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People on TikTok coming into the Beetlejuice fandom since the new movie came out: OMG WHY ARE PEOPLE SHIPPING BEETLEJUICE AND LYDIA NOW?! WHAT A BUNCH OF FREAKS!

Me, who’s been in the fandom since 1999:

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SCREAMING

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Happy (early) Thanksgiving!

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History Lesson on Beetlejuice the Animated Series, for the new kids from The Old Kids.

So, first of all, Beetlejuice (1989) was a well liked film. It didn't open to massive box office success or anything, but it was off the wall and memorable enough to have accumulated a following pretty rapidly. Within a year, there were talks to expand this quirky, pseudo-scary Burton fever dream into a franchise.

For kids. It was a risky move and executives wondered if there was any demand for a dark, creepy show such as this. The "halloween year round" brand of merchandising and shows had not necessarily solidified as popular enough to turn a consistent profit. Their previous attempts to do a show in this vein had not done well (gravedale high, off the top of my head, only ran for one short season. Real Ghostbusters was an incredibly light-hearted action show that scarcely focused on the Spooky/Supernatural aspects for this very reason)

Despite all odds, Beetlejuice the Animated Series opened and was an absolute success.

It was WELL recieved. Far more than the film was. It ran for 4 seasons and went up for a daytime Emmy in its' first season. Unheard of, for children's animation. The show was praised for crisp animation, a brilliant color palette, marketability, and gross-out puns that left kids rolling and adults rolling their eyes.

It was syndicated across Canadian to American television at the same time. This was Not Done, then. Usually shows played in one place then the other. If you lived near the border, you caught both simultaneously, but it wasn't common. You wouldn't catch the same show on different channels in the same broadcast day.

Beetlejuice was so well recieved and demanded across so many cable networks, it ended up running on multiple channels at one time. In Canada AND the U.S.

And why wouldn't it be so beloved? It's an Incredibly unique show. ESPECIALLY if you grew up with the typical kids media in the 90's.

Beetlejuice was revolutionary in that, ultimately, it was meant to speak to both boys AND girls about accepting yourself and others, despite a clash of opinion or taste. Gender roles, race, cultural differences, age politics, hygiene and bullying and self-image and acceptance of the "other" were all continuous topics for this show.

A gross-out show with a female protagonist and no specific coding? One in a million, especially back then. You were either watching Transformers or Carebears. I don't think kids today know exactly how intensely the coding of television in the 80s and 90s effected my generation. This was NOT that long ago, kids...

I remember commercials like "did you know a Girl could, theoretically, become president? Would we all have to wear PINK?" A gender 'equality' PSA presented by the Looney Tunes. For kids...

Beetlejuice had a Female Protagonist who liked fashion and art, but also hung out with a gross out friend. She was "weird". She liked bugs, slime, adventure. All the things young ladies were told were not for us. And lydia was also rarely the damsel. Usually, LYDIA was the one saving her MALE COSTAR from danger. The show was named Beetlejuice. It was about Lydia accepting herself as strange and unusual. Beetlejuice is all the gross, "icky" stuff Lydia is not meant to like.

She likes him anyway.

Lydia never had a "conformity" episode. Her mother would try to dress her in pink and she gagged. Lydia was talented in her own hobbies and passions. Others may not have liked those hobbies or passions, but the show was always quick to show us how Lydia succeeded by EMBRACING herself, the wat she was. She did not need to change aspects of herself to make others happy. Lydia was happy being Lydia and having a gross, ghoulish best friend. And that's all that mattered.

So. A cartoon without a target gender demographic with a genuine moral center? Made by that gothy weirdo that your grandparents thought was the devil? About ghosts and monsters and all the stuff you arent supposed to draw in school? Animated by a talented team on a ghostship budget that would go on to produce some of the biggest names in animation today? Fuck yeah!

Also, it needs to be said: this show WAS controversial. Far more so than most toons on TV today. (Far more so than the musical)

The 80's Purity Brigade tried to get it taken off air (they tried to get A Lot of Stuff taken off the air and were 99% unsuccessful) and were met with HARSH opposition. They said it was satanic (a potential death sentence for media during the height of America's Satanic Panic). They claimed it did not depict the afterlife "correctly". It was evil to talk to children about death so casually. It was polluting the children away from Traditional Values. Gag me.

