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WARNING: People die when they are killed. Proceed with caution...

Well, since I dig the movie and cartoon, and have discovered the musical by sheer dumb luck, so might as well talk about them and their respective demons/ghosts with the mosts !

Anyhoo let's proceed version by version shall we ?

0/ THE ORIGINAL SCRIPT By Michael McDowell:

I'm sure that those who are familiar with the old script know how darker it was than what we've finally... I've read it and it was STILL morbidly comedic. Well, more like Freddy Krueger comedic...
Here's the important things to know:

* The Maitlands are indeed the protagonists and they're pretty much the kind couple we know. The situation they get in however is more difficult since there is even less help in this version (let's say BeetleJuice intercepted their helper, the angel Swallotail, and rigged the game so Adam and Barbara call upon HIS help...). And there is no Otherworldly bureaucracy, just different limbos... though I can't say which is worse...

* Charles and Delia are still comedy relief BUT they end up being helpful in the end. Otho is, surprisingly, more courageous while keeping his high-brow snubbery and interest in the Occult (a good thing this time around...).

* Lydia is... not so much the Lydia we've come to know and love and more like Just your regular surly gothteenager... that's the target of a demonic sex predator, proving once again that they have bad taste. Then she becomes a pom pom girl in the end because... character development ?! HOWEVER, Lydia's younger step-sister (and Delia's biological daughter) Cathy IS the deuteragonist in this script. And, HONESTLY, she is basically Toon Lydia if she were 9 years old.

* No Banana Boat here, but a vine-patterned carpet is brought to attack the Deetzes by tangling them to their chairs. The Ghosts in bed sheets trick is funnier though since Adam and Barbara were in their undies while strolling around for some reason...

* And what about our Man of the hour and main attraction ? Welllll... in general, NONE of the Beetle Juices here are angels or good guys and they are dickish to varying degrees. THIS is hands down the CRUELEST and ironically the cleanest in terms of appearance (winged-snake demon form nonwithstanding of course... or maybe withstanding because it's never said to be dirty or filled with vermin...). He would totally work as a Spawn villain !
He is described as " small and wiry, dark, with vaguely Middle-Eastern features. Here, and whenever we see him again at the beginning of a scene, his eyes are COLD and YELLOW and SHAPED LIKE A SNAKE'S -- but after a moment, they melt, becoming human, and liquid, and brown. This is definitely not a spirit to be trusted."
No wonder Burton was intending for Sammy Davis Jr to play him initially...
On the whole, the 0th Beetle Juice is a mix of Ryuk if he were a sex offender and Abra Kadabra from Mark Waid's Flash run (ESPECIALLY once he meets the guests in the final act ! What a SHOWTIME !).
He is much calmer and mellower than the over-excited later versions but he's also acidic and DRIVEN by sadism. Anytime he's summoned, he pretty much turns the location of said summoning into an Evil Dead mansion AND wrecks the whole town he's in for dessert ! BTW, the hookers ? They're present ! The disguises and pranks ? He has those too ! He appears through different shapes to each of the Deetzes ( a Squirrel, a rock Star, an old sickly woman and even an IRS AGENT ?! THE FIEND !) to torment them in imaginative ways. He's also fairly easy to summon. No need to say his name, you just need to exhume the coffin from his grave and he is free to wreak havoc... Getting rid of him, is a whole other story !

It's a fairly decent script and I would not mind if Dark Horse publishes a comic book out of it like they did for Alien and Alien3 (yeah, I still prefer the movie we've got. Bit me...). Though I hope they'll keep the Sammy Davis Jr look for BJ ! XD

