Reviewed by Sean Ferguson
Attention fartknockers! Creator Mike Judge’s beloved slackers are back in BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD: The Complete Collection. When Beavis and Butt-Head first appeared on MTV more than a decade ago, critics dismissed them as brainless couch potatoes who did nothing but watch TV and make lewd jokes about bodily functions. Today we know they were ahead of their time. Beavis and Butt-Head's unique idiocy profoundly changed television, movies, pop culture and the world.
Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-head: The Complete Collection is a great way for new fans to obtain the show, but old fans will recognize that this set is simply a collection of the previous three volumes of the Beavis and Butt-head Mike Judge Collection along with the more recent Volume 4 and their feature film Beavis and Butt-head Do America. Those same fans will most likely take issue with the naming this set "The Complete Collection" as it's far from that. In fact, this set only provides 135 out of 222 episodes and it's still missing the musical clips that the boys like to comment on. The episodes are also in random order for some reason, with the first episode kicking off the set from the second season.
Not that it really matters as there's no real over arching story-line to be concerned with as each episode is basically watching the boys make funny comments and getting themselves into trouble at school and occasionally work. They also have plenty of conflicts with the supporting cast that includes teacher Mr. Van Driessen, their neighbor Mr. Anderson ( a precursor to King of the Hill's Hank Hill), and their classmates including Daria (who would later go on to have her own show). Teh boys' constant conquest to pick up chicks is as hilarious as it's pathetic as they have no shot and even if they did, they'd have no clue what to do next which is a big part of the humor.
For the fourth volume, there was no more music videos for the boys to comment on as MTV was no longer music television, so they resorted to insulting the various "reality" shows like "Jersey Shore," which actually I found more entertaining to watch as I enjoyed Beavis and Butt-head take those kind of shows down. Another bonus of the forth volume is that it actually is the complete show as the clips being commented on are owned by MTV so there's no expensive rights to block it like they did for the previous three volumes. This is the show that all parents seem to hate as on the surface it's a pretty stupid show, but if you're paying attention, there's a lot of razor sharp commentary there and it's pretty damn funny. The movie is even better than the show and I'm glad that it's been included in this set.
Here's the episodes that are included in the set:
- No Laughing
- Home Improvement
- Lawn And Garden
- Washing The Dog
- The Crush
- Plate Frisbee
- Most Wanted
- They're Coming To Take Me Away, Huh Huh
- Patients, Patients
- Blackout!
- Rabies Scare
- 1-900-BEAVIS
- Madame Blavatsky
- Late Night With Butt-Head
- Pool Toys
- The Final Judgment Of Beavis
- Right On
- Date Bait
- Butt Is It Art?
- Figure Drawing
- Mr. Anderson's Balls
- Teen Talk
- Manners Suck
- The Pipe of Doom
- Safe Driving
- Liar! Liar!
- Generation In Crisis
- Beavis and Butt-Head Vs. The Vending Machine
- Radio Sweethearts
- The Great Cornholio
- Held Back
- Choke
- Killing Time
- Safe House
- Dude, A Reward
- Walkathon
- Temporary Insanity
- Tainted Meat
- Dream On
- Beaverly Buttbillies
- Plastic Surgin'
- Stewart Moves Away
- Top O' The Mountain
- Bad Dog
- Lightning Strikes
- Party
- What's The Deal
- Wet Behind The Rears
- Animation Sucks
- Candy Sale
- Here Comes The Bride's Butt
- Pregnant Pause
- Oil Change
- History Of Women
- Beavis, Can You Spare A Dime?
- Premature Evacuation
- Bang The Drum Slowly, Dumb Ass
- Close Encounters
- Vidiots
- Tired
- Whiplash
- Spare Me
- Womyn
- Murder Site
- Another Friday Night
- Patsies
- Spanish Fly
- Sexual Harassment
- Green Thumbs
- Bus Trip
- Blood Pressure
- Feel A Cop
- U.S. History
- Date Watchers
- Gang Of Two
- Stewart Is Missing
- Prank Call
- Babysitting
- Buttniks
- Bungholio: Lord Of The Harvest
- No Service
- Sprout
- Yard Sale
- P.T.A.
- Substitute
- Shopping List
- Buy Beer
- A Very Special Episode
- Just For Girls
- Head Lice
- Vaya Con Cornholio
- Nosebleed
- Underwear
- Follow Me
- On Strike
- Take A Lap
- Pierced
- Ding-Dong-Ditch
- Huh-Huh-Humbug
- It's A Miserable Life
- Citizens Arrest
- A Great Day
- Dumb Asses Anonymous
- Woodshop
- Shopping Cart
- Bride Of Butt-Head
- Special Delivery
- T.V. Violence
- The Miracle That Is Beavis
- Impotence
- Inventors
- Canned
- Drinking Butt-ies
- Garage Band
- Die Fly, Die!
