Nostalgic, whimsically-detailed and production-designed to death, Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is “fan service” with a capital “F.”

It reunites Michael Keaton with one of his iconic roles, and with Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara from 1988’s “Beetlejuice” and revives the late Jeffrey Jones in animated form and Harry Belafonte’s song “Day-O” in a children’s choir arrangement.

Burton favorite Danny DeVito has a cameo, and “It” girl Jenna Ortega moves the narrative and the potential appeal to a new generation.

But the laughs — from sight gags, on-the-nose-casting (Burn Gorman as a priest named “Damien”), quirky Keaton, Ryder and O’Hara line-readings and the contributions of newcomers Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci and Willem Dafoe — are hard to come by.

It’s a joyless “romp” that never romps, and only finds the wistfully-amusing tone of the original film in a late third act production number — lip-synching and dancing to Jimmy Webb’s cracked 1960s pop music masterpiece as sung by Richard Harris.

Ryder returns as Lydia Deetz, Goth girl apple of underworld demon Betelgeuse’s eye back in ’88, now the hostess of TV’s “Ghost House.” Her expertise, now widowed and having grown up in a haunted Hitchcockian mansion in scenic Winter River, makes her a natural at this gig — dolled-up like Elvira, visiting haunted houses with a crew and night vision cameras to show us “the truth.”

Lydia’s manager/producer (Theroux) is eager to finish cashing-in on their connection and “take life’s big bungee jump” — marriage. But a call from her self-absorbed, narcissistic sculptress/performance artist mother Delia (O’Hara) tells her that her adventurous dad (Jones) died after a plane crash and shark attack.

Fetching her boarding-schooled, “supernatural bull—t” disbelieving daughter (Ortega) and returning home to a house literally veiled in black for the funeral gives Lydia flashbacks and troubling glimpses of her old suitor, the strip-suited Creep from the Deep, Betelgeuse.

There’s a new threat from him, and a new potential victim — daughter Astrid — to protect from Betelgeuse.

Things for Betelgeuse aren’t all shrunken heads and bad dentistry, either. His underworld work is thankless. A paramour from his netherworld past (Monica Bellucci, Burton’s latest Goth girlfriend) is hunting Betelgeuse down, soul-sucking anybody (including Hell’s janitor, DeVito) who might put her on the scent.

And a former actor turned underworld cop (Dafoe) is after the ‘geuse for his fast-and-loose way with the “rules” of the afterlife.

Honestly, none of these new variations on the plot shows much novelty or promise. Keaton, aged out of his mugging youth, needs funny lines to put the ghoul over again.

At some point, all these visual homages to “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” and horror cinema’s past in Burton’s burlesque of the afterlife have to deliver something more than “That’s pretty.” “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” rarely does.

Theroux comes close to ringing the comedy bell. Ortega channels “cool dark teen” one more time, more convincingly “teen” than dark or funny.

O’Hara can provoke giggles with just a wild-eyed glance and almost stole the original “Beetlejuice.” Even she strains to make this movie lighter than Burton remembers how to make it.

Ryder’s lost her comic fastball. Dafoe and Bellucci barely justify why they’re here at all.

At some point, the script that puts the production design/art direction team to work needs to deliver more than a half-hearted pursuit, a ghostly romantic twist and lukewarm grandmother-mother-granddaughter bonding.

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is a return trip that makes one wonder if the first visit was all that.

Rating: PG-13, comically gross horror images, comic violence, profanity

Cast: Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Burn Gorman, Jenna Ortega and Willem Dafoe.

Credits: Directed by Tim Burton, scripted by Michael Gough and Miles Millar, based on characters created by Michael McDowell and Larry Wilson. A Warner Bros. release.

Running time: 1:44