From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Beetlejuice is an American-Canadian animated
television series loosely based on the film of the same name; it aired from
September 9, 1989 to December 6, 1991. The television series was produced by Ellipse (France) and Nelvana (Canada) for The
Geffen Film Company, with distribution handled by Warner Bros. Television, and
starred Stephen Ouimette as Beetlejuice and Alyson Court as Lydia
Deetz. The music and score for the series was composed by Ray Parker,
Jr., Danny
Elfman, and Tom Szczesniak.
Plot
Differences
between the animated series and live-action film
The premise of the animated series was greatly changed from the
film, to the point where one only superficially resembled the
other. In the film, Beetlejuice was the antagonist who ended up
nearly marrying a disgusted Lydia; in the series, they are best
friends, and Lydia, something of a social misfit in the living
world, frequently visits him in the afterlife during her free time.
The Maitlands, the most significant characters in the film, are
nowhere to be found in the series. And unlike the mind-numbing bureaucracy that is in
the movie, the afterlife
was converted into "the Neitherworld," a bizarre and
humorous parody of the living
world, with the fact of it being the afterlife only rarely
mentioned, and the living world was referred to once or twice as
"the Outerworld" (or as "the Otherworld").
Another difference is in the series, the town where the Deetzes
lived is called "Peaceful Pines," instead of "Winter River" as it
is called in the movie. However, in the episode "Critter Sitters,"
Lydia rides through the bridge the Maitland crashed off, and lives
in the same exact house (the remodeled version after the Deetzes
moved in). Besides the absence of Adam & Barbara Maitland,
other significant characters absent from the series include Otho,
Delia's interior designer, and Juno, the afterlife caseworker.
Furthermore, there is no mention of the Handbook for the
Recently Deceased or the model of the town Adam built.
However, Beetlejuice uses two of his lines from the film so
often they have become catch phrases. One is
"It's showtime", often yelled triumphantly. The other is "Save
that guy for later" (in the film, referring to a piece of
phlegm he'd hocked into his
jacket pocket; in the series, usually to a bug, which he'd frequently eat. This was done
off-screen, with an echoing crunch, usually grossing out Lydia or
whoever happened to be at hand).
Episode
formula
Episodes generally centered on the ghostly con-man Beetlejuice,
his best (and only true) friend Lydia, and their adventures
together in both the Neitherworld and the "real world", a fictional
New England town
called Peaceful Pines ("Winter River" in the film).
Beetlejuice's core character, that of a ghostly con
artist, remained fundamentally the same as in the original
movie, but was considerably softened, from maliciousness to
pranksterism; nor, in the series, did he display the rampant lechery he did in the film, only
occasionally embracing (or being embraced by) Lydia as between good
friends.
Lydia's character is portrayed as an upbeat goth girl who likes
"weird" things from spiders to sloppy horror movies. As in the
film, Lydia could summon Beetlejuice out of the Neitherworld (or go
there herself) by calling his name three times, sometimes as part
of a set chant:
- "Though I know I should be wary,
- Still I venture someplace scary;
- Ghostly haunting I turn loose ...
- Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!"
Occasionally, there are other effects from that chant, such as
Lydia's room changing to a gothic castle. On a few occasions, other
people and ghosts went to the Neitherworld or the living world,
either when Lydia takes them with her by chanting Beetlejuice's
name, or presumably through a door that connects Lydia's and
Beetlejuice's homes.
In only a very few episodes is Lydia not present, those being
wholly escapades of Beetlejuice in the Neitherworld.
Humor
The series' humor relied heavily on sight gags, wordplay, and
allusiveness. The show was what has been called "bi-modal", meaning
that it could be viewed on one level by small children and on a
completely different and much more sophisticated level by adults,
which made it appealing to a wide range of age groups. Many
episodes, especially towards the end of the run, were manifest parodies of famous films, books,
and TV shows. The humor was kept clean in that it didn't involve
sex, drugs, or alcohol (in one episode, set in an old western town,
Beetlejuice makes the metafictional remark that the town doesn't
have a saloon because of the time slot, which also breaks the
fourth wall).
Throughout the series, Beetlejuice would often try to scam
residents of the Neitherworld—and, sometimes, the "real world" as
well (Lydia's parents were occasional unwitting victims of his
pranks) -- by various means, from "baby-sitting" (in which he
literally sits on the grotesque Neitherworld babies) to trying to
beat them in an auto race. It was also revealed that Beetlejuice is
afraid of—and vulnerable to—one thing above all: Sandworms. That
was hinted at in a single line of dialog in the movie but was much
expanded on in the series. Sandworms are huge purple and green
snake-like creatures with two pairs of eyes and stegosaurus-like spines
on their backs. Beetlejuice also has a major aversion to anything
nice or (worse) sweet, although according to one novelization,
Lydia's Scream Date, he has a safe full of bars of orange chocolate.