- Breakdown
- Speech Therapy
- Work Is Death
- Graduation Day
- Butt Flambé
- Leave It To Beavis
- Beavis And Butt-Head Are Dead
- Werewolves of Highland / Crying
- Daughter's Hand / Tech Support
- Drones
- Holy Cornholio
- Supersize Me / Bathroom Break
- The Rat / Spill
- Doomsday / Dumb Design
- Copy Machine / Holding
- Used Car / Bounty Hunter
- Time Machine / Massage
- School Test / Snitches
- Whorehouse / Going Down
The first four volumes are presented in their original aspect ratio of 1.33:1 but the first three don't look as clean or as sharp as the fourth volume which makes sense since they aren't as new as the the latest volume. The fourth volume is definitely the best looking of the bunch with the colors being more vibrant and cleaner looking than the earlier installments. The movie, Beavis and Butt-head Do America has an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and it looks good too. The animation looks sharper and the colors and black levels are much stronger.
Like the video quality, the first three volumes suffer when compared the much better fourth volume that offers a 5.1 mix that is much better. Not that it really matters though, as this show really doesn't need a hardcore track since it's basically just a dialogue heavy show.
Extras (5 out of 5 stars)
All of the extras from the previous releases have been included here which is a lot. Fans of the show will be happy to have it all included here.
- Music Video Clips - While we don't have all of the videos included, there are some music video clips for us to enjoy:
- Matthew Sweet – Super-Deformed
- Pantera - This Love
- Moist - Push
- Deus - Suds And Soda
- Grim Reaper - Fear No Evil
- Monster Magnet - Negasonic Teenage Warhead
- Korn - Blind
- Catherine Wheel - Way Down
- Beastie Boys - Pass the Mic
- Wilco - Box Full of Letters
- Hum – Stars
- The Beastie Boys – Sabotage
- Seaweed - Kid Candy
- Pantera - I'm Broken
- Mercyful Fate - The Bellwitch
- Cumpulsion – Delivery
- Madonna – Secret
- Six Finger Satellite - Parlor Games
- Pizzicato 5 - Twiggy, Twiggy
- Rush - Stick It Out
- Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees
- Extreme - Hole Hearted
- Helium - Pat's Trick
- MC 900 Ft. Jesus - If I Only Had a Brain
- Stakka Bo - Here We Go
- Crowbar - Existence Is Punishment
- Salt 'N Pepa - Whatta Man
- Poison - I Want Action
- 2 Unlimited - Get Ready For This
- Tripping Daisy - I Got A Girl
- Jesus Lizard – Glamorous
- Sonic Youth - Dirty Boots
- Soundgarden – Spoonman
- Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Dang
- PJ Harvey - Down By The Water
- Alice Cooper - Teenage Frankenstein
- The Toadies - Possum Kingdom
- Rollins Band – Liar
- Paul Broucek - Hollywood Halloween
- Taint Of Greatness: The Journey Of Beavis And Butt-Heat Part 1 - This is a thirty minute look at the genesis of the show with plenty of comments from creator Mike Judge. We also see some footage of the the various people involved with the show from the MTV brass to the people who put it together along with the journey through focus groups before it aired. We also see the impact the show had once released.
- Taint Of Greatness: The Journey Of Beavis And Butt-Heat Part 2 - In this second part, we pick up where we left off and we get almost another half hour where we hear from more people about the show including Snoop Dogg and South Park's Trey Parker who talk about how the show influenced them.
- Taint Of Greatness: The Journey Of Beavis And Butt-Head Part 3 - This last featurette last twenty-four minutes and it nicely wraps up the history of the show and its return of another round.
- Special Appearances and Promos
- 2011 San Diego Comic-Con Panel - Johnny Knoxville hosted the panel that was focused on their return to tv.
- Beavis and Butt-head Interruptions - Gym. Tan. Butt-head / Settle Down Snooki / Beavis and Juice-Head / Vinny Reloaded
- Silence Your Cell Phone PSA
- Commentary with Mike Judge and Animation Director Yvette Kaplan for Beavis and Butt-head Do America
- The Big Picture - A making of documentary about the making of the film where we hear from Judge and others and see the voice actors at work.
- We're Gonna Score! - A talk about the making of the score with composer John Frizzell.
- The Smack Down - A look at the various beatings in the film.
- MTV News Celebrity Interviews - We hear from Steve Buscemi, Jennifer Tilly and Snoop Dogg.
- Trailers and TV Spots
Summary (4 out of 5 stars)
Beavis and Butthead are a guilty pleasure of mine and I especially like the movie that's been included. While I do wish that the set that's calling itself "The Complete Collection" was actually complete with all of the videos and cartoons, this set is probably the most complete we are going to get due to the expensive music rights. I do wish this had been released on Blu-ray too, but I'm still happy to have all of it it one set. The video and audio presentations are pretty good, but the fourth volume offers the best of both out of the four. The extras are fantastic and the price for this set is also very good so if you're a fan of the show then you should definitely pick this up!
Order your copy today!
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