Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe

Plot

Back in 1998, in Highland, Texas, Beavis and Butt-Head set their high school science fair on fire by accident. A judge figured they were troubled kids and packed them off to space camp at the Johnson Space Center. There, they got really into a docking simulator. NASA astronaut Captain Serena Ryan was impressed and asked them to train as astronauts, but the boys thought she was offering sex.

They ended up on the Space Shuttle Endeavour to check out a micro black hole. Once in space, they caused a huge mess, wrecking both the shuttle and the Mir space station. Serena said she'd sacrifice herself, which the boys again took as a sexual offer. Furious, she used the shuttle's controls to toss them into space, and they got pulled into the black hole.

The pair popped out in Galveston in 2022. The Pentagon spotted them and started tracking them. Serena, now the governor of Texas, wanted them dead to hide her attempted murder.

The boys ran into smarter versions of themselves from another universe, Smart Beavis and Smart Butt-Head, who said they had two days to get through a portal on Mount Everest or the multiverse would be destroyed. Beavis and Butt-Head got an iPhone and accidentally triggered Siri, thinking it was Serena. Beavis started to have feelings for her.

When Siri offered to set up their smart home, they thought Serena was waiting for them in Highland. After Beavis got stuck in a port-a-potty, they ended up at a university. The smart versions told them to use the portal, now nearby, but the boys wandered into a gender studies class instead. The professor talked about white privilege, which they took to mean they could do anything.

They stole a police car and got arrested. In jail, Beavis took some pills from another inmate, turned into his wild alter ego Cornholio, and started a riot. The warden, thinking the boys had died in 1998, decided they were angels and let them go.

They got home expecting Serena, but the house was for sale. They blamed each other and split up, only to be grabbed by government agents. Serena's unhappy lieutenant, Jim Hartson, secretly freed them, saying he knew what she did. Smart Beavis and Smart Butt-Head again pushed them toward the portal, but the boys just ignored them.

Production

Mike Judge has said he likes to keep the door open for Beavis and Butt-Head, calling it his proudest work. In 2009, while promoting Extract, he mentioned wanting to see the duo on the big screen again. By March 2018, he told Rotten Tomatoes that a second movie had been discussed two months earlier. In July 2019, he said he had some ideas and would likely direct.

A new film was announced for Paramount+ in February 2021, with Judge involved. Paramount executives initially pushed for a live-action version, and Judge held Zoom auditions before convincing them to start with an animated film. In January 2022, Judge tweeted drawings of older versions of the characters. The title, Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe, came out a month later.

John Frizzell returned to compose the score. The whole production happened remotely over Zoom due to the pandemic. Unlike the hand-drawn first film and series, animation was done digitally by Titmouse, Snipple Animation, and Inspidea using Adobe Animate. Studio Moshi and Ink Animation handled some layouts.

Reception

On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 70 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating generally favorable reviews. Andy Kelly of The Gamer complimented the movie as one of the best of the year and a revival done well. Sol Harris of Starburst Magazine gave the movie 4 out of 5 stars, calling it a completely worthy follow-up to Do America and a frontrunner for funniest movie of 2022.

Did You Know?

• The film's trailer was released on June 2, 2022.
• A sneak peek debuted at the MTV Movie and TV Awards three days later.
• A DVD release of the film along with Season 9 was planned for March 2023 but was cancelled.