Michael Keaton And Tim Burton Were Immediately In Agreement About Beetlejuice 2

While I personally wouldn't argue that Tim Burton hasn't made a decent film since "Big Fish" all the way back in 2003 (justice for the under-appreciated "Big Eyes!"), I also won't deny his work over the last 20 years has been decidedly underwhelming. Couple that with the difficulty of any comedy sequel recapturing lightning in a bottle and it's hard not to view Burton's long-mooted "Beetlejuice 2" with a mix of skepticism and concern.

If there's any reason to stay hopeful about the film, though, it might be Michael Keaton's return as the titular Ghost With The Most. The last time Burton reunited with his "Beetlejuice" and "Batman" star was on Disney's live-action "Dumbo," a remake that at least had the decency to expand upon and re-imagine its animated predecessor rather than merely retrace its footsteps. There was even a bit of that old impish Burton spirit during the movie's second half, in which it deviated from the animated "Dumbo" completely in order to take pot-shots at the idea of giant corporations swallowing up smaller businesses and robbing them of what made them special in the first place. Remind you of anyone?

"Dumbo" actually proved to be the breaking point for Burton and his longstanding relationship with Disney, after which the filmmaker declared the House of Mouse a "horrible big circus" that he needed to get away from. Burton, as a creative, has even enjoyed a bit of a glow-up since then thanks to his efforts behind the camera on Netflix's zeitgeist-y smash hit "Addams Family" series "Wednesday." Most exciting of all, Keaton has confirmed that "Beetlejuice 2" is bringing the director back to his roots in practical filmmaking.

In addition to reprising his iconic role as a mischievous freelance "bio-exorcist" for "Beetlejuice 2," Michael Keaton is coming off donning the cape and cowl for the first time in over 30 years in "The Flash." At a VIP double-screening of Tim Burton's "Batman" and the "Flash" film hosted by Empire, Keaton called playing Beetlejuice again "the most f***in' fun you can have working." Part of that is the practical-heavy nature of the sequel, which Keaton was keen to emphasize:

"And you know what it is? We're doing it exactly like we did the first movie. There's a woman in the great waiting room for the afterlife literally with a fishing line — I want people to know this because I love it — tugging on the tail of a cat to make it move."

Indeed, Burton is a lot like Sam Raimi in that they're both artists with a flair for mixing the macabre with comedy whose imaginations seem to diminish in direct proportion to the amount of CGI being utilized by their movies. Even Raimi's "Spider-Man" trilogy is more practical-heavy than you might remember. To be clear, this isn't me trying to suggest that digital effects and sets are fundamentally inferior to practical ones — they're not. It's just that Burton is one of those directors who tend to lose their way without something tactile to work with when he's designing a project. Makes sense when you think about it, given his background in hand-drawn and stop-motion animation.

The handmade qualities of the afterlife bureaucracy in "Beetlejuice" and the ghosts, ghouls, and walking-and-talking corpses that populate it are an essential part of what gives Tim Burton's classic supernatural comedy its outlandish personality. Thankfully, Michael Keaton said he and the filmmaker were always adamant about maintaining that in the sequel:

"[Burton] and I were talking about it years and years ago, never telling anybody. [...] We've both said we're doing it many times. We both agreed, if it happens, it has to be done as close to the way we made it the first time. Making stuff up, making stuff happen, improvising and riffing, but literally handmade stuff like people creating things with their hands and building something. F***in' great. It's the most fun I've had working on a movie in I can't tell you how long."

"Beetlejuice 2" also sees Burton re-teaming with rising star Jenna Ortega after their previous collaboration on "Wednesday," a show that similarly tapped into the filmmaker's strengths with its emphasis on hand-crafted ghoulish props and scenery. /Film contributor Sarah Bea Milner even praised this aspect of season 1 in her otherwise not-so-glowing review, writing, "Burton undeniably has a great visual sense, and his expressive, vibrant gloom gleams underneath many of the scenes and set pieces."

Will the rest of the "Beetlejuice" sequel stack up to its handmade, whimsical aesthetic? Well, that's always the real question with Tim Burton, isn't it? We will find out when the movie reaches theaters on September 6, 2024.