Series
run
The series was a breakout hit for ABC in its initial
season, and later became one of the first animated series to air on
FOX's weekday afternoon
children's lineup. This led to a situation whereby
Beetlejuice was being seen Monday through Friday on FOX
while still remaining on ABC's Saturday morning schedule, making it
one of the few shows in American television history to be aired
concurrently on two different broadcast networks.
Beetlejuice has aired in re-runs on Nickelodeon and Cartoon
Network, and will air on Warner Bros. and AOL's new broadband internet channel Toontopia TV. The series currently airs on
Teletoon Retro
in Canada.
Home video
release
Warner Bros.
released most of the first season of the show on 6 video-cassettes by December 21, 1993.
On September 16, 2008, 3 episodes ("A-ha", "Skeletons in the
Closet", and "Spooky Boo-Tique") were released serving as bonus
features on the Beetlejuice 20th Anniversary Deluxe
Edition DVD.[1] As of
2009, this is the only DVD release of the series and no plans for a
full DVD release of the series have been announced.
Characters
Main
characters
Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice - the main and title character of
the show. Beetlejuice (often addressed as just "Beej" or
"BJ" by Lydia) is able to change shape, transform objects,
teleport, and perform other feats of magic, although his powers can
be reduced by various circumstances, such as encounters with
Sandworms or when his head becomes separated from his body. At
times he must pause to think of exactly how to use his powers to
escape a precarious situation unscathed. His name derives from the
star Betelgeuse, which
is the armpit of the constellation Orion.
Whenever Beetlejuice utters aloud a figure of speech, he or his
surroundings change to act on the pun (for example, if he says he's
tired, he'll transform into a tire; if he says he's flat broke, he
transforms into a flat disc that falls to the ground and shatters;
on one occasion, in reference to his own power, he declares
"This literal translation stuff slays me!" and giant
letters reading "Literal Translation Stuff" then
fall from the sky to crush him). Almost all of his transformations
maintain the black-and-white striped pattern he wears on his suit,
although sometimes the stripes are coloured depending on the
transformation.
Though many Neitherworld denizens have some magic, it is
Beetlejuice's greatly superior power (no real cause for it is ever
given) that affords him the title—albeit mostly self-asserted—of
"The Ghost With The Most." Because of that power, almost everyone
in the Neitherworld is fair game for his pranks, though no more so
than he himself, since he is not immune to careless use of his
power; for example, he was once tricked by his enemies into saying
"I'm coming apart at the seams!" which caused him to break into
several pieces, with which his enemies then stole and scattered to
different places in the Neitherworld, rendering him nearly helpless
until—with Lydia's help—he reassembled himself. Sometimes
Beetlejuice will mix up one of his transformations (when Lydia told
him to turn into a stake to fight off Count Mein, he turned into a
flank steak).
At times, various of his body parts (including his feet and his
entire torso) manifested minds of their own, independent of
Beetlejuice's control. Beetlejuice's main pastime is pulling
various pranks on the other denizens of the Neitherworld such as
Jacques, Ginger, The Monster Across the Street, Poopsie, the Mayor
and in the Living World it is Lydia's rival Claire Brewster,
Lydia's parents or sometimes Lydia herself. In the episode "Scary
Fools Day", Beetlejuice and Lydia had a Scare War with each of them
playing pranks on each other throughout the episode. Lydia only
succeeded in scaring Beetlejuice once with the prank that his
mother was coming to stay with him for a month, but Beetlejuice
successfully pranked Lydia at least four times using his much more
effective powers. These pranks included popping out of her desk
drawer as a jack-in-the-box, pretending to shred her school essay,
disguising himself as Claire Brewster who would be staying with her
for six months while her parents were on a six month holiday and
using a sock puppet and a lamp to create the illusion of a
Sandworm. Beetlejuice's pranks on many seem to cause them great
embarrassment or damage, but for Lydia however, his pranks don't
seem to cause her any harm which shows his care for her. Lydia in
fact, seems to be the only person who has any control over
Beetlejuice. He even said in one episode he'd do anything for her,
and she in turn reciprocates his feelings.
Beetlejuice is also constantly coming up with get-rich-quick con
schemes to get money, as he dreads having to get a job. His favourite foods
are insects of various types, especially beetles,
and worms. In one episode however, he gets a job as a scarecrow on
a beetle farm. When he finally gets his chance to eat the beetles
one is cheering his name in admiration and Beetlejuice, overcome
with guilt finds he can't eat them. Acts like this prove that
Beetlejuice has more of a heart than he likes to think. Beetlejuice
also loves causing mayhem in the Neitherworld and being filthy.
The things he hates include Sandworms, cleanliness, and anything
"cute". He expresses his likes and dislikes via variations
on a single catchphrase, as in "Nerd humour...you know I love
it!" or "Sandtraps...you know I hate
'em!"
