Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996)

The dim-witted teen duo of Beavis and Butt-Head travel across America in search of their stolen television set.

Directors:

Mike Judge, Mike de Seve (as Mike DeSeve)

Writers:

Mike Judge, Joe Stillman

Stars:

Mike Judge, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore

1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Mike Judge	...	Beavis / Butt-Head / Tom Anderson / Mr. Van Driessen / Principal McVicker (voice)
Bruce Willis	...	Muddy Grimes (voice)
Demi Moore	...	Dallas Grimes (voice)
Cloris Leachman	...	Old Woman on Plane and Bus (voice)
Robert Stack	...	ATF Agent Flemming (voice)
Jacqueline Barba	...	FBI Agent Hurly (voice)
Pamela Blair	...	Flight Attendant / White House Tour Guide (voice)
Eric Bogosian	...	Ranger at Old Faithful / White House Press Secretary / Lieutenant at Strategic Air Command (voice)
Kristofor Brown	...	Man on Plane / Man in Confession Booth #2 / Old Guy / Jim (voice)
Tony Darling	...	Motley Crue Roadie #2 / Tourist Man (voice)
John Doman	...	Airplane Captain / White House Representative (voice)
Francis Dumaurier	...	French Dignitary (voice) (as Francis DuMaurier)
Jim Flaherty	...	Petrified Forest Recording (voice)
Tim Guinee	...	Hoover Dam Guide / ATF Agent (voice)
David Letterman	...	Motley Crue Roadie #1 (voice) (as Earl Hofert)

Storyline

Our intrepid adolescent heroes wake up to find their beloved television stolen, and embark on an epic journey across America to recover it, and, who knows, maybe even score. On the way they encounter a murderous smuggler of a deadly virus and his treacherous wife, an FBI agent with a predilection for cavity searches, a couple of rather familiar looking ex-Motley Crue roadies, Mr. Van Dreesen singing "Lesbian Seagull", a little old lady and of course Mr. Anderson and his trailer. Can the Great Cornholio save the day? Uh-huh. Huh-huh.

---

Plot Keywords:

the white house | television addiction | damaged | television | fbi | 

---

Taglines:

Coming to a screen bigger than your TV.

---

Genres:

Animation | Adventure | Comedy | Crime | Music

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for continuous crude sex-related humor and language, and for a drug-related scene

Did You Know?

Trivia

Geffen Pictures acquired the film rights in 1993 with the hopes of making a live-action version of the series with David Spade as Beavis and Adam Sandler as Butt-head. Mike Judge hated the idea, finding the idea of making Beavis and Butt-head live-action not only sacrilege, but more expensive than animation. Reportedly, the decision to make the film in its final form was the result of a coin toss.

---

Goofs

The front entrance of the Old Faithful Inn does not face Old Faithful. As viewed from the front, the geyser is situated approximately 90 degrees to the left. In addition, the entrance has a large canopy covering the loading and unloading of passengers.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Butt-head: This is cool.

---

Crazy Credits

Bruce Willis and Demi Moore are not credited in the theatrical version, but are in the home video version.

---

Alternate Versions

A longer cut of the hallucination sequence exists with additional scenes.

---

Connections

Spoofs Kojak (1973)

---

Soundtracks

White Trash
Written by R. Miller
Performed by Southern Culture on the Skids
Courtesy of DGC Records

User Reviews

Surprisingly still holds up over 20 years later

There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who find Beavis & Butt-Head hilarious and those who find them unbearable. I'm in the former category and was pleasantly surprised by how funny I still found this film. I remember when it originally came out that Beavis & Butt-Head were pretty played out by this point and a feature length theatrical film filled with big names voicing characters (Bruce Willis, Demi Moore, Robert Stack, Cloris Leachman, Eric Bogosian, Richard Linklater, Greg Kinnear, David Spade, and David Letterman as a Roadie) seemed like overkill. I remember grudgingly liking the film, but rewatching after having not seen Beavis & Butt-Head in quite some time, the film felt pretty fresh and surprisingly prescient given the amount of pop culture youth take in today, along with the dumbing down society (also see Mike Judge's underrated satire "Idiocracy" for further explorations of these same themes). However, it may be that I'm now older and and am just cranky old man bemoaning "kids these days." Back in 1996, MTV was the main source of youth pop culture and Beavis & Butt-Head were a hilarious sent up of MTV's lowest common denominator fans. Today, youth consume pop culture instead through any number of social media apps and streaming apps/devices, rather than one channel and Tiger Beat magazine. The medium may have changed, but a satire of youth culture being dumbed down (to a ridiculously low level of by our two heroes) is still just as relevant today. I think it's this element of satire that many critics missed back when Beavis & Butt-Head originally aired. Beavis & Butt-Head were never presented as characters to to aspire to or intended to be seen as "cool." They were made by their creators to be held up for ridicule and to be mocked. Admittedly, many youth at the time missed the intended irony and instead enjoyed the TV series for all the wrong reasons, but that's not a reason to dismiss the characters outright. Now to this film in particular, the pair have their precious television stolen and they then set out to find a replacement, which has them mistaken for hitmen and puts them in the middle of government espionage and intrigue, of which they are completely oblivious. I found just about everything in the film hilarious and worthy of being considered satire. Everything in the film works as both as straight humor and also as social commentary. From the oblivious Tom Anderson (a likely cousin of King of the Hill's Hank Hill) to Mr. Van Driessen lovingly sung rendition of Lesbian Seagull over a montage of Beavis & Butt-Head obscenities committed across the country on their ill conceived cross country road trip to "score," to the pair meeting the Bubba US President of the 90s, Bill Clinton, is all quite funny and quite clever. Overall, if you can get past (or get into) the crass surface level humor, "Beavis & Butt-Head Do America" is heeeeee-larious.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish Hindi

Release Date:

20 December 1996 (USA)

Also Known As:

Beavis and Butt-Head Do America

Box Office

Budget:

$12,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$20,114,233, 22 December 1996

Gross USA:

$63,118,386

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$63,118,386

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, MTV Productions, Geffen Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

81 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1