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.

A nice commercial success in 1988, in the top 10 of the year at the US box office, Beetlejuice It took 35 years for the film to get its sequel. And yet, in the wake of the film's success, Warner Bros. immediately wanted to expand the story of Beetlejuice. Already working on Batman for the studio, Tim Burton didn't have time to start 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. The Canadian company Nelvana was responsible for producing and animating the series (it later 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 television on ABC. A colorful comedy with visual gags, puns and a bunch of parodies of films, books and series.

The concept was simple: to take the characters from the original series, but above all to explore further the universe, 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 upon. Because in this television version, he is not the enemy. Beetlejuice is her slightly crazy friend from another world. She says his name three times and goes off to live crazy and burlesque adventures in his phantasmagorical universe. Beetlejuice is no longer a vicious and sadistic creature. He is presented as a prankster. He also abandons his moldy green hair for a more acceptable style in the morning, when the children are watching. The Deetz family still lives in the house. There is no mention of the deceased couple Adam and Barbara (Alec Baldwin And Geena Davis). They never appear in the animated series and in this, the cartoon cannot entirely 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 ghost when Alyson Court – who will then voice Claire Redfield in the video games resident Evil – double Lydia. In VF, we will note that the actor Mario Santini – which was already doubling Michael Keaton for the feature film – had returned to do the French voice of Beetlejuice for the cartoon broadcast in our country 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, it even won an Emmy Award in 1990! Too bad that today, it is not available in streaming. Warner Bros. may have the good idea to put it on Max soon, after the global success of Beetlejuice 2.