Beetlejuice's origins are rather fuzzy. On one hand, he
frequently claims to be dead, a ghost (having died centuries
before—though his references are often hundreds of years apart),
which implies a prior life in the "real world". Yet some episodes
show his parents residing in the Neitherworld, and it is apparently
there that he was born to and raised by them: there are, for
example, photos of him in the Neitherworld as a baby—showing him
with his stock ghostly complexion and bizarre snake-like tongue—and
tales of his youth already manifesting his trademark personality.
One possible explanation may relate to his saying something about
his parents "making him feel like a kid again" and being unsure how
to fix it without his growing up all over again; another is that
continuity was not a key importance in the series. More likely, the
creators probably changed it to avoid scaring off viewers; in the
original opening, he is shown leaving his grave and as a corpse.
Later airings featured new animation of him producing stripes on
his clothes.
Lydia
Deetz
Lydia Deetz - a goth girl in her preteens at the start
of the series, (she was in the seventh grade) and early teens later in
the series, (at one point she expressly states that she is 14).
Lydia is established as being a creative, bright, sharp, yet eccentric young girl, but
otherwise Lydia's unique outlook on life makes her stand out from
most of the other school-girls, which leaves her feeling out of
place and alone in the real world, finding it difficult to fit in
well with most of her classmates—leading her to frequently visit
and seek out reassurence with her closest best friend, Beetlejuice,
in the Neitherworld, where she is accepted and loved for who she is
as a person.
Lydia is an amateur, but
nonetheless, talented photographer, entomologist, seamstress, and sketch artist with an innate affinity and love for all things gross, scary, weird and macabre, and who celebrates all that is
'strange and unusual'. Despite her love of all things 'strange and
unusual', Lydia is also a positive, well-mannered, friendly and patient girl, (being best
friends with Beetlejuice is a testament towards Lydia's saint-like
patience.) And aside from also being emotionally mature for her age
(given what her best friend and her parents are like), Lydia can be
accredited as being very responsible for a girl in her age
group. Lydia is also shown to be a naturalist, shown to
feel very strongly about environmental issues, (in Spooky
Tree Lydia cut school and chained herself to a tree in protest
of the workmen who were about to chop it down). She has also shown
that she is extremely gifted with anything mechanical, and
understands a lot about cars (she knew what to do to build Doomie,
while Beetlejuice did not know very much, such as what a carburetor is).
In the series, Lydia attends "Miss Shannon's School for Girls" and is in
seventh grade.
Lydia is Beetlejuice's best friend; in the events of the pilot
episode, Critter Sitters, both she and Beetlejuice have
already known each other for a year, as they are celebrating their
first anniversary of
friendship.
Beetlejuice frequently addresses her as "Lyds" or
"Babes" rather than "Lydia" though he does use
her full name from time to time, like when he is scared, amused, or
worried about her. For example:in "Worm Welcome" when Beetlejuice
found out that "Worm Your Way" deodorant, causes baby Sandworms to
go crazy, he was scared Lydia would be eaten by the baby Sandworm
thus in turn, makes himself shout her name. Lydia knows how to
summon Beetlejuice to her presence, or make her own way to his: by
calling his name aloud three times. (Occasionally she is shown
making use of a longer, more elaborate ritual to bring him out of
the Neitherworld or send herself into it, but that seems not to be
a necessity.) Unlike Beetlejuice himself, Lydia is almost
universally loved by the Neitherworld cast of the show.
In the pilot episode, Critter Sitters, she is shown
summoning him through the longer ritual; as part of the ritual, the
colour of her clothing changes, possibly merely by her choice. (Her
invariable Neitherworld costume—unless she is in disguise—is a
full-length red spiderweb-patterned poncho worn over a black,
form-fitting body suit.) She is not the only person capable of
summoning Beetlejuice—apparently the calling of his name would work
for anyone (in one episode, Claire Brewster summons him
accidentally)--but Lydia is the only person he will heed (because
she is his friend, not because she summons him). Having found
herself a kindred spirit in Beetlejuice, Lydia looks up to
Beetlejuice in certain ways; admiring his outrageous sense of
humour, as she would constantly be seen laughing at his jokes or
gags. In one episode Beetlejuice lent Lydia his funny bone so she
could be funny as part of a school show. But without his funny
bone, Beetlejuice became much more serious and normal, this change
in him even disappoints Jacques and Ginger. When Beetlejuice gets
his funny bone back however, he becomes his ab-normal self again
much to Lydia's delight as she hugs him. In some respects Lydia
sometimes has been seen virtually parenting Beetlejuice. It is
frequently made clear that Beetlejuice's dedication to her is a
source of Lydia's own self-confidence.
