Elizabeth Hanna Movies

Even as Season Three of the animated series Beetlejuice was spooling every Saturday morning on ABC, a separate fourth season, consisting of 65 episodes, was merrily humming away from Monday through Friday on the Fox network. Though the principal characters are still the grotesquely hilarious and presumably dead practical joker Beetlejuice (aka BJ) and his wide-eyed mortal friend Lydia, and while the main locale for the series remains the surrealistic Neitherworld, the Fox version differs slightly from the ABC edition by specializing in literary and pop-culture parodies, beginning with BJ enthusiastically booking several dead historical figures for Neitherworld's top TV talk show. Later on, BJ assumes the guise of Grimdiana Jones to rescue Lydia from the clutches of giant beetle Thing Thong; a pair of severed ears show up as the main characters in a Maltese Falcon takeoff; BJ and Lydia pay a visit to the yecchiest place in Neitherworld, the ghoulish theme park Grislyland, where the mascot is Bartholomew Bat (try to spell out THAT name in a song!). Also: BJ is trapped in the enchanted village Brinkadoom, which disappears every time the citizens fall asleep, a frozen chicken haunts BJ's roadhouse as "The Poultrygeist"; our hero is given a chance to see what would have happen if he never existed by the spectral Clarence Sale; a trip back to 17th Century London finds BJ and Lydia being kidnapped by various Shakespearean characters who want her to rewrite their plays so they won't get killed; a Caesar salad comes to life and forms a legion of vegetables, then divides all Aroma into three parts (what Gaul!); BJ squares off against notorious outlaw Jesse Germs; thej first production of BJ's "Disasterpiece Theater" is Moby Richard, featuring the most temperamental whale in showbiz history. And you can't imagine the instigated in the episode "The Wizard of Ooze." Plus: exercise fitness guru Jacques LaLean finds a formidable foe in King of Fitness Armhold Musclehugger; BJ and Lydia compete in the fast-food business with Scuzoo the Clown; BJ defends his title of World's Great Prankster against his great rival, Germs Pondscum; an attempt to exterminate some ants results in BJ creating a whole new colony of annoying relatives (all "Aunts" of course); and finally, BJ takes advantage of a new TV cartoon trend by transforming himself into UltraBeetleMan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season two of the ABC version of the zoned-out cartoon series Beetlejuice features 13 new adventures with the Neitherworld's favorite ghoulish prankster Beetlejuice ("B.J") and his winsome mortal friend Lydia Deetz. This season, it's Beetlejuice vs. Lydia on Scary Fools Day; the duo races against the well-named Scuzzo the Clown in the Neitherworld Groan Prix; "Dr. Beetlejuice" creates a perfume that alters personalities; the episode "Uncle B.J.'s Roadhouse" dishes up a wild spoof of Pee-wee's Playhouse (which, like Beetlejuice, was a spinoff of a popular live-action movie directed by Tim Burton); and bug-eating B.J. is in gross-out heaven when he lands a job as a scarecrow on a beetle farm. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first season of the grotesquely hilarious animated series Beetlejuice originally aired weekly on ABC, and consists of 19 half-hour episodes, in which the hideously ugly, outrageously gross and stone-cold-dead con artist/prankster Beetlejuice, aka "BJ", made periodic visits to the surrealistic Neitherworld in the company of his mortal friend Lydia. This season offers our first glimpses of such other Neitherworld denizens as Judge Mental, the pesky Sandworms, the King and Queen of Gross, commercial pitchman Barry MeNot, Scuzzo the Clown and Beetlejuice's faithful pet, Doomie the DogBrained Cat. Typical adventures include B.J.'s public embarrassed when the skeletons in his closet come to life; the havoc wreaked by a walking tree who doesn't want to be cut down for a highway project; a dull Halloween livened up when BJ breaks open a can of Party People; a showdown with Neitherworld gunslinger Bully the Crud; BJ's unpleasant encounter with Pat on the Back, a leprechaun growing out of his shoulder blades; a cautionary fable of fame's fickleness when BJ hits the big time as an "armpit musician"; the curious courtship of Lydia by Neitherworld's Prince Vince; and a surprising encounter with Beetlejuice's ultra-ultra-ultra-ultra-ultra-ultra-conservative parents. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Children's book authors Jean and Laurent de Brunhoff's most beloved elephant comes to the big screen in this animated family tale. Elephant monarch King Babar tells the tale, that unfolds via flashback, of how a much-younger Barbar and his girlfriend Celeste save her village from the pugnacious rhinoceroses that have come to raid it. Though primarily aimed at younger audiences, parents should note that some scenes of abandoned babies maybe upsetting for little viewers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A police psychologist and his school-age son become embroiled in the machinations of a mysterious cult religion in this thriller from director John Schlesinger. After his wife is electrocuted in a freak accident, Dr. Cal Jamison (Martin Sheen) and his son, Chris (Harley Cross), move back to Manhattan, where Cal went to school. When not spending time with his son and surrogate extended family -- husband-and-wife anthropologists Kate (Elizabeth Wilson) and Dennis Maslow (Lee Richardson) -- Cal settles into his new job and romances his landlady, Jessica Halliday (Helen Shaver). Soon, though, a series of brutal murders of young children begins to take over Cal's life. Through the ravings of policeman Tom Lopez (Jimmy Smits), who believes the killers have supernatural power over him after stealing his badge, Cal learns of Santeria, a voodoo-like Latin American sect that mixes elements of Christianity and pagan mysticism. Although the religion turns out to have ties to some of the richest men in the city and even Cal's well-meaning maid seems to be a practitioner, he can't get any straight answers as to whether the cult is responsible for the murders. But after a sinister African shaman (Malick Bowens) places a curse on Jessica, Cal finally begins to understand the danger that faces him -- and his son. The Believers was very loosely adapted from Nicholas Conde's 1982 novel The Religion. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Though it isn't as engaging as the classic musical version of Frank L. Baum's timeless fantasy, this animated version of The Wizard of Oz remains a professional, entertaining production that should appeal to young children. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide