A Long Time Coming but Well Worth the Wait

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MOVIE REVIEW
Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe
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Genre: Action, Comedy
Year Released: 2022
Runtime: 1h 40m
Director(s): Mike Judge
Writer(s): Mike Judge
Cast: Mike Judge, Gary Cole, Chris Diamantopoulos, Nat Faxon, Brian Huskey, Chi McBride, Tig Notaro, Stephen Root, Andrea Savage, Martin Starr, and Jimmy O. Yang
Where To Watch: Debuts Thursday, June 23, exclusively on Paramount+

Let me just get this out of the way; if you liked the original Beavis and Butt-Head, you should also like this. We’re greeted with the same animation style, and Mike Judge’s recognizable (albeit slightly aged from the last time we’ve heard it.) The film is a long-run episode of the series, but that’s what it needed to be. This was the sequel, a follow-up we didn’t know we needed.

I can’t remember the last time I laughed out loud while watching a movie. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t every scene, but there were enough moments throughout the film that I caught myself laughing. It was simple, dumb humor, but it was that humor that instantly took me back to the days when I would sit in front of the TV and watch episode after episode. It was a simpler time for me (as cliche as that sounds), a time when I didn’t have the worries around me that I do now.

The film's story is very straightforward, borrowing a little from some current trends, but as a whole, just the journey of Beavis and Butt-Head doing what they do best. They were after the holy grail and had the same mentality about it as they did 20

Had they tried to update the animation or change the comedy too much, I think it would have failed. Instead, they knew their core audience and honored them with what they wanted and remembered. I think a mistake many reboots, continuations, etc. fall prey to is thinking that they need to rebuild the wheel when the one that everyone wants is fine the way it is. While writing this review, I found a 2011 relaunch of the series (that I was entirely unaware of), so this reviewer now has 22 fresh episodes to check out excitedly!

I genuinely think Paramount+ needs to take this and run with it, bringing back the series for another run with the modern setting. They could go meta with things like the absence of MTV music videos; honestly, the possibilities are endless. The only real knock on the film is that it didn’t have a lot of callbacks/references to the original series. Without spoiling anything, I would have loved seeing some other characters return. EDIT: It sounds like new episodes are on their way to Paramount+. I guess all I had to do was wish it into existence!

I would love to see ÆON FLUX, DARIA, CELEBRITY DEATHMATCH, and CLONE HIGH all given this treatment. I have fond memories of these shows for different reasons, but if done correctly, I would jump at the chance to become a regular subscriber to Paramount+ as long as they kept bringing back these series the way I remember them.

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