Meanwhile, any who might conceivably threaten their relationship
(such as Prince Vince) are the objects of Beetlejuice's profound
jealousy and resentment. In one episode, we learn that Beetlejuice
actually has a working shrine to Lydia in his mind. Lydia never
shows any romantic interest in anyone else except Prince Vince, and
that quickly turns into a straight-out friendship. She's hugged
Beetlejuice a few times (if in a sisterly manner), and frequently
goes on dates with him (such as to movies)--always, of course, in
the Neitherworld. Also, when she was inside Beetlejuice's head, she
gave a donation towards the maintenance of his shrine to her. Her
main hobbies, aside from photographing every sort of strange thing,
hanging out with Beetlejuice, drawing, includes watching horror
movies and customising dolls into famous horror movie characters
and monsters, reading literary classics such the collective works
of writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King and
others.
Supporting
characters
The
Neitherworld
- Jacques LaLean - A Francophone skeleton bodybuilder (a
humorous reference to the fitness guru Jack LaLanne) and neighbor of Beetlejuice.
A running gag in the series entails Jacques getting broken into
multiple pieces, often thanks to Beetlejuice who will then proceed
to call a number of random dogs upon him. In spite of such antics,
Jacques actually likes Beetlejuice, and in one episode it is
revealed that Beetlejuice likes Jacques despite his vehement
pretensions to the contrary. He pursues a dream of becoming a great
bodybuilder, a mostly comedic endeavor as he has no muscles, nor a
body to devote fitness to, a fact he is very aware of, but
regardless, does not take into consideration.
- Ginger - A mediocre tap-dancing spider (another humorous
allusion, this to Ginger Rogers). Another of Beetlejuice's
neighbors, her act is often ruined by pranks of Beetlejuice. She
dreams of someday being a famous tap dancer, and can be very
sensitive to cruel pranks. Although she is one of the innocent
creatures in the Neitherworld, she has admitted that she stole a
few dance steps from other living and dead dancers.
- Prince Vince - The ruler of the Neitherworld.
He bears a striking resemblance to Tim Burton's "Vincent", the star
character in one of Burton's early animation shorts (see Vincent);
both, in turn, bear a resemblance to Johnny Depp, which may have been an in-joke, since Winona Ryder--who
played Lydia in the film—was Depp's longtime girlfriend.
Pessimistic and depressed (the weather turns gloomy and rainy in
response to his mood), Prince Vince begins to perk up when he meets
Lydia and they begin dating, but the relationship cools to a
friendship when he asks her to be his Princess and she politely
declines, being barely a teenager. His name could be based on
Vincent Price, which again could be an in joke as both Johnny Depp
and Vincent Price co-starred in Edward Scissorhands.
- The Monster Across the Street - A tall, hairy
monster from the West, who bears a slight resemblance to Gossamer from the Warner
Brothers animation studio. He is another neighbor of Beetlejuice.
It's no secret that he can't stand Beetlejuice (Although it is
acknowledged by many that he doesn't really care for anyone), yet
refers to Lydia politely as "Miss Lydia", often removing
his hat in her presence. He speaks with an exaggerated western
drawl. He resides in a house (suitably across the street from
Beetlejuice's roadhouse) that looks like the skull of a giant-sized
buffalo. He also has a little nephew called "The Little Monster
from Around the Corner," as seen in Goody Two
Shoes.
- Poopsie - The Monster's beloved and talented
pet dog, one of Beetlejuice's favorite prank victims.
- Scuzzo the Clown - Beetlejuice's cackling
rival in prank-playing and whatever other endeavor Beetlejuice
might be pursuing in a given episode. He is considered a comedy
genius in the Neitherworld's version of France, though this was only revealed years
after his first appearance and thus should not be taken as evidence
that he was created as a direct parody of Jerry Lewis (but the later reference is
clearly an oblique sarcasm).
- Fuzzo the Clown - Scuzzo's (physically much
larger) brother. Fuzzo cannot talk, but communicates through a
series of meeping, beeping, squeeking and honking sounds
that only his (physically smaller) brother, Scuzzo, can interpret.
Fuzzo's role in the series is that of a dim-witted goon for his
smarter brother Scuzzo.
- Dragster of Doom (nicknamed
"Doomie") - Beetlejuice and Lydia's
sentient car. Doomie is normally an affable and friendly creature,
but due to the abnormal brain Beetlejuice gave him during his
construction (ala Frankenstein's monster), Doomie
transforms into a vicious "four-wheeled werewolf" type of monster in response to
anger, fear, or the danger of his 'passengers', somewhat like a
vehicular Jekyll and Hyde (correspondingly, even in
his more sedate form he displays subtly dog-like traits such as
panting, implying that he fills a pet-like role for Lydia and
Beetlejuice). A recurring gag is for Doomie to turn into his
"Werewolf stage" to chase Dogs around the Neitherworld, (a
flip-switch to dogs chasing cars). In later episodes, he is known
to "speak", which is given as the sound of an engine
turning over in ignition. It is at these times, Lydia usually plays
translator for him, as we understand a more complex, benevolent,
and hopelessly romantic side to Doomie, such as when he began
courting Mayor Maynot's convertible, Pinky. Beetlejuice makes a
point of claiming his ownership over Doomie, and oftentimes demands
his loyalty whenever Doomie should contradict him or is needed to
aide in Beetlejuice's endeavors. However Beetlejuice can be greatly
apathetic to any plight of Doomie's, necessitating Lydia's
persuasion to help him.
- Pinky - Originally, she was Mayor Maynot's
convertible, whom Doomie fell in love with. After revealing that
she had a problem in her engine, the Mayor decided to get rid of
her and bought a new car. She tracked down Doomie, and with the
help of Lydia and Beetlejuice, they took her to the auto factory
where they built Doomie, and brought her to life. Since she was
abandoned by the Mayor, Lydia and Beetlejuice kept her.
- Road Hawg - A motorcycle with a mean, nasty
and vicious attitude, built by Beetlejuice, when this one got tired
of Doomie being nice towards others. He was made of nasty parts,
which Beetlejuice got in the Deserted Auto Factory, to which he
added two electrical eels. His fuel tank is similar to the head of
a wild boar. Along with Beetlejuice, he formed a gang, but soon
gets tired of BJ's attitude and challenges him for the place as
leader of the gang in a race. Along with Lydia and Doomie,
Beetlejuice is able to win the race, but when Road Hawg tried to
get revenge on him, B.J. removes his spark plug, turning him into a
red tricycle.
- Captain Kidder - A pirate/headhunter who tells jokes which are not
applauded. His name is a pun on to the word 'kid'--which means to
tell a joke—and the notorious pirate Captain Kidd.
- Flubbo - A slug-like bespectacled ghost with
multiple arms, who's possibly one of the few creatures in the
Neitherworld that can compete against Beetlejuice when it comes to
grossness.
- Judge Mental - A skeletal judge. His name is a
play on the word judgmental. He despises Beetlejuice, and has
banished him to Sandworm Land countless times.
- Mayor Maynot - The mayor of the Neitherworld,
completely redesigned in the second season from a stereotypical
old-time mayor to more of a modern-day mayor. The mayor hates
Beetlejuice and would love nothing more than to feed him to the
sandworms. Though at first glance he looks like a mummy it was revealed in some episodes that he is
actually an Invisible Man. His name is a play on
"may or may not". Some episodes also depicted him as a green
monster (possibly his original form until he became an invisible
man).
- Armhold Musclehugger - A bodybuilder ghost,
parody of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is
"Mr. Neitherworld" and the fitness king. Being a bodybuilder, he
does not like to talk about emotion or other things that involve
them. After losing his title of Mr. Neitherworld, he started to
work as a bodyguard. He is Jacques' prime arch-rival.
- Chester Slime - A lawyer who bribes the
mayor.
- Germs Pondscum - A secret agent with "a
license to prank," based heavily on James Bond (in particular, Sean Connery's
rendition). Using Beetlejuice as his scape goat, he usually pranks
everyone that he sees.
- Mr. Monitor - Co-president of the Nutwork
which airs broadcasts of Beetlejuice's adventures; his head
consists of four TV screens. Much like the X-men villain Mojo,
Monitor lives for ratings and will go into an extreme panic if they
drop even a smidge. Over-bearing to his employees and sniviling to
his superiors, he has no qualms about destroying Beetlejuice if it
will increase his ratings. However Beetlejuice's show is the
favorite of the Head of the network, so Monitor's antics have a way
of coming back to haunt him.
- The Monstress Across the Street - The
Monster's girlfriend.
- The Little Monster from Across the Corner -
He's the The Monster Across the Street's nephew.
- Poopette - The Monstress' dog.
- Mr. & Mrs. Juice - Nat and Bea ("gnat" and
"bee," two types of insects), Beetlejuice's parents. Unlike
Beetlejuice, they are very neat, clean, and upstanding, always
insisting when he visits that Beetlejuice bathe, clean his room,
and/or get a job. Beetlejuice avoids them for these reasons and
considers them painfully dull, despite their nagging stemming from
their love of him and desire for him to be responsible and happy.
While they don't seem to have magic powers like Beetlejuice, they
are capable of spinning their heads around like he can. Nat seems
to be fashioned after the Frankenstein
monster (even works at a neckbolt factory), while Bea is
fashioned like a stereotypical old woman.
- Uncle Sid - Beetlejuice's uncle, who thinks
Lydia is his nephew's girlfriend. He loves telling horrible jokes.
He is married to his wife Irma. Lydia's living human uncle, Clyde,
resembles Sid and tells bad jokes as well.
- Donny Juice - Beetlejuice's little brother.
