Beetlejuice and Grim fandango

[squiike]

Any of you seen the movie?

 

It came to me how similar the movie and the game is in some ways! Do you think grim fandango stole some ideas from the movie?

[MeddlingMonk]

Doubt it. Any story about realms of the dead share similarities because there are common ideas about realms of the dead. In order to claim that GF took something from Beetle Juice, you would have to establish that anything in GF and in the movie had been previously unique to the movie instead of from a common mythology.

 

For example, a case can be made that Corpse Bride was influenced by GF in a small way in the character of Emily's maggot, who looks and sounds like Peter Lorre. Peter Lorre is scarcely a common feature in postmortem mythologies. GF also has a character that looks and sounds like Peter Lore: Chowchilla Charlie. Year Two borrows heavily from Cassablanca and Peter Lorre appears in Casablanca in the role of Ugarte. Because it borrows from Casablanca, GF has a solid reason to have a Peter Lorre character. Corpse Bride doesn't borrow from Casablanca at all and has no reason to have a Peter Lorre character on that basis. Only GF alone among realm of the dead stories has previously put Peter Lorre in a realm of the dead setting, so GF is probably the basis on which a Peter Lorre character features in Corpse Bride. That, or Tim Burton has a very low opinion of Peter Lorre.

 

So, is there anything specifically in GF that you think has come from Beetle Juice?

[squiike]

whoa, yeah i guess that sounds right.

 

Well the scene i find similar is the office where that old lady is helping newly deceased. That setting is quite similar. Also with the suecides giving the punishment of work, i liked the idea that Manny and Eva worked off suecides instead some huge criminal act. I just cant imagine those 2 as evil

 

also, off topic. Manny and Eva was a far better couple than Manny and Meche ever were:eek:

[MeddlingMonk]

That office scene is a possibility. Although, the newly dead getting some kind of introduction to the next world is pretty common. In Egyptian mythology there's the weighing of the heart before Osiris. In hackneyed Western imagery, there's standing before St. Peter (who's behind a podium or small desk). In the Discworld novels there are many scenes where the deceased are greeted by and have a conversation (often brief) with Death. Come to think of it, since the Death of the Discworld is a bit of a shlemiel, he could be seen as kind of a model for Manny. I have no idea whether Tim Schafer is familiar with Discworld.

 

BTW, what makes you say Eva and Manny are suicides?

[squiike]

BTW, what makes you say Eva and Manny are suicides?

 

Cause since they work in DOD they must have done something quite bad in their other life. I couldnt picture them doing some really bad stuff. So i like to belive they did suecide, as that is bad enough to get into DOD

[MeddlingMonk]

OK. Subjective, but at least consistent with the game's implication that one good or bad dead determines one's fate. Personally, I'm not much in favor of that. In real life I don't see lives as defined by any one act. Besides, from a drama standpoint, it's better to have messy than simple.