Beavis and Butt-Head Do America

Beavis and Butt-Head Do America
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Mike Judge
Produced by	Abby Terkuhle
Written by	Mike Judge Joe Stillman
Based on	Beavis and Butt-Head by Mike Judge
Starring	Mike Judge Demi Moore Bruce Willis Robert Stack Cloris Leachman
Music by	John Frizzell
Edited by	Gunter Glinka Terry Kelley Neil Lawrence
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release dates	December 20, 1996 (1996-12-20) (United States)
Running time	81 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$12 million
Box office	$63.1 million (US)

Beavis and Butt-Head Do America is a 1996 American adult animated comedy film based on the MTV animated television series Beavis and Butt-Head. The film was co-written and directed by series creator Mike Judge, who reprises his roles from the series; Demi Moore, Bruce Willis, Robert Stack, and Cloris Leachman star in supporting roles. The film follows Beavis and Butt-Head, two teen delinquents who travel the US and unknowingly become fugitives.

Previous offers by MTV to adapt Beavis 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 with Joe Stillman. John Frizzell composed the film's score.

Beavis and Butt-Head Do America premiered at Mann's Chinese Theater on December 15, 1996, and was released in the United States on December 20, 1996 by Paramount Pictures. The film later aired on MTV in 1999. It also aired on VH1 in 2003. The film was a critical and commercial success, 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 by Scream 2. A sequel, Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe, was released in 2022.

Plot

Beavis and Butt-Head discover that their television is missing, and set out to find it. After several failed attempts to get a television, they come across a motel which offers one in every room. They meet Muddy Grimes, who mistakes them for hired hitmen and offers them $10,000 to "do" his wife Dallas in Las Vegas. Thinking he wants them to have sex with her, Butt-Head convinces Beavis that they can "score" and buy a new television.

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' 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 stolen biological weapon, in Beavis' shorts. She tells them to meet her for sex at the U.S. Capitol, but actually plans to kill them and recover the unit.

Beavis and Butt-Head board a tour bus. After they accidentally sabotage Hoover Dam, Agent Flemming of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) becomes convinced that the duo are criminal masterminds and places them on the FBI's most-wanted list. At Yellowstone National Park, Beavis and Butt-Head accidentally board the wrong bus, joining a busload of nuns who are repulsed by the boys and abandon them in Petrified Forest National Park. After walking through the desert, the boys meet two former Mötley Crüe roadies, oblivious that they are their biological fathers.

Muddy returns to the motel and meets the real hitmen. He angrily swears to track down and kill Beavis and Butt-Head. The hitmen, who stole Beavis and Butt-Head's television, 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. Beavis, suffering dehydration, takes a bite out of a peyote cactus, causing him to hallucinate.

Muddy finds Beavis and Butt-Head. After learning that Dallas intends to meet them, he puts them in his trunk and drives on. In Virginia, they jump out onto the interstate and cause a 400-car pileup. They walk past the scene and board their original tour bus, stopping at the Capitol before reaching the White 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.

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 into Cornholio, his hyperactive alter ego. Wandering into the Oval Office, he picks up the red phone, causing a military alert. Butt-Head attempts to seduce Chelsea Clinton but is thrown out of her bedroom window. 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 bioweapon, are about to open fire when Anderson throws out Beavis' pants. The bioweapon flies into Butt-Head's hand and he gives it to Flemming. Anderson and his wife are accused of trying to frame Beavis and Butt-Head, and are arrested along with Dallas and Muddy. Flemming proclaims Beavis and Butt-Head heroes, and they meet President Bill 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 television at the motel and walk into the sunset.

Voice cast

Demi Moore voices Dallas Grimes

Bruce Willis voices Muddy Grimes

Mike Judge, the voice of Beavis and Butt-head for TV, returned to work on the film

• Mike Judge as Beavis, Butt-Head, Tom Anderson, Mr. Van Driessen, and Principal McVicker
• Bruce Willis as Muddy Grimes
• Demi Moore as Dallas Grimes
• Cloris Leachman as Old Woman On Plane and Bus
• Robert Stack as Agent Flemming

Other voice actors include: Jacqueline Barba, Pamela Blair, Eric Bogosian, Kristofor Brown, Tony Darling, John Doman, Francis DuMaurier, Jim Flaherty, Tim Guinee, Toby Huss, Sam Johnson, Richard Linklater, Rosemary McNamara, Harsh Nayyar, Karen Phillips, Dale Reeves, Mike Ruschak, and Gail Thomas

Greg Kinnear had an uncredited role as ATF Agent Bork; David Letterman (credited as Earl Hofert) had a role as a Mötley Crüe roadie.

Production

Development for the film began in 1993 as part of a production deal with MTV, David Geffen, and Warner Bros. Geffen so believed in the potential of the Beavis and Butt-head TV series that he suggested creating a movie and record album based on the program. They originally conceived it as a live action movie, with Saturday Night Live regulars David Spade and Adam Sandler in mind to play the title characters. After MTV's parent company Viacom purchased Paramount Pictures in 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 Beavis and Butt-Head creator Mike Judge. 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 by Rough Draft Studios. The hallucination sequence's design and animation was based on the works of Rob Zombie. The sequence's director was Chris Prynoski.