Fortunately, these "critics" were ignored. There are fan letters archived at Harry Ransom from folks telling the creators what the toon meant to them and their children. These letters inspired the show runners to continue and Actively Mock the purity brigade in multiple episodes.

Example: (Snugglejuice is one example, in which beetlejuice is forcibly brainwashed and traumatized in a cutesy labor camp to be Sweet and Good. Lydia calls it monstrous and threatens to expose/destroy their entire institution to save her best friend from honest to god Conversion Therapy.)

This show was and is still a treasure. It actively taught a whole generation of little sprouting weirdos to love themselves, slime and all.

So, when tumblr kids who are only just being introduced to it through a musical produced 32 years later by folks just barely old enough to remember the film At All reduce this cartoon to "just a dark bad problematic cartoon ugly gross tossed together it's old and not relevant"

....

I'd like to remind them, your musical rode on the shoulders of the toon and film artists. Your hottakes on how "gross" you find the cartoon are pretty indicative of your lack of critical thinking skills. Your misunderstanding of the context of this cartoon as a piece of both franchise and cartoon history betrays your immaturity in analyzing the media you take in.

Yes. It's dark. It's creepy. People loved it. It was completely innovative at the time. Kids loved it. Tons of kids who grew up with it STILL love it. It doesn't speak to Your modern sensibilities? Of course not!

Because It wasn't MADE FOR YOU.

If you can't view a nostalgic piece of media with an understanding of the time it comes from, you have no business deigning to critique it with some Buzzfeed Hottake about how you're so upset about a cartoon you didn't even grow up witb and likely haven't even seen.

Don't come into nostalgia fandoms unwilling to accept the origins of the media/original fans of the media who can and will ALWAYS love it just the way it was.

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something ive noticed a lot in the broadway community is that fans REFUSE to give any sort of freedom or grace to new actors in roles that they like. if you really do prefer the original, cool! dont literally get mad at their replacement for existing! if u love this actor so much u should let them move onto other projects without insulting the people who come and take their place. i hate the phrase 'no one will ever be as good as the og' and things similar, because literally any of these actors could have also been the og if they had been in the right place at the right time. would you have preferred them if that were the case?

for example, the amount of ppl who DESPISE west end heathers is insane cause like of course it isnt exactly the same as off-broadway? i like both productions for different reasons but it rly feels like most people are so closed-minded when it comes to other casts.

ive also seen SO much hate on elizabeth teeter ( i think thats her name?) as lydia. she is not sophia. she KNOWS that. she is not trying to be sophia. there is no point in constantly comparing the two (especially when elizabeth literally stated she did not want to be compared).

i just want to enjoy other actors and productions without being flooded with people who won't even give them a chance. also, if u want to do the show so bad, u have to accept that YOUR cast wouldn't be 'as good as the og' either. would u be okay with the same amount of comparison? of course they aren't the same. they are DIFFERENT PRODUCTIONS???

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via derekmong

01/08/23

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After two years of intermittent labor, here it finally is! Thank you so much to everyone who has been following the progress of this getting made and for supporting me as I took on a project that kind of exploded in scale past what I initially planned haha.

Firstly, thank you to everyone involved in making Beetlejuice the Musical! I love it so much and this thing only happened because the source material is just so good. Consider this a send-off for the musical since it’ll be closing early next year. If you’re able to, y'all should really grab some tickets and see the show live! They’re also touring the show soon, so really there’s no excuse!! Go watch this show. It’s a joy and a labor of love.

Secondly, I feel it’s necessary to provide a small disclaimer. This project started out as a storyboard and ended up landing somewhere in between boards and animation. For sake of those who don’t know and maybe want to break into the animation industry, this level of polish, color, backgrounds, etc is ABSOLUTELY NOT what is expected or wanted from an actual professional storyboard. I put in the time and effort to give it this level of polish just for fun! And also because I know I’m not shipping it off to get animated. This is the final product and it’s something I just wanted to do for the hell of it because I love boarding and I love this musical.

Now that that’s out of the way, I just wanna give an extra thanks to Jeannette Arroyo and Amber Blade Jones for busting their asses to give this little project some of the most BEAUTIFUL backgrounds in the business. It elevated the level of this thing beyond anything I could’ve hoped for.

