It’s the Afterlife, Charlie Brown (original) (raw)

I usually try to review at least three movies or shows at a time, but that’s not an official rule, just a guideline. And since it’s been a while since I watched these two, and this weekend is going to be busy, I might as well share these two reviews now. Both have SPOILERS.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice – I had wanted to see this at the movies, but such was not to be, for reasons I can’t remember now. I thought it had a few too many different plotlines, as if there was a lot they wanted to do and couldn’t fully develop all of it. But it was fun, and that’s probably the most important thing. And it does explain how Beetlejuice died. I think the original idea was that he’d hanged himself, which fits with the gag about people who commit suicide becoming civil servants in the afterlife. Instead, he was a grave robber in Italy during the Black Plague, and he falls for Dolores, a cultist who poisons him as part of a ritual, but he hacks her to pieces with an axe before it can take effect. Her body had been stored in crates in a warehouse, but she escapes and staples herself together, and tries to find her old husband. And she has the power to suck out souls, which can kill even those who are already dead. So at least one part of the qualifications he gives the Maitlands is apparently true. He narrates his backstory in Italian, accompanied by a film done in the style of Mario Bava, who’s also mentioned as a favorite of Astrid’s late father. When this movie begins, the Ghost with the Most is running a call center staffed by several people with shrunken heads, and is still obsessed with Lydia. She’s now working as a medium on television, has been estranged from her daughter Astrid since her husband died, dates her sleazy producer, and still dreams about Beetlejuice. When Charles Deetz dies, she, Delia, and Astrid spend some time in their old house in Winter River, and Astrid meets a local boy who has two secrets, first that he’s a ghost, and second that he murdered his parents, who haunt the same house he does. He tricks Astrid into taking his place in the afterlife, so Lydia has to team up with her old tormenter to get her back, and agrees to marry him as payment. And an afterlife cop played with Willem Dafoe is trying to track down Delores. The visuals are still quite interesting and entertainingly morbid, and the death scenes are just as absurd as you might expect. Aside from Beetlejuice’s own death, we have Charles surviving a plane crash only to be eaten by a shark (presented in animation, probably at least partially because they didn’t want to bring back his old actor Jeffrey Jones, who’s now a registered sex offender), Astrid’s dad is eaten by piranhas in the Amazon, the cop was an actor who was killed during a stunt with what turned out to be a live grenade, and Delia does performance art with what are supposed to be defanged asps. There’s another scene that has the characters move in conjunction with a song, in this case “MacArthur Park.” What’s weird is that, on the ride home earlier that night, Beth had played several different versions of the song, so that was a bizarre coincidence. The scene uses the Richard Harris version, but the Donna Summer one is played during the credits. And there’s a choir of kids singing “Day-O” at Charles’ funeral. I kind of wish they’d included some sort of reference to the animated series, not anything major but maybe something in the background, but I don’t believe they did. But anyway, it was a little too busy, but still entertaining.

The Peanuts Movie – This is something else I’ve been wanting to watch, and wasn’t sure what to expect. It’s a 3D computer animated film that keeps the basic designs of the characters and the styles for facial expressions. It’s weird, but seems like a decent compromise. It focuses on Charlie Brown and his desire to impress the Little Red-Haired Girl, who moves into town at the beginning of the movie. I wondered if it would be as melancholy as earlier cartoons, and it does kind of feel more positive overall, although not all of the television specials had downer endings either. There are a lot of callbacks and references to older stories, and some lines taken verbatim, although I guess the latter was pretty much the case with the TV specials as well, taking a lot of stuff from the strips but combining it in slightly different ways. It also remains true to the source material by not modernizing the technology. Snoopy still uses a manual typewriter, Charlie Brown’s fountain pen still explodes, Lucy’s therapy sessions still cost a nickel, and people use rotary dial phones. It’s interesting that it uses Violet’s best friend Patty as a character, since her role was greatly reduced over time, presumably why Charles Schulz had no problem introducing another character with the same name. One plot point that didn’t make a whole lot of sense is that Charlie Brown temporarily became popular by getting a perfect score on a standardized test. It turns out that it got mixed up with Peppermint Patty’s test, and she somehow got a perfect score by doodling on the paper. The weird part is that the scores are posted for everyone to see and that they’re somehow a big deal among the kids, neither of which were ever the case when I was in school, and I doubt ever was. I also found it a little strange that most of the movie takes place in winter, then suddenly skips to the beginning of summer at the end. It’s not a problem, just something I thought worth noting. And I don’t feel like the Meghan Trainor songs really fit in the movie. Overall, it’s a respectful take on the material, even if the visuals take a little getting used to.