Danny Elfman's BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE (2024)

[Jurassic Shark 12,882]

40 minutes ago, Mr. Hooper said:

That one's too personal to Burton.

 

Why - did he grow up with scissor hands?

[Edmilson 8,680]

And Spielberg's E.T.

 

The trinity of movies (or movie series in BTTF's case) that will never get a "legacy sequel"... At least not until their directors pass away.

Just now, Jurassic Shark said:

Why - did he grow up with scissor hands?

That wouldn't have been ideal once he reached adolescence... 

[John Dutton 7,251]

There was that commercial a few years ago with E.T. and Elliot hawking some crap.

[Jurassic Shark 12,882]

Yeah, that was a sellout. 

[Thor 8,190]

14 minutes ago, John Dutton said:

There was that commercial a few years ago with E.T. and Elliot hawking some crap.

 

They've done that for BTTF too. Some ads, some events etc. But no proper sequel.

[Jurassic Shark 12,882]

57 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

That wouldn't have been ideal once he reached adolescence... 

 

Why do you think we always see him with trousers?

[John Dutton 7,251]

1 hour ago, Thor said:

 

They've done that for BTTF too. Some ads, some events etc. But no proper sequel.

 

There was a Direct TV ad campaign in the 2000s with Doc Brown, Bill Harding and the final appearance of Captain Kirk.

[The Train Station 8,558]

And the dad from Poltergeist 

[John Dutton 7,251]

Isn't BTTF...The Ride technically a sequel?

[The Train Station 8,558]

What about the cartoon?

[John Dutton 7,251]

I forgot that even existed. Beetlejuice had one in that era too.

[The Train Station 8,558]

Yeah that Beetlejuice cartoon was pretty good

[ddddeeee 314]

I enjoyed the film a lot.

 

I found the score situation a bit crushing, to be honest. Elfman has next to nothing to do. So many sequences that were would have allowed the score to run amuck are set to song. I could make out a theme for Delores and there seemed to be something for Astrid, but nothing is given the chance to breathe. And what score is there only really stands out when it's reprising material from the first score. I'd be very unsurprised to learn that Burton was temp-track obsessed on this one. 

 

It felt like all the quirk was gone from the first score, which seems so odd considering the film is the most alive Burton has felt in years. It reminds me of Big Eyes in how the score is never there to elevate.

 

The flashback cue sounded fun at least.

 

I'm glad that an upcoming Elfman score was revealed today because I think I'd have been gutted to think that this was Elfman's final score.

[Thor 8,190]

4 minutes ago, ddddeeee said:

I'm glad that an upcoming Elfman score was revealed today because I think I'd have been gutted to think that this was Elfman's final score.

 

Final score? Do you know something we don't?

[ddddeeee 314]

3 minutes ago, Thor said:

 

Final score? Do you know something we don't?

Not at all. Given all the radio silence on Elfman projects, I just wondered if studios wouldn't want to hire him after the allegations. Little did I know a director with his own allegations was waiting in the wings!

[Thor 8,190]

Ah, that old thing. Charges have been dismissed (same for Besson, by the way). Time to put all that behind us now.

[Edmilson 8,680]

Even without the allegations, I think Elfman himself isn't THAT interested in doing big budget projects anymore, at least not so frequently as before. He did Dr Strange 2, Wednesday and Beetlejuice 2 because of his loyalty to Raimi and Burton, but if I had to guess I'd say he is finding more satisfying to work in concerts or new CDs like that one released a couple years ago.

 

On the other hand, he is potentially involved with a Dracula movie now so what do I know 

[tomsmoviemadness 3,466]

What I find most noticable and interesting is that one of the biggest differences between the original and the sequel is the way music is used.

 

In the original Elfman's score truly is it's own character in the film. It elevates so many moments and is very prominent.

 

In the sequel the biggest musical moments are songs. The score takes a back seat for most of the film, while a few songs are used for big and important scenes.

 

Does this maybe has to do with the way audiences watch films these days? Or that scores maybe serve a different kind of purpose these days to a lot of people?

 

Anyone got any thoughts on this?

[John Dutton 7,251]

Modern more sophisticated audiences prefer pop songs to original score.

[Edmilson 8,680]

It would be interesting to know if the decision of using pop songs was made by some higher ups at the studio trying to appease to the mythical "modern audiences" or if it was Burton himself.

 

If (and that's a big "if", I tend to believe this is more of a studio thing) it was Burton's choice, does that point to his relationship with Elfman (much more turbulent than, say, Williams & Spielberg or Silvestri & Zemeckis) has been somewhat restrained over the past few years.

[ddddeeee 314]

All the needle-drops have Burton all over them. He and the cast have been very open about him making the movie he wanted to make.

