Tired of living on handouts from mom back in Iowa and after a series of dead-end jobs ruined by his well-intentioned six-legged roomies, Joe finds himself the unskilled drummer in Walter Shit's band.

Hanging posters for SHIT, he encounters Senator Dougherty's daughter Lily, promoting her own project, a community garden to occupy the vacant site surrounding Joe's building.

A mutual truce between the hapless and now homeless roommates leads the cockroaches to "call in favors from every roach, rat and pigeon in New York City" to try to make amends to Joe.

Overnight, the roaches scour New York to gather materials to convert the entire area into a garden and take care of all the necessary paperwork to ensure harmony reigns over all.

In 1993, MTV made a deal with Geffen Pictures during development to produce films based on the network's properties and release them through Warner Bros.

[3][4] Joe's Apartment was the first feature film Blue Sky Studios was involved in, having previously produced company logos and animated commercials.

Even with the enthusiastic billing as "MTV's first feature movie" and the support of the company, Joe's Apartment was a box office failure when it opened on July 26, 1996.

Its critical consensus reads, "Audiences will want their security deposit back from Joe's Apartment, a lame comedy whose dancing cockroaches are more charming than the human characters.