Beezel: The Twisted Cartoon That Refused to Stay in the Frame
When Movie 43 released in 2013, audiences expected raunchy skits and gross-out gags. What they didn’t expect was Beezel—a short within the anthology that managed to shock even fans of outrageous comedy. Directed by James Gunn, the segment about a seemingly cute animated cat with sinister tendencies quickly became one of the most polarizing pieces of the film. What began as a parody of Saturday-morning cartoons spiraled into a disturbing tale of obsession, jealousy, and abuse, wrapped in the deceptively colorful sheen of animation.
Over time, Beezel has taken on a life of its own, with fans theorizing about hidden meanings, alternate endings, and James Gunn’s own twisted creative choices. To understand why this cartoon cat continues to crawl out of the screen into late-night discussions, you have to look at the story, the speculation, and the voices behind the chaos.
The Story That Crossed Every Line
On the surface, Beezel plays like a simple domestic comedy. An animated cat, owned by Aniston (played by Elizabeth Banks) and her boyfriend Josh Duhamel’s character, can’t handle being second in its owner’s life. Instead of slapstick antics, though, Beezel descends into nightmarish behavior—masturbating to family photos, engaging in violent attacks, and ultimately turning the household into a war zone.
The genius—or depravity, depending on who you ask—was in how Gunn staged it. The bright colors, exaggerated cartoon physics, and wide-eyed expressions were straight out of Tom and Jerry or Looney Tunes. But the behavior was grotesquely human, pushing into areas most animated comedies wouldn’t dare. By the time Beezel licks up spilled blood with a grin, the audience is trapped between laughter and revulsion.
Fan Theories That Tried to Make Sense of It All
From the day it was released, fans tried to decode whether Beezel was just shock humor or something deeper.
One popular theory suggested that Beezel wasn’t a cat at all, but a projection of toxic male insecurity—the animated avatar of Josh Duhamel’s character’s subconscious. The way Beezel sabotages the relationship mirrors the paranoia some men feel when threatened by their partner’s independence.
Another camp of fans argued that Beezel represented fandom itself: obsessive, intrusive, unwilling to let go of its idol. Elizabeth Banks’ character was seen as a stand-in for celebrities dealing with stalkers and parasocial obsession, with Beezel as the grotesque fan who thinks he owns her.
And then there was the simplest interpretation, voiced on horror forums: “It’s James Gunn, laughing at us.” Some audiences believed Beezel was less about hidden meaning and more about Gunn daring viewers to see how far they’d follow a joke before bailing out.
What the Director and Cast Really Thought
James Gunn, who went on to direct Guardians of the Galaxy and become a household name, has spoken with a mix of pride and mischief about Beezel. In interviews, he admitted that he wanted to take the innocence of Saturday-morning cartoons and slam it against the most uncomfortable adult behavior imaginable. “It’s about contrast,” he once quipped, “taking something pure and making it filthy, and seeing if people laugh or cry.”
Elizabeth Banks, on the other hand, confessed that filming the live-action portions was harder than it looked. Acting opposite a nonexistent animated cat meant reacting to empty air, guided only by Gunn’s direction and storyboards. “You’re screaming at nothing, terrified of nothing,” she joked. “And then when I saw the final cut, I was like—oh, okay, that’s what I was scared of.”
Josh Duhamel was more candid about the aftermath. In several interviews, he admitted friends asked him why he agreed to the role, and he responded with a laugh: “Sometimes you just want to do something totally insane. And trust me, Beezel was insane.”
The Endings That Fans Imagined
Because Movie 43 was already an anthology of fragmented stories, many fans speculated about alternate endings for Beezel. Online threads buzzed with “what ifs.”
Some believed the segment should have ended with Beezel killing both characters, cementing it as a full-blown horror short. Others wanted Banks’ character to defeat Beezel in cartoon logic—flattening him with a frying pan or tricking him into his own trap—turning the story into a victory for women over toxic obsession.
A darker fan theory suggested that Beezel’s antics were actually hallucinations of Banks’ character, symbolizing her own unresolved trauma. In this version, the cat wasn’t real at all—it was her mind cracking under pressure. Gunn himself never confirmed or denied these interpretations, but he did enjoy watching fans wrestle with the ambiguity.
Production Secrets and Lesser-Known Details
Making Beezel was far from easy. Combining live action with 2D-style animation required a painstaking process. Banks and Duhamel performed their scenes with nothing but placeholders, while animators later layered in Beezel’s antics. The challenge was syncing cartoon timing with human reactions—if Banks flinched too early or too late, the joke wouldn’t land.
The design of Beezel went through several revisions. Early sketches made him look cuter, almost Disney-like, but Gunn pushed for something slightly off-putting: big eyes, awkward proportions, and fur that seemed just a little too shiny. The final version was meant to straddle the line between adorable pet and disturbing caricature.
There were also rumors that certain gags were toned down. One storyboard allegedly showed Beezel acting out even more sexually explicit behavior, which producers decided to scrap for fear of pushing the R rating into NC-17 territory. Whether those scenes were actually animated remains unclear, but the whispers of a “too extreme to release” cut only fed the cult fascination.
The Afterlife of a Cartoon Monster
Though Movie 43 was panned by critics and labeled one of the worst comedies ever made, Beezel carved out its own strange fanbase. YouTube uploads of the segment gathered thousands of comments, with debates ranging from “this is hilarious” to “this is nightmare fuel.” In some ways, the short predicted the rise of meme culture—taking something innocent, twisting it, and reveling in the shock value.
For James Gunn, Beezel became a footnote in his career, often rediscovered by Marvel fans who stumble onto his earlier, stranger work. For Banks and Duhamel, it was a bizarre detour, a story they still get asked about at conventions. And for fans, it remains a curiosity—an animated cat that refuses to stay caged in the frame, clawing its way back into conversations a decade later.
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