Beetlejuice addendum: studying the Afterlife

You know we love when action figures come with newspapers we can actually examine, judging them on whether they're good or bad. Well, today's Bio-Exorcist Beetlejuice had a newspaper, and it's already above average!

The last paper NECA made was with Doc Brown, and we dragged them for (among other things) leaving it blank on the back. That must have stung, because this time it's not only printed front and back, it even opens up to show us the inside!

The front page mostly matches what we see in the film: it has headlines reading "Sandworm Incidents Increase 13% From Last Year," "Ectoplasm Leak At Plant Number 9," and "Excorcism Rate Soars!" The story text below those isn't the same as in the movie, just the same few paragraphs repeated over and over, but that's okay, not everything can be The Daily Planet. We do wish the repetition were a little less blatant, though.

On the inside page, we get something that doesn't match the movie at all. The headlines are all jokes and references to the plot, which they weren't on the real thing. For instance, here we have "Seance Success Contingent on Nuptuals between [sic] Mismatched Pair," "Calypso Music Making a Big Comeback," "Feeling Strange & Unusual? You Are Not Alone," "FASHION: Stripes Are the New Black," and "'She Left Me at the Altar, but I was Carried Away." The ones on the real prop were much more mundane, talking about Medicaid scams, the legislature compromising on a litter bill, and an assault on a cameraman.

Page 3 is the obits, and this really changes things up. While the center of the page is still "Please Welcome THE MAITLANDS," a different picture of them is used. The header that should say "Train Mishap Brings Us Francis and George Olsen" is instead "Indoor 'Carnival' Brings Us Sarah & Maxxie Dean" with a photo of Big Top Beetlejuice, "Life's Loss Our Gain" is now "The Cause of Uptick in New Residents" with Snake Beetlejuice, and the woman's photo at the bottom is instead of picture of the redesigned house with the caption "Their Resting Place."

The back page of the paper is only seen for a few frames in the movie, and has a headline about the timber industry. NECA's has more plot jokes: "What's Hiding in Your Attic? An Investigative Report," "Dinner Party Haunting Underwhelms Guests," "DANTE'S INFERNO, Opening Soon!" and then down in the corner is an ad for Beetlejuice's bio-exorcism services. And again, the columns are all filled out with the repeated text.

It may sound like we're down on this Afterlife paper, but we're not. Not really. It's way better than their last attempt, and even if the graphic design could be better, it's a fun inclusion and gets the important parts right. Or at least right enough for anybody who cares. Every company making a newspaper accessory from here on out has a new high bar to reach for.