Watched Beetlejuice at a friend's house this evening (I guess technically last evening now -- I hear the railroad train gearing up for the morning outside.) I was a little kid when Beetlejuice came out and loved he film, and apparently was not alone as it was presumably for my ilk that the Beetlejuice cartoon was created.
One thing that bothered me about the cartoon Beetlejuice was that it deviated from the film setup -- Lydia and Beetlejuice now were suddenly great friends, with Betelgeuse being a dumb, greedy, slovenly, mischievious but all in all harmless fellow, while Lydia was like some kind of mother figure charged with correcting his behavior; the Maitlands were altogether gone, and Delia had turned from a dramatic artist to a perky housewife.
A possible explanation for at least some of this did occur to us on viewing the film afresh!
So, in the movie Beetlejuice (or, properly, Betelgeuse) convinces Lydia to marry him, which apparently allows him to escape from the spirit world, in exchange for granting his help to the Maitlands. The wedding ceremony gets as far as "I now pronounce you man and --" before the Maitlands succeed in ending the ceremony by getting a sandworm to eat Betelgeuse; though we later see him back in the afterlife waiting room (for he is already dead.)
Anyway, speculation for the TV series is: the marriage ceremony was adequately concluded, to the point that Lydia and Betelgeuse actually find they are married. However, they have also discovered this worked out better than expected, and as happens in many arranged marriages they've come to be friends, and found the match beneficial to their personal development; Betelgeuse has calmed down and somewhat improved his character under Lydia's influence, and Lydia had found, in guiding Betelgeuse, a way to be useful and channel her energy in a way that's generally improved her outlook on the world. However, the Maitlands have a lingering hatred for Betelgeuse and that's why they don't talk to him or Lydia anymore.
So that's the theory. I'm sure someone's going to write a fanfic out of it right now.
One thing that bothered me about the cartoon Beetlejuice was that it deviated from the film setup -- Lydia and Beetlejuice now were suddenly great friends, with Betelgeuse being a dumb, greedy, slovenly, mischievious but all in all harmless fellow, while Lydia was like some kind of mother figure charged with correcting his behavior; the Maitlands were altogether gone, and Delia had turned from a dramatic artist to a perky housewife.
A possible explanation for at least some of this did occur to us on viewing the film afresh!
So, in the movie Beetlejuice (or, properly, Betelgeuse) convinces Lydia to marry him, which apparently allows him to escape from the spirit world, in exchange for granting his help to the Maitlands. The wedding ceremony gets as far as "I now pronounce you man and --" before the Maitlands succeed in ending the ceremony by getting a sandworm to eat Betelgeuse; though we later see him back in the afterlife waiting room (for he is already dead.)
Anyway, speculation for the TV series is: the marriage ceremony was adequately concluded, to the point that Lydia and Betelgeuse actually find they are married. However, they have also discovered this worked out better than expected, and as happens in many arranged marriages they've come to be friends, and found the match beneficial to their personal development; Betelgeuse has calmed down and somewhat improved his character under Lydia's influence, and Lydia had found, in guiding Betelgeuse, a way to be useful and channel her energy in a way that's generally improved her outlook on the world. However, the Maitlands have a lingering hatred for Betelgeuse and that's why they don't talk to him or Lydia anymore.
So that's the theory. I'm sure someone's going to write a fanfic out of it right now.
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However, I like your take.
-crazy movie