Essentials: South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut

Childhood ruined...

Year: 1999 (USA)
Genre: Animated Comedy/Satire
Directed: Trey Parker & Matt Stone
Stars: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Mary Kay Bergman, Isaac Hayes, Brent Spiner, Minnie Driver, Dave Foley, George Clooney, Eric Idle
Production: Paramount Pictures

When people think cartoons they automatically draw memories from their youth; bright colors, fantastic heroes and lovely princesses. Boy and girls of a certain age love the magical kingdom of Disney and the sly humor of Warner Bros. Saturday morning cartoons. Today, with the advent of computer digital imagery cartoons have risen to a whole new level of experience for the young. But we all have to grow up someday I guess.

That is unless of course you are a fan of Comedy Central’s savage satirical cartoon show South Park (1997-Present). Drawn in a crude, cardboard style and centered around three foul-mouthed boys from a Colorado mountain town, South Park brought a level of edginess to the animated arts not seen since The Simpsons (1989-Present). The level of South Park’s accomplishments is even more impressive when you consider all the episodes are written by two men, college friends Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

A few years after their runaway success the duo decided they wanted to green-light a feature length movie focusing on the four boys and the chaotic town they call home. What resulted was arguably one of the funniest animated-musical-comedies to come out in the latter part of the 20th century.

South Park knows little about low-comedy

The story of South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut begins with the four boys being refused at the movie theater for wanting to watch a rated-R movie. The stars of the movie are a pair of Canadian comics, Terrance and Phillip, who traffic in the lowest of low comedy. So naturally the boys don’t want to watch a watered down TV version a year after the fact. They manage to sneak into the Bijou and are exposed to the movie which sets the parents off on a crusade against the entire nation of Canada. The boys Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman (All voiced by Parker and Stone) must then put a stop to things before everything spirals out of control and Hell itself engulfs them all.

The world in which the boys inhabit is full of hyperbole, anarchic bedlam, and catchy, brilliantly written musical numbers. Avid aficionados of classic musicals, Trey Parker and Matt Stone wanted to convey that affection at a time when musicals weren’t in vogue. The heads of Paramount Pictures were not 100% on board with the decision yet still slated South Park for a June release.

Weeks after opening night, reports of underage teens sneaking into the film began to circulate causing a bit of controversy for the film. The MPAA originally slapped an NC-17 rating on the Guinness Book of World Record holder for most curse words in an animated film. That decision was later rescinded but didn’t put parents’ minds at ease. There were minor protests here and there but overall the film was a rousing success, garnering praise from critics and an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song.

Parker and Stone would later go on to pen a Tony Award winning musical The Book of Mormon and create an impressive marionette-themed action satire called Team America: World Police (2004) which also collected accolades and controversy. This is in addition to reaching new heights with the Emmy Award winning South Park for fourteen more years. Not bad for two foulmouthed kids from Colorado who never grew up.

Not bad at all

Final Grade: A