though, it's a bad thing. The elements they lost from the movie really were missed in the cartoon. 

Like explain why they changed the name from Winter River to Peaceful Pines? Why is Winter River a bad name? 

Charles on the show is fine, but Delia on the other hand. Man. What the hell happened to Delia? Going from kind of a bitch, a distant stepmother to Lydia, to a jippy, free spirited mother. Granted, her jippiness does come with perks. I liked some of what they did with her like trying to change Lydia from a goth to a regular girl or the episode where Beetlejuice turns into the Deetz's family dog (one of my favorite episodes too). But they could have still done that even if Delia was her movie version self. I'll explain in the Maitland section why it would be better to have Delia an antagonist rather than a protagonist.

Before I get to Delia's part, where the hell did the Maitlands go? Did they finally pass over? I would've liked to see more of the Lydia/Maitlands relationship. Maybe have an episode where Lydia's parents get jealous of the Maitlands and call an exorcist! (maybe Otho, but oh wait ... I'll save that for the next paragraph). That would be cool. But then they come to terms and everything is peachy. Just an idea. 

Also, Otho. Where did he go? Did he run away forever after Beetlejuice turned his suit from black to baby blue? I think an interesting sub plot for the cartoon would be Otho turns into this occultist and tries to get back at Beetlejuice for embarrassing him. But in cartoon fashion, his plots always back fire. 

-The puns got kind of out of hand. Some were funny, but sometimes I'm like, really? It just takes away from the story. It's like episode starts - pun - story line begins - pun - etc. etc. It seemed like they were interrupting the story just to get a freaking pun in there. 

-Some episodes I've watched and will never watch again. These were pretty damn painful. I'm not going to make a list, but then again it wouldn't be too long of a list anyway. 

Box Set Review: 

Now that I'm done with the show review, it's time for the box set review. Back in 2012 (I think), Shout Factory bought the distribution rights to Beetlejuice. In 2013, they finally released it in a box format.

There's really nothing bad I have to say about how it looks. It looks great. The DVD's look fine, the cases do. It's a well made package. 

How does the audio sound? Great. 

Image? It's not HD, but it looks good enough. I remember before this came out, I had to watch episodes on Youtube and when you were done, you needed an aspirin. Big headache. Granted, these people did a nice gesture by taking VHS tapes they recorded from TV and putting it on Youtube for everyone to enjoy. But I highly suggest people buy this and save yourself a headache. 

My big problem is that they didn't even bother with special features. None. No deleted scenes, nothing to do with production, no documentary on the show, no interviews with the cast. Here's what's funny and sad at the same time: I was listening to a Saturday Morning Rewind podcast with Stephen Ouitmette (Beetlejuice) and he said he never even knew about Shout Factory releasing the show to DVD. I would have LOVED to see the cast get back together and talk about the show. Because for the most part, people who worked on the show seemed to love it. But that's my only big gripe about it. 

Conclusion: 

All in all I'll take this any day if they never do a Beetlejuice 2. Though I don't consider this cannon to the movie, it still is an enjoyable cartoon. Hey, it's better than this ... 

That's right. Beetlejuice Goes frickin' Hawaiian. No thanks. Though, in all fairness, I do like the cosplay. 

I highly recommend any Beetlejuice, 80's, Saturday morning cartoons fan to pick this up. It's nostalgic, it's fun, and ... it's showtime! 

Thanks for reading this long ass review. I just had so many ideas on what to talk about for this, but some I actually left out. This was getting too long! 

Oh and one more thing, if people give you crap for being an adult and still watching your favorite childhood cartoons, send them this ... 

Updates to this review: (7/25/23) Some of the videos that were originally here are no longer available, so had to delete them, as well as some explanations of said videos below. I also deleted some jokes I felt weren't funny anymore, as I wrote this review all the way back in 2014, so comedy tastes change. Had to use a new header image, because the other one was no longer available.