YMMV / Beetlejuice

Franchise as a whole

• Crossover Ship:
  • There is a rather large base of fans who ship Wednesday Addams (The Addams Family) and Lydia Deetz around the internet, with it being especially popular on AO3. This is mainly because they are both goths in Black Comedy franchises who have dry senses of humor and a fascination with death.
  • Edward from Edward Scissorhands is sometimes shipped with Lydia by virtue of both being the troubled protagonists of Tim Burton films and embodiments of Dark Is Not Evil.

The Movie

• Adorkable: Adam tinkers with a model of his hometown, has a picture of Bigfoot, believes that sheets can be scary, and apparently has issues reading complex words, but is nonetheless a likable character.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • When Lydia tells Betelgeuse she wants to die, he seems actually concerned for her. He keeps Lydia from leaving the house (thereby thwarting her plan to drown herself), and maybe even intends to talk her out of it - presumably by telling her about himself. Alternatively, his reaction could also mean, "But okay, if that's what you want, let me out and I'll help you do it."
    Betelgeuse: You know, you look like somebody I can relate to. Maybe you could help me get out of here, you know, because I got to tell you, this dead thing... it's just too creepy. See, here's my problem. I got these friends I said I'd meet, and it's the kind of thing where I have to be there in person, so could you help me get out of here?
    Lydia: I want to get in.
    Betelgeuse: [genuinely surprised] Why? [pause] You know, hey, you probably got your reasons. I can't do anything from here. If you could get me out, then maybe we could talk or something.
  • Fridge Brilliance sets in when you remember that in the original script, Betelgeuse had committed suicide — there was supposed to be a subplot which revealed that he hanged himself after being rejected by a woman. Plus, he worked with Juno, so even without that subplot, he knows exactly what awaits someone who commits suicide. Given that Lydia is (by his own admission) the only one that he likes at all, it makes sense that he would try to help her avoid that.
• Alternative Joke Interpretation: As mentioned under Unintentional Period Piece, Betelgeuse makes his entrance in the climax with the line "Attention Kmart shoppers!" However, the majority of the brand's stores going defunct could make this be seen nowadays as Betelgeuse instead invoking a dead store brand that caters to the deceased.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Although most of it was made up, a few of the lines from the exorcism scene were taken from an actual seance invocation printed in a spiritualist magazine from 1901.
• Anvilicious: "Death doesn't solve anything". The Maitlands' lives weren't perfect, but they were happy, and in death they end up having to deal with a bunch of new problems that are even worse than what they had when they were alive. Lydia is fascinated by death and becomes suicidal in part because she thinks it'll be better for her, and the Maitlands have to spell out for her that being dead really doesn't make "living" easier. It's only by finding ways to be fulfilled in their existences that the Maitlands and Lydia are able to be happy and well-adjusted.
• Award Snub: The film won an Academy Award for Best Makeup, though it wasn't nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Michael Keaton), Score, Art Direction or Visual Effects.
• Awesome Music:
  • Aside from Danny Elfman's title theme, the use of Harry Belafonte, including "Day-O", which is also a Funny Moment.
  • "Jump in the Line", used at the very end to great effect. Chances are you'll be tapping your foot to the tune.
• Designated Villain: Betelgeuse toes the line on this. True, he's a violent, perverted creep, but each time he's summoned he does exactly what he offers to do. And while he has no problem murdering people, the Maitlands tell him they don't want him to kill the Deetzes and he abides by that, even though it's clear he could kill them no problem if he wanted to (in fact he never explicitly kills anyone). At worst he's a Villainy-Free Anti-Villain who convinces people to make deals with him, and then his crude and disgusting demeanor cause his clients to turn on him and he follows in kind.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: The Deetzes' dinner guests Grace and Beryl only appear during the possession scene but are decently popular for their yuppie outfits, Agent Mulder reactions to the ghosts, and having some character depth (Beryl seems to be suffering from depression and Grace is amused by how the Maitlands made her dance around while possessing her).
• Everyone is Jesus in Purgatory: It's possible to interpret Betelgeuse/Beetlejuice as Satan himself. Besides having a name that looks similar to the Biblical "Beelzebub" (literally, "Lord of the Flies"), Beetlejuice is also given an origin story that could have come straight out of Paradise Lost: Juno, who according to this analogy would represent God (and in fact is named after the queen of the Roman pantheon) mentions that Beetlejuice was once her assistant but had parted ways with her because he thought he could be a better exorcist. And it's not hard to imagine that Beetlejuice's threatened marriage to Lydia would have not only made her his wife, but very possibly would also have cost her her soul.
• Fanfic Fuel: Just who was Betelgeuse before he died?
• Fanon: Lydia's birth mother is never mentioned in the film. A large portion of the fanbase is convinced that she died when Lydia was very young, and that this fact heavily contributes to Lydia's fascination with death.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Sylvia Sidney plays a smoking ghost with a hole in her throat which emits smoke. Sidney died from throat cancer in New York City — at the age of 88.
  • Glenn Shadix is sent flying down a set of stairs at one point. Not as funny since he died of blunt force trauma to the head due to a fall at the age of 58.
  • Lydia's depression and desire to die hits harder after Winona Ryder's battle with clinical depression in the early 2000s.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Catherine O'Hara plays an eccentric cosmopolitan woman whose family moves to a small country town, almost 30 years before receiving much critical acclaim as Moira Rose. Moira could be seen as nearly the same character as Delia, if she were an actress rather than a sculptor.