1/ BEETLEJUICE 1988

So after some changes and additions by Warren Skaaren, we've got the movie we've got ! Hurray !
Look, I don't need to talk all that much about it. I love this flick, it's a pretty comfy watch AND it did surprise me the first time I got to watch it.
Lydia was NOT the main focus (???) but it's this kind unlucky couple who ends up summoning the Ghost with the most ?! The bureau of the Afterlife was however expected as it does resemble the surreal world that I knew from the cartoon. And I LOVE Juno the case worker, she's freaking hilarious even if not all that helpful (I guess death does that to social workers... plus the staff is composed of people who committed suicide, I don't think they're really in the mood for being helpful...) aside from warning the Maitlands against summoning Betelgeuse.
All you need to bring the Ghost with the Most out is to have a person say his name 3 times EVEN interrupted. Recalling him is just as "easy"...
Now, Michael Keaton's Betelgeuse is nowhere near as evil as the 0th version, he's still a selfish opportunistic asshole. He styles himself as a 'bio-exorcist' so that any stuck among the living ghosts are tempted in calling for his services. Judging by his excited/obnoxious demeanor once he meets Adam and Barbara in-person, he hasn't been called all that often as a freelancer...
And if a fleshy living person happens to interact with and summon him, it's even better since he'd be free to roam wherever he wants for boose and boobs ! Well that is until the contract marriage is over I suppose...
Honestly though, the one element that did NOT surprise me was Betelgeuse's assholery. Yeah, I was used to the cartoon version prior to discovering the movie and EVEN THEN, he was clearly NOT a nice person but a jerk protagonist through and through. Same with the Mask in his different media BTW.... but hey, to his credit, if he gives his word he keeps it and eventually saved the Maitlands... after sending a couple through the roof.

2/ THE BEETLEJUICE CARTOON 1989

Ah yes, like most folks my age, this is how I discovered the characters. And it's a good thing that it is its own eccentric, wacky alternate world. It really gives it a lot more aspect to go nuts with and the cartoon definitely indulges in the madness.
This Beetlejuice is the nicest of the bunch.... which does not say much since he's King Douche in the Neitherworld and his neighbours despise his guts. His shtick is in general scamming the undead or living because he simply feels like it and does not want to look for a day job... how else can he be the black sheep of his family then ?! Also, I don't find his design all that toned down considering. I mean Movie BetelGeuse is decaying and covered in rotten moss sure BUT cartoon Beetlejuice has freaking insects coming out of his ears... and the teeth are green for a reason and it ain't because he brushes with mint-paste.
This is the one version where he is best friends with Lydia (who is said to love reading Horror fiction like Edgar Allan Poe or Stephen King, which makes me wish she never read the last section to IT...) and the dynamic between both characters is pretty entertaining since Beetlejuice is more often than not a jerk while Lydia is a sweetheart.

Years later, it was said that we could have had a sequel about BJ going to Hawaii or something or another. And in this day and age of remakes, they actually made ONE... IN SONGS !

3/ THE BEETLEJUICE MUSICAL 2018

I had no fucking idea there was one but there you go ! For my money, if your musical contains morbid moments, wanton destruction, anthropophagy, sadism, treachery, blood, death and everything that makes entertainment great, then you have a hell of a good time to suggest me !

Like any good remake ( yeah, those exist BTW...some of your favorite movies are.), there are enough changes in plot and focus to make the experience both familiar and fresh.

* Lydia is the main character this time around and the little missy is both grieving over her recently deceased mother AND dangerous ! She takes no shit from her dad or crackwising demon (though if she tried pulling those stunts with the movie version, it might have turned sour much faster !) but she has to wise up to the fact that, even with grief, one has to live life to the fullest. A lesson whe will learn in the end, leading to pretty heartwarming character growth. Though this Lydia is the edgiest of the bunch, she's still pretty good friends with the Maitlands AND has the sense of responsibility common to the other iterations...

* The Maitlands are now the supporting characters and, inversely, got much softer than the movie versions. Movie Adam and Barbara were rather proud and tough while still kind, the musical versions are nice to a fault pretty passive people who've repressed their desires out of fear of the unknown but after death (even goofier than the movie one ! Seriously, the floor ground breaks and they die !), they realize that they wasted their lives due to their hesitation decide to make the most with their after-lives.

* Charles and Lydia will learn to bond and communicate. Who said encounters with lying, cheating and murderous demons never had positive outcomes ?

* Delia has a more sympathetic part in the story and her engagement with Charles does not go over all too well with Lydia...

