I'm in such a peculiar place with this movie.
This film came out of nowhere, it wasn't on my radar and I had absolutely no expectations good or bad. I was planning on seeing this in theatres but it turns out it's only available on a streaming site. And after watching it I can understand why.
Now I wasn't expecting it to be as good as 'Beavis and Butt-head Do America' for several reasons.
I didn't think they have the budget, the voice Talent, animation production, and the overall comedic "nuance"* that Beavis and Butt-head had back in the 90s.
However they still managed to produce a surprisingly entertaining film.
The Story feels a little lacking in some places and honestly it's kind of a retread of 'Do America' with Beavis and Butt-head travelling various locations while being pursued by shady figures in the background who are unable to catch these two nitwits despite all their high resources.
And yet the film works.
The comedic tone is still there and I found myself laughing at it quite regularly.
It doesn't copy beat for beat what they did back in the 90s and it even keeps up with some topical humour without making it seem nostalgic or pandering** to their new environment.
There's just enough difference to make 'Beavis and Butt-head Do the Universe' feel like its own stand-alone movie without meeting the show or previous film as a crutch.
In fact it does this so well that you don't even see any secondary Beavis and Butthead characters reference throughout most of the movie.
Once they go through the Wormhole and end up in the alternative Universe there's no other Beavis and Butthead characters.
No teachers, no Steward. None of the Beavis and Butt-head cast to makes an appearance and I'm a little surprised by that given they could have made a cheap joke at having Beavis and Butt-head interacting with Aged characters 20 years into the future.
Honestly this feels like a really long episode of Beavis and Butt-head it's simple and basic despite its ludicrous premise.
It feels a little loose with its world at times having Beavis go through a couple of traumatic events and then glossing over them without a moment's hesitation.
He gets covered in crap from the porta potty and has a few of his fingers chopped up by a food processor winch are than ignored immediately afterward with no explanation.
I was expecting to have more problems with the story as time progressed given its recycled formula and surprisingly simple progression but the humour is still solid and it works just well enough to make me tolerate its less than extravagant pacing.
Really my biggest problem with the film is the drawing Style. It feels; off. Like somebody who was attempting to make Beavis and Butt-head but had more experience working with Family Guy, American Dad or any of those generic adult themed cartoons that are very prevalent right now.
It's not abysmal, but it does feel cheap at times and it makes me understand why this movie would never be given a theatrical release.
Overall it's fine. It feels like the movie The Original Beavis and Butt-head could have been if less care had been put into it. But it's still serviceable.
And at this point, it's been nearly thirty years of on-again off-again Beavis and Butt-head comedy.
The fact this movie is decent at all is a pretty big positive in my books. Maybe we'll see another B-B in 20 years.
*I know some might laugh at the idea of Beavis and Butt-head having 'higher' comedy. But there is a particular style to Beavis and Butt-head that's very difficult to manipulate.
It's a kind of simplistic humour that purposely has to keep itself at ground level while still being entertaining and provoking.
If you don't believe me just watch anybody's attempt at a Beavis and Butt-head parody.
They always feel wrong.
Like they don't get what makes Beavis and Butt-head tick and just assume that you can have the two kid characters giggle like idiots and respond to exceptionally simplistic wordplay.
Sure that's a part of it, but there's multiple layers to that bottom Barrel humour that makes the Comedy Works so well.
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