  • Betelgeuse's line about The Exorcist getting funnier every time he sees it became even funnier when you know that Geena Davis was cast in the TV series that served as a sequel to the first film.
  • Betelgeuse freaking Barbara out by handing her a rat can be seen as ironic foreshadowing of Geena Davis' future role in Stuart Little, in which she has a far more positive interaction with a rodent.
  • Betelgeuse gets Bat wings at one point; guess what Tim Burton and Michael Keaton did the very next year? Also, Betelgeuse's appearance and behavior are strangely similar to the Joker's, who's the antagonist of Burton and Keaton's next movie, and people have pointed out◊ how much BJ resembles Heath Ledger's Joker.
  • Creating a portal by drawing a door on the wall with chalk will be also used by Ofelia in Pan's Labyrinth.
  • Betelgeuse's comment about how he "won't do two shows a night anymore" became this once the movie was adapted into a Broadway play because the nature of Broadway means that on Saturdays he has to.
• I Am Not Shazam:
  • Due to the two being homonyms, people make the mistake of thinking the character is named Beetlejuice as well, rather than Betelgeuse. The fact that his name is Beetlejuice in the Animated Adaptation doesn't help.
  • Additionally, despite the poster, the film credits make it clear that the title is Beetle Juice, not Beetlejuice.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Charles and Delia are neurotic, profit-minded and not very respectful toward the home the Maitlands care so much about. Still, Lydia resents them more than they seem to deserve, they have no perspective to understand how their actions are affecting the Maitlands, and Delia is failing to make a career as a sculptor despite her talent, something her own agent cruelly rubs in.
  • Miss Argentina is a rude Obstructive Bureaucrat who committed suicide just because she came in second during a beauty contest, but her misery about being stuck working as a civil servant in an Ironic Hell for all of eternity is a bit pitiable.
• Memetic Molester: Betelgeuse, particularly in light of his fixation on the teenage Lydia.
• Memetic Mutation: "NICE FUCKING MODEL!" *HONK HONK* ^ExplanationA crude joke Betelgeuse makes at the expense of a plastic tree that he knocks down while conversing with the Maitlands from their model town in the attic. The bit saw a boost in popularity from Vinesauce Vinny thanks to how surprisingly raunchy it is for a PG-rated movie (featuring a Precision F-Strike and crotch-grabbing), and since then, it has been popular to quote in reference to both the film and the character. It also gained traction from fans of Civvie 11, who uses it as a Running Gag making fun of low-quality game models.
• Older Than They Think: The Cracked website may believe that the film's plot is borrowed from the Amazing Stories episode "Boo!", but both of them were actually taken from the 1937 film Topper.
• Signature Scene: The shrimp dinner.
• Special Effect Failure: Really only noticeable in high-definition versions of the film, but during the scene where Betelgeuse flies out of his coffin and towards the Maitlands after being summoned, there are some rather noticeable wires attached to his back.
• Squick: Betelgeuse's fixation on Lydia. Unlike in the TV show, where they share an affectionate friendship, here the latter is clearly disgusted with the former. The fact that she's still in school makes him an ephebophile.
• Unintentional Period Piece:
  • While the film has a vaguely timeless feel (helped by the wardrobe choices of certain characters, which don't fit any particular decade's aesthetic), there are bits here and there which narrow down its time frame. In particular, Betelgeuse's line which opens with "Attention, Kmart shoppers!" has become this since Kmart closed nearly all of their stores in the late 2010s, with very few locations remaining as of early 2022 (in the US, at any rate; it's still kicking in Australia and New Zealand); most agree that it's only a matter of time before the joke loses what little relevance it still has. But then again, since this is a movie about the dead, perhaps the joke instead becomes relevant in a completely different way...
  • The phrase "reads like stereo instructions" may sound more like the book is full of illustrations with numbered parts and step-by-step procedures, nowadays, than that it's dry, over-technical, and incomprehensible without electronics training.
  • The heavy use of stop-motion special effects, right on the cusp of the CGI revolution, dates the film (despite having a charm of its own).
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?:
  • Even though the film came out well after the PG-13 rating was introduced, it's still rated PG, but filled with content that is quite inappropriate for young children. Death and suicide are central themes, and there are countless depictions of bodily mutilation. Betelgeuse's behavior is also not kid-friendly. He shouts "Nice fucking model!" while grabbing his crotch in one scene and says "shit" in another. He makes a wanking gesture in a third scene. He also visits a whorehouse in one scene.
  • It's one of just a handful of films since the creation of the PG-13 rating to get a PG despite having the F-word. The MPAA eventually made a strict rule that just one use of the word automatically gets a film at least a PG-13.
• The Woobie: Lydia. She has suicidal thoughts, possibly due to the death of biological mother, while her father and stepmother too busy with their careers and lives to pay attention to her. To matters worse for her, she was almost forced to marry Betelgeuse against her will.
• Woolseyism:
  • The charades scene is decently translated in French — Lydia, upon seeing the giant beetle, calls it "bête" (a beast), while the word "jus" is pronounced much the same as its English counterpart. Thus, her guess becomes "Bête-les-jus", which is very close in pronunciation to the Ghost with the Most's name.
  • Averted in the Spanish and Italian dubs, where BJ and Lydia decide to play the game in English for some reason.