[Tom Guernsey 2,609]

50 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

Even without the allegations, I think Elfman himself isn't THAT interested in doing big budget projects anymore, at least not so frequently as before. He did Dr Strange 2, Wednesday and Beetlejuice 2 because of his loyalty to Raimi and Burton, but if I had to guess I'd say he is finding more satisfying to work in concerts or new CDs like that one released a couple years ago.

 

On the other hand, he is potentially involved with a Dracula movie now so what do I know 

To be fair I’m quite impressed he’s making time for his concert music in amongst a still fairly busy roster of film scoring (even one or two a year is still quite a commitment with all the concerts etc). Must admit that it makes me a little sad that John Powell, who has fewer film projects these days. hasn’t had time for concert music despite that (I believe) being his intent. His Prussian Requiem was fucking amazing. Elfman’s concert music has been excellent. Looking forward to seeing a second live performance of his percussion concerto in November. And obviously looking forward to this score!

 

I watched the original the other day and honestly have no idea if I’ve seen it before. I enjoyed it but actually felt it could have been longer at times, especially the setup. Also the new living residents weren’t as awful as I expected. Is it heretical to say that I kept wondering what Joe Dante would have done with the material?!

[Bayesian 1,427]

7 hours ago, Edmilson said:

It would be interesting to know if the decision of using pop songs was made by some higher ups at the studio trying to appease to the mythical "modern audiences" or if it was Burton himself.

 

If (and that's a big "if", I tend to believe this is more of a studio thing) it was Burton's choice, does that point to his relationship with Elfman (much more turbulent than, say, Williams & Spielberg or Silvestri & Zemeckis) has been somewhat restrained over the past few years.

I wasn’t aware that there was any turbulence in their relationship since that one time in the 90s. Since Sweeney Todd 17 yrs ago, Elfman has scored everything Burton has done save for Miss Peregrine. And that one may have been due to scheduling conflicts with Alice thru the Looking Glass. Admittedly, since Peregrine, Burton’s worked on only three projects—but Elfman has been involved in each one. No reason to think that shouldn’t continue. I for one sure hope it does. 

[mstrox 6,848]

9 hours ago, Thor said:

Ah, that old thing. Charges have been dismissed (same for Besson, by the way). Time to put all that behind us now.

The original Nomi Abadi civil suit is still pending and in fact a separate defamation suit was filed last month about the information he and his team put out to Rolling Stone.

 

https://www.nme.com/news/music/danny-elfman-sued-for-defamation-by-sexual-misconduct-accuser-3774041

 

The case that was dismissed was the older Jane Doe civil suit.

 

I’m also unclear on how the status of civil litigation would play into how one would feel about a composer allegedly jacking off at their employees, but you do you.

[The Train Station 8,558]

I gave this movie a solid ☆½ on my Letterboxd account.

[mstrox 6,848]

About jives with what my irl friends who have seen it said.  My kid loves the first so I suspect we’ll be wasting money to see it in theaters anyway.

[ddddeeee 314]

4 hours ago, Bayesian said:

I wasn’t aware that there was any turbulence in their relationship since that one time in the 90s. Since Sweeney Todd 17 yrs ago, Elfman has scored everything Burton has done save for Miss Peregrine. And that one may have been due to scheduling conflicts with Alice thru the Looking Glass. Admittedly, since Peregrine, Burton’s worked on only three projects—but Elfman has been involved in each one. No reason to think that shouldn’t continue. I for one sure hope it does. 

They fell out around Big Eyes. Producer Derek Frey middle-manned and they made-up again for Dumbo.

[The Train Station 8,558]

24 minutes ago, ddddeeee said:

They fell out around Big Eyes. Producer Derek Frey middle-manned and they made-up again for Dumbo.

 

Was it over a woman?

[Mr. Hooper 3,106]

[John Dutton 7,251]

Elfman seems like such a diva.

[The Train Station 8,558]

He's too used to getting his own way.

[Jay 39,156]

Just got back from seeing the film at the cinema.

 

I enjoyed it quite a bit; It's one of the rare legacy sequels that is actually good, and doesn't just try to re-do the original movie and fill it up with nostalgia the whole time.  Only really bringing back Keaton, O'Hara, and Ryder, and having new characters drive a lot of the action, was a very wise choice.

 

And now I understand why there's no separate score album, there's barely any score in the movie.  I wouldn't be surprised if only 30 minutes at most were recorded, and there's less than that heard in the movie.  All the major set-pieces are scored by songs.  I'm pretty sure that the two longest cues in the film are the main and end titles that are on the song compilation.

[mstrox 6,848]

I wonder if that was the original intent, or if Elfman scored that stuff and Burton went off the rails with it.

[The Great Gonzales 6,200]

1 minute ago, mstrox said:

I wonder if that was the original intent, or if Elfman scored that stuff and Burton went off the rails with it.

Sort of like the Mario movie?

[Jay 39,156]

I dunno.  The way the film is structured, it doesn't seem like its a film that NEEDED a lot of score.  The songs chosen all seemed like ti was the intention all along.  Certainly MacArthur Park was!

