Beetlejuice Beetlejuice! All the Fun Callbacks the Sequel Makes to the Original, from Sandworms to That Red Dress

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice — be careful, don’t say his name three times! Director Tim Burton’s long-awaited follow-up to his comedy-horror classic about the afterlife and its wildest demon is finally here. And there are plenty of knowing nods to the 1988 film that started it all.

Repeating his own bug juice the characters in the sequel include Michael Keaton in the title role, Winona Ryder as the “strange and quirky” Lydia Deetz, and Catherine O’Hara as her artistic stepmother Delia. Jenna Ortega joins the cast as Lydia’s daughter Astrid, while Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Danny DeVito and Willem Dafoe star.

Read on for all the ways Beetlejuice Beetlejuice pays homage to the original. (Spoilers ahead for details about the movie’s plot!)

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The opening sequence

bug juice took audiences to the suburban Connecticut town of Winter River and its charming covered bridges. Both the original film and the sequel have an opening credits sequence set to music by composer Danny Elfman that introduces us to the city — only to reveal that it’s a mini-model version of the city in the attic of the Deetz family home.

Later in Beetlejuice BeetlejuiceAstrid swerves to avoid danger on the streets of Winter River while on her bike, not unlike Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis’ Adam and Barbara Maitland ride in the original. During that installment, the pair meet a rather more morbid fate, introducing us to the afterlife and starting what is now a two-part film franchise.

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Delia’s dangerous sculptures

O’Hara’s character rushed in bug juice with a fantastical wardrobe, an aversion to nature, and several abstract metal sculptures—which later came to life thanks to Betelgeuse’s demonic magic. While not as dangerous in the sequel, these artworks appear in Astrid’s boarding school, where it’s clear that her now-famous grandmother has influence as the namesake of that art center.

Fun fact: 2023, during the filming of the movie Beetlejuice Beetlejuiceone of Delia’s prop sculptures was stolen from a set in East Corinth, Vt.

Jenna Ortega and Winona Ryder in ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’.

Warner Bros. Pictures/YouTube

“Day-O (Banana Boat Song)”

O’Hara confirmed last March that Harry Belafonte’s “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” would be used again in the sequel, following a memorable musical moment in the original in which Delia and her dinner guests played and lip-synched the tune via a spooky obsessions.

Not long after, fans saw Burton recapture the magic of that song. As the trailer for the sequel revealed, a children’s choir sings the Belafonte classic in a slower, more mournful way at the funeral of Charles Deetz (played by Jeffrey Jones in the original).

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The recently deceased (and their waiting room)

Burton and his production teams imagination runs wild in bug juice a cinematic universe, unfolding as in a bureaucratic afterlife where the recently deceased await their administrative fate. Figures and puppets bearing signs of their death are seen with their heads shrunk, sickly colored or blue from suffocation or other ailments, and even cut in half with different body parts working separately.

Michael Keaton in ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’.

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

It wouldn’t be a bug juice a no-nonsense sequel to those original inventions that were performed with practical rather than computer-generated effects. Burton goes even further than the conceit: one looming character is apparently killed in an underwater magic trick gone wrong, while another is eaten by piranhas and is still gnawing at his flesh. Meanwhile, people with buboos and shrunken heads play a prominent role in the second film – including dear Bob, Betelgeuse’s mute sidekick.

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Sand worms

The space between the afterlife and the mortal level in bug juice is a science fiction-inspired desert populated by badass — stop-motion animated! — sand worms. Baldwin and Davis’ characters go from fleeing in fear to using the creature to prevent Betelgeuse from marrying teenage Lydia.

In the new film, it’s Lydia and her daughter Astrid who enter that dreamlike space and rearm the worms at a crucial moment. There was a lot of sand and a lot of wind, Ryder said Entertainment Weekly in August. “I think it’s common knowledge [that] it’s really hard to run on sand. I’ve had dreams where you’re running on sand, so that was it.”

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‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’.

Warner Bros. Pictures/YouTube

Jane Butterfield

Little Jane, featured in bug juice as the daughter of ambitious real estate agent Jane Butterfield (Annie McEnroe), she is now all grown up. With Amy Nuttall taking over from a young Rachel Mittelman, it’s clear that selling homes – which may or may not be haunted – is a family heirloom.

Lydia’s red wedding dress

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice saves its biggest visual callback for the climax of the story. Lydia’s ruffled red wedding dress from the original reappears on her in the sequel, as she is once again forced to marry Keaton’s dastardly demon. He puts on his silly dark red tuxedo again.

The dress, created by Oscar-winning costume designer and regular Burton collaborator Colleen Atwood, is iconic enough to warrant an obvious tribute to Ortega on the red carpet at the 81st Venice International Film Festival, where the sequel had its world premiere on August 28.

‘Wednesday’ costume designer Colleen Atwood details the stories behind the characters’ iconic looks

Winona Ryder in ‘Beetlejuice’.

Alamy

Musical numbers with masterful choreography

With the repurposing of “Day-O,” audiences may be wondering if they will Beetlejuice Beetlejuice recreates a musical score where characters sing and dance through possession. Jimmy Webb’s beautiful and absurd song “MacArthur Park” fits the bill perfectly, with Lydia, Astrid, Delia and the others lip-syncing the tune while under Betelgeuse’s control at his wedding. And yes, there is a cake that was left out in the rain.

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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice it’s in theaters now.

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Source: HIS Education