The Animated Series

• Accidental Innuendo:
  • Lydia nicknaming Beetlejuice "BJ" is hard to not interpret as sleazy because "BJ" can be an abbreviation for "blowjob".
  • The car being nicknamed "Doomie" is unfortunate due to sounding like a homonym of "Do me".
• Adaptation Deviation: Due to some Moral Guardians not letting children watching the movie or some countries having stricter film rating systems preventing them from watching it, some children think the cartoon came first and the film was an adaptation instead of the other way around.
• Animation Age Ghetto: Played with. On the one hand, the plot is a lot more kid-friendly than the movie, with Beetlejuice no longer a demonic pervert, but a snarky prankster who's also best friends with Lydia. On the other hand, it was an early example of the Gross-Out Show, and all the parental bonuses have made it popular with older audiences.
• Awesome Art: Compared to most other cartoons of the late '80s, Nelvana really knew what they were doing with Beetlejuice. Not only is the animation super fluid, but the art style captures the creepy tone of the show perfectly.
• Badass Decay: Bartholomew Batt in his first appearance was powerful enough to take Beetlejuice in an all-out magic battle where they hit each other with everything they have and Beetlejuice even dropped a moon on him during the battle. And even after Beetlejuice finally seemed to win, Bartholomew picked himself back up and healed instantly after receiving a telegram he was looking forward to. By his second appearance in "The Neitherworld's Least Wanted", Beetlejuice takes him out much more easily in a one-on-one at the start. And Bartholomew Batt fares even worse when he mob attacks Beetlejuice with the Legion of Doom of that episode, getting taken out like fodder along with the other villains.
• Cargo Ship: In "Doomie's Romance," Cool Car Doomie falls in love with Mayor Maynot's adorable pink convertible, whom he names Pinky.
• Fanfic Fuel: Because the discrepancies make it very unlikely that the events of the film happened in this cartoon, how exactly did Beetlejuice and Lydia meet? And what became of their friendship after the end of the series?
• Fan Nickname: "Posijuice" and "Negajuice" for Beetlejuice's Good and Bad Side respectively in "Not So Peaceful Pines".
• Friendly Fandoms: With The Ghost and Molly McGee due to their very similar premises and the fact that the parallels between Molly and Scratch's dynamic and that of Beetlejuice and Lydia have not gone unnoticed.
• Genius Bonus:
  • In "Forget-Me-Nuts", the heroes accompany Dr. Zigmund Void into BJ's brain. The words "Bukowski Was Here" are scrawled on one of the cranium walls; Charles Bukowski was a writer who was known, among other things, for his newspaper column "Notes of a Dirty Old Man."
  • In "Robbin Juice of Sherweird Forest", Alan Airedale sings a continuous ballad either describing BJ's antics or telling him what to do next. The ballad's tune is a slightly up-tempo rendition of "Greensleeves".
  • In the final episode, "Not So Peaceful Pines," BJ develops a literal split personality, and his Bad Side goes on a pranking rampage in Lydia's town. Lydia and BJ's Good Side once again seek help from Freud Expy Zigmund Void, and we get this little gem:
    Zigmund Void: Aha! It's worse than I thought! We are dealing with an Eat-A-Bus (Oedipus) Complex!
    [cuts to a shot of a school bus with a MASSIVE bite taken out of it]
• Ghost Shipping: Lydia and Beetlejuice. Word of God says this was intentional. However, it should be noted that it was only demonstrated in the animation, and not nearly so much in the voice acting. This is because the age gap between Stephen Ouimette (Beetlejuice) and Alyson Court (Lydia) was considerable, with him being in his thirties and her being a teenager, and nobody wanted them to be uncomfortable with each other. The scripts, therefore, didn't hint at the shipping nearly as much as the animation did.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: In "The Wizard of Ooze", Lydia has a Wizard of Oz-themed dream, in which Beetlejuice is the Scarecrow. Then come the end of the Musical, which retained aspects of their friendship from the series, and as Beetlejuice is saying his goodbyes, he tells Lydia, "I think I'll miss you most of all, Scarecrow."