Save the fierce family resemblance, Donny is perhaps the very
antithesis of his older brother, and everyone in the Netherworld
(even the entirety of the Juice family) very much prefer him to
Beetlejuice. Donny is clean, tidy, and generous, but rather
insecure. His main problem is that he is a little too kind
(in the vein of Mr. Rogers, Pat Boone, or Ned Flanders), which he is aware tends to
'drive people crazy'. No explanation is offered for why his name
breaks the bug-oriented naming pattern in the Juice family,
although he is almost certainly a parody of Donny Osmond.
- Bartholomew Batt - An old cartoon character, a
parody of Mickey
Mouse, who desperately tries to make a come back to TV, after
he became obsolete, because he was black and white, unlike the
other cartoons.
- Little Miss Warden - Warden of the sickeningly
sweet Neitherneitherland, she is a parody of Shirley Temple
and, to a smaller extent, Tinker Bell. Betraying how naturally cute
and adorable she is in response to her surroundings, she can be
strict and cruel without remorse, and pulls no punches when it
comes to demanding that everything and everyone conform to the
stereotypically adorable standard she sets for not just her
prisoners, but all who drop in on her camp, evidenced by her
imprisoning Lydia (After blatantly deeming her name un-cute) when
she had tried to find out just what had happened to Beetlejuice in
his court-mandated "rehabilitation" into Snugglejuice. Her partner
in arms is Billy Club.
- Jesse Germs - A skeletal outlaw whose name is
based on Jesse James
and whose manner (and speech) parodies Clint Eastwood.
- I.M. Smallhead - He's the mayor's assistant,
who has a shrunken head; in one episode he receives an award from
"The Society of People Who Hate Hats". He was based on Harry the
Haunted Hunter, who appeared in the movie.
- Lip Scum - An annoying character, he is
basically a giant mouth with eyes, arms, and legs. He is the only
creature in the Netherworld everyone considers even MORE annoying
than Beetlejuice.
- Dr. Zigmund Void - A large-headed psychiatrist
based on Sigmund
Freud.
- Bully the Crud - A Neitherworld-based bull-like outlaw, based on Billy the Kid, who
appears in the episode "Pest o' the West." He develops a crush on
Lydia and tries to force her to marry him.
- Hankerchief Boogerheim: The owner of the
Boogerheim Museum of Post-Mortem Art. His name is a parody to Solomon
R. Guggenheim, the founder of the Guggenheim Museums.
- Barry MeNot - A Neitherworld TV personality
who appears in various "commercials" that sometimes pop up to
emphasize a particular plot point in a humorous aside. Unlike the
rest of the show, Barry MeNot's vignettes are computer-generated
animation. He almost never interacts with the rest of the
characters. (The name puns "bury me not".)
- Goody Two Shoes - A fairy from the
Nietherworld's Bureau of Sweetness and Prissiness, and perhaps the
only being more powerful than Beetlejuice, as all of Beetlejuice's
tricks proved useless on her. She is able to transform anyone into
a sweet and clean version of him or herself. She is somewhat like
Little Miss Warden except that Miss Warden does her job to reform
while Goody does her job as kind of a sport, and hates it when
folks get along.
- Napoleon Bonesapart and Marie Marionette - A
headless skeleton and a headless zombie based on the French general
Napoleon Bonapart, and Queen Marie Antoinette. Marie Marionette
made an appearance as a guest in the episode "You're
History"
- The Scuzzimottos - A couple of slug-like
creatures, who compete against everyone in the 24-hour gross
contest. They were beaten by Beetlejuice and Lydia, when
Beetlejuice was able to witstand their grossest face.
- Barf Birfman - A Neitherworld TV personality,
who usually presents every kind of talk-shows and other TV
contests.
- The Sappy Face Ghouls - A group of scouts who
Beetlejuice formed, to sell cookies to the people of Peaceful
Pines, and out-rate the Happy Face Girls.
- Carry-On - The captain of a ferry-boat who
makes the cross of River Schticks. He's an obvious pun on Charon
the ferryman who took the souls of the dead into the Underworld
through the Styx River, in the Greek mythology.
The Real
World
- Charles Deetz - Lydia's father, a nervous man
who likes quiet activity and calm. One of his favourite hobbies is
ornithology, which he seems to be very fond of, and he also likes
baseball. He is often the victim of Beetlejuice's continuous pranks
and mischieves. Despite this, Beetlejuice is sort of oddly fond of
him, probably because he's one of the few people who is always
falling on his pranks.
- Delia Deetz - In the film, she was Lydia's
stepmother, but the cartoon appears to present her as Lydia's
actual biological mother; Lydia refers to her as "Mother"
or "Mom", instead of using her first name as in the film.
Her relationship with Lydia is somehow a close relationship,
although sometimes, both of them do not agree in some issues. Due
to her eccentric/airheaded/yuppie nature, Delia is not easily frightened,
unlike her husband. Being a surrealistic artist, she mistakenly
thinks that the frightening things she experiences are part of
something else. Her weird art is often rejected by living people,
but is very popular in the Neitherworld. Delia wants Lydia to give
up scary stuff and focus on cute stuff.