* And as for the man... or demon of the hour; Lawrence Betelgeuse Shoggoth ! Amusingly, most fanarts I've seen about the musical depict him as a friendly trickster and the other characters enjoying his company... WHEN IT IS NOTHING LIKE THAT IN THE ACTUAL SHOW ! It's like with Deadpool, is there a fucking trend of depicting clearly bloodthirsty, treacherous, gravelly sounding bastards as some harmless puppy dogs/ scared fragile woobies or am I going crazy ?
Sooo, BJ here is the second cruelest and second cleanest iteration after the 0th version. And by clean, I mean he looks like he spent 2 weeks partying, coking and boosing it up hard nonstop so the hygiene is still highly debateable. While cunning, he does lack the patience of the previous incarnations and is too over-excited to oversee the fine prints of his own scheme.
Betelgeuse is sick and tired of being among the undead and wants to be freed and/or alive again. While it sounds sympathetic enough, the guy makes it pretty clear that he does not give much of a fuck about anyone else, he uses whoever and runs them under the proverbial bus. It's funny how people see him as nicer than the movie one, because honestly he is much more coercive ! Betelgeuse here IS the one that stopped the Maitlands from going to the Netherworld once dead so they can scare people into saying his name 3 times (THIS time though it has to be spoken unbroken !) and literally told them to fuck off the moment he understood they were too nice to be scary. Contrast with the movie one who just saw them as an opportunity to be summoned and only quit on them when they interrupted him on the job (amateurs ! philistines !), only to remain a wild card through the whole flick.
His friendship with Lydia... well, at first it kinda seems like the cartoon where they play pranks on visitors, and THEN Betelgeuse pulls one glorious Ryuk over Lydia (with a Guide for the recently deceased rather than a death note) just to ensure his acquisition of a flesh and blood body ! THAT scene sums up perfectly the Musical version of Betelgeuse and it is magnificent www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKYTwi…
Later he gets the wedding and the green card...and a bleeing hole in the gut courtesy of Lydia ! XD

* Granted, there are 2 elements in the musical (that had no songs and thus no weight in the overall story-arc...) that could have been easily removed:
- Otho seems to be just here to be killed by Betelgeuse and... that's about it. He's just Delia's health guru and ... yeah, disposable...
- The Big Bad is... Juno ! And she is Betelgeuse's mother ! And he kills her with a sandworm ... and... yeah they might as well just let Betelgeuse be the main villain and have an epilogue where he's all grumbling "I'll have my revenge... IN THE SEQUEL ! So, buy more tickets, folks...". I get that they wanted to go the sympathetic road with BJ, but honestly, the movie one was far more chill and he ended in the goddamn afterlife office waiting for his turn (still hilarious to this day !).

* HOWEVER, I am glad they did not have Lydia meet her mother in the afterlife. It makes the whole celebration of life vibe and her reconcilitaion with her father so much stronger and effective.

The most unfortunate thing about the musical though ? There's no filmed footage of it and that's sad. You can however savor the songs www.youtube.com/watch?v=8goLq9…

Now what have we learnt about a demonic sex offender, a crass bio-exorcist , an undead deadbeat and a fiendish saboteur ? Well...

There's no destiny or FATE
Just a terrifying WAIT
Filled with people that you HATE
And on a certain date, the universe kills yoooouuuu
That's the THING WITH LIFE
NO ONE MAKES IT OUT ALIIIIIIVE !
Toss that body in the piiiit !
"Gosh, it's awful, ain't it tragic?"
"Blah, blah, Bible. Jesus magic."
When you're dead, who gives a shiiiit?
No pilates, no more yoga, "Namaste", you freakin' POSERS !
From the Cradle to Cremation
Death just needs a little conversation
I HAVE MASTERED THE ARTS ! (Dies Irae!!)
OF TEARING CONVENTION APART ! (Dies Irae!)
So, HOW ABOUT WE ALL MAKE A START ! (Dies Irae!)
On the whooooole beeeiiiiing DEAD thiiiing...
GOD I HOPE YOU'RE READY FOR A SHOW ABOUT DEATH !