Thank you all again SO MUCH for watching! I hope you enjoy! =]

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I am absolutely heartbroken about Beetlejuice closing, but I'm thrilled that this time they get to have a final performance and a huge party and all the appreciation and love they deserve, even if I can't make it to NYC to see it. I'll see it every time the national tour comes near my town and treasure the bits of Alex I got to see before it was over. Hopefully more backstage clips and etc will make it to youtube and insta, and they'll be able to make that proshot before the set gets torn down! I hope. I hope I hope I hope.

If I ever do get to NYC for a show, I'll make sure to support whatever plays the BJ family is in. Maybe I'll still get a chance to let them know how much the show has meant to me the last couple of years. <3

Love you guys

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I AM SOFT FOR ONE DEMON

Beetlejuice nearly getting exorcised and having to be taken care of to get him back to healthy again afterwards, proof that he has people who care about him for real and an actual family now.

God I absolutely love how this one turned out! Had a lot of fun with this! It’s longer than normal but I love it.

It had been a few days since disaster struck the Deetz/Maitland household.

It all started with Beetlejuice. He had done nothing wrong. Just was chilling on the couch, watching a documentary about mythology. Mentally pointing out creatures and what not that he knew in person. The problem started though when a priest of the nearby church broke in. The priest had always threatened to break in and “save their souls” from Beetlejuice. They all thought he was bluffing though. No way would a random man know the true way to exorcise a demon. Still, he proved them wrong.

Now, Beetlejuice sat in the living room. Unmoving and injured from the priest’s exorcism. Blankets covering his form as he sulked. This had worried the hell out of the Deetz and Maitlands. It was extremely unusual for Beetlejuice to be this…quite. Still, they tried their best to help him out through this. Him being paler than normal. His hair didn’t even have it’s normal brightness. Just staying it’s normal green but much more muted.

“Hey, Beej,” Adam had asked the demon. “Is it okay if I sit next to you?”

All he got in return was a simple nod. Not even a small smile attached itself to Beetlejuice. This was very concerning. Well, everything since the attempted exorcism has been.

“Do you want…anything?”

Beetlejuice just shook his head and curled into himself more. Hiding his face with the blanket. Adam fought back the urge to sigh and just decided to sit there. Keeping the demon company.

Stuff like this continued to happen. Someone would come into the living room, attempt to talk to Beetlejuice, then keep him company. It was a cycle no one knew if it was working. Still, they would occasionally break up the usual pattern and give him something. Sometimes it would be a book, others it would be a new game for his switch. Delia usually brought him different drinks. Usually tea but sometimes hot coco to switch it up. Beetlejuice never moved though. Tea getting cold and gifts being forgotten.

Lydia was the most determined to get him back to his normal self. Always talking to him even if he didn’t respond back. She would tell him about her day, talk about her girlfriend, say something to him. Nothing really worked though. The most she would get is a nod or him shifting a bit.

“I hate this,” Lydia had told Barbara one day. “I’m just…so worried for him Barbara. He has never been this quite. What if he…dies…”

“Oh honey,” Barbara had attempted to comfort her. “I’m sure he’s okay. Just…healing.”

Truth be told even she wasn’t sure if he’ll be okay. And as much as she hated to admit it, she was worried too.

Beetlejuice’s silence was not a comfortable one. Everyone missed his chaos. Soon, his silence went from days to weeks. Him just sitting on the couch not doing much other than occasionally moving or nodding. They were worried it would become months. Beetlejuice though started to show signs of healing after a while. His hair turning back into it’s normal bright green and him becoming less pale.

“Here you go Lawrence,” Delia had said one day giving him hot chocolate. “I hope you feel better soon.”

She then kissed his forehead like always but something changed. Beetlejuice moved more than normal after the kiss. He looked up right at Delia.

“Why,” he had said. “Why do you guys care so much for me? All I have been doing to sitting here on the couch and be useless.”

His hair turned purple and blue for the first time in a long time. Delia couldn’t help but smile and sit next to him.

“You are not useless Lawrence,” she told the demon. “You are very important to us. We love you and want to help you heal.”

Beetlejuice was silent before speaking again.

“But, what I had done is all my fault. Living with you guys was a mistake. I put you all at risk.”

“No you haven’t. It was all that damn priest’s fault. He couldn’t see how wonderful you are.”

The demon was surprised by Delia cursing but didn’t say anything. Why? Why would they love him? The more he thought about why they loved him, he couldn’t help but tear up.

“Why?” He said between sniffles. “Why care for me?”

