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Review of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (Danny Elfman)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... only for the collection of songs and a few choice score cues by Danny Elfman as a souvenir from an awkward sequel that essentially functions as a music video.

Avoid it... on all the albums if you expect any single, satisfying representation of the film's soundtrack, not all the songs released and the score underwhelming in its limited duties.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: (Danny Elfman) After decades of teasing audiences with the prospect of a sequel to 1988's cult classic, Beetlejuice, creator Tim Burton finally assembled three of his original cast members for an extremely popular continuation in 2024. With the original main duo of ghosts from the 1988 film written out of the picture, Burton concentrated on another generation of the Deetz family, anchored by a now adult Lydia Deetz, whose life has been less than stellar in the years since the demon Betelgeuse attempted to marry her from the afterlife in the now famously haunted, small-town New England home. With her father killed by a shark (actor Jeffrey Jones likely could not return because of his sex offender status), her mother and daughter (Catherine O'Hara returning and Jenna Ortega entering, both as Burton regulars) navigate their complicated, professionally successful but personally bankrupt lives while forced back to the haunted house that started the afterlife adventures long ago. Battling complicated entanglements with the dead and humorous new characters from the afterlife, Lydia Deetz must reluctantly call upon Betelgeuse once again to assist. While the story of the sequel is a little fragmented and dissatisfactory, the reunion of Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder makes the end result a worthwhile diversion. One of the charms of the 1988 movie was the combination of Danny Elfman's original score and the high-profile employment of two Harry Belafonte songs to help carry the narrative. The score marked an important push into the mainstream for Elfman and has long remained an admirable fantasy/comedy effort even if its recording was somewhat sparsely rendered. It has always been a score overflowing with personality even if it didn't overwhelm you with sonic force. Interestingly, Burton and Elfman completely flipped that equation for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, using the opportunity to emphasize the music of the film to an even greater degree in both the songs and score employed. The director opted to produce what essentially plays like a prolonged music video this time around, with the score far more marginalized around the edges. That score, however, is modernized to emphasize resounding force rather than fringe deviousness, despite Elfman's continued creativity, yielding an awkward change in direction for the franchise's sound.

From a film score collector's perspective, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a massively mixed bag. While it's great to receive a sequel to such a beloved Elfman score, it's frustrating to hear it marginalized amongst the plethora of song placements. Those songs are actually quite adept at their duties, pushing a 1970's to 1990's vibe that works fairly well in some portions of the film. The tone definitely skews towards the earlier end of that range, "MacArthur Park" by Richard Harris applied with great success for the wedding and the infamous "Soul Train Theme" playing an outsized, repeated role in the story, both of them bringing continued multi-culturalism to a setting that is otherwise mostly whitewashed. While the essential "Day-O" song is employed as a eulogy in this story, it was seemingly deemed a relic of the lost characters of the franchise, so don't expect to hear it performed outside of one funeral setting for solo voice and children's choir. As such, there's no Harry Belafonte to be heard anywhere. With most of the really vital scenes in the narrative featuring extended song placements, Elfman's score was left connecting dots in between. Most importantly, though, he managed to reprise enough of the Beetlejuice score's thematic and instrumental personality to carry the concept forward with satisfaction. Three or four cues from the first score are reprised in part. Utilizing decades of improvements in technology and a larger budget, the composer applied the basic sounds and motifs from the first film with greater depth in the soundscape to give each element more dramatic stature. Trademarks of Elfman's 1980's and 1990's mannerisms are pilfered here with joy, ranging from a bevy of muted trumpets for suspense and whiny strings for creepiness. A pipe organ presides once more over important scenes, and fluttering woodwind lines are everywhere in the background. A solo soprano voice punctuates a few cues with solace or mystery while a chorus supports the supernatural element. The voices are employed with more varied humorous performance inflection this time, especially in the ghost-appropriate noises they make over the titles. The only obvious instrumental addition is a theremin, though its placement is more prominent in the film than on album. Listeners will note that the recording is really fantastic, vibrant throughout and sounding, quite frankly, more robust that most Elfman scores of this era.