Description

WARNING: People die when they are killed. Proceed with caution...

Well, since I dig the movie and cartoon, and have discovered the musical by sheer dumb luck, so might as well talk about them and their respective demons/ghosts with the mosts !

Anyhoo let's proceed version by version shall we ?

0/ THE ORIGINAL SCRIPT By Michael McDowell:

I'm sure that those who are familiar with the old script know how darker it was than what we've finally... I've read it and it was STILL morbidly comedic. Well, more like Freddy Krueger comedic...
Here's the important things to know:

* The Maitlands are indeed the protagonists and they're pretty much the kind couple we know. The situation they get in however is more difficult since there is even less help in this version (let's say BeetleJuice intercepted their helper, the angel Swallotail, and rigged the game so Adam and Barbara call upon HIS help...). And there is no Otherworldly bureaucracy, just different limbos... though I can't say which is worse...

* Charles and Delia are still comedy relief BUT they end up being helpful in the end. Otho is, surprisingly, more courageous while keeping his high-brow snubbery and interest in the Occult (a good thing this time around...).

* Lydia is... not so much the Lydia we've come to know and love and more like Just your regular surly gothteenager... that's the target of a demonic sex predator, proving once again that they have bad taste. Then she becomes a pom pom girl in the end because... character development ?! HOWEVER, Lydia's younger step-sister (and Delia's biological daughter) Cathy IS the deuteragonist in this script. And, HONESTLY, she is basically Toon Lydia if she were 9 years old.

* No Banana Boat here, but a vine-patterned carpet is brought to attack the Deetzes by tangling them to their chairs. The Ghosts in bed sheets trick is funnier though since Adam and Barbara were in their undies while strolling around for some reason...

* And what about our Man of the hour and main attraction ? Welllll... in general, NONE of the Beetle Juices here are angels or good guys and they are dickish to varying degrees. THIS is hands down the CRUELEST and ironically the cleanest in terms of appearance (winged-snake demon form nonwithstanding of course... or maybe withstanding because it's never said to be dirty or filled with vermin...). He would totally work as a Spawn villain !
He is described as " small and wiry, dark, with vaguely Middle-Eastern features. Here, and whenever we see him again at the beginning of a scene, his eyes are COLD and YELLOW and SHAPED LIKE A SNAKE'S -- but after a moment, they melt, becoming human, and liquid, and brown. This is definitely not a spirit to be trusted."
No wonder Burton was intending for Sammy Davis Jr to play him initially...
On the whole, the 0th Beetle Juice is a mix of Ryuk if he were a sex offender and Abra Kadabra from Mark Waid's Flash run (ESPECIALLY once he meets the guests in the final act ! What a SHOWTIME !).
He is much calmer and mellower than the over-excited later versions but he's also acidic and DRIVEN by sadism. Anytime he's summoned, he pretty much turns the location of said summoning into an Evil Dead mansion AND wrecks the whole town he's in for dessert ! BTW, the hookers ? They're present ! The disguises and pranks ? He has those too ! He appears through different shapes to each of the Deetzes ( a Squirrel, a rock Star, an old sickly woman and even an IRS AGENT ?! THE FIEND !) to torment them in imaginative ways. He's also fairly easy to summon. No need to say his name, you just need to exhume the coffin from his grave and he is free to wreak havoc... Getting rid of him, is a whole other story !

It's a fairly decent script and I would not mind if Dark Horse publishes a comic book out of it like they did for Alien and Alien3 (yeah, I still prefer the movie we've got. Bit me...). Though I hope they'll keep the Sammy Davis Jr look for BJ ! XD

