If you think that road movies cannot be done with cartoon characters, then you should check out Beavis and Butt-Head Do America. This is one of those grand comedies of the nineties, full of great concepts, jokes, and more importantly creativity. Just give it a chance to blow your mind. In case you’re not familiar with the exploits of Beavis and Butt-Head, just let your first impressions fill the rest of your thinking. They are two stupid teenagers obsessed with television, music, and chicks. So, basically every male you have ever met. However, once you accept that, you must ask yourself: how did they become this?
And the answer is very simple: our society has produced them the same as it produced millions and millions of them, now working on the most important positions in America. Mike Judge thinks we can both have fun and learn something, at the same time, so you can enjoy this movie whether you’re looking for that crude and toilet humor or you want to learn something about America, albeit from these two unsavory characters.
They don’t ask for much. They don’t want your money, your women, or your power. What they want is just to sit on their couch and watch TV. Meet Beavis and Butt-Head, two teenage morons obsessed with television, music, and naked female bodies. One day, their television set gets stolen and they set out on a mission to retrieve it. This mission will lead them across America and into some pretty funny and dangerous situations.
Beavis and Butt-Head Do America is just such a fun movie that I watch every couple of years and love it every time. On one hand, it deals with a lot of issues without coming off preachy. And on the other hand, it’s just so fucking entertaining. The storyline is tight and you really feel like you’re going on this huge adventure. Also, this gruesome twosome is extremely subversive and this is part of their appeal. They break all the rules, refusing to participate in the official system of values or to respect its authority. So, there’s a simple explanation for this: Beavis and Butt-Head are extreme versions of us. So, they are actually acting extremely intelligent in some weird, deconstructive way.
If you would imagine two British brats who happen to be royalty, the same thing would be happening. The deconstruction of the crooked system that’s now in place and that actually made them who they are. This helps with the illusion that I’m not watching this movie just for the toilet humor. Finally, I just have to say that I love Mike’s style of animation. It made Beavis and Butt-Head Do America stand out and become such a memorable movie. Somehow, it accentuated everything this movie is about with its simplistic and yet clearly deliberate and artistic approach. It’s one of two MTV nineties classics along with Joe’s Apartment. Finally, I will leave you with one of the most memorable things from this movie: I am the great Cornholio, I need TP for my bunghole.
Directors: Mike Judge, Yvette Kaplan
Writers: Mike Judge, Joe Stillman, Brian Mulroney
Cast: Mike Judge, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore, David Letterman
Fun Facts: Beavis’s hallucination scene in the desert is drawing inspiration from Rob Zombie’s artwork. The music of the scene is White Zombie’s “Ratfinks, Suicide Tanks and Cannibal Girls”.
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IMDb Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115641/