It's important to note that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice came at time of diminished film score output from Elfman, who also faced allegations of sexual misconduct during at that time. Despite his personal issues, this sequel score supplies a satisfying return of the composer's vintage film score voice. That said, its diminished role in the picture doesn't allow the composer to weave a strong new narrative into the music alone. The songs and score don't directly mingle on any meaningful level, either, which further marginalizes the score. All three parts of Elfman's main theme for Beetlejuice return, joined by the darkly playful Betelgeuse theme and, in brief stints, the theme for the original two ghosts, the Maitlands, and the sorrows of the afterlife. Prominently featured in the film's trailers, the main franchise theme is utilized in the sequel, but just like the original film, its primary melody doesn't actually play a particularly large role. The main theme's underlying riff is a fan favorite, a driving piano and tuba motif that opens "Main Title Theme" similarly to the first score but in much more powerful tones. Full on brass and chimes at 0:46 and extended along with the main melody, this bass riff carries on with much more punchy personality and weird accompaniment this time around, and there are clearly influences from Mars Attacks! and Men in Black present in the flourishes at the margins. This riff is fairly consistently referenced throughout the score, comedically bubbling at the start of "Going to Beetlejuice," interjecting briefly at the end of "Obituary," and reprising the start of the impactful incantation cue from the prior score during "In the Model." It stomps early and late in "Beetlejuice Returns," informs the militaristic march at the start of "You Agreed to Swap Lives," drives the action rhythms late in "Saturn," and rampages through the chasing of "Selfies Gone Wrong." As expected, it resumes its role in the familiar closing position during "End Titles." The memorable primary melody of Beetlejuice builds anticipation at 0:28 into "Main Title Theme," with horns unleashing it fully at 1:00 and other brass carrying repeated lines in a much longer overall presentation, eventually adapted again into its almost Russian chorale variant at 2:12. The melody teases early in "Beetlejuice Returns," throws some fragments at the end of "You Agreed to Swap Lives," rumbles at the outset of "Delia Calls Beetlejuice," and struggles in fragments during "Beetlejuice Balloons" prior to the organ-pounding finale.

Listeners hoping for a broader role for the main franchise melody in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice may be somewhat disappointed by its infrequent applications here, but it does return to form in "End Titles" on brass and sick children's choir effect before receiving a bloated, melodramatic closing statement at the end of the cue. Meanwhile, the carnival march sequence within the main theme assumes its usual climactic position at 2:11 into the "Main Title Theme" but disappears from the score until it is twisted for pipe organ and choir at 2:58 into "End Titles" for an interesting, religious enunciation. Often heard during the main theme is the returning idea for Betelgeuse's perversity, a whiny, seven note fiddle motif that can be used as a shorter stinger all over the score. It's hinted at 0:40 into "Main Title Theme," assuming it usual supplemental role at 1:10 and later in the cue. It taunts Lydia in the middle of "Ghost Host" as her visions of Betelgeuse arise and is finally reprised in full at 0:36 into "Going to Beetlejuice" on violins with colorful accents; this cue includes the theme's secondary phrasing as well. The idea prickles early in "Ex-Wife's Back," opens "Obituary" with deviousness, and toils with the Maitland theme in the middle of "The Attic," later informing the chords of Elfman's new family theme, taking a threatening position at the end of the cue. The Betelgeuse fiddle theme returns at the end of the picture, cranking up the pure horror element in the ridiculous "What's That?" birthing scene. It again counters the main theme and riff in "End Titles," where it formally reprises its original fiddle, tambourine, and woodwind form at 1:55. The only other returning theme from Beetlejuice is the Maitland sorrow theme, commonly associated with the "recently deceased." Faint on woodwinds at 1:18 into "Ghost Host," Elfman indulges this theme as a representation of the model of the town in the haunted house's attic. For a highlight of the score in "The Attic," Elfman reprises the solo soprano and keyboarded death material, the piano specifically representing the melancholy nature of the model. This theme doesn't flourish again thereafter, but it does provide a faint reminder at 1:38 into "You Agreed to Swap Lives." If you consider the melody of "Day-O" to be a returning motif, then know that is not interpolated into the actual score whatsoever, relegated solely to the aforementioned choral recording for the funeral scene. The solo vocal at the start of this cue, though sadly devoid of instrumental backing, does make for a good transitional moment for the town in the story.

