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2024marked the release ofBeetlejuice Beetlejuice, director Tim Burton’s sequel to his 1988 classic. Burton is a prolific filmmaker in Hollywood, yet despite box office and cult hits, the director has largely avoided sequels. While the source material of bothPee Wee’s Big AdventureandAlice in Wonderlandhad sequels, Burton did not return to the director’s chair. In fact,Beetlejuice Beetlejuiceis only the second sequel he has ever done, arriving 32 years after the director’s only other foray into a sequel,Batman Returns.
Batman Returns, released in 1992, was a sequel to Burton’s incredibly successfulBatman, which broke box office records in 1989. Warner Bros. gave Tim Burton complete creative control over the project, seeing the director as the magic touch the franchise needed. Burton delivered a polarizing film, one that left many parents horrified and children traumatized (while others absolutely loved it). It resulted in Burton being booted from the franchise and the movies moving to a brighter aesthetic under Joel Schumacher withBatman Foreverbefore the franchise burned out withBatman & Robin. The reaction toBeetlejuice Beetlejuicecertainly is more positive out of the gate than Batman Returns, but one look at both movies and the two Tim Burton sequels have a lot in common.
The Keaton, The Stitched Up Woman, and Danny DeVito
Batman Returns’famous tagline was “The Bat, The Cat, and the Penguin,” selling Batman, Catwoman, and, of course, The Penguin. Well, in many ways, that can sum up bothBatman ReturnsandBeetlejuice Beetlejuice.Both films feature Michael Keatonreprising his iconic role as Batman and Beetlejuice, respectively. That meansBurton is one of only two stars to appear in Tim Burton’s two sequels, the other being Danny DeVito. Danny DeVito played Oswald Cobblepott, aka The Penguin, inBatman Returns. Meanwhile, DeVito cameos inBeetlejuice Beetlejuicetowards the beginning of the movie as a janitor in the afterlife, one who dies at the hands of Dolores (Monica Bellucci), a soul sucker who can actually kill the dead residents of the Afterlife.
Dolores is Beetlejuice’s ex-wife, the one who poisoned him before his death, and he retaliated by chopping her up into pieces with an axe. In the afterlife, she is a collection of body parts that can be operated independently but can also be made whole by being stapled together. She is another in Tim Burton’s long line of stitched-up female characters that evoke the Bride of Frankenstein, like Sally inThe Nightmare Before Christmasand the titular Corpse Bride. YetDolores’s stitches also evoke Michelle Phiefer’s iconic Catwoman costume, black leather with sewing marks tying the outfit together.
Tim Burton is commonly associated with Christmas and Halloween, partially due to the 1993 stop-motion animated film he produced,The Nightmare Before Christmas.Batman ReturnsandBeetlejuice Beetlejuiceare both sequels that take place on one of those signature holidays, withBatman Returnsset at Christmas whileBeetlejuice Beetlejuicehas its climax set on Halloween night.
Scripts Stapled Together by Subplots
Batman ReturnsandBeetlejuice Beetlejuicehave a similar pattern in their reviews, asthey both get a lot of criticism for their scripts, while plenty of praise for their style. One common criticism of bothBatman ReturnsandBeetlejuice Beetlejuiceis that the scripts are the weakest parts.Both movies are filled with various subplots that, much like Catwoman’s suit or Monica Bulluci’s Dolores, are stitched together.Batman Returnshas Penguinstart out with a plan to pose as a hero so he can gain access to the firstborn children of Gotham to enact his revenge, only to get sidetracked by a brief run for Mayor orchestrated by Max Shreck (Christopher Walken), before Penguin is outed by Batman to the general public and Penguin goes back to his revenge to kill the firstborn children of Gotham.
Meanwhile, Selina Kyle is called by her boss, Max Shreck, after she uncovers a scheme to construct a power plant that would secretly drain and store Gotham’s electricity. There is also Bruce Wayne/Batman, a rather reactive protagonist. Other than stopping Penguin, the biggest part of the plot is Bruce Wayne forming a romantic relationship with Selina Kyle before they both uncover one another’s secret identity.Batman Returnsis a series of minor subplots strung together and form a very loose movie, andRoger Ebert notedat the time, “The plot doesn’t exactly unwind like a well-coiled machine. The movie proceeds in fits and starts, from one little drama to another.”
