1988, Tim Burton (Dumbo) -- download
Bay-tull-Gay-Ooos?
I wonder what the audiences would have thought the movie was about if they had just stuck with the planet name as the title...
Anywayz...
So, surprisingly even with my current state of mind (a constant battle between nostalgic fondness and a disengagement with the past), the movie really stood up to the test of time. Everything remains charming, witty and entirely engaging.
As is my way with ReWatches, I don't feel compelled to relay the usual recap of plot, just muse on whatever crossed my mind as watching.
So, the Maitlands. I recall thinking, when I originally saw the movie, that they had only just moved to Winter River, given they were spending vacation time redecorating the house; I don't think I ever caught that the hardware store was theirs. That said, I still think they are also city folks who moved to The Country but unlike the Deetz family to follow, they embraced country life. It was not lost on me in the original viewing that the Maitlands owned the embodiment of "the haunted house on the top of the hill" but had turned it around with charming, folksy design aesthetic.
Their death isn't convincing; its rather slow and the river doesn't look that deep. I was always convinced the plot was going to reveal they were killed by some sub-plot(ter) from the afterlife.
The Afterlife, hereafter capitalized, is one of the stars of this movie. The World Builder in my head picks apart everything about it, but I still delight in its depiction. Of course death would be dominated by bureaucracy, but its kind of weird we end up in a pseudo-Hell before we actually go somewhere... nice, or... worse. Though, was there any binary definition of Moving On in the movie? I guess I will have to see what the sequel says about the status of the Maitlands, as they are not present in the new movie, AFAIK.
Lydia Deetz. In 1988 I was already too old to have a crush on a teen goth girl, but boy, did I love Winona Ryder in this role. This was the beginning of Tim Burton becoming a goth culture icon and nothing said it more than Lydia's black massively wide brimmed sunhat. She's morose, death obsessed, until the end of the movie when the Deetz family and the Maitlands have found a happy balance, and then she is dancing to calypso music cheerfully. My headcanon is that this scene created the sub-sub-culture of goths who are rather happy go lucky.
When Harry Belafonte passed last year, a bunch of stories popped up about the use of his music in the movie. Apparently the original script, and music choices, were to be more sombre, darker toned, especially the dinner scene, but Catherine O'Hara suggested livening up the scene with the "Banana Boat Song (Day-O)" --- aren't we glad she did? Its also rather great that the New England homey Maitlands would love calypso music, which is not altogether impossible -- even my mom had a couple of Belfonte's in her collection; he was pop music for "adults" at the time.
Beetlejuice himself. At least Barbara Maitland acknowledges he is a pervert, but having not seen the new movie yet, I wonder how "problematic" his *cough* antics will be. I mean, on one hand, he is supposed to be an utterly terrible being, but he's also an anti-hero, even in this movie. That said, every time I rewatch this movie, I am surprised how small his role is in the bigger play of the movie, and reminded that he becomes the real villain at the end.
In watching with my less rose coloured eyes (brown, actually) I notice things I never really paid attention to, such as the reasons Charles Deetz is moving to The Country (his boss and friends are assholes) and how much he adores his daughter; I always thought of him as a secondary villain, but really, he's just very capitalism driven mundane. We will ignore the actor being a true villain.
Yep, still love the movie, love the quirky characters, and the whole look & feel of everything.
Yeah, that was all rather disjointed, even for you, more notes taken/thought than contiguous writing.
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