TV Reviews : ‘Beetlejuice’ Cartoon Series Digging Its Own Grave

“Beetlejuice,” ABC’s much-flacked new kidvid series based loosely-- very loosely--on the 1988 hit film (airing at 9:30 a.m. today on Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42) is such an unmitigated disaster, it may inspire future songwriters, supplanting the Titanic and the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Tim Burton’s black comedy focused on the gentle pair of ghosts who befriended Lydia, the morbid, alienated daughter of the nouveau riche couple who bought their old home. Beetlejuice was a screaming, vulgar specter who tried to force Lydia into a “marriage” that would shame Humbert Humbert in “Lolita.”

In the cartoon version, Beetlejuice is still “a disgusting creep,” but he’s also Lydia’s best friend, an improbable situation that strands the writers between the proverbial rock and hard place. They have to maintain the obnoxious behavior that defined the character, but they also have to establish his kindly, sentimental side. If the first episode is any indication, they can’t resolve the conflict between the two sides of his personality, and the story jerks between extremes.

The visuals only compound the story problems: “Beetlejuice” is the weirdest-looking Saturday morning show in years. Lydia and the title character are stiff caricatures of the original actors (she looks like a junior version of Morticia in “The Addams Family”); the supporting cast consists of lumpy, shapeless monsters. These unrelated styles make “Beetlejuice” look like segments from two different shows that were accidentally spliced together. The garish, Day-Glo backgrounds may distract the viewer’s attention from the limits of the animation, but they can’t disguise them, especially the unsuccessful attempts at metamorphoses.

“Beetlejuice” is the only new program in ABC’s Saturday morning lineup this season. Five shows premiere on NBC today, none of which was available for previewing; three new series begin on CBS next Saturday. After “Beetlejuice,” the 1989-90 kidvid season seems to have to nowhere to go but up.