| Beavis and Butt-head Do America | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Mike Judge Yvette Kaplan (Animation) |
| Produced by | Abby Terkuhle Michael Blakey Mike Judge (Uncredited) |
| Written by | Mike Judge Joe Stillman |
| Starring | Mike Judge Demi Moore Bruce Willis Robert Stack Cloris Leachman |
| Music by | John Frizzel |
| Cinematography | David J. Miller |
| Editing by | Gunter Glinka Terry Kelley Neil Lawrence |
| Studio | Geffen Pictures MTV Films Judgemental Films Tenth Annual Industries |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | December 20, 1996 |
| Running time | 81 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $12 million |
| Box office | $63,118,386 |
Beavis and Butt-head Do America is a 1996 animated feature film, based on the TV series, Beavis and Butt-head.[2] It was produced by Paramount Pictures in association with Geffen Pictures and MTV Films, and co-written and directed by creator Mike Judge. The film grossed $20.11 million in its opening weekend, and grossed a total of $63.12 million in North America. This was MTV Films' second film after Joe's Apartment.
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After a surreal Godzilla-esque dream, Beavis and Butt-head wake up to realize that someone has stolen their television. The pair then embark on a quest to replace it. After stealing and destroying a TV from school (resulting in their expulsion) and ruining the TV in Tom Anderson's camper, they visit a low-quality motel that advertises "TVs in every room". There, they encounter a drunken Muddy Grimes (Bruce Willis), who is waiting for two hired hit men, the same guys who stole Beavis and Butt-head's television, to murder his wife, Dallas.
Muddy, thinking that Beavis and Butt-Head are the killers he has contacted, says that they must "do" (murder) his wife. Thinking that by "do", Muddy means "score with", Butt-Head convinces Beavis that both of them can "score". Muddy then hands them a photograph of Dallas with instructions on where to find her. Beavis asks if they can watch TV first, and Muddy subsequently shoots it. He drives them to the airport to catch the plane to her hotel room on the Las Vegas Strip. During the plane ride, both Beavis and Butt-Head manage to cause chaos and Beavis consumes massive quantities of caffeine pills given to him by an old woman (Cloris Leachman). He subsequently transforms into Cornholio, and almost causes the plane to crash when be barges into the cockpit and scares the pilots.
After causing a mild stir in a Las Vegas casino, the boys find themselves in their hotel room, which is adjacent to the room of the hunted woman, Dallas Grimes (Demi Moore). Dallas soon realizes they have no idea what they are actually hired for. While Beavis and Butt-Head begin fighting over who will "do" Dallas first, the police arrive to arrest her. Thinking quickly, she plants a stolen biological weapon known as the "X-5 Unit" in Beavis' pants in order to get rid of it as evidence. She then gets them tickets on a coach to Washington, D.C. instructing them that she will be waiting for them in the Capitol of the United States and will let them "do her" there.
The stolen biological weapon attracts the attention of the ATF, headed by Agent Flemming (Robert Stack) who orders a body cavity search on everyone he encounters and in spite of his tough talk, relies on fellow Agent Bork's (Greg Kinnear) assistance, virtually all the time. Agent Flemming becomes convinced that the duo are criminal masterminds after accidentally destroying the Hoover Dam, by effectively cutting the power to Las Vegas. On the tour bus, they visit landmarks including the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Park. After becoming stranded in Petrified Forest National Park, they wander through the desert and meet two drifters (Earl Hofert and Tony Darling) who strongly resemble them. The men, former Motley Crue roadies, tell them that they once hooked up with two "sluts" from the boys' hometown of Highland, Texas, 15 years earlier. They also share similar personalities, as evidenced by Beavis' father's fascination with fire, and Butt-head's father's pulling down his pants and farting in the fire, creating a large fireball. Neither the men nor the boys make the obvious connection of their parentage, and the drifters abandon Beavis and Butt-head before they wake up the next morning. The boys then continue to trek through the desert, and, after munching on a peyote cactus, Beavis goes into a mescaline induced hallucination, featuring music by White Zombie with animation inspired by Rob Zombie.
The next day, they are found by Muddy, after nearly dying of dehydration. Muddy decides to take them the rest of the way in his trunk to hunt down Dallas, and they spend the trip laughing at his car jack and pretending to masturbate. In the middle of I-81 in Virginia, Butt-Head jacks the trunk open, and they escape by jumping onto the road, causing an 18-wheeler to swerve off the road, resulting in a huge, 400-car pileup. Beavis and Butt-head casually walk past the scene and get back on the tour bus, stopping at the United States Capitol Building before finally reaching the White House. Before Dallas can meet with Beavis and Butt-Head to recover the weapon, she is confronted in the parking garage by Muddy, who flies into a rage when he realizes that the two managed to escape from his trunk. Muddy and Dallas then briefly reconcile before they are arrested by the ATF while having sex in Muddy's car. Faced with the possibility of a 60-year jail sentence, Dallas betrays Muddy by saying that he hid the weapon "in some kid's [Beavis] pants", ironically she still gets the sentence.
