DVD Commentary

Double Take

Two new DVDs from Mike Judge -- EW reviews ''Idiocracy'' and ''The Animation Show''

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By Chris Willman

Chris Willman

Chris Willman is a senior music writer for Entertainment Weekly

The dystopia on display in the current Children of Men seems almost Pollyannaish, if not pansy-ass, next to Mike Judge's Idiocracy. The Beavis and Butt-head creator sends Luke Wilson into a satirical future populated by nothing but buttheads. It's sort of Brave New World crossed with Britney & Kevin: Chaotic: Years of genetic devolution, commercialism, and hypersexuality result in an America where Starbucks and H&R Block offer ''full release'' lattes and tax returns with ''happy endings.'' If Idiocracy eventually runs out of comic steam, it's still easily the funniest movie ever dumped into a handful of theaters sans critics' screenings. (When did Beavis become a studio exec?) There's little idiocy, meanwhile, in a two-disc set with Judge's imprimatur, The Animation Show: Vols. 1-2. The 30 short 'toons, many Oscar-nominated and/or uncomedic, range from serious sci-fi fantasias about cloning and evolution to Bill Plympton bits to an old Judge short that spawned his Office Space's stapler-confiscation scene. In offering a classier antidote to the Spike & Mike cartoon compendia, Judge seems to be striking a small blow against crudity...while he can. Both: B+