mrshl | blog

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice

I had remembered Beetlejuice fondly as one of the weirder, more awesome cartoons based on a film. Along with The Real Ghostbusters, Beetlejuice actually seemed to preserve much of its weirdness in the transition to Saturday morning.

Sure there were the acid-soaked visuals and the parade of zombies and demons, but there was also something slightly off about the show’s central friendship between the debauched, clearly middle-aged Han Solo of the underworld and Lydia, the sarcastic, but pragmatic teen who tried to keep Beetlejuice out of trouble. Lydia was a pre-Daria goth-nerd, upon whom I had an unhealthy cartoon crush. So, to me it never seemed right how the two of them would travel together between realms and dimensions without some kind of oversight from child welfare.

I’ve been watching some clips this morning and I have to say the show isn’t nearly as good as I remember. Part of the appeal is that the animators did a great job drawing Beetlejuice and Lydia; they look an awful lot like their counterparts in the film, Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder. Unfortunately, as this clip reveals, the dialogue and voice acting could be really, really bad.

Be sure, in this clip, to look for one of my pet peeves: the dude is running away from a beastie, shouting “Look out!” but there is no one else around. No one to heed this senseless, idiotic warning. At least when Shaggy said it, Scoob was around. Ugh.