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Category:    Home > Reviews > Animation > Feature Film > Comedy > TV > Beavis & Butt-head: The Mike Judge Collection (Complete Collection In Gold Foil Box)

Beavis & Butt-head: The Mike Judge Collection (Complete Collection In Gold Foil Box)

 

Picture: C+/B- film     Sound: C+/B- film     Extras: B-     Episodes: B     Film: B

 

 

We were on a roll covering the new upgraded releases of shorts from the Beavis & Butt-head franchise.   Creator Mike Judge was not happy with the entire series overall and had enough power and ownership to convince MTV and Paramount to only do three best-of sets dubbed The Mike Judge Collection.  The underrated 1996 feature film was also issued and here is our coverage of those releases:

 

Volume One

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/2959/Beavis+&+Butt-Head+-+The+Mike+Judge+Collection:+Volume+One

 

Volume Two

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3953/Beavis+&+Butt-Head+-+The+Mike+Judge+Collection:+Volume+Two

 

DO AMERICA theatrical feature film

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4376/Beavis+&+Butt-Head+Do+America+–+Special+Collector’s+Edition+(10th+Anniversary)

 

 

Having missed the third and final Judge set, we catch up to it as part of the nicely packaged Mike Judge Collection that includes the feature film and all three volumes of what Judge felt was the best material worth releasing.  This time we get 42 episodes hand-picked by Judge from the 1995-1997 period including the following:

 

DVD 1: No Service, Sprout, Yard Sale, PTA, 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

 

DVD 2: Citizens Arrest, A Great Day, Dumbasses Anonymous, Woodshop, Shopping Cart, Bride of Butt-Head, Special Delivery, TV 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 Flambe, Leave it to Beavis, Beavis and Butt-Head are Dead

 

That leaves the third DVD with a later feature of the series that was a big hit, but much cheaper to produce than the animated shows:  spoofing Music Videos!  For the record, the clips sent up here include Stakka Bo’s Here We Go, Crowbar’s Existence Is Punishment", Salt 'N' Pepa (Featuring En Vogue) - Whatta Man, Poison’s I Want Action, 2 Unlimited’s Get Ready For This, Tripping Daisy’s I Got a Girl, Jesus Lizard’s Glamorous, Sonic Youth’s Dirty Boots, Soundgarden’s Spoonman, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s Dang, PJ Harvey’s Down By The Water, Alice Cooper’s Teenage Frankenstein, Toadies’ Possum Kingdom, Rollins Band’s Liar and Paul Broucek’s Hollywood Halloween.  Even when the clips were good (Whatta Man, I Got a Girl, Liar), the Music Video was in trouble and this success confirmed why MTV was unable to stay strictly in the Videos business and though the comments can get tired quickly if you are not interested, the success of the initial show proved that MTV itself was in trouble.  It never truly recovered.

 

As for the shorts chosen, I have to say that Judge is absolutely correct in the shorts he picked.  They are the best and anything else makes the characters and franchise seem as tired and dated as it became before its original run was finally ground to a halt.  Judge knows how and why this material works, so it is with a sense of satisfied closure that will make all fans happy and show how smart the show really was.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image has once again been updated as much as possible, but the shows were produced hand drawn, with analog video compositing.  The result is some fringing in the fine details, but the series purposely had crude animation as its style, which actually upped the humor.  With that said, they look good and those with 1.78 X 1/16 X 9 video playback can zoom in and will be surprised how well they reformat.  The image quality is a bit better this time.  Widescreen is still not the way they were intended to be seen, but it is an alternative that works.  Extras this time include the original, uncut Beavis & Butt-head short Frog Baseball, rare special “appearances” & promos and the Taint of Greatness: The Journey of Beavis and Butt-head, Part 3 featurette.

 

On its own, the third set is as strong as the first two, but as part of this Gold set, it amounts to a complete record of a cultural phenomenon that knew stupidity with ironic distance.  That is something its imitators missed.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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