Tim Burton’s return to the afterlife is a visual cornucopia in 4K. Though he has a reputation for being dark and goth, the world of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is multicolored, striped and practically polka dotted.
The angled hallways of the afterlife and the attic do provide some deep voids of shadow, as does the cemetery in the wedding finale. It’s interesting watching Beetlejuice Beetlejuice right after Elvira because Winona Ryder’s Lydia Deetz’ wardrobe has the same effect. Her porcelain skin emerges from a deep 4K gown and black hair.
Even in the real world, Catherine O’Hara’s Lydia Deetz red hair glows, as do her various projects in her art gallery and the stop motion animated flashback.
Surround sound is mostly devoted to the music, which is more than just the score and Harry Belafonte songs this time. Now they’ve also got the Soul Train and the whole “MacArthur Park” finale. You do hear sound effects like sand blowing in the Saturn’s moon section and thunder and lightning.
It’s rare to get a full director’s commentary in 2024 but Tim Burton speaks through the whole movie. There are occasional pauses but he’s got a lot to share about developing the sequel, reuniting with original cast members and each specific special effect. The effects are where he really comes to life discussing how they were done. But he also speaks to canon and basically waves his hands at it. They just think of funny things and it’s not supposed to make sense.
There’s a 30 minute behind the scenes feature and 50+ more minutes of shorts. I would say that’s what a blockbuster gets you, but they would have had to have made these before the film opened in September.
They’re all professionally produced and everyone participated in soundbites. You get to see the practical effects in action, the Italian horror movie sequence without the grain added, and more.
The Shrinkers short shows crew members attaching the heads to the bodies and many of the heads in closeup. One of the shrinkers runs out of frame in one take because they can’t see. You also get to see the stop motion figures in the shop, to get a sense of the scale next to actual people, and they show some of the live-action reference footage they filmed. Spotlighting the afterlife extras also adds to a fun collection.