29 Years Ago Today, One of the Most Iconic Animated Movies of the ’90s Changed Everything

It has been 29 years since an animated movie arrived that shocked the world by breaking records against all odds. In 1996, the world of animated films was revived thanks to the next generation of Disney movies like Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. It was also one year after Pixar released its first movie, and Toy Story was changing how people looked at original animated feature films. That said, there was a very different movie that came out in 1996 that was unlike anything else released around that time. It broke records for animated films, even with the most prestigious competition.

In 1996, Mike Judge released the theatrical adult animated movie Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, paying off the success of the MTV adult animated series.

Beavis and Butt-Head Do America Breaks Records

Beavis and Butt-Head was a beloved MTV adult-animated sitcom that premiered in 1993, and it ran until 1997. The entire basis of the series saw the two young friends, Beavis and Butt-Head, spending most of their time sitting on the couch watching music videos while making jokes, insulting the bands they hate (Winger), and delivering some memorable sketches (“I am Cornholio”). When Mike Judge decided to make a feature-length movie with the two, no one was sure how it would look.

What Judge did was to take Beavis and Butt-Head out of their home and send them on a cross-country journey. Of course, this was easy to do when he had someone steal their TV. Needing money to buy a new one, they accepted money from a man named Muddy Grimes (Bruce Willis) to “do his wife.” He wanted her killed, but Beavis and Butt-Head obviously had more perverted thoughts. When they found the wife (Demi Moore), it turned out she was a terrorist, and Beavis and Butt-Head ended up in a case of mistaken identity where the law enforcement agencies thought they were the masterminds.

It never should have worked. However, it was not only a huge hit, but it ended up grossing $63.1 million, and it broke the record as the largest December box office opening of all time. Beavis and Butt-Head Do America held this record for only one year before Scream 2 broke the record. That seems difficult to believe today, since so many big blockbusters open in December now, and it is easy to see films break $100 mnillion in their opening weekends around Christmas. When Beavis and Butt-Head Do America came out, this wasn’t the norm. Beavis and Butt-Head, of all things, changed that.

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Beavis and Butt-Head Remains a Sensation to This Day

Beavis and Butt-Head roared back to life in 2022, with a revival on Paramount+ that proved that fans still loved these two young slackers as much as ever. What is even more impressive is that Paramount has renewed Beavis and Butt-Head for a fourth season of its revival. Not much has changed, as they are still the two slacker friends, although music videos aren’t as prominent today as they were in the 90s, but the two still love their heavy metal favorites.

This also led to a movie sequel, with Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe in 2022. Beavis and Butt-Head Do America had a 71% fresh Rotten Tomatoes score, which was impressive for the adult animated series aimed primarily toward slackers and people who were obsessed with MTV music videos. The difference in 2022 was that the sequel movie was a Paramount+ exclusive, and that meant no box office profit. However, its Rotten Tomatoes score was an almost perfect 97%, with reviews calling it a return to form.

The story here, though, was nothing like Beavis and Butt-Head Do America. Instead of a movie about the two slackers setting off across America to get their TV back, this time they are trained to be astronauts and sent into space. As ludicrous as that sounds, when another astronaut tries to kill them, they end up sucked into a black hole, and then end up returning to Earth 24 years later, having not aged or matured at all. What results are Beavis and Butt-Head variants, and it is as ridiculous as it sounds.

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