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • When Claire Brewster loses the election for class president in the episode "Running Scared", she immediately demands a recount. This became funnier in light of the 2000 Presidential election, when a whole lot of hubbub erupted over how close the votes were in Florida, with Gore's campaign calling for a manual recount. Twenty years later, following the 2020 Presidential election, it arguably became even funnier when Trump's campaign did the same thing.
  • The Running Gag in "Robbin Juice of Sherweird Forest", in which there are repeated comments about Beej's wanted posters, may remind modern viewers of the similar gag in Tangled.
• Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: "Beetlebabes" is one ship name for Beetlejuice/Lydia, referencing how Beetlejuice calls Lydia "babes".
• Jerkass Woobie: Beetlejuice himself, in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife". It's not hard to understand why most of his neighbors would be enjoying much better circumstances without him on hand to wreak havoc (and keep them humble in the process), and he does begin the episode by complaining about everything and being generally annoying. Nevertheless, you can't help but feel sorry for the guy when he feels like nobody wants him around.
• Moe: Lydia is an utterly precious Perky Goth.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Lydia was played by a pre-The Big Comfy Couch and Resident Evil 2 Alyson Court.
  • Ginger and Prudence were played by Tabitha St. Germain, and Claire, Bertha and Little Miss Warden were played by a young Tara Strong, in some of their first voice acting roles.
  • Super Ego in the episode "Super Zeros" is voiced by George Lowe, before he became well-known for Space Ghost Coast to Coast and Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
• The Scrappy:
  • Claire Brewster for being an Alpha Bitch and always insulting Lydia and her friends. Luckily for the viewers, karma mostly bites her in the ass.
  • Prince Vince, with his overly dramatic tendencies, is seen this way by a portion of the viewers; not many fans care for Beetlejuice's sickeningly sweet brother Donny, either. However, neither of them appear in the show nearly as much as Claire, so their scrappy status is less pronounced.
• Squick: You think Beetlejuice's crush on Lydia is creepy? In the episode "Pest O' the West", Lydia gets the unwanted attentions of an anthropomorphic bull ghost who wants to marry her. Beetlejuice even sees what Lydia's future will be like if he doesn't go back to rescue her. No wonder he starts screaming — in his vision, there's little baby heifers running about all over the place.
• Unfortunate Character Design: Scuzzo the Clown appears to have his face designed after the black eye mask worn by the comedy stock character Pulcinella, but his red lips make it easy to misinterpret as a blackface caricature.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: If you knew about the movie, it was definitely NOT for kids. It was a comedy but it had some pretty horrific visuals, a lot of death, suicides and worst of all, Beetlejuice was a Dirty Old Man who hit on married women and the teenage Lydia. He is much more kid-friendly here, but for those who had seen the movie, the difference was a bit of whiplash.
• The Woobie:
  • Percy the Cat in "Bewitched, Bothered, & Beetlejuiced".
  • Lydia in "It's a Wonderful Afterlife". Without Beetlejuice, she is miserable and utterly alone. Even Bertha and Prudence join Claire in mocking her!
  • Beej himself in the same episode is either this or a Jerkass Woobie.