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Beetlejuice Beetlejuicehas a similar problem, as the movie also has various subplots pieced together to form a film.At times, it feels like two separateBeetlejuicesequels that only barely manage to connect. There is Lydia (Winona Ryder) reconnecting with her daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega), as Astrid is resentful of her mother’s ability to see ghosts but unable to see her father and Lydia’s ex-husband Richard. While visiting the home from the originalBeetlejuice, Astrid meets a young boy named Jeremy, who it turns out is a ghost that killed his family back in the 1990s and tricks Astrid into going to the world of the dead with him so he can take her place among the living.
Visions of Beetlejuice haunt Lydia, while her boyfriend/television producer Rory (Justin Theroux) proposes to her, hoping to fast-track a wedding. After avoiding Beetlejuice, Lydia is forced to summon him to save her daughter, and the two make a deal where she will marry him. On top of that, Beetlejuice himself is haunted by his deceased ex-wife, Dolores, who wants revenge on him. There are also storylines involving Lydia’s stepmother, Delia (Catherine O’Hara), and Willem Dafoe, playing a deceased actor who now works as a police officer in the world of the dead.
Yet many reviewers were also quick to note that bothBatman ReturnsandBeetlejuice Beetlejuicemore than overcome their script issues thanks to Tim Burton’s imaginative visual style.
Tim Burton’s Style Goes a Long Way
Batman ReturnsandBeetlejuice Beetlejuicemanage to overcome sloppy scripts thanks to Tim Burton’s visual flare as a filmmaker. Both films are uniquely that of the director, and come at two distinct points in his career one can’t help. ForBatman Returns, the director was cashing in a blank check. Following the successes ofBeetlejuiceandEdward Scissorhandsand the originalBatman, Warner Bros. gave him creative control, and he flexed it.Batman Returnsis easily one of Burton’s best-looking films, where he and production designer Bo Welch put the “goth” in Gotham.
While The Penguin and Catwoman might not resemble their comic book counterparts, they are unique Burton interpretations.Even at the time, critics raved about Burton’s incredible visuals inBatman Returns, which have only become more appreciated over time. As the superhero genre has become more dominant, it is safe to say nothing looks like theunique gothic Christmas combo ofBatman Returns, and the movie has become a holiday classic in recent years.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuiceis a similar but different story. IfBatman Returnswas Tim Burton at the height of his career,Beetlejuice Beetlejuiceis a comeback for the director. The 2010s were a rough year for the director. DespiteAlice in Wonderlandbeing his most successful film to date, the overt CGI of the film was widely criticized and, for many, was seen as a sharp downturn for the director.
Once vibrant and new, Burton’s visual style felt like it had run its course as movies likeFrankenwennie,Miss Pereguine’s Home for Peculiar Children, and Dumbo, which all felt like Burtron retreading what he had done before.WhileBeetlejuice Beetlejuicemight be Burton returning to a world he had done before, this is the first time in over a decade it has felt like his heart was in it.Beetlejuice Beetlejuicedoesn’t look to update the visual style ofBeetlejuicebut recapture it.It uses stop-motionand features incredible dark, macabre visual gags with a playfulness that made Burton such an exciting filmmaker at the start of his career.
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Why These Are the Sequels That Made It
It also speaks to both movies that, despite their faults on a script level, they seem to overcome that in terms of general audience enthusiasm. While part of it is Tim Burton’s signature visual flare,one can argue that both movies' stories, as messy as they might be, connect with the audience. In theory, the stories should collapse, but theaudience’s praise and love for these filmsspeak to how it isn’t always what’s on the page but how it is executed.
Batman ReturnsandBeetlejuice Beetlejuiceare appropriate picks for Tim Burton’s two sequels.Batman Returnswas a movie made by a filmmaker on a winning streak, whileBeetlejuice Beetlejuicecan be seen as a filmmaker finding his creative voice again and making a comeback. They show that Tim Burton can overcome a weak script if he still brings his imaginative visuals, dark sense of humor, and heart to the project. Having Michael Keaton on hand also doesn’t hurt.
