| Beavis and Butt-Head Do America | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Mike Judge |
| Written by |
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| Based on | Beavis and Butt-Head by Mike Judge |
| Produced by | Abby Terkuhle |
| Starring | |
| Edited by |
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| Music by | John Frizzell |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 81 minutes[2] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $12 million[3] |
| Box office | $63.1 million[4] |
Beavis and Butt-Head Do America is a 1996 Americanadult animatedcomedyroad film based on theMTV animated television seriesBeavis and Butt-Head.[5] The film was co-written and directed by series creatorMike Judge, who also reprises his roles from the series;Demi Moore,Bruce Willis,Robert Stack andCloris Leachman star in supporting roles. The film followsBeavis andButt-Head, two teenslackers who travel the US and unknowingly become fugitives.
Previous offers by MTV to adaptBeavis and Butt-Head to film were rejected by Judge, before he eventually agreed to the film in 1994. As production began, the series' staff halted production while Judge wrote the screenplay withJoe Stillman.John Frizzell composed the film's score.
Beavis and Butt-Head Do America premiered atMann's Chinese Theater on December 15, 1996, and was released in the United States on December 20, 1996, byParamount Pictures. The film later aired onMTV in 1999. The film was a critical and commercial success, with critics praising the story and humor, and grossing $63.1 million in the United States and becoming the largest December box office opening of all time until it was surpassed the following year byScream 2, and was thesecond highest-grossing animated film of 1996, behindDisney'sThe Hunchback of Notre Dame (which also starred Moore). A sequel,Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe, was released in 2022.
Beavis andButt-Head discover that their television has been stolen and set out to find it. After several failed attempts to obtain one, they come across a motel that offers one in every room. They meet Muddy Grimes, who thinks they're hired hitmen and offers them $10,000 to "do" his wife Dallas inLas Vegas. Believing that "do" means have sex, Butt-Head convinces Beavis that they can finally "score" and buy a new TV.
Muddy drives the boys to the airport. In Las Vegas, Beavis and Butt-Head arrive at their hotel room, but Dallas catches them eavesdropping and holds them at gunpoint. The boys refuse Dallas's offer of $20,000 to "do" Muddy and argue over who will "do" Dallas first. Realizing that Beavis and Butt-Head have misunderstood their instructions, she plants the X-5 unit, a stolenbiological weapon, in Beavis's shorts. She tells them to meet her at theU.S. Capitol.
Beavis and Butt-Head board a tour bus. After they accidentally sabotageHoover Dam, Agent Flemming of theATF becomes convinced that the duo are criminal masterminds and places them on theFBI's most-wanted list. AtYellowstone National Park, Beavis and Butt-Head accidentally board a bus full of nuns who are repulsed by the boys and abandon them inPetrified Forest National Park. After walking through the desert, the boys meet two formerMötley Crüeroadies, oblivious that they are their biological fathers.
Muddy returns to the motel, meets the real hitmen, and angrily swears to track down and kill Beavis, Butt-Head, and Dallas. The hitmen, who stole Beavis and Butt-Head's TV, abandon it in front of the motel. Beavis and Butt-Head awaken to find the drifters gone and continue walking until they become dehydrated and weak, they start to seetheir lives flash before their eyes, with Butthead reminiscing on him and Beavis growing up together while Beavis sees himself as asperm cell going inside anovum. While suffering dehydration, Beavis takes a bite out of apeyote cactus, causing him to have hallucinations of himself and Butt-Head being in aRob Zombie heavy-metal type music video.
Muddy finds Beavis and Butt-Head. After learning that Dallas intends to meet them, he puts them in his trunk and drives on. InVirginia, they jump out onto the interstate and cause a 400-carpileup. They walk past the scene and get back on the tour bus, stopping at the Capitol before reaching theWhite House. Muddy confronts Dallas in a parking garage before she can meet Beavis and Butt-Head. She seduces him and they have sex in his car, but they are found and arrested by the ATF.
The ATF is dispatched to the White House because Beavis and Butt-Head are there on the same day as a peace conference. Beavis consumes caffeine and sugar and transforms intoCornholio, his hyperactive alter ego. Wandering into theOval Office, he picks up thered phone, causing a military alert. Meanwhile, Butt-Head attempts to seduceChelsea Clinton, but is thrown out of her bedroom window before he is detained and cavity-searched by ATF officers.
