As is the case with many sequels (save for "Toy Story 2" and "Shrek 2"), "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" wasn’t anything to write home about.
While it wasn’t the worst follow-up film I’ve seen, it certainly didn’t do much justice to its iconic ’80s predecessor. "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice"'s lackluster quality effectively boiled down to being stuffed with far too many, largely disjointed plotlines — including a wildly underused Monica Bellucci as the sutured ex-lover of the titular crusty poltergeist (Michael Keaton) — and an unsettling ending scene that saw Jenna Ortega’s Astrid birth a bloody Beetle-fetus.
But perhaps the most cringe and egregious aspect of Tim Burton’s record-breaking fall blockbuster was the addition of a "Soul Train" segment, in a ghoulish riffing of the classic ’70s music television series.
Astrid becomes trapped in the afterlife after her new beau reveals himself to be a dead charlatan who once trafficked in parricide — he tricks her into swapping her soul for his, dooming her to "Soul Train" to the Great Beyond (where you go when you’re dead, dead). She’s navigated toward the ghost train through a crowd of dancers doing The Bump and The Roger Rabbit as a conductor (who looks suspiciously like the late Don Cornelius, the original host of "Soul Train") crows, “All aboard!”
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"Beetlejuice" part deux’s inclusion of the groovy ghost train may at first seem like a fun cultural touchstone. In actuality, it’s Tim Burton’s lazy attempt at reconciling past criticism regarding his casting decisions.
Debuting in 1970 on a local Chicago television network, "Soul Train" highlighted the joy of Black Americans through dance, style, and culture. As Brooklyn White-Grier wrote in a 2023 CNN explainer, “In the middle of the Black Power era and feeding from the civil rights movement, 'Soul Train' provided a fresh opportunity for Black people to see and celebrate themselves. It was the most prominent stage........