“Cause you’re family.”

This caused Beetlejuice to break out in sobs. Alerting everyone in the house to him. As he continued to sob, Delia hugged him as the others appeared.

“Lawrence, we love you so much,” Delia told him. “We would never leave you to heal on your own.”

“Yeah, what Delia said,” chimed in Lydia. “We wouldn’t leave ya behind.”

This caused Beetlejuice to sob harder as he buried himself into Delia. She just rubbed his back as he continued to cry. The others offering support. Soon his cries dispersed and he was left a sniffling mess. Still hugging Delia he looked over at the others.

“Y’all care for me?” He sniffed. “I…I can’t believe it.”

The others chimed in with yeses and other words of confirmation. This was too much for Beetlejuice.

“I..I love you all too. And I should thank you all for the gifts. I appreciated them.”

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On this day (30/03) in 1988, Tim Burton’s comedy-fantasy Beetlejuice was released - scored by Danny Elfman.

During the main titles sequence - as the Geffen logo appears - you can hear Danny singing ‘Day-o, he say day-ay-ay-o’ ヽ(⌐■_■)ノ♪♬ 

The orchestral scoring of the film almost met with disaster, as the conducter who was originally hired to conduct Elfman’s score, Lionel Newman, kept making changes to Danny’s work during the first day of recording. Consequently, Newman was replaced by William ‘Bill’ Ross as conductor.

Danny has mentioned during several interviews that his early days as a film composer were met with much skepticism from his peers - many claiming that he did not write his own music. In this instance, many unofficially credited Bill Ross as having truly written the score.

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Y'all, it's spooky season, and I'm just kinda losin' my last hopes about the show getting a new theater. Everyone keeps posting on fb and insta that the billboard is still up and sharing rumors about temporary housing but my heart is so heavy. I was just really hoping I'd be able to see it in New York at some point. At least we'll have tours... I can start hoping for that.

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Do you have any good plantonic lydia and BJ fic recs 😳

OH BOY DO I. I am very picky when it comes to fanfics, but this fandom DELIVERS.

Ok first recommendation is Crystals Speak to Me, a fic where Delia basically finds Beej has returned and disguised himself so they don’t catch him and she decides to let him stay, and Lydia gets her bfffffff back. It’s adorable and I love it because d also acts like a mom to BJ 😌

This Creepy-Looking House is a shortie but a goodie, where the breathers and ghosts of the house get ready to watch a movie together as a family. A cute lil slice of life moment of their new lives together

scout’s honor and take me where my soul can run are both VERY good, scouts honor is a lil sequel to the other about Lydia and Beej babysitting a younger Skye and apologizing to her. Take me where my soul can run is a VERY good Beetlejuice returns fic and inspired my own story

Back to My Roots is an adorable one where Beej does a dumb and forgets that Lydia just dyes her hair black. Then there’s the also adorable sequel I Would Dye for You where they dye Lydia’s hair. This author also has a really good one called It’s All Fun and Games Until Someone (Beetlejuice) Starts Crying where one stormy night Beej and Lyds watch movies, and Beej has a case of sad feelings, but Lyds cheers him up.

The series adventures of Lydia Deetz and the b-man have some real good bangers going on it, real good sad feels, good sibling love, and some beetlelands stuff which is a bonus for me but if it’s not your cup of tea, there’s still just some Lyds and Beej tales.

Oh this one is fucking HILARIOUS it’s called No Rules, Just Ghouls where Lydia sends a question to the MBMBAM podcast about her ghost brother flirting with her ghost parents. I Love. It.

Another funny shortie is Forbidden Fruit Snack where Beej eats a tide pod for Lydia, there’s also The Fuck is a Gender where Beej wears a dress, gets told about gender, and hates it. Oh a good sad by this author is I Feel Like I’m Drowning where Lydia deals with the fact that she killed Beej and turns to him for comfort and he reminds her that he’ll always be her best friend.