Beavis goes to their neighbor Tom Anderson's travel trailer, where Anderson catches him masturbating and throws him out. The ATF, thinking Beavis has the X-5 Unit, are about to open fire when Anderson throws out Beavis's shorts. The shorts are ripped, and the X-5 Unit flies into Butt-Head's hand, and he casually gives it to Flemming. Anderson is falsely accused of trying to frame Beavis and Butt-Head for a crime of his own and is arrested along with Dallas and Muddy while his wife is taken for a cavity search. Flemming proclaims Beavis and Butt-Head heroes, and they meet PresidentBill Clinton, who makes them honorary ATF agents. Beavis and Butt-Head return to Highland, upset that they did not have sex or receive money, but they find their TV at the motel and walk into the sunset carrying it back home, insulting each other along the way until Beavis suggests stopping by Anderson's tool shed.
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Lisa Collins has an uncredited role as Marcie Anderson,[citation needed] andGreg Kinnear has an uncredited role as ATF Agent Bork.[6]David Letterman (credited as Earl Hofert) had a role as aMötley Crüeroadie.[7][8][9]
Development began in 1993 as part of a production deal withMTV,David Geffen, andWarner Bros. Geffen so believed in the potential of theBeavis and Butt-head TV series that he suggested creating a film and record album based on the program. They originally conceived it in live-action, withSaturday Night Live regularsDavid Spade andAdam Sandler in mind to play the title characters. After MTV's parent companyViacom acquiredParamount Pictures's parent companyParamount Communications on July 7, 1994, the studio became a partner in the film, replacing Warner's interest in the project and dropping the live action concept under pressure from series creatorMike Judge.[10] Judge has stated production of the animated film was very ad hoc and had some difficulties with progressing due to most of the staff's television background. The animation of the film was provided byRough Draft Korea. The hallucination sequence's design and animation was based on the works ofRob Zombie. The sequence's director wasChris Prynoski.
When the film premiered on MTV on August 7, 1999, an additionaldeleted scene followed the airing: while visiting theNational Archives, Beavis attempts to use the restroom, but cannot because of the lack of toilet paper in the stall. Coincidentally, Butt-head is angry because the urinals lack the automatic flushing mechanisms that had amazed him atYellowstone National Park. After the rest of their tour group finishes looking at the encasedDeclaration of Independence, Beavis sneaks out, breaks the glass with the U.S. flag pole, and steals it to use as "T.P. for his bunghole." While Archive guards rush to see what happened, Beavis cleans up, and exits the stall with a piece of the Declaration, containingJohn Hancock's signature, stuck to his shoe. The scene does not appear on the DVD, although it is mentioned on the commentary track. In the track, Judge noted that the scene did nottest well.
A deleted scene showingChelsea Clinton packing up to leave the White House was also shot as an alternative to the scene in the film depicting Butt-Head meeting Chelsea in her bedroom, in the event thatBill Clinton should lose his1996 reelection bid toBob Dole; however, by the spring of 1996, Judge chose to keep the original scene, feeling confident that Clinton would win his reelection bid against Dole — which he ultimately did that November.
| Beavis and Butt-Head Do America: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Soundtrack album by various artists | ||||
| Released | November 5, 1996 | |||
| Recorded | 1995–96 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 49:00 | |||
| Label | Geffen | |||
| Producer | ||||
| Beavis and Butt-Head chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Beavis and Butt-Head Do America: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   link |
| Entertainment Weekly | Clink |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Two Cool Guys (Theme from Beavis and Butt-Head Do America)" (Isaac Hayes) |
|
| 3:06 |
| 2. | "Love Rollercoaster" (Red Hot Chili Peppers) |
| 4:37 | |
| 3. | "Ain't Nobody" (LL Cool J) |
| Rashad Smith | 4:37 |
| 4. | "Ratfinks, Suicide Tanks and Cannibal Girls" (White Zombie) |
| 3:52 | |
| 5. | "I Wanna Riot" (Rancid withStubborn All-Stars) |
| 3:59 | |
| 6. | "Walk on Water" (Ozzy Osbourne) |
| Moby | 4:16 |
| 7. | "Snakes" (No Doubt) | No Doubt | 4:34 | |
| 8. | "Pimp'n Ain't EZ" (Madd Head) |
| Jerome Evans | 4:21 |
| 9. | "The Lord is a Monkey" (Rock Version) (Butthole Surfers) | Butthole Surfers | Paul Leary | 4:44 |
| 10. | "White Trash" (Southern Culture on the Skids) | Rick Miller |
| 2:02 |
| 11. | "Gone Shootin'" (AC/DC) | Vanda & Young | 5:04 | |
| 12. | "Lesbian Seagull" (Engelbert Humperdinck) | Tom Wilson Weinberg | John Frizzell | 3:50 |
Noticeably missing are "Mucha Muchacha", the version of "Lesbian Seagull" with Mr. Van Driessen singing, and the score tracks performed by The London Metropolitan Orchestra, which were released on a separate album.
