Vampire in the Garden with Beavis and Butthead-Renegade Animation #66
Tonight on Renegade Animation, Captain Kaye and The Animation Guru look at the new anime series on Netflix, Vampire in the Garden from Wit Studio, and Paramount+'s new movie starring the dynamic duo from MTV, Beavis and Butthead Do The Universe! Uh-huh-huh-huh.
Hey, everyone! The Streamin Demon here to introduce a brand new Renegade Animation! In this one, Mike and Cameron discuss the new Netflix series, Vampire in the Garden, and Beavis and Butthead’s big comeback, Beavis and Butthead Do The Universe! Take it away, Mike!
Vampire in the Garden
“Vampire in the Garden is a fascinating 5 episode anime limited series now streaming on Netflix from Wit Studios. After humanity loses its battle with vampires, a young survivor named Momo has a fateful encounter with Fine, a vampire queen, and together they embark on a quest to find harmony.
While the animation isn't always the smoothest, especially when it tries to awkwardly blend a few CGI elements, I was sucked right into the story. It's not often we see anti-war narratives mixed with dark fantasy, yet here we are. For this story to work, you have to believe in the romance between our two leads, and I did. At the very least, I believed in what they were trying to accomplish, all while at the center of an ongoing battle.
Check this out if you're into both anti-war stories and dark fantasy romance!”-Michael Kaye
Beavis and Butthead Do the Universe
“Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe is the second film based on the classic MTV animated series Beavis and Butt-Head, directed by John Rice and Albert Calleros and written by Mike Judge and Lew Morton. Blasting off on a NASA space mission in 1998, mischievous best pals Beavis and Butt-head time travel to the year 2022. As the NSA and U.S. government try to track them down, the clueless teens do their best to adjust to modern life. When it was first announced back in 2020 that we were getting a second revival of Beavis and Butt-Head, I'll admit that I was a little nervous. The show had already been revived once to mixed reception, and barely lasted one season.
However, after seeing this movie, my fears (for the most part) have been quelled. It's easy to forgot how much I enjoy Mike Judge's works both in film and television until I actually sit down to watch one, and even though he didn't direct Do the Universe, he's still the driving creative force. Judge has kind of perfected the art of "smart dumb comedy," and in this case it's introducing our titular duo to space, inter-dimensional travel and the multiverse, all while basically following the same beats as Do America. Having watched both films back to back, I'm genuinely not sure which one is better. Purists might lean towards the first movie, since that used traditional hand drawn animation from Rough Draft Studios. This time, however, the film was digitally animated by Titmouse, Inc., which gives it a more polished presentation. But purely as a comedy, I'd say they're equals. Similar to Idiocracy, there's a bit of a fish out of water element to Beavis and Butt-Head traveling to 2022 from the late 90's. This results in some hilarious social commentary, such as the duo learning about "white privilege” after walking in on a gender studies lecture taught by a professor voiced by Tig Notarro.
Reviewing comedies can be tough, not only because humor is so subjective, but I also don't want to spoil all of the best jokes, visual gags, and outlandish comedic set pieces. And while Do the Universe may not quite have the same "theatrical" quality as the first film, it's still written like a sequel with appropriately raised stakes. My one slight criticism that still isn't a dealbreaker per se is that I didn't find the soundtrack to be as memorable. This could be chalked up to the changing of the pop culture landscape, with MTV no longer regularly broadcasting music video, and rock and metal all but vanishing from the mainstream. While I appreciate the inclusion of Black Sabbath's ‘Children of the Grave,’ in the third act, it doesn't hit quite the same as the White Zombie hallucination sequence in the desert from the first film.
On the whole, I had a great time with Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe! The writing is sharp, the hijinks are ridiculous, and Mike Judge slips back into these characters with ease. The film is now streaming on Paramount+, with the first season of the 2nd series revival expected to premier later this year!”-Michael Kaye