Deleted scene

When the film 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. Coincidentally, Butt-head is angry because the urinals lack the automatic flushing mechanisms that had amazed him at Yellowstone National Park. After the rest of their tour group finishes looking at the encased Declaration 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, 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 Chelsea Clinton in her bedroom, which showed her packing up to leave the White House. This alternate scene was created in the event that Bill Clinton lost his 1996 reelection 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 reelection, which he did that November.

Reception

Box office

Beavis and Butt-Head Do America opened Number 1 in North America on December 20, 1996, and earned $63.1 million at the US box office after opening at #1 with $20.1 million. It had a $12 million production budget.

Critical reception

The film holds a approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on reviews, with an average of . The consensus reads: "Beavis and Butt-Head Do America is unabashedly offensive, unapologetically stupid, and unexpectedly funny." On Metacritic, the film has a 64 out of 100 rating based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times praised the film as a "vulgar" satire on American youth, and compared it favorably to Wayne's World. On the film review show Siskel and Ebert, Ebert's reviewing partner Gene 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.

Awards and nominations

Organization	Award	Awardee	Result	Citation
BMI Film & TV Awards	BMI Film Music Award	John Frizzell	Won
1997 MTV Movie Awards	Best On-Screen Duo	Beavis and Butt-Head	Nominated
17th Golden Raspberry Awards	Worst New Star		Nominated
	Worst Screen Couple		Nominated

Home media

The film was released on VHS on June 10, 1997 and on DVD on November 23, 1999, by Paramount Home Entertainment. 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. In 2013, "The Edition That Doesn't Suck" was re-released on DVD exclusively by Warner Home Video, under a deal with Paramount. Oddly enough, Warner Bros. was Geffen's distributor until The Geffen Company went bankrupt. Today, Warner Bros. holds home video distribution rights to all of Geffen Pictures' library.

The video went straight to number one in the official UK video charts on release of which it stayed at the number one spot for two weeks before moving to number two on its third week. The movie spent a total of 17 weeks on the official video charts in the UK.

The film was released on Blu-ray for the first time on December 7, 2021 by Paramount Home Entertainment, in commemoration of the film's 25th anniversary.

Sequel

Main article: Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe

In the years following, many fans rumored the possibility of a sequel or follow-up to the film, tentatively titled Beavis and Butt-Head: The Sequel or Beavis and Butt-Head 2. On August 31, 2009, during the promotion of Extract, Mike Judge said he would like to see Beavis and Butt-Head on the big screen again. 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. In February 2021, it was announced that a new Beavis and Butt-Head movie was in production for Paramount+, with Mike Judge on board. It was released on June 23, 2022.

Soundtrack

Beavis and Butt-Head Do America: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
File:Beavis and Butt-head Do America Soundtrack - Cover.png
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
Producer	Mike Judge (exec.) Butthole Surfers Isaac Hayes Jerome Evans John Frizzell Lars Frederiksen Mark Williams Moby No Doubt Rashad Smith Red Hot Chili Peppers Southern Culture on the Skids Sylvia Massy Terry Date Tim Armstrong Ulrich Wild Vanda & Young White Zombie
Beavis and Butt-Head chronology
The Beavis and Butt-Head Experience (1993) Beavis and Butt-Head Do America: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1996)
Singles from Beavis and Butt-Head Do America

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	link
Entertainment Weekly	C link

Beavis and Butt-Head Do America: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
No.	Title	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Two Cool Guys (Theme from Beavis and Butt-Head Do America)" (Isaac Hayes)	Isaac Hayes Ron Christopher (co.) Mike Judge (co.) Mark Kates (co.)	3:06
2.	"Love Rollercoaster" (Red Hot Chili Peppers)	Sylvia Massy 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)	Terry Date Ulrich Wild White Zombie	3:52
5.	"I Wanna Riot" (Rancid with Stubborn All-Stars)	Tim Armstrong Lars Frederiksen	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)	Paul Leary	4:44
10.	"White Trash" (Southern Culture on the Skids)	Mark Williams Southern Culture on the Skids	2:02
11.	"Gone Shootin'" (AC/DC)	Vanda & Young	5:04
12.	"Lesbian Seagull" (Engelbert Humperdinck)	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 by soul/funk musician 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 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.

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's Prince of Darkness box set. Ozzy and co-writer Jim Vallance both prefer the demo version heard in the film. "Walk on Water" was released as a single and peaked at number 28 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.

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.

Certifications

Region	Certification	Sales/shipments
United States (RIAA)	Gold	500,000
^shipments figures based on certification alone xunspecified figures based on certification alone

External links

• Beavis and Butt-Head Do America at IMDb
• Beavis and Butt-Head Do America at the TCM Movie Database
• Beavis and Butt-Head Do America official site at the Wayback Machine (archive index)
• Beavis and Butt-Head Do America at Box Office Mojo
• Beavis and Butt-Head Do America at Rotten Tomatoes
• Beavis and Butt-head Do America at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Beavis and Butt-Head Do America Review on Entertainment Weekly
• Beavis and Butt-Head Do America review on Consequence of Sound