My two cents on Beetlejuice

Rating: 9/10 (3 June 2007)

I really love this movie, as many do. So I just wanted to add two thoughts I haven't seen much if at all:
1. I love this movie because of all the handmade touches. Although I like computer animation fine, there's something so satisfying about papier-mache, claymation, puppets, and all the other art that is made by hand in this movie. I was in Mexico once and saw a wooden sculpture of a red creature with spikes all over it that were tree thorns. It was so crude and yet so captivating. My friend saw it first, so she got to buy it, but she agreed with me that it was Tim-Burton-y. I later found a quote by Tim Burton that suggested he was a fan of folk art. The crudeness of some of the effects in this movie is endearing, to the point of transcending a "cheesy" effect and becoming an "arty" effect.
2. Although the connection is a little loose, I think that all great works of fiction are based on something real, and in this case, it could be argued that the plight of the Maitlands could be an allegory for the story of Native Americans. People are living in a place that they are familiar with and that makes sense to them, but then visitors from far away come and start "viciously rearranging their environment", to the point that the original inhabitants are nearly destroyed. I'm not a Native American studies major, so don't read too much into it, but I saw a similarity.