"Two Cool Guys", written and performed bysoul/funk musician Isaac Hayes, is a semi-parody of Hayes'Academy Award-winning "Theme fromShaft". It incorporates the theme from theBeavis and Butt-head television series as a rhythm guitar line, and series creator Mike Judge, who wrote the theme, is given a co-writing credit with Hayes in the soundtrack liner notes. The opening credit sequence which the song features is a take-off on popular 1970s cop movies and TV shows with Beavis and Butt-Head as hip ace sleuth Lothario detectives.[12]
The version of Ozzy Osbourne's "Walk on Water" is not the same version included in the film. The film used an earlier demo version, while the soundtrack itself contains a later, revised version. The original demo, which appears in the film, can be found on Osbourne'sPrince of Darkness box set. Osbourne and co-writerJim Vallance both prefer the demo version heard in the film.[13] "Walk on Water" was released as a single and peaked at number 28 onBillboard'sMainstream Rock Tracks chart.[14]
The use of AC/DC's "Gone Shootin'" is particularly fitting for the series, as Judge himself would eventually admit the guitar solo that serves as the show's theme was in fact the solo from the AC/DC song played backwards.
The soundtrack was re-released in 2016 on a special edition LP picture disc.[15]
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Canada (Music Canada)[16] | Gold | 50,000^ |
| United States (RIAA)[17] | Gold | 500,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
Beavis and Butt-Head Do America opened at number 1 in North America on December 20, 1996, collecting $20.1 million in its opening weekend.[18] This broke the record for the highest December opening weekend previously held byStar Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.[19] That record was surpassed a year later byScream 2.[20] The film also held the record for the highest December opening weekend for an animated film until surpassed byThe Princess and the Frog in 2009.[21] It maintained the highest opening weekend for any rated PG-13 animated film until 2007 whenThe Simpsons Movie took it.[22]Beavis and Butt-Head Do America overall earned $63.1 million at the US box office[23] against a $12 million production budget.[3]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 71% of 55 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The website's consensus reads: "Beavis and Butt-Head Do America is unabashedly offensive, unapologetically stupid, and unexpectedly funny."[24]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 64 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[25] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[26]
Roger Ebert ofChicago Sun-Times praised the film as a "vulgar" satire on American youth, and compared it favorably toWayne's World.[27] On the film review showSiskel and Ebert, Ebert's reviewing partnerGene Siskel gave the film a "modest recommendation", having been taken with the two lead characters. Ebert and Siskel ultimately awarded it a "two thumbs up" rating.[28] Ty Burr writing forEntertainment Weekly gave it a C+ saying it "turns from spoofing teenage dimness to merely embodying it."[29]In a retrospective review inJacobin for the film's 25th anniversary, writer Leonard Pierce praisedBeavis and Butt-Head Do America for its continued relevancy into the 21st century. Pierce described the film as "the greatest satire of the twenty-first-century Americansecurity state," adding that "we wouldn't be talking about the film at all today if it wasn't still painfully funny, with a distinctly 2020s nervous energy and a rowdy, bubbling pace that never slows down." Pierce concluded thatBeavis and Butt-Head Do America "seems far fresher today than anythingMatt Stone andTrey Parker have done this century."[30]
| Organization | Award | Awardee | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BMI Film & TV Awards | BMI Film Music Award | John Frizzell | Won | [citation needed] |
| 1997 MTV Movie Awards | Best On-Screen Duo | Beavis and Butt-Head | Nominated | [31] |
| 17th Golden Raspberry Awards | Worst New Star | Nominated | [32] | |
| Worst Screen Couple | Nominated |
The film was released onVHS on June 10, 1997, and onDVD on November 23, 1999, byParamount Home Entertainment.[33] It was re-released on a Special Edition DVD in 2006.
The video went straight to number one in the official UK video charts on release[34] of which it stayed at the number one spot for two weeks[35] before moving to number two during its third week.[36] The movie spent a total of 17 weeks on the official video charts in the UK.[37]
The film was released onBlu-ray for the first time on December 7, 2021, by Paramount Home Entertainment, in commemoration of the film's 25th anniversary.[38][39]
In the years following, many fans rumored the possibility of asequel or follow-up to the film, tentatively titledBeavis and Butt-Head: The Sequel[40] orBeavis and Butt-Head 2.[41] On August 31, 2009, during the promotion ofExtract, Judge said he would like to see Beavis and Butt-Head on the big screen again.[40] In 2019, Judge revealed that he has "some ideas" for a new film, saying there might be potential for a live-action version of the show.[42] In February 2021, it was announced that a newBeavis and Butt-Head movie was in production forParamount+, with Mike Judge on board.Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe was released on June 23, 2022.
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| National | |
| Other | |