Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure parents guide

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure Parent Guide

If you've never considered history to be a bodacious subject, then maybe you haven't seen it from the perspective of "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure."

Overall B-

When faced with dire consequences if they fail their history exam, Bill and Ted (Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves), who happen to have access to a time machine, take a trip back in time to meet the famous people they should be studying about.

Release date February 16, 1989

Violence B-
Sexual Content B-
Profanity C+
Substance Use C+

Why is Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure rated PG? The MPAA rated Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure PG

Run Time: 90 minutes

Parent Movie Review

If you’ve never considered history to be a bodacious subject, then maybe you haven’t seen it from the perspective of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Two academically challenged high school students, who would rather dream about the future successes of their garage band than study, are about to fail their history class. Considering their lack of effort to date, it seems a long shot that Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) will be able to even pass let alone pull off an A+ grade on their final assignment. But if they fail, Ted will be heading off to an Alaskan military school and their musical aspirations will be squashed.

Luckily for these two rockers who say “dude” almost as often as a California valley girl utters “like”, intergalactic assistance in the form of Rufus (George Carlin) is on the way. The alien, who arrives in a time traveling phone booth, shows the boys how to dial up any era they’d like to visit. Rather than theorize about how a historical character would feel about the present day, they decide to get the facts straight from the source.

First stop is Napoleon’s (Terry Camilleri) battlefield where the little general is leading a force against an opposing army. Encouraged by their meeting, the boys pick up Billy the Kid (Dan Shor), Socrates (Tony Steedman), Sigmund Freud (Rod Loomis) Genghis Khan (Al Leong), Joan of Arc (Jane Wiedlin), Beethoven (Clifford David) and Abe Lincoln (Robert V. Barron) and haul them all back to the 20th century.

However keeping this flock of bygone figures all together in a modern day mall proves to be impossible. While Bill and Ted head off in search of the missing Napoleon, the others get a contemporary taste of the world of aerobics, electric organs and sporting equipment.

Now considered an 80’s cult film, the commercially successful Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure achieved predominantly positive reviews when it released in 1989. Dressed in clothing and hairstyles from the era, Bill S. Preston Esq. and Theodore “Ted” Logan now seem as antiquated in 2012 as the historical characters they rounded up for their report. So are some of the film’s themes, including Rufus’ attitude toward the two young women he offers to the boys as a reward.

While Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure‘s could never replace a textbook or online research of historical figures, the film’s relatively modest content, consisting of some sexually suggestive innuendo and comments along with several profanities, gives today’s generation a look at what was “cool” 25 years ago. These slackers, who often disobey authority in favor of achieving their own goals, are far from being the “most outstanding” role models ever portrayed. But their good intentions and the film’s comic feel suggests that neither are they the most “heinous”.

Directed by Stephen Herek. Starring Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, George Carlin. Running time: 90 minutes. Theatrical release February 16, 1989. Updated

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
Rating & Content Info

Why is Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure rated PG? Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure is rated PG by the MPAA

Violence: Man attacks a mannequin with a baseball bat. Characters are sentenced to death and nearly beheaded with axes. A character pushes his way to the front of lines and yells at people who upset him. A boy and his father argue. Characters are jailed for disruptive behavior including damaging a sporting goods store. Characters engage in playful sword fighting. Another character is stabbed with a sword and presumed dead. A man fires a gun but no one is shot. A character takes a bullet in the foot. Characters are kidnapped.

Sexual Content: Male teens look down the shirt of a woman as she leans over. A man looks suggestively at his much younger wife. The script intimates that the man and his wife engage in sexual activity. A man’s naked body can be partially seen through his old-fashioned wet underwear. Older men hit on young women in mall. A boy, whose stepmother is only a couple of years older than him says he suffers from a minor Oedipal complex. Girls give boys a peck on the cheek. A man grabs and begins kissing a young servant girl.

Language: The script includes some crude anatomical terms and name-calling, a couple of mild profanities, sexual innuendo and some rude language. A scatological slang term is repeatedly written in the subtitles in one scene.

Alcohol / Drug Use: Teens order beer in a saloon. Secondary characters drink and smoke cigars or cigarettes on several occasions.

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Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure Parents' Guide

How does this film portray what teen language was like in the 1980s? How have fashion and hairstyles changed in the past 25 years?

Although there are no real historical facts revealed in this script, might this film encourage young viewers to look up more information about the characters that Ted and Bill bring home?

How realistic does Bill and Ted’s dream of having a band seem at the time? Why is it sometimes hard to judge what successes might be achieved in the future?

Home Video

The most recent home video release of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure movie is May 15, 2018. Here are some details…

Home Video Notes: Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (SteelBook)

Release Date: 15 May 2018
For the 30th Anniversary of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, the movie is re-releasing to home video (Blu-ray or DVD) as a Limited Edition SteelBook. Featurettes
and trailers are included.

Home Video Notes: Bill & Ted’s Most Excellent Collection

Release Date: 27 September 2016
Relive the 1989 adventures of Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) with this Most Excellent Collection releasing to home video the following special features:
- Audio Commentary for Bill &Ted’s Excellent Adventure with Star Alex Winter and Producer Scott Kroopf
- Audio Commentary for Bill &Ted’s Excellent Adventure with Writers Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon
- Audio Commentary for Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey with Star Alex Winter and Producer Scott Kroopf
- Audio Commentary for Bill &Ted’s Bogus Journey with Writers Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon
- Time Flies When You Are Having Fun! - A Brand-New Extensive Documentary Looking Back at a Most “Excellent Adventure,” featuring Stars Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, and several other members of the cast and crew
- Bill & Ted Go To Hell – A Brand-New Extensive Documentary Revisiting a “Bogus Journey,” featuring Stars Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, and several other members of the cast and crew
- The Most Triumphant Making-Of
- The Original Bill & Ted: In Conversation with Chris & Ed
- The Hysterical Personages of Bill & Ted
- Score! An Interview with Guitarist Steve Vai
- Air Guitar Tutorial With Bjorn Turoque & The Rockness Monster
- Vintage EPK
- The Linguistic Stylings of Bill and Ted
- Theatrical Trailers
- 2 Bill And Ted Stickers
- Wyld Stallyns Guitar Pick

Home Video Notes: Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
Release Date: 13 November 2012
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure releases to Blu-ray with the following extras:
- Theatrical Feature
- One Sweet and Sour Chinese Adventure to Go
- Radio Spots
- Theatrical Trailer

Related home video titles:

Since his days as a dimwitted teen in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Keanu Reeves has gone on to star in more dramatic movies like A Walk in the Clouds, The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, The Lake House, and The Day the Earth Stood Still.

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