Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996)

Fans only

The Beavis and Butt-head movies provides far better animation and a great hard hitting soundtrack you wont find in the MTV series. Its a movie I saw years ago and forgot about. The 2nd viewing years later was just as enjoyable. A must see for fans October 4, 2008

Your pretty smart sometimes Beavis

MTV scored big with Mike Judge's tale of two morons. Originally aired as a short on the animation showcase "Liquid Television", the TV series is best summed up as a show about two idiots that watch MTV made for, and popular among, idiots that watch MTV. So it was, and I was among them. Same with the feature length in which the dumb duo did America.

"Frog Baseball" was the first Beavis and Butthead piece. You got to realize that we had never seen a cartoon like that before. Real cutting edge stuff. Two juvenile delinquents hang out, laugh at each other's b.s., and smash a frog with a baseball bat. Almost shocking and revolutinary. The animation itself seemed decadent. When you first saw it you had to wonder about who made this show. Turns out of coarse Mike Judge is not at all a sick weirdo (as far as I know) and is a talented comedy writter. After Beavis, Judge went on to create another great animated show called "King of the Hill" ya may have heard of which features the same style of animation, but not so much scatological humor. It's considered one of TV's greatest cartoon series ever. And Judge did "Office Space" which is now a bonified contemporary cult classic. And since I'm giving tribute to Mike Judge's career, if you've not seen "Idiocracy" you really should.

What I want to say here is that the show was actually not quite as dumb as most normal, intelligent people naturally thought it to be. I mean the show was dumb, but, well, people focus like most unhip people always do on *what* the show is about, but not *how* it is about what it is about. I'm not saying the Beavis and Butthead series is brilliant, just that it isn't as retarded as it's subject matter and title characters strongly suggest. Plus there is an extremely annoying American bias against animation. Even in 2008 animation is widely considered just kid's stuff. Unfortunately on the DVDs there are no music videos cause that is where some of the wit came into play. Beavis and Butthead watching terrible MTV videos contained some of the funniest and smartest comedy of the series. It is best understood by us poor souls that grew up with -and were warped enough by- the corporate garbage pop culture of MTV. It is easy now to forget how pompous MTV was back in the day. I haven't really seen MTV in years except for a brief glance while channel surfing. As dumb and developmentally retarded as the duo obviously was, they had a fairly good grasp of what "sucks" and what is "cool" as well as a partial grasp of how mass media manipulates and tries to play them which was displayed by their steady stream of wisecracks and laughter. Baby bommers looking at Beavis and Butthead as part of the "dumbing down of America" had nothing on their video commentaries. Sitting on that disgusting nacho crumb and roach infested couch they gave insights into the horrible, idiotic, immoral culture ..wait, hold up a sec, got to do another line.......Okay, I'm back- that they themselves were born from. MTV gave birth to these two little mutants. MTV created the need for them after years of being taken too seriously and bringing youth culture mostly mediocre, uninteresting music and culture. Of coarse, a lot of what Beavis and Butthead said about music was wrong, but most viewers could tell when they were wrong and so the show *still* sort of managed to say something useful about how dumb MTV is. Adults didn't get that. Beavis and Butthead were laughing at themselves.

Whatever. A funny comment came from the wonderful weirdo director Tim Burton that I recall when I think of B&B (which isn't often). He was on one of those VH1 shows were they have a bunch of celebrities sitting there and show them individually commenting on other pop culture personalities, old TV series, media events, etc. On Beavis and Butthead he said there is like a part of each one of us that is like them. Or something like that. Like we all have an inner Beavis and Butthead. Maybe he means the Id. So there is a psychological explanation for the show's mass appeal too. (I'm not high.)

Anyway, as for as the movie goes, it kind of sucked. It sucked because the show was extreme for TV at first and with a film Judge could have taken it to the next level, but instead played it safe. In my opinion "Beavis and Butthead Do America" should have been rated "R", contained nudity, adult situations, lots of death and explosions, and an absurd amount of profanity. Then they should have released the "UNrated" version on DVD which is so hardcore it is banned in some communities because little redneck kids are setting their trailer parks on fire and offering animal sacrifices to Sterculius.
August 9, 2008

A Pretty Good Synapsis Of 1990's Americana

"Beavis And Butt-Head Do America" came out to a lot of fanfare in the mid-1990's, and I was one of many who went to the theater to see it, and someone in the row behind me summed it up pretty good: "...I can't stand it, I'm laughing too hard!..."

There is a lot of extremely low-brow humor in this film, but it is actually a sophisticated screenplay, with a lot of nuances to it; it isn't just a bunch of sight-gags aimed at stupid people. The plot follows our heroes from their home in Highland, Texas to Washington, D.C. via many scenic and historic places, where they meet many eccentric characters and get into several scrapes, all the while remaining oblivious to how dire their situation really is. Their TV has been stolen, and they just want to get it back, or maybe get a new one. They unwittingly become pawns in a murder-for-hire plot, as well as an international bio-terrorism scheme. They unknowingly smuggle a device to the White House which, if detonated, or even damaged, will unleash a super-virus which will bring about a nightmarish outbreak of illness unlike anything many have ever seen. Their motivation? They believe they will "score" with an extremely sexy woman who will give them a lot of money, just to go to Washington. When she discovers what naieve kids they really are, she sews the doomsday device into Beavis' pants (he took them off, thinking he was going to take her to bed), and tells them to take a tour bus to Washington. To them, it is a fun trip, despite some inconveniences, but they only see it as a road trip. They just want their TV, and they want to "score."

This movie was my first taste of the work of Rob Zombie. I'm not really a fan of his music, I don't hate it, but I don't get into it either. While the story takes us to the desert, there is a peyote-induced hallucination sequence devised by Rob Zombie, accompanied with music from his band, White Zombie, with a selection called "Rat Finks, Suicide Tanks, And Cannibal Girls." This is an outstanding piece of film. I have this movie on tape and on DVD, but seeing this sequence on a big screen in the movie theater, was very memorable. This bit wasn't really part of the story, but worth the price of admission nonetheless.

Of course, as per the TV series, Beavis and Butt-Head cause bedlam everywhere they go. They don't mean any harm, they just don't have a clue. And coincidence keeps making them cross paths with poor old Tom Anderson, who just wanted to see the sights on his way to Washington, and visit the White House. On the surface, nobody deserves the hassle he goes through, poor guy, but he is SO clueless, he virtually asks for all his woes. So it's no surprise when he goes down with the villians as a conspirator.

This review is based on the original VHS release and the first issue of the DVD. In this format, there are no extras, apart from two short movie trailers. The tenth anniversary release may have a lot of extras, I don't know. But really, who actually NEEDS all that? Sure, it's nice to have all that, but why do you buy a movie on tape or disc? To watch the movie, at your convenience.

As earlier stated, this is a very funny, very well-made movie, which always gets a laugh, from me, anyway.

July 11, 2008

Puts South Park to shame.

South Park is nothing compared to B & B.
Yes, SP is great but BB is better hands down.
The movie? Genius.
I'd give anything if Mike Judge would go back and do more of these.
A brilliant and offensive cartoon movie.
A must see!!! June 13, 2008

Possibly the best movie ever.

I've lost count of the times I've seen this movie. It's possibly my favorite cartoon movie ever. Heck, one of the best MOVIES ever. November 14, 2007

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