Beetlejuice Animated Series (1991) and Beetlejuice (1988)
Lydia Deetz was a character since I can remember I have identified with. She's a character that I always wanted to cosplay and these last two years I have. I have other ideas for Lydia cosplay's in the future. So let's take a look at the animated series first.
Lydia in the animated series was the version I remember the most. I grew up watching these cartoons. I never missed an episode! For 7 year old me something about this character really resonated with me. Maybe it's because she had a strange love for the macabre but I think it was because she was so unapologetically herself. She didn't really fit in but she had her friends. Life really began for her when her Neitherworld bud came upon call. Each episode was filled with adventure! I loved it! She was a spooky nerd before I knew what the term meant and could identify with.
The version most people are familiar with is the film version of Lydia. So let's take a look!
Years later when I watched the film and a clearer perspective of her character came to my mind. She was this lone but misunderstood person. Someone completely true to who they are but misunderstood for it. She saw beauty in what others might not understand. Her clothes were all black instead of the red poncho I remembered. She was this kind person although different.
The character of Lydia Deetz is one I say really sticks with me. She may be misunderstood but to me as someone who has had their fair share on the outside I understand. I understand that there are things we are not meant to understand and although her love for death I trade it for my love for analysis and understanding how things work. Why films and characters such as hers matter to me? There in lies the passion this unspoken passion for things you enjoy. Lydia has this. She loves her friends and she loves things that people generally disregard. Yeah, a love for goth aesthetic and all things spooky doesn't hurt either. She is this unspoken heroine from my youth. 7 year old me identified with her passion in friendship. How she stood up to Claire and didn't care for all things that were "hip" and "trendy". She enjoyed things on the outside.
So as someone who has had a fair share of being a social misfit. Someone who really never felt they belonged to a certain group. I always felt on the outside. My sister was the one who liked all the fads. I liked things that were often overlooked. I didn't have many friends in grammar school and yeah I was picked on. I always felt like this misplaced misfit. Unsure of where I belonged. Then I began to connect the dots. Lydia never really fit among her classmates in the series and film. Lydia wasn't much for fads and well neither was I. She was this mysterious teen who was perfectly fine being herself. She knew who she was. My sister often joked when we were kids that Lydia looks like someone I would be friends with. Now, looking back at her comment years and years later I understand. As all things I begin to connect the dots.
Lydia Deetz is a character that I find a lot of myself inspired by. From the many years ago when I would watch the series with my then 4 year old sister. The memories of laughter and joy this series and film has brought to me is something I will cherish for the years to come. I think honestly that is why I love this series and film. The fond memories of laughter I shared with my sister.
Last year on Halloween we sat together as a family and watched the film. It's a memory I can add to the one's I hold near and dear. I was wearing my Lydia poncho and the Sandworm I hand-sewed for my cosplay. We watched the film as a family. Now her children were being introduced to it for a first time. Everything comes full circle.
"Live people ignore the strange and the unusual. I myself am strange and unusual." -Lydia Deetz (Beetlejuice 1988)
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