Into the Beetleverse is a fun movie-musical crossover where Moviejuice switches places with Musicaljuice and things go to shit, but not before Beej goes ahead and makes movie Lydia his other bfffff because apparently his friendship with Lydia is inevitable

OH THIS GOOD ASS ONE CALLED Stop Helping Me! In which Lydia is a useless lesbian, Beej and the ghost parents help her, and she helps them right back. It’s so fucking great like oh my lord

Oh Lavender is a FEELS fest where Beej and Lyds work their shit out post musical. So good

OH ANOTHER FEELS FEST is what I left behind ( @upperstories is queen and you can fight me on that)where Beej gets exorcised and saved by his family

Thievin’ Demon has Beej and Lydia both loving snug clothes and so Lyds gives Beej a gift

Oh and fuck this feels inducing motherfucker Evicted written when we first learned the terrible truth about our fav musical. Has great Lyds and Beej sibling feels.

His (After)Life is a Musical is super good, got some good shit in there. ( @fablegate is a goddamn gem and I hope they do more stuff for the fandom someday)

wake me when I’m twenty one is a real good one where Beej is actually more of an uncle, and Lydia falls asleep on him and the Maitlands gush about it while he pretends to hate it all.

And finally if you haven’t found them, i wrote one I think is kind of okay called Dreams of Death, which takes place in my Shoggoth au where Lydia has a bad dream, Beej wakes her up and comforts her. There’s also my current ongoing fic I’m a Bunch of Broken Pieces, but you probably noticed it with all the updates I put up here.

This might’ve gotten out of hand... BUT FUCK IT MAN I LOVE THESE SIBLINGS, OK?? THEY’RE SO GOOD. And I love supporting this fandom :3

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The @beetlejuicefanbook​ is up for sale through July!

The Fanbook features over 40 artists’ work in celebration of Beetlejuice the Musical, with ALL proceeds going to support the Actors Fund for COVID relief! Donate what you can HERE, sit back, relax, and enjoy some spiffing and spooky art for your eyes!

These are some of the preliminary sketches I made for my contribution piece.

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Ohhhhh we got us THAT kind of f*cker huh.

Time to summon the sandworms and fill the tag with positivity to drown their arses out!

idk man

Listen, I’m going to be real with everyone here who follows me, merely sees some of my work, or whatever. There has been some person going around on tumblr as of late who thinks the best type of past time during a global pandemic is to tell someone to take their own life in brutal ways. Worst of all, they are posing as someone in a fandom they are not apart of. They are using hashtags when the threaten their target, and in the fandom I am in, I am very aware of how triggering that shit is. That is not okay in any regards.  I want to assure anyone who reads this, whether you’re an anti, neutral, or beetlebabes, that if you see someone filling your tags with negativity please don’t fuel them. They feed off that because it merely fuels the fire. Getting reactions are what they want. This post is probably not a help, but I want it to help others be aware of this current situation.  This person has nothing to do with the Beetlejuice fandom. Nothing at all. They are a bully, and if you see them being rude in any tag, being your own go-to tags, report and block them. I can’t say names because this person keeps making fresh new accounts just to keep up their game of hatred and spite toward someone on the internet.  What I want for this fandom is to make the tags a better place once more. There have been collaborations and multiple plans of wonderful creators who have gathered together on servers to promote positivity and creativity. 

Please, let’s end the hate. 

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SO I GAVE IT ALL UP FOR THE NEEETHERWORLD I’VE BEEN HERE FOREVER GIRL IF I WAS MORE CLEVER GIRL I WOULD HAVE STUCK IT OUT KNOWING WHAT LIFE’S ABOUT PAIN AND JOY AND SUFFERING FAILING BUT RECOVERING I’LL TELL YOOOOU ANOTHER THING everyone here is alone so if you are breathing GO HOOooOOOOOOOOOME IF I KNEW THEEEEEEEEN WHAT IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII KNOOOoooOOOOOOOW NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW I WOULD’VE LOOKED WITHIN AND KEPT GOOOooooOOIIIIING SOMEHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW IF I ONLY KNEEEEEEEEEEEEEW THE TRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTH BACK THEEEEEEEeeeEEEEEEN I WOULDN’T HAVE HAD MY LITTLE ACCIDENT

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Only 3 days left to apply to It’s Showtime! A Beetlejuice Fanbook!

Apply here!

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This looks so cool!

💚Hey folks! Beggin’ your pardon! 💚 Welcome to It’s Showtime! A Beetlejuice Fanbook, a digital charity fanbook dedicated to Beetlejuice the Musical. All proceeds will be going to the Actor’s Fund.

APPLICATIONS OPEN THRU 4/20-4/27

Check out our FAQ for more info and follow our twitter for more updates!

@zine-scene @zinefeed