The Musical

• Accidental Aesop:
  • Let people grieve at their own pace and trying to force someone to let go before they are ready can cause problems. Charles and Delia aggressively try to force Lydia to just accept what's going on and to get over her dead mother and Lydia's attempts to resist this causes the conflict and drives a massive wedge between Lydia and Charles.
  • Cheaping out on services tends to make the problem worse. Rather than get a therapist for Lydia, Charles forces a life coach on her, leading to Lydia feeling like no one understands her. Later, Delia brings her guru in to help with Beetlejuice rather than an exorcist and not only does that make things worse, it ends in the guru's death.
• And You Thought It Would Fail: Early word in the tryout production wasn't too kind, but reception improved on Broadway, with the reviews being more mixed, audiences being more enthusiastic, and the box office being quite strong. Then came the news that the show would be shutting down so that the revival of The Music Man could take it's place. There was then talk of moving the production to another theatre, but then Coronavirus hit, and all of Broadway had to shut down for over a year. However, they decided to bring back the show in 2022, moving it to the Marquis Theatre.
• Award Snub: The stage musical was nominated for nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Actor. It won none of them. The ones that the fans feel most snubbed over are the Scenic Design and Lighting Design awards, considering how many effects the show uses.
• Critical Dissonance: Received mixed notices from critics, but proved to be an audience pleaser and money maker.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • The song "Creepy Old Guy" in the musical, where everyone scams Beetlejuice into thinking Lydia really does want to marry him. And about how it's totally okay for a girl her age to marry a creepy old guy if that's what she really wants. Later in the song even Beetlejuice acknowledges how messed up child brides are.
    Mr. Deetz: Have you guys seen Lolita? This is just like that, but fine.
  • The scrapped song "Sign Yourself Over To Me", where Charles issues a prenuptial agreement with Delia, is filled with this, particularly Charles all but admitting that he sees the marriage as entitling him to coerce Delia to placate his sexual desires whenever he wants her to, threatening litigious retaliation if Delia violates the contract in any way and bringing up at the end that the pen he's offering Delia belonged to a Civil War era slave-owner.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: At one point during "Fright of Their Lives", Beetlejuice prays to both God and Satan. His actor, Alex Brightman, would go on to voice some denizens of Hell and an Archangel of Heaven. And for bonus points, Beetlejuice wouldn't be Brightman's only role to redeem themselves after dying for a second time, at the hands of another character Brightman voiced no less.
  • In addition, one of the characters Brightman voiced in Hazbin Hotel is the leader of the exorcist angels, while Beetlejuice calls himself a bio-exorcist.
• Misaimed Fandom: The song "Creepy Old Guy" in the musical takes the piss out of the Beetlejuice/Lydia ship, putting attention on the Age-Gap Romance, comparing it to Lolita and noting how creepy it is that child brides are allowed in some cultures.^note Including many US states, though there is a recent reform movement and many laws have been adjusted in recent years. As of January 2023 there are still multiple states with no minimum age requirement for marriage. It also makes it abundantly clear in context that neither party of the ship wants to get married out of love, with Beetlejuice only doing it as a "green card thing" and Lydia doing it so she can kill Beetlejuice when he comes to life. Nevertheless, there are some Beetlejuice/Lydia shippers that take the song at face value as supportive of the ship.
• Newbie Boom: The musical introduced many theater fans to the Beetlejuice fandom, especially younger fans who didn't grow up with the movie or cartoon.
• Signature Song: "Dead Mom".
• One True Threesome: A surprising one has developed among fans who ship the Maitlands and Beetlejuice. The musical shows several moments of Beetlejuice being outwardly attracted to both of them, such as the joke about Barbara's "jugs" and Beetlejuice making several passes at Adam in general. Adding fuel to the fire is how in "Creepy Old Guy" they both pretend to be romantically interested in Beetlejuice, and Adam even makes out with him. As if to drive this home, in this iteration, at the point where Beetlejuice introduces himself by forcefully kissing Barbara, this version also opts to address the Values Dissonance by having him kiss Adam as well in the exact same manner. It also helps that this version of Beetlejuice is confirmed to be pansexual by Word of God.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The musical feels designed to strike a balance between the movie and animated series in order to avoid this trope, though for many it was still in play:
  • Beetlejuice is now the leading role, which many feel causes his annoying antics to outstay their welcome quickly.
  • Additionally, trying to combine the film and animated versions of the character means that the movie one's aspects make him unlikable to some, even though the cartoon side is supposed to make him somewhat of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
  • The famous "Banana Boat Song" scene is changed to all the actors actually singing. Given the difference in format, this makes sense, but it's neither as funny nor as creepy as having Harry Belafonte's voice coming through the characters.

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