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While most people nowadays would associate Mike Judge with classics such as King of the Hill and the more recent Silicon Valley series (which I loved), any of his fans worth their salt will know that Beavis and Butt-Head was what launched him into stardom. Me and my friends used to nearly die laughing at the hit show that aired on MTV back in the day, and its popularity eventually lead to the big screen release of Beavis and Butt-Head Do America. Twenty-five years later and it’s still a fun and crazy ride that’ll have you “huh-huh-huh”-ing in no time.
Playing out like an extended episode from the TV series, the plot has our two doofy protagonists Beavis and Butt-Head (both voiced by Mike Judge) waking up and finding out someone stole their TV. Without it, the two don’t really function well, so they go on a search to find it and any other TV they come across to get their fix. It’s not long before they find themselves at a cheap motel when they run into a drunk criminal named Muddy Grimes (Bruce Willis).
He thinks the boys are out to kill him, so he instead uses them to kill his wife for $10,000, but of course he tells them to “do” his wife, Dallas (Demi Moore who was married to Willis at the time) which the boys think it means have sex with her. So thinking they’re going to get laid and have a load of money for a new TV and more stuff, they set off to find her. She manages to get the drop on them, and says she’ll pay them even more to transport a bio-weapon across the country that they don’t even know they have.
Thanks to this, Beavis and Butt-Head are on the FBI’s most wanted list with Agent Flemming (Robert Stack) leading a team to find capture the boys at any cost, if he can stop giving everyone he thinks is suspicious a body cavity search first. This leads the boys and the FBI into crazy misadventures as they go on a cross-country trip with people’s lives and sanity on the line.
Ultimately, this is a wacky treat you’ll need to experience for yourself as to say or explain more would ruin the fun. I’m glad to see that this film still holds up pretty well after all this time, and it was awesome seeing all of the raunchy humor and zany antics in high-definition for the first time as well. I remember like yesterday having this movie on VHS, and this Blu-ray is leaps and bounds better as far as visuals and audio goes since they’re both in HD.
There’s also a few special features included, starting with audio commentary by director Mike Judge and animation director Yvette Kaplan. The two discuss the film’s production while sharing fun stories and anecdotes along the way that makes for a good listen. “The Big Picture” is a nice behind the scenes look at the making of the film, casting the voices, and more.
“We’re Gonna Score! Scoring Beavis and Butt-Head Do America” features composer John Frizzell and Mike Judge going over the music and how they created the right music and soundtrack for the movie, “The Smackdown” is a silly montage of all the slapping and physical gags used in the film, and there’s some TV commercials and trailers for the movie and more to round out the extras.
Beavis and Butt-Head Do America holds up well for its 25th anniversary, and with all of the crazy gags, humor, animation and music in it, I’m sure it’ll go on for another 25 years and more. It’s made better thanks to being transferred and preserved in high-definition along with some nice special features. I look forward to a 4K UHD release in the future, as that would be pretty cool….huh-huh-huh-huh.