Beavis and Butt-head: Mike Judge's Most Wanted DVD Review (1 Viewer)

[Timothy E]

Mike Judge’s Most Wanted is a new collection of Beavis and Butthead cartoons being released to coincide with the new Beavis and Butthead episodes premiering on MTV on October 27, 2011. The collection consists of 20 cartoons selected by Beavis and Butthead creator Mike Judge, as well as some special features, including a preview of the new series.

Beavis and Butthead: Mike Judge’s

Most Wanted DVD

Studio: MTV/Paramount Home Entertainment

Year: 1993-1997

Rated: Unrated

Film Length: 1 hour, 55 minutes

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1

Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0

Release Date: October 4, 2011

The Series

Mike Judge created Beavis and Butthead for the cartoon short "Frog Baseball" which appeared in the 1992 version of Spike and Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation. The cartoon aired later on MTV’s Liquid Television, and the network commissioned him to create the series shortly after, which was in production from 1993 through 1997. The series also inspired the 1996 theatrical feature film Beavis and Butthead Do America.

Beavis and Butthead are ignorant, maladjusted, disturbed teenagers who love heavy metal music. The characters’ ignorance and stupidity is the principle source of humor and satire in the series. The original Beavis and Butthead series consisted of 2 cartoons in a 30 minute block. The cartoon segments were originally interspersed with music videos in which Beavis and Butthead offered their thoughts and commentary on the videos, the music, or anything else on their minds. Unfortunately, the music videos have clearance issues which have prevented most of them from being included in authorized collections of Beavis and Butthead cartoons. This is unfortunate since many fans believe that the duo’s video commentaries are as much fun as the cartoon segments and lend a better pace to the cartoons when included. This collection includes the following cartoon segments without the video commentaries:

Lightning Strikes (5:39)

A Very Special Episode (5:41)

Die Fly, Die! (4:53)

Stewart Is Missing (5:46)

Close Encounters (5:23)

Nose Bleed (5:26)

Plastic Surgin’ (4:54)

Tired (5:18)

Candy Sale (5:40)

Date Bait (4:53)

Animation Sucks (6:11)

Impotence (5:23)

Beaverly Buttbillies (5:07)

Sexual Harassment (5:20)

Prank Call (5:51)

Substitute (5:31)

Follow Me (5:11)

Bus Trip (5:42)

Safe House (5:02)

The Great Cornholio (7:58)

The running lengths of these shorts are about half as long as the aired versions which included approximately 5 minutes each of video commentary by Beavis and Butthead.

Video

The series is presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Video quality is surprisingly poor on the original cartoons, which appear to have been transferred from videotape masters. (The preview of the new series fares noticeably better.) These cartoons appear to be the same transfers that appeared on the Mike Judge Collections of Beavis and Butthead. The fine line style of animation on these cartoons does not lend itself well to DVD transfer anyway, and the lack of any apparent remastering does not help matters. Colors were never particularly vibrant on the original cartoons, however, colors are very faded. There are some minor compression artifacts but these are trivial and almost imperceptible compared to the latent defects in the transfers. The short preview of the new series is noticeably superior in video quality even though the animation style is seemingly identical to the original series.

Audio

The English Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks are adequate for a series from the mid-1990s. Dialogue is always appropriately audible over music and sound effects. This was never reference quality material even at its best and the audio has no apparent defects.

Special Features

The special features include the following:

Scenes From The New Season(4:49): This is some of the same footage that was previewed by Mike Judge for fans at Comic Con International 2011 in San Diego. The new series has Beavis and Butthead watching current TV shows like MTV’s Jersey Shore and offering their comments.

Taint of Greatness: The Journey of Beavis and Butthead(1:04:09): This is the complete documentary that was previously included in 3 separate parts in the Mike Judge Beavis and Butthead Collections on DVD.

Original Uncut Frog Baseball(2:39): This is the original cartoon short that started it all. It was previously included in Volume 3 of the Mike Judge Beavis and Butthead Collection.

Conclusion

Beavis and Butthead: Mike Judge’s Most Wanted is recommended to fans of the original TV series who cannot wait to see the preview of the new series, but probably not to anyone else. The only new footage is the preview of the new series which is less than 5 minutes; the remainder of the material on this DVD has been included in earlier collections. The audio is adequate but the video quality of this DVD leaves something to be desired. Fans who do not have the earlier collections will certainly want to pick this one up to see the preview of the new footage.