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Seeing "Beetlejuice" again in the wake of the sequels release really makes you consider how much of a miracle it was this movie got made, much less became as popular and influential as it has.
Remember, Tim Burton at this point was not even 30 and had only one feature film to his credit. That was "Pee Wee's Big Adventure", which had been this sizable success, but that was based off an already popular and established property and while it had hints of Burton's emerging style (Large Marge, anyone?), it was more Paul Ruebens' creative sensibility. "Beetlejuice" was the first real Tim Burton film where his creative style was dominant. And what we got was a madcap and surreal mix of horror, fantasy and comedy with a decidedly scattershot plot, visuals folks had never seen before, a tone that swung all over the place from family friendly to definitely not and the titular character only being in the film for around 20 minutes. Not to mention a script that one of the writers said he was told to his face was going to wreck his career if he showed it to the world. One can easily see this sort of film dying a slow death stuck in pre-production as a studio goes, "This is too weird, we can't do this."
And yet somehow, it got made by a major studio (albeit with only a $15 million budget) and with relatively little interference. (Not that there wasn't some, like the disagreement over the title; Burton snarked that it should be called "Scared Sheetless" and to his dismay was taken seriously.) And then it promptly became a big hit, established Burton's career and cinematic style and set him up for "Batman" and with Michael Keaton's performance became hugely influential on a ton of similar characters going forward (although most didn't understand, as Burton and Keaton did, that such characters are often best used in small doses). All this due to a film that wasn't so much made by a studio as escaped it. And we're glad it did.
#movies #video
Remember, Tim Burton at this point was not even 30 and had only one feature film to his credit. That was "Pee Wee's Big Adventure", which had been this sizable success, but that was based off an already popular and established property and while it had hints of Burton's emerging style (Large Marge, anyone?), it was more Paul Ruebens' creative sensibility. "Beetlejuice" was the first real Tim Burton film where his creative style was dominant. And what we got was a madcap and surreal mix of horror, fantasy and comedy with a decidedly scattershot plot, visuals folks had never seen before, a tone that swung all over the place from family friendly to definitely not and the titular character only being in the film for around 20 minutes. Not to mention a script that one of the writers said he was told to his face was going to wreck his career if he showed it to the world. One can easily see this sort of film dying a slow death stuck in pre-production as a studio goes, "This is too weird, we can't do this."
And yet somehow, it got made by a major studio (albeit with only a $15 million budget) and with relatively little interference. (Not that there wasn't some, like the disagreement over the title; Burton snarked that it should be called "Scared Sheetless" and to his dismay was taken seriously.) And then it promptly became a big hit, established Burton's career and cinematic style and set him up for "Batman" and with Michael Keaton's performance became hugely influential on a ton of similar characters going forward (although most didn't understand, as Burton and Keaton did, that such characters are often best used in small doses). All this due to a film that wasn't so much made by a studio as escaped it. And we're glad it did.
#movies #video
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