- Percy - Lydia's pet cat, an animal so
high-strung that he makes Charles look relaxed. Considering the
amount of torment that Beetlejuice puts Percy through, this isn't
really surprising. Although Percy is most times a victim of
Beetlejuice's pranks, he sometimes manages to take revenge on him,
in more than one way.
- Aunt Zippora & Uncle Danforth - Delia's
rich, snobby sister and henpecked brother-in-law. Although Zippora
criticises Delia and Lydia, Danforth is quite friendly, and agrees
with Lydia in many points.
- Aunt May & Uncle Clyde - Charles' farmer
ventriloquist brother and mild-mannered sister-in-law. Their
invariable punch line is a joint drawn-out declaration "We like it;
we like it juuust fine!"
- Claire Brewster - Lydia's rival, a filthy rich
and spoiled rotten brat. She has tanned skin,
blonde hair, and speaks with a valley girl accent. The girls could not be
more different and are frequently on opposite sides of the same
situation. Although Lydia simply dislikes Claire, Beetlejuice
actively despises and hates her because of how she insults,
condescends to, and otherwise mistreats Lydia, leading him to prank
and punish Claire with the most horrible and disgusting ways he can
find. Most times she subjected to Beetlejuice's magic as payback
for something she's done to Lydia or when she's insulted him when
he's disguised as Betty. Claire just wants Lydia to be normal.
- Bertha & Prudence - The only friends that
Lydia has who are in her age group,(though there are other
characters that have been friendly with Lydia who were around the
same age.) Bertha (nicknamed "Burp" by Beetlejuice) is
tall and skinny with a noticeable overbite, while Prudence
(nicknamed "Prune" by Beetlejuice) is quite tiny with
large glasses. They are usually portrayed as nerdy and helpless,
but they share some of Lydia's interest in the bizarre, in one
episode they join her (and a disguised Beetlejuice) in a rock band
called "the Brides of Funkenstein", while in another they survive
in the wild and become (temporarily) a pair of female Tarzans.
- Miss Shannon - Lydia's teacher and
headmistress, first (or possibly last) name unknown. She tends to
appreciate order and old fashioned habits, although she sometimes
displays a more irreverent attitude towards her students.
Beetlejuice's disguises
Often, when Beetlejuice acts as part of Lydia's life in the
living world, he puts on one of these personas. Betty, Mr.
Beetleman, and cousin B.J. have appeared multiple times; the others
were either one-time disguises or used seldomly like Cousin BJ.
- Betty Juice - Beetlejuice uses this disguise
to go to Lydia's school and/or to be with her human friends. In
simple terms, he changes into the same uniform as Lydia's school
and styles his hair into a tacky ponytail with a black and white
striped headband with a bat on it, he also speaks with a female (if
barely so) voice.
- Mr. Beetleman (Form 1) - Used when he involves
himself in some business affair, often with the Deetzes. He
pretends to be a jack-of-all-trades and is seen in white and black
overalls.
- Mr. Beetleman (Form 2) - This form is similar
to a carnival barker. BJ sports a thin mustache and is usually
dressed in a red and white seersucker shirt, a straw boater, and cape.
- Mr. Beetleman (Form 3) - This form has BJ
wearing a coonskin hat, Hawaiian shirt, striped shorts, and
sandals.
- Mr. Beetleman (Form 4) - This form has BJ
wearing a ringmaster's outfit, and was used by Beetlejuice when he
helped Lydia in the school play and when he fixed her Halloween Party.
- Mr. Beetleman (Form 5) - This form has BJ
wearing a purple chaffeur's outifit, and was used by Beetlejuice,
when he took Lydia and her mother to a colony of artists in the
Neitherworld, so Delia could present her art.
- Cousin B.J. - Only used twice in the show:
when Beetlejuice wanted to be involved in Lydia's family reunion,
and when he took advantage of Charles's desire for male bonding. He
takes on the form of a little kid, and wears a white and black
T-shirt. Charles thinks he's a relative of Delia while Delia thinks
he's a relative of Charles.
- Grandpa Beetleman - BJ took this form, a
balding old man, when he volunteered to show Charles Deetz's mother
around. In this form, Beetlejuice wears typical senior-citizen
clothing.
- Professor Beetleburg - Beetlejuice once used
this disguise—that of a teacher—to take Lydia's class on a field
trip.
- Beatrice - In the second-season finale
episode, "Bothered, Bewitched and Beetlejuiced," Beetlejuice and
Lydia disguised themselves as witches to rescue her cat, Percy,
from a witches' party in the Neitherworld.
- Odious - Beetlejuice disguised himself as a
dog to pull a prank on Poopsie, only to be impounded and later
rescued by Lydia and taken to her world to remove the collar that
was stunting his ability to transform back. Delia noticed him and
immediately decided to keep him, much to Charles' dismay (he's
allergic to dogs). Beetlejuice was eventually rescued by a
disguised Jacques, recruited and brought to the real world by
Lydia.
