Sergey2003

Beetlejuice came out in 1987, yes that is decades ago. The movie was a hard satire between country life vs city life, and every time it clashed there was a thoughtful commentary. Beetlejuice himself was a typical archetype of capitalism, an insurance salesman type. All those afterlife bureaucracies further this. There is a ton of meaning in that movie. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is not doing any of that.

In the 90s they almost greenlit a sequel called Beetlejuice Goes to Hawaii. This would have been square in The Mask era CGI which would have been fascinating because back then they really worked hard to integrate CGI with live action. Winona, pre-shoplifting, pre-plastic surgery, would have still looked amazing. Keaton was still at his peak. It may not have been great but it would have been an actual crazy little sequel.

Point is, this movie is not an actual sequel. It is just a band's nostalgia tour where they play the hit songs. It is the same problem with Coming to America's sequel. A sequel is a lost art today, when they do it like this, they are just giving up. People are only giving it a pass because they liked the original, this movie will be forgotten the next day after you see it.

If you've ever worked with AI, you'd know it's a miracle this movie even exists. It's like using a Ouija board to write a novel. So to get this out the way, this is not a Hollywood animated movie, it is the first AI anime movie, meaning it's the first step toward the future of mankind.

I had a smile on my face the whole time. You can't look away as scene after scene, the movie keeps pulling it off. This is the reason why it works: the editing is phenomenal. It is the only way to piece together a movie from so many wildly diverging elements. AI is going to change the world, and I'm glad this one was the first one.

We put these away long ago. They fizzled and dissipated into memory. Culture changed and wore on. But then years and years later they pop right back up and we pretend time hasn't budged an inch. But it's all wrong. It feels faint. False. Hopeless. I don't know how to put the words to it, like they're trying too hard not to grow up, that they should have stayed in their time and place. Like, give it up to the new kids, it's their turn.