Two new recurring themes exist in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, but neither is a barn-burner. Failing to reach its potential is an identity for Lydia's ghost show that eventually becomes a family theme to include her daughter. It's introduced at 2:56 into "Main Title Theme" on solo soprano over bass thuds and repeats several times with less power early in "Ghost Host." This idea dissolves at the start of "Boo" but extends warmly in "The Attic" to assume its role as a family theme. Elfman uses the theme to provides some underplayed but appreciated resolution during the hugging scene at the end of "Delia Departs." On the other side of the story, Betelgeuse's spurned ex-wife, Delores, receives a theme highlighted by a series of three-note phrases of high drama. This creepy but tonal idea starts to emerge late in "Ghost That Matters" and provides sickly but attractive romanticism in the first half of "Ex-Wife's Back," understandably becoming tormented by the cue's climax. The Delores theme later stalks briefly on strings at two minutes into "You Agreed to Swap Lives," culminates with menace in "Dolores Interrupts," and joins the medley for a few large renditions at 1:05 into "End Titles." The score is littered with unique individual moments of note, too, including the horror mode for chanting light choir in "Plane Crash," the dramatic reprise of the first score's desperation material early in "Going to Beetlejuice," some excellent horror writing in "Ghost That Matters," and religious choral tones from male choir in "Snake Ceremony." Elfman's prior sandworm material carries over to "Saturn," and he affords a good, humorous moment at the end of "Out of Luck" for the villain boy's defeat. As expected, the wedding march is reprised at the end of "Selfies Gone Wrong." A handful of source-like cues also occupy the score, including the odd female vocals over jungle drums in "Gallery Performance." But most of that music consists of the several pleasant, light jazz and loungey "Waiting Room" variants presented at the end of the score's album, the best of which being "Waiting Room (Bonus Track)," which exudes more of score's personality. All of this original score material is challenged by the numerous prominent song placements, and not even all the score music is original. For Lydia's closing dream sequence, Burton tracked in the theme from Pino Donaggio's 1976 score for Carrie, an in-joke predicting the jump scare at the end of this movie. That cue and some (but not all) of the songs were released separately from the score, both albums failing to provide an adequate representation of the music from the movie. A comprehensive single album is nearly mandatory for this overall soundtrack, and for Elfman collectors, the score-only product will yield fifteen minutes of very engaging sequel music but not much more.

• Music as Heard in the Film: ****
• Music as Heard on Album: **
• Overall: ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 45:42

• 1. Main Title Theme (3:21) • 2. Ghost Host (1:45) • 3. Plane Crash (0:58) • 4. Boo (1:22) • 5. Going to Beetlejuice (1:12) • 6. Day-O* (2:52) • 7. Ghost That Matters (1:59) • 8. Ex-Wife's Back (2:34) • 9. Gallery Performance (0:48) • 10. Obituary (0:39) • 11. The Attic (3:22) • 12. In the Model (0:38) • 13. Ghost Story (1:26) • 14. Snake Ceremony (0:55) • 15. Beetlejuice Returns (2:27)

• 16. You Agreed to Swap Lives (2:49) • 17. Saturn (1:10) • 18. Out of Luck (1:09) • 19. Delia Calls Beetlejuice (1:22) • 20. Selfies Gone Wrong (0:39) • 21. Dolores Interrupts (1:00) • 22. Beetlejuice Balloons (0:58) • 23. Delia Departs (1:06) • 24. What's That? (0:45) • 25. End Titles (4:35) • 26. Waiting Room (More of a Dog Person) (1:09) • 27. Waiting Room (Delia) (0:31) • 28. Waiting Room (You're Dead, OK?) (0:53) • 29. Waiting Room (Bonus Track) (1:32)

NOTES & QUOTES:

There exists no official packaging for this album.

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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Beetlejuice Beetlejuice are Copyright © 2024, WaterTower Music and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 10/26/24 (and not updated significantly since).