- B-Gore - When they were making Doomie, their
car, BJ took on the form of a balding hunchback, a parody of the
mad-science lackey Igor from Frankenstein. He
later used this form to also build his motorcycle, Road Hawg.
- Super Slob - A superhero costume he turned
into by ripping his suit off (Superman style) to save Doomie.
- Grimdiana Bones - Beetlejuice took on the
aspect of Indiana
Jones to save Lydia from Thing Thong, a creature that only
steals the most beautiful things in the world. (A running gag in
the episode is that every time he said, or wrote, his name, a giant
boulder would appear and run him over, a reference to the opening
scenes of Raiders of the Lost Ark.)
- Surelock Homely - Beetlejuice took on the
aspect of Sherlock Holmes when working with Lydia
(whom he calls "Lydson") in a search for Doomie, whom he believed
had been stolen by some mysterious person.
- Beetallio - Beetlejuice disguised himself as
an Italian barber to help Lydia capture all the monsters that had
appeared in her Halloween party.
- General Splattin - (after General Patton) Beetlejuice used this
disguise to make Doomie move out from a ditch, so he could win the
Neitherworld Groan Prix, instead of Scuzzo and Fuzzo the
Clowns; it recurs in other episodes, including Doomie's Romance and
Goody Two-Shoes.
- B.J. Cheshire Cat - Beetlejuice disguised
himself as a cat with black and white stripes, mirroring the Cheshire Cat so he
could scare Poopsie away. He later used this form to work in a
beetle farm. He also briefly used this disguise in the episodes
Skeletons in a Closet and Queasy Rider.
- Beautyjuice - Beetlejuice used this disguise
to win the prize money in a beauty contest. This plan failed when
he spun his head, which tossed off his wig, instantly disqualifying
him. Later in the episode, Beetlejuice used the following disguises
to cut through a long line of beauty contestants: an old woman, a
young woman with a baby, a chef carrying a pot of hot soup and a
bomb disarmer.
- Mr. Goodstench - Beetlejuice put on this
uniform as a mechanic to repair Doomie.
- Sheckyjuice - (after (Shecky Greene) Beetlejuice uses this
disguise as a comedian to tell jokes.
- UltraBeetleman - Beetlejuice uses this
disguise as a superhero in an effort to become popular.
- Denmother MacCree - Beetlejuice used this
disguise, a green scout mistress dress, to create the Sappy Face
Ghouls, in an attempt to earn money by selling more cookies than
Lydia's Happy Face Girls. He later used this disguise to take Lydia
and the rest of the Happy Face Girls to the Neitherworld's
amusement park, Grislyland.
Voice
cast
- Stephen
Ouimette - Beetlejuice
- Alyson Court -
Lydia Deetz
- Elizabeth
Hanna - Delia Deetz
- Roger Dunn - Charles Deetz
- Harvey Atkin -
Lipscum
- Tara Strong -
Bertha, Claire Brewster, Little Miss Warden
- Len Carlson -
Judge Mental, Mr. Juice, Uncle Clyde
- Paulina
Gillis - Prudence
- Keith Knight - Flubbo, Armhold
Musclehugger, Chester Slime, Dr. Zigmund Void
- Ron Rubin - Germs Pondscum
- Colin
Fox - Dragster of Doom
- Keith
Hampshire - Doomie
- Joseph
Sherman - Scuzzo the Clown
- David
Goldberg - Fuzzo the Clown
- Stuart Stone -
Ramon
- Robert Cait -
The Monster Across the Street
- Dan
Hennessey - Mayor Maynot, Jesse Germs, Captain Kidder, Bully
the Crud
- Peggy Mahon - Mrs. Bugsley, Ginger, Aunt May
- Susan Roman -
Miss Shapen, Percy, Poopsie, Poopette, The Monstress Across the
Street, Mrs. Juice
- Richard Binsley - Donnyjuice
- Don Francks -
Count Mein, Mr. Big
- Michael
Stark - Fleagor
- Charles Kerr - Jacques
- Allan Stewart Coates - Ed
- John Stocker - Mr. Monitor,
Bartholomew Batt
- Hadley Kay -
Prince Vince
Episodes
Merchandise
Much as with the original 1988 film, various merchandise was
released for the Beetlejuice animated series in 1990. This
included trading cards by Dart, a sticker album and
sticker/activity book by Panini, a jigsaw puzzle by Golden,
a party centerpiece by Party Creations, a PC game by Hi-Tech Expressions, and six PVC figures available with Burger King Kids' Meals. Kenner, the company behind the
Beetlejuice movie action figures, had
begun developing figures for the animated series, but the project
did not come to fruition (at least one prototype for that ill-fated
collection has been showcased online).[2]
References
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links
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