ParaMollNan Fun Facts

Beetlejuice Musical

In ParaMollNan, there are many reference to movies other than ParaNorman, these being Wendell and Wild, Coraline, Halloween and many more. One of these references has to be Beetlejuice, but not only from the movie, it also references some songs in the musical, as well as containing songs from it.

Before the scene where Addison, Gale and Will go to Hopkins's grave, Lauren (the descendant of Lemuel Spalding, one of Agatha's accusers) sings "Invisible"- which is sung during the prologue of the musical which is about Lydia Deetz mourning her own mother- Emily, as well as shaming her dad for not noticing her as often as she likes; saying " Is it being greedy for somebody to see me and say my name?" Lydia's situation is much like Lauren's- her mom passed away when she was 12, and Lauren besmirches her father for not being there for her when she needs it. It is a fitting song for the ParaMollNan in general- as well as going hand in hand with such a sad scene.

As for more cheery, upbeat songs with a dark undertone, Beetlejuice, the star of the show, sings 2 songs from his own musical while Molly and the others are on their way to Salem/Blithe Hollow. He eventually finds out about Lauren's grief, mocking her "bold departure from the original source material", immediately bouncing off to Bluey's personal favorite song from the musical- "The Whole Being Dead Thing". Two things you should notice is that Beetlejuice, usually going off his 1989 cartoon counterpart is leaning towards Alex Brightman territory, he varies in the two voices, switching depending on the situation. Another thing is before "that's the thing with life, no one makes it out alive", Beetlejuice references old novels depicting death, showing that death occurs even in fiction- using Ebenezer Scrooge and Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Birthmark" as examples. For Scrooge, he says that "he's not gonna live forever", and as for Hawthorne's gothic short story, Beetlejuice says that Hawthorne was a "pussy" to change his last name (Hawthorne's family was involved in the Salem Witch Trials, the event that the Pranderghast Massacre is based on, his great grandfather, John Hathorne was one of the main judges during this trials. Hawthorne had felt shamed upon, so he changed his name to have a "w"), and that Georgiana, a character in the story should've committed suicide- either way, she could not escape death.

"Frankenstein but it's way more morbid,
Guess Hawthorne was a pussy to change his name then...
Alymer tried to fix his wife cause of her self esteem and...
Y know... Georgiana could've just committed suicide... The whole bein' dead thing!"
-Beetlejuice, SHTM;ParaMollNan

The last reference to the musical is when Mel Jones (Coraline's mom) finally arrived to the facility in sear h for her daughter, in which Beetlejuice, decievingly, decides to help her, singing the second part of "The Whole Being Dead Thing", except the lyrics are changed a bit.

"The good news is your daughter found a key inside your own house,
Leading to a world that seemed like nothing else-
Hey, luckily you didn't die- you seem like a nice guy-er girl,
For the mustard-ketchup salsa wrap left upon the wine side."
-Beetlejuice, to Mel Jones ("The Whole Being Dead Thing Pt. 2")

This a reference to Mel finding little to no food in the fridge; then saying to Coraline, "How would you like a mustard-ketchup salsa wrap for lunch?". This means practically that BJ is literally roasting Mel on her poor parenting skills, including cooking for her family+ her daughter. Ouch...