1/ BEETLEJUICE 1988

So after some changes and additions by Warren Skaaren, we've got the movie we've got ! Hurray !
Look, I don't need to talk all that much about it. I love this flick, it's a pretty comfy watch AND it did surprise me the first time I got to watch it.
Lydia was NOT the main focus (???) but it's this kind unlucky couple who ends up summoning the Ghost with the most ?! The bureau of the Afterlife was however expected as it does resemble the surreal world that I knew from the cartoon. And I LOVE Juno the case worker, she's freaking hilarious even if not all that helpful (I guess death does that to social workers... plus the staff is composed of people who committed suicide, I don't think they're really in the mood for being helpful...) aside from warning the Maitlands against summoning Betelgeuse.
All you need to bring the Ghost with the Most out is to have a person say his name 3 times EVEN interrupted. Recalling him is just as "easy"...
Now, Michael Keaton's Betelgeuse is nowhere near as evil as the 0th version, he's still a selfish opportunistic asshole. He styles himself as a 'bio-exorcist' so that any stuck among the living ghosts are tempted in calling for his services. Judging by his excited/obnoxious demeanor once he meets Adam and Barbara in-person, he hasn't been called all that often as a freelancer...
And if a fleshy living person happens to interact with and summon him, it's even better since he'd be free to roam wherever he wants for boose and boobs ! Well that is until the contract marriage is over I suppose...
Honestly though, the one element that did NOT surprise me was Betelgeuse's assholery. Yeah, I was used to the cartoon version prior to discovering the movie and EVEN THEN, he was clearly NOT a nice person but a jerk protagonist through and through. Same with the Mask in his different media BTW.... but hey, to his credit, if he gives his word he keeps it and eventually saved the Maitlands... after sending a couple through the roof.

2/ THE BEETLEJUICE CARTOON 1989

Ah yes, like most folks my age, this is how I discovered the characters. And it's a good thing that it is its own eccentric, wacky alternate world. It really gives it a lot more aspect to go nuts with and the cartoon definitely indulges in the madness.
This Beetlejuice is the nicest of the bunch.... which does not say much since he's King Douche in the Neitherworld and his neighbours despise his guts. His shtick is in general scamming the undead or living because he simply feels like it and does not want to look for a day job... how else can he be the black sheep of his family then ?! Also, I don't find his design all that toned down considering. I mean Movie BetelGeuse is decaying and covered in rotten moss sure BUT cartoon Beetlejuice has freaking insects coming out of his ears... and the teeth are green for a reason and it ain't because he brushes with mint-paste.
This is the one version where he is best friends with Lydia (who is said to love reading Horror fiction like Edgar Allan Poe or Stephen King, which makes me wish she never read the last section to IT...) and the dynamic between both characters is pretty entertaining since Beetlejuice is more often than not a jerk while Lydia is a sweetheart.

Years later, it was said that we could have had a sequel about BJ going to Hawaii or something or another. And in this day and age of remakes, they actually made ONE... IN SONGS !

3/ THE BEETLEJUICE MUSICAL 2018

I had no fucking idea there was one but there you go ! For my money, if your musical contains morbid moments, wanton destruction, anthropophagy, sadism, treachery, blood, death and everything that makes entertainment great, then you have a hell of a good time to suggest me !

Like any good remake ( yeah, those exist BTW...some of your favorite movies are.), there are enough changes in plot and focus to make the experience both familiar and fresh.

* Lydia is the main character this time around and the little missy is both grieving over her recently deceased mother AND dangerous ! She takes no shit from her dad or crackwising demon (though if she tried pulling those stunts with the movie version, it might have turned sour much faster !) but she has to wise up to the fact that, even with grief, one has to live life to the fullest. A lesson whe will learn in the end, leading to pretty heartwarming character growth. Though this Lydia is the edgiest of the bunch, she's still pretty good friends with the Maitlands AND has the sense of responsibility common to the other iterations...

* The Maitlands are now the supporting characters and, inversely, got much softer than the movie versions. Movie Adam and Barbara were rather proud and tough while still kind, the musical versions are nice to a fault pretty passive people who've repressed their desires out of fear of the unknown but after death (even goofier than the movie one ! Seriously, the floor ground breaks and they die !), they realize that they wasted their lives due to their hesitation decide to make the most with their after-lives.

* Charles and Lydia will learn to bond and communicate. Who said encounters with lying, cheating and murderous demons never had positive outcomes ?

* Delia has a more sympathetic part in the story and her engagement with Charles does not go over all too well with Lydia...

