“Beavis and Butt-Head Do America” is funnier than all Hell.
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I can´t believe a full decade has passed since Mike Judge´s animated duo made the transition from the small screen to the big screen. The troublesome twosome was detrimental in helping me get through the trying years of college at Penn State. I worked over thirty hours a week, had a minimum of sixteen credit hours and had to fit in time to study. My unwinding would come late in the evening and what better way to relax and relieve stress than by laughing hysterically at the adolescent antics of Beavis and Butt-head. From 1993 to 1996, I watched MTV religiously just to see what music videos the two characters would praise or trash. I wanted to so what insanely stupid and humorous things they would do. For me, Beavis and Butt-Head were the two friends you don´t necessarily want to associate with publicly, but privately enjoyed their company immensely.
Then in December of 1996, "Beavis and Butt-Head Do America" was released to theaters and the unexpected happened. The film set all kinds of December box office records and was a huge success. Where people were not admitting to going out to see the film, they were doing so. There were probably a good number of people telling friends they were planning on seeing "Ghosts of Mississippi" or "Scream," but were taking a last minute diversion to see the Mike Judge picture. The popularity of the MTV series was starting to wane, but when the public showed up in groves to see the eighty minute motion picture, the response was deafening and given an actual plot and no television, Butt-Head and his less intelligent sidekick Beavis proved that they were as big a box office draw as many live-action stars of the day.
The general premise of the film is that the idiotic two awaken on the couch to find that their television set has been stolen. Well, there are only a handful of things in the whole world that matter to the two boys and their television is certainly at the very top of the list. After television, sitting on the couch, masturbation and the idea that they may one day score with a woman are other driving factors in their existence. With their beloved companion AWOL, the two panic and head out to either find a new television or bring back the one that has been taken from them. They visit many locations that have TV sets, but are unable to successfully bring one home. Fortunately, they stumble across Muddy Grimes (Bruce Willis) in a motel room and a case of mistaken identity finds Beavis (Mike Judge) and Butt-Head (Mike Judge) traveling across the country to ´do´ his wife Dallas (Demi Moore).
Along the way, the two nearly bring down an airliner, attend church and listen to the confessions of others, cause a massive failure at the Hoover dam and get down and boogie in Las Vegas. Soon, they are public number one and ATF Agent Flemming (Robert Stack) and junior ATF Agent Bork (Greg Kinnear) are hot on their trail. As is Muddy, who realizes the pair where not the two he had hired to track down and kill his wife. Innocently causing mayhem at every stop, Beavis and Butt-Head believe they are going to ´score´ with Dallas and driven only by hormones, the two befriend an elderly woman (Cloris Leachman) on a tour bus and continually cause problems for vacationing Tom Anderson (Mike Judge) at nearly every stop. Finally, Washington D.C. becomes the next target for the two boys´ rampage and Agent Flemming races to stop them from detonating a device that has been stitched into Beavis´ pants.
"Beavis and Butt-Head Do America" finds the pair no longer constrained by the small dimensions of a television set and a short running time. Armed with a larger budget and much higher production resources, the cinematic debut of the pair feels quite grandiose when compared to the television show. It begins with a bang as Beavis and Butt-Head are caught in a dream sequence where they mimic King Kong and Gojira. The sound effects and animation of this opening sequence quickly set the pace and show that the film is far more epic than what was ever seen on television. Mike Judge intended to make "Beavis and Butt-Head Do America" a swan song of sorts where the film would be how the dynamic duo would be remembered. In this manner, the show´s creator succeeded and the first and final film featuring MTV´s poster children reached all new heights and instead of being remembered as two babbling idiots on a couch, the two can now be remembered as complete characters who were capable or much greater things than were allowed on MTV´s show.
In addition to big named stars Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, a good amount of talent lined up to lend their voice talents to the film. The two former married pair brought about respectability to the show. Robert Stack made a name for himself on "America´s Most Wanted" and brought about a deadpan ATF agent. Where else can a straight man like Stack make full cavity searches funny? Eric Bogosian voices a couple characters. David Letterman is the voice of Butt-Head´s father and Motley Crue Roadie. Greg Kinnear and David Spade also lend their talents. Of course, the biggest amount of work was Mike Judge, the writer and Creator. He was not just Beavis and Butt-Head, but also Tom Anderson, tree hugging teacher Mr. Van Driessen and the pair´s nemesis, Principal McVicker. Without Judge, there can be no Butt-Head asking a stewardess to "Come to Butt-Head" and their can be no Beavis finally getting to say "Fire! Fire! Fire!"
Mike Judge had originally intended to produce a sequel in 1999. He eventually gave up on the idea and the show ended a season after "Beavis and Butt-Head" debuted. With a full time job and completion of college, I distanced away from the pair and did not watch many episodes in the final season. The film really was a goodbye for me and I look back quite fondly on the picture. I know some laugh at the notion that a critic can love "Beavis and Butt-Head," but Siskel and Ebert gave them two thumbs up, so I know I am not alone. The film is great fun and loads of laughs. Sure, fart jokes, ass jokes, titty jokes, masturbation jokes and every other popular topic of the two are covered more vividly than what the television show allowed, but that is part of what makes the film so wonderful. The humor may seem adolescent and silly, but Mike Judge is a genius of this style of comedy and "Beavis and Butt-Head Do America" is funnier than all Hell.
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[release]19248[/release]