BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD DO AMERICA

US, 1996, 82 minutes, Colour.
Voices of Mike Judge, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore, Richard Linklater, Robert Stack, Cloris Leachman, Eric Bogosian.
Directed by Mike Judge.

Beavis and Butthead Do America is a film version of the animated series presented on American MTV. The series is the brainchild of its animator, Mike Judge, who directed the film and supplies the voices of Beavis and of Butthead.

They are post-modern adolescents, embodying the ignorance of the nerds but without their extreme presumption. Beavis and Butthead are ignorant, really dumb, can't work out what is really happening, get involved in all kind of outlandish situations (and extricate themselves), are focused on sex, alcohol and drugs, lack any moral sense. They go through life with a charmed providence looking after them.

The film is a parody of the attitudes of the '90s, the selfishness and individualism of so many Americans. The trouble is that Beavis and Butthead do not learn any lessons from their experiences.

The film shows them at home, their inability to do anything much except want to watch TV, their quest for their broken TV, their getting caught up in being employed to do a hit (which they interpret in a sexual way), their flight to Las Vegas, their adventures in Las Vegas, escaping from the dangers via the various buses, an encounter with an elderly couple (who eventually get the blame for an espionage case with the FBI), a bus full of nuns, as well as involving countless cars to crash on the freeway as well as get entangled with the FBI. They finish up heroes - by mistake. But, ultimately, they find their TV again.

The film will not be to everyone's taste. An audience accustomed to moralising animation via The Simpsons may well be put off by Beavis and Butthead, but will recognise the style of the animated series.

Mike Judge provides the voices for Beavis and Butthead. An uncredited Bruce Willis and Demi Moore provide the voices for the spy and her husband. Robert Stack is the FBI agent.

1.The popularity of animated series for adults in the '90s? The moralising tone? The exaggerated characters - yet their relationship to situations and real people?

2.The visual style of Beavis and Butthead? The characters themselves (and their characteristic voices), their lack of vocabulary? The landscapes of America? The basic animated style yet its quality of caricature? The musical score? The range of songs?

3.The title and audience expectations? An ironic, post-modern fable on the ugly Americans?

4.Beavis and Butthead and their situation, their age, experience, focus solely on television, being so dumb that they can't work out what's happening, following the trail to get their television? The robbers taking it? Their going to the motel, the proposition, their misinterpreting it? The flight to Las Vegas with the sexual innuendo, going into the cockpit - the potential to ruin everything?

5.In Las Vegas, their not understanding it, the meeting of the woman, the dangers, the sexual innuendo - and her putting the machine in the trousers? Their escape - and the welcome of the elderly lady whom they met on the plane, her interpreting them in a friendly way, her losing her money, their going on the bus? The stop at Hoover Dam, wanting the TV, flooding the dam, flooding the camper van - and the owner of the camper van and his anger towards them, their sexual behaviour in the caravan, his pursuit of them?

6.The real criminals and their having taken the TV? The FBI and their pursuit and catching the girl, her husband? The pursuit of Beavis and Butthead as arch criminals?

7.The presentation of the FBI, Robert Stack's voice, the poking fun at officious officialdom? The searches of crevices...? The crassness of the authority figures?

8.Beavis and Butthead on the trip, their missing out on the realities and being focused on their own absorption - TV at Hoover Dam, the donkey at the Grand Canyon?

9.Their missing the bus, the episode with the nuns, the church, going into the confessional? The reaction to the penitents? The nuns escaping them?

10.Walking through the desert, their ignorance about the desert, the vultures, the cactus, their being found and brought back - yet their escape?

11.The FBI, finding them in different places, the maps, the officials, the notification and the various people responding and ringing up about them?

12.In the boot of the car, getting out, the crashes on the highway - and their being picked up in the bus again?

13.The man in the camper van, his exasperation, his being under suspicion - and his ultimately being accused as the criminal?

14.The arrival at Washington, their not knowing what Washington is? The gizmo and the acrobatics - their behaviour in the hotel, with the crowd? Their ultimately being rewarded by the FBI as misunderstood?

15.The heavy irony of the film? Its appeal to critics of America, within and without?