The ATF is dispatched to the White House due to Beavis and Butt-Head being there on the same day as the "Give Peace A Chance" conference. Beavis consumes caffeine pills (following a fight with the bus driver), sugar and coffee while on the White House tour, then transforms into Cornholio again. He wanders around the White House and picks up the red phone in the Oval Office, causing the military to go to DEFCON 4. Meanwhile, Butt-Head also wanders around the White House and encounters Chelsea Clinton in her bedroom, making a pass at her. She promptly throws him out the window, where ATF enforcers detain him and perform a cavity search on him. Beavis leaves the White House and looks at the photo of Dallas before going to masturbate in Tom Anderson's camper. Anderson discovers Beavis and throws him out of the camper, and the ATF spots Beavis walking around pants-less. They think he has the weapon on him and are just about to open fire when Anderson opens his camper door, telling Beavis to take his pants with him, which causes the ATF to go after the pants. The pants are ripped open, with the weapon flying out of them. The weapon, landing safely in Butt-Head's hand, is recovered. Blame for the incident is ultimately pinned on Anderson, who is arrested along with Dallas and Muddy. Agent Flemming informs Beavis and Butt-Head that their adventure will remain top secret. President Bill Clinton then makes Beavis and Butt-head honorary ATF agents, and gives them a contract for unlimited alcohol and firearms.
Not too much later, they return to Highland and find their TV in front of the hotel. The film ends with them carrying their TV into the sunset while insulting each other with various names, such as 'Ass-Goblin'.
When Beavis and Butt-head Do America premiered on MTV on August 7, 1999, an additional deleted scene followed the airing. While visiting the National Archives, Beavis attempts to use the restroom, but cannot because of the lack of toilet paper in the stall. Butt-head is equally angry because the urinals lack the automatic flushing mechanisms that had amazed him in Yellowstone National Park. After the rest of their tour group finished looking at the encased Declaration of Independence, Beavis sneaks out, breaks the glass with the US flagpole 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, containing John Hancock's signature, stuck to his shoe. The scene does not appear on the DVD, although it is mentioned on the disc's commentary track. In the track, Judge noted that the scene did not test well.
Another alternate scene was done for when Butt-head meets with Chelsea Clinton in her bedroom, which showed her packing up to leave the White House. This alternate scene was made in the event Bill Clinton lost his 1996 re-election bid to Bob Dole. However by the spring of 1996, Judge ultimately decided to keep the original scene because he felt that it was looking as if Clinton was going to win his bid for re-election.
| Beavis and Butt-Head Do America: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by Various Artists | |
| Released | November 5, 1996 |
| Recorded | 1995–96 |
| Genre | Heavy metal, alternative rock, punk rock, hip hop |
| Length | 49:00 |
| Label | Geffen |
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | link |
Noticeably missing are "Mucha Muchacha", the version of "Lesbian Seagull" with Mr. Van Driessen singing, and the score tracks, which were released on a separate album.
"Two Cool Guys", written and performed by soul/funk icon Isaac Hayes, is a semi-parody of Hayes' Academy Award-winning "Theme from Shaft". It incorporates the theme from the Beavis 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 version of Ozzy Osbourne's "Walk on Water" is not the same version included in the film. The film actually used an earlier demo version, while the soundtrack itself contains a later, more revised and complete version. The original demo, which appears in the film, can be found on Osbourne's Prince of Darkness box set. "Walk on Water" was released as a single and peaked at number 28 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.[3]
Beavis and Butt-Head Do America garnered generally positive reviews from film critics and a "two thumbs up" from Siskel and Ebert and it currently holds a 71% 'Fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus "Beavis and Butt-Head Do America is unabashedly offensive, unapologetically stupid, and unexpectedly funny."[4]
The film earned $63 million at the domestic box office after a great #1 opening with $20,114,233,[5] a strong return for a film that had a $12 million production budget.[6]
One award:
One nomination:
Two nominations:
The film was released on DVD by Paramount Home Entertainment in 1999. The bonus features on the disc were a widescreen presentation, and two theatrical trailers. The film was re-released on a Special Edition DVD in 2006 as "The Edition That Doesn't Suck". It contained more in the way of bonus features such as audio commentaries, Spanish language tracks, more trailers, "Making of" documentaries, and more. It lacks the deleted National Archives scene.
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