* And as for the man... or demon of the hour; Lawrence Betelgeuse Shoggoth ! Amusingly, most fanarts I've seen about the musical depict him as a friendly trickster and the other characters enjoying his company... WHEN IT IS NOTHING LIKE THAT IN THE ACTUAL SHOW ! It's like with Deadpool, is there a fucking trend of depicting clearly bloodthirsty, treacherous, gravelly sounding bastards as some harmless puppy dogs/ scared fragile woobies or am I going crazy ?
Sooo, BJ here is the second cruelest and second cleanest iteration after the 0th version. And by clean, I mean he looks like he spent 2 weeks partying, coking and boosing it up hard nonstop so the hygiene is still highly debateable. While cunning, he does lack the patience of the previous incarnations and is too over-excited to oversee the fine prints of his own scheme.
Betelgeuse is sick and tired of being among the undead and wants to be freed and/or alive again. While it sounds sympathetic enough, the guy makes it pretty clear that he does not give much of a fuck about anyone else, he uses whoever and runs them under the proverbial bus. It's funny how people see him as nicer than the movie one, because honestly he is much more coercive ! Betelgeuse here IS the one that stopped the Maitlands from going to the Netherworld once dead so they can scare people into saying his name 3 times (THIS time though it has to be spoken unbroken !) and literally told them to fuck off the moment he understood they were too nice to be scary. Contrast with the movie one who just saw them as an opportunity to be summoned and only quit on them when they interrupted him on the job (amateurs ! philistines !), only to remain a wild card through the whole flick.
His friendship with Lydia... well, at first it kinda seems like the cartoon where they play pranks on visitors, and THEN Betelgeuse pulls one glorious Ryuk over Lydia (with a Guide for the recently deceased rather than a death note) just to ensure his acquisition of a flesh and blood body ! THAT scene sums up perfectly the Musical version of Betelgeuse and it is magnificent www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKYTwi…
Later he gets the wedding and the green card...and a bleeing hole in the gut courtesy of Lydia ! XD

* Granted, there are 2 elements in the musical (that had no songs and thus no weight in the overall story-arc...) that could have been easily removed:
- Otho seems to be just here to be killed by Betelgeuse and... that's about it. He's just Delia's health guru and ... yeah, disposable...
- The Big Bad is... Juno ! And she is Betelgeuse's mother ! And he kills her with a sandworm ... and... yeah they might as well just let Betelgeuse be the main villain and have an epilogue where he's all grumbling "I'll have my revenge... IN THE SEQUEL ! So, buy more tickets, folks...". I get that they wanted to go the sympathetic road with BJ, but honestly, the movie one was far more chill and he ended in the goddamn afterlife office waiting for his turn (still hilarious to this day !).

* HOWEVER, I am glad they did not have Lydia meet her mother in the afterlife. It makes the whole celebration of life vibe and her reconcilitaion with her father so much stronger and effective.

The most unfortunate thing about the musical though ? There's no filmed footage of it and that's sad. You can however savor the songs www.youtube.com/watch?v=8goLq9…

Now what have we learnt about a demonic sex offender, a crass bio-exorcist , an undead deadbeat and a fiendish saboteur ? Well...

There's no destiny or FATE
Just a terrifying WAIT
Filled with people that you HATE
And on a certain date, the universe kills yoooouuuu
That's the THING WITH LIFE
NO ONE MAKES IT OUT ALIIIIIIVE !
Toss that body in the piiiit !
"Gosh, it's awful, ain't it tragic?"
"Blah, blah, Bible. Jesus magic."
When you're dead, who gives a shiiiit?
No pilates, no more yoga, "Namaste", you freakin' POSERS !
From the Cradle to Cremation
Death just needs a little conversation
I HAVE MASTERED THE ARTS ! (Dies Irae!!)
OF TEARING CONVENTION APART ! (Dies Irae!)
So, HOW ABOUT WE ALL MAKE A START ! (Dies Irae!)
On the whooooole beeeiiiiing DEAD thiiiing...
GOD I HOPE YOU'RE READY FOR A SHOW ABOUT DEATH !