Before Beetlejuice 2, there was this totally forgotten animated series
Tim Burton had already made a sequel to his 1988 film, on the small screen: more than 100 episodes, broadcast between 1989 and 1991.
Nice commercial success in 1988, in the top 10 of the year at the US box office, Beetlejuice took 35 years to get its sequel in the cinema. And yet, in the wake of the film’s success, Warner Bros. immediately wanted to extend the story of Beetlejuice. Already working on Batman for the studio, Tim Burton didn’t have time to take on another movie about the wacky creature from the afterlife. So a TV series was developed.
The filmmaker initiated and produced the animated series himself Beetlejuicewith Warner Bros. Television. It was the Canadian company Nelvana, which was responsible for producing and animating the series (it then worked on The Adventures of Tintin with Ellipse). Danny Elfman also made his return to music, arranging the original theme himself, to make it something more childish and fun.
Because the series Beetlejuiceit was a real cartoon, broadcast in the morning on American TV on ABC. A colorful comedy with visual gags, puns and a bunch of parodies of films, books and series.
The concept was simple: take the characters from the original series, but above all explore the universe further, this famous world of the dead where Beetlejuice. The cartoon does not remake the film, but presents itself as a direct sequel, since Lydia already lives in the famous house. She already knows the famous ghost that she calls to envy. Because in this television version, he is not the enemy. Beetlejuice is his slightly crazy friend from another world. She pronounces his name three times and goes off to experience crazy and burlesque adventures in her phantasmagorical world. Beetlejuice is no longer a vicious and sadistic creature. He is presented as a joker. He also ditches his mildew-covered green hair for a more acceptable style in the morning, when the kids are watching. The Deetz family still lives in the house. There is no mention of the deceased couple Adam and Barbara (Alex Baldwin And Geena Davis). They never appear in the animated series and as such, the cartoon cannot completely be considered a direct sequel to the film.
In the casting, no Michael Keaton And Winona Ryder to do the voices. The dubbing specialist Stephen Ouimette makes the ghost when Alyson Court – who will then voice Claire Redfield in video games resident Evil – double Lydia. In VF, we note that the actor Mario Santini – which was already doubling Michael Keaton for the feature film – returned to do the French voice of Beetlejuice for the cartoon broadcast here at the time in Don’t decode Bunny on Canal+.
This series Beetlejuicefun and colorful, lasted 4 seasons and more than a hundred episodes. Highly appreciated by critics, she even won an Emmy Award in 1990! Too bad it’s not available for streaming today. Warner Bros. will perhaps have the good idea to put it on Max soon, after the global success of Beetlejuice2.
