This blog post will be on one of my favorite Tim Burton Films, Beetlejuice. The reason I like this movie so much is for the visual elements in the film. I like the darkness to it. In fact, I find it to be too dark for children to watch. I remember one day, I was watching television, and I noticed Beetlejuice was on, so I watched it of course, as I do with all films on my top 10 list. But this time, I noticed Beetlejuice was playing on the children’s channel. Usually, only G rated animated films play on this channel, but today, Beetlejuice was making an appearance.
I found it interesting that, “In both Edward Scissorhands and Beetle Juice, Burton is not only the director but also the writer and producer. Therefore, Burton put a lot of his own ideas into these movies making them as personal as he could to make it a good movie. The film’s opening has become a Burton staple–a sweeping traveling shot across a skillfully constructed model that serves to literally waft the viewer right into the film.”
(Woodford, 2005)
The images in this film are even disturbing to my 22 year old self, so it was interesting to see this film being directed to a much, much younger age than me. The reason I think this film is too disturbing for children is the many visual elements I this movie that are downright scary. I find Beetlejuice to be one of Tim Burton’s most disturbing movies.
I read in a book entitled, “Burton on Burton” that Beetlejuice features a number of visual references that surface continually in Burton’s work: these include a model town, characters patterned with black and white stripes, and a graveyard setting.
The following is an excerpt from this book.
“There was a graveyard right next to where we lived, about a block away, and I used to play there. I don’t know exactly why it keeps showing up, except for the fact that, again, it’s part of your soul; it was a place where I felt peaceful, comfortable; a whole world of quiet and peace, and also excitement and drama. It’s all those feelings mixed into one. I was obsessed with death, like a lot of children. There were flat tombs, but there was also this weird mausoleum with weird gates on one side. And I would wander around it any time of the day or night. I would sneak into it and play, and look at things, and I always felt really good there.
-As for model towns, I used to draw big tableaux of flying saucers attacking an army. They were very elaborate, almost like miniature in a way. Also, when we were shooting those Super 8 movies we used to make miniatures. Again, I don’t know why, but all those movies I used to like as a kid had them. It’s like stop-motion animation, there’s a certain energy and vibe which is quite strong. A lot of it has to do with those Godzilla movies.
-As far as the black and white stripes are concerned, that one I have never been able to figure out. I guess there must be some sort of prison element involved in there somehow. I am drawn to that image, I always have been, it’s in a lot of drawings a well, but I don’t know why.”
(Burton & Salisbury, 2006)
It is very interesting to hear where these visually elements came from when Burton was making this film. I enjoy knowing what Tim Burton was thinking when he was creating this film, and I feel like I can connect to the movie better in knowing where a lot of the elements came from.
Work Cited:
Burton, T., & Salisbury, M. (2006). Burton on Burton. London: Faber and Faber Limited.
Woodford, J. (2005). Tim burtons themes and trademarks.
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