Beetlejuice 30th Anniversary

This March, celebrates the 30^th Anniversary of the motion picture Beetlejuice.

A breakout film for its entire principal cast. 

Where the title character was an anti-hero, whose villainous demeanor became both the driving force and selling point of the movie.

Beetlejuice was one of the few comedies/horror comedies to ever win an Oscar. It took home gold for best make-up, and was surprisingly a commercial success making over 5 times its initial budget at the box office.  As it also became one of the top tier best selling DVDs to close out 1988.

Director Tim Burton and star Michael Keaton returned the following year to collaborate on “Batman” which arguably was what stimulated this entire superhero franchise. The 1989 Batman became the fifth highest grossing film of all time during that period.

Alec Baldwin and Winona Ryder reunited again later that summer in “Great balls of Fire”, The Jerry Lee Lewis autobiographical movie. But like Burton and Keaton respectively, found a greater cult like following in 1989 with the release of “Heathers”, and the Cinematic Debut of the Jack Ryan character in Tom Clancy’s” The Hunt for Red October”.  

Critical success in 1989, went to Geena Davis who won an Oscar for best supporting actress in her role on “The Accidental Tourist”.

Beetlejuice spawned a critically successful animated series which debut the following year on ABC’s Saturday morning line-up before bowing out as a weekday series on Fox kids in 1991. It became a staple of Millennial’s childhood pop-culture, while holding an enduring appreciation from both Generation-X  and Baby Boomers for its relatable protagonist Lydia Deetz (played by Winona Ryder) and its infusion of classic music from Harry Belafonte. 

 And utilizing a the sense of inclusion with its final act, displaying a traditional family gathering of sorts amongst different generations and using extraordinary forms of slapstick surreal humor, gothic horror comedy, and black comedy, in such an array of adventuress settings that it was eye candy for the mind, and nostalgia for the soul; in an otherwise simple but innovated suburban/country life.