Everything you didn't know about Beetlejuice: The Animated Series

Were you a '90s kid who binged on Saturday morning cartoons? Say it three times.

Beetlejuice: The Animated Series was the animated version of Tim Burton’s weird, wacky movie about the Ghost With the Most, but the adaptation took the original character (who was unapologetically crass and something of a perv) and not only made him more kid-friendly, but gave him unlimited powers that went beyond answering to his name from beyond the grave or turning into an undead carousel.

Burton himself executive-produced the animated version, hence that very recognizable style of art; and Danny Elfman lent it the soundtrack from the Beetlejuice movie, along with all-new music. But the only character that remained from the movie besides Beetlejuice and Lydia Deetz was that bizarre shrunken head guy. All the other denizens of the Neitherworld — a netherworld that’s neither here nor there — and the human world came out of the shadows just for the animated version.

Speaking of Neitherworld, the puns in this series are as eternal as Beetlejuice himself. There’s even an entire YouTube video dedicated to them (if puns make your eyeballs roll in or out of your head, though, you might want to skip that). Because only Beetlejuice would turn into a pile of manure and tell Lydia she had a fertile imagination!

Still, even more entertaining than some really unexpected puns is all the shapeshifting Beetlejuice does. He can go from a bat to a car to a ball of crumpled paper in the time it takes to say his name thrice — though in the animated version, Lydia doesn’t need to say it at all to summon him from the Neitherworld. She only does if he’s being annoying enough to send him back there.

Some episodes of Beetlejuice are surprisingly self-aware, like the one where he really acts like the ghost with the most money as CEO of a huge TV station who has no compassion for anyone. That includes his batty, spidery, decomposing, and otherwise creepy brethren.

If you’re positively dying to know more, you have to watch the video!

This article was contributed to by Elizabeth Rayne.