[ddddeeee 314]

I agree that it all feels intentional, but in an interview with Gramophone around the release of his Percussion Concerto/Wunderkammer, he said there were 45 cues in Beetlejuice 2. It didn't seem like there were that many in the film, but that's just based on one viewing, and a lot of cues were really short.

[Jay 39,156]

Wow yeah, that 45 number sounds like twice as much as reality after seeing it, but who knows!

[tomsmoviemadness 3,466]

I think there are a couple scenes that maybe could've had score replaced by a song. 

For example, the introduction of Monica Belluci's character, Astrid riding through town and there was another, but I can't remember it at the moment.

 

But there were also scenes that were made for songs, like MacArthur Park 100% was meant to be in there, because the whole sequence is based around it.

[ddddeeee 314]

8 minutes ago, tomsmoviemadness said:

For example, the introduction of Monica Belluci's character, Astrid riding through town and there was another, but I can't remember it at the moment.

Man, the latter scene was just begging for score. There's clearly an Astrid theme buried in there somewhere, and that was the time to let it play. The character is going through so much and Elfman could've played it all. Instead we got ... vibes.

[tomsmoviemadness 3,466]

‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ Tallies $41.5 Million Opening Day — Second Biggest Ever for September

 

Quote

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” jumped in the line and earned $41.5 million from 4,575 locations across Friday and preview screenings. That’s the second-biggest opening day ever for a September release, only falling behind 2017’s “It” ($50.425 million). It’s also the biggest-ever for director Tim Burton‘s career, landing ahead of the $40.8 million opening day of “Alice in Wonderland” back in 2010.

That is fantastic! After a long career (with ups and downs) to have such a big hit with the thing that put you on the map more than 30 years ago. Incredible!

[ddddeeee 314]

I saw it again, and there really isn't even a twenty-minute album to be had here. It's all underscore. And there is a surprising amount of it - I would say there are 45 starts. But they're almost all so non-descript that you wouldn't notice.

 

If they'd added the nice reprise of Lydia Discovers to the album, that probably would've done it.

 

Feels weird to have a nothing Elfman score to a good Burton movie. It's been the other way round for a while now.

[mrbellamy 6,679]

I agree Elfman's score didn't register much but it felt good to watch Burton make something funny, gnarly, and tactile again and the cast all came to play. "MacArthur Park" scene is worthy. 

 

Too many characters/subplots which makes it less lean and mean than the OG and the look is kinda drab sometimes but I had fun. 

[John Dutton 7,251]

It doesn't even have Charles Deetz or Otho

[mrbellamy 6,679]

Yeah but Beetlejuice says "Later, fucker"

[The Train Station 8,558]

There used to be an economical leanness to movies that made them engaging and fun to watch, which is completely absent in Beetlejuice 2 because it's so slow and lacking in any momentum or sense of urgency. Tragically, the high box office numbers validate this amateurish approach.

[mrbellamy 6,679]

It didn't get in the way for me as much as all that because I laughed a lot but it did feel like they just taped together a bunch of possible Beetlejuice 2 screenplay drafts over the years. 

[The Train Station 8,558]

Your sense of humour must be way different from mine, because I didn't see anything funny happen at all.

[Mr. Hooper 3,106]

5 hours ago, mrbellamy said:

It didn't get in the way for me as much as all that because I laughed a lot but it did feel like they just taped together a bunch of possible Beetlejuice 2 screenplay drafts over the years. 

It's sounding like they used the "kitchen sink approach"?

[Bayesian 1,427]

12 hours ago, Unlucky Bastard said:

There used to be an economical leanness to movies that made them engaging and fun to watch, which is completely absent in Beetlejuice 2 because it's so slow and lacking in any momentum or sense of urgency. Tragically, the high box office numbers validate this amateurish approach.

I think I know what you mean, at least with regard to BB. I really liked BB and consider it worthy of a second viewing in theaters because of its visual inventiveness. But there was a sense of the pacing being a half-step off, a certain lack of momentum to move the plot from one setpiece or scene to the next. I feel like the movie could have benefited from being a bit more frenetic somehow. But the quality of the filmmaking in each scene was absolutely top-shelf, which argues (to me) that Burton hasn’t lost his touch, but rather that he needs either a better editor or a zippier screenplay to work from. 
 

Regarding the score, there were numerous beautifully scored moments in the movie that I’d love to have available in an album. Even if it’s 45 chopped up cues, bring it on. It’s clear there won’t be a physical cd forthcoming, but that’s been the case now since MIB: international and unlikely to change. Putting out a digital score-only album shouldn’t take any significant effort, though, and I’m confident one will appear soon. 

[Jay 39,156]

Physical CD: https://waxworkrecords.com/collections/cd/products/beetlejuice-beetlejuice-cd

 

Physical vinyl: https://waxworkrecords.com/collections/vinyl/products/beetlejuice-beetlejuice