South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut

<<

Screening Suggestions

>>

Continuing onto more familiar territory for everyone, let's take a look at Trey Parker and Matt Stone's probably most famous film - the 'South Park' movie. Hell, this was even in the running for Best Original Song for the 2000 Oscars. The song was 'Blame Canada', and I actually remember being kinda PO'ed about it at the time. But that was before I really got it. It was more a take on the way the stereotypical American patriot may see us Canadians rather than just a song that makes fun of Canada. Satire at its best, really.

Being released in the summer of 1999, one should probably keep in mind before watching this that it was released just as the show was getting into its third season. So plenty of what we see in 'South Park' nowadays is yet non-existent for this film. Timmy and Jimmy didn't exist yet, and Butters was there, but really just some background kid at the time, getting his name the following month in the 'Two Men in a Hot Tub' episode... I may know too much about 'South Park'.

Anyway, the film's plot centers, brilliantly enough, on a movie adaptation of the boys' favourite raunchy show, 'Terrence and Phillip'. The film manages to completely appall parents, while the kids are absorbing all of the wonderful new foul language it provides, seeing it over and over again and causing problems at school.

This ultimately leads to Kyle's Mom taking matters into her own hands, and starting an all out war with Canada due to the harm the movie seems to be doing to their childrens' fragile little minds. The whole movie is pretty much, at least from my perspective, a farce onto itself. It's a metaphor for how censors and the like, will completely overreact to certain situations like movies or video games, without taking some of the responsibility themselves. It's a statement that it's much easier for people to point the finger than blame themselves.

The film also plays out like something of a classic Disney animated adventure, in that there's song after song after song, making it a bit of a musical as well. This title also carries some of Trey's best song writing with songs like 'Up There' - seemingly a farce on 'The Little Mermaid's 'Part of Your World' in which Satan is singing about coming to Earth. Let's not leave out the enlongated version of 'Kyle's Mom's a Bitch' either, which is taken from the first season's Christmas special.

If I'm perfectly honest, I feel like this movie actually makes for a great intro to what 'South Park' really is all about. It wears this deceptive mask of raunchy comedy with so many of its visuals and so much of its dialogue. But peaking from behind that mask, 'South Park' covers social and political issues with a lot of the subtext. If you can see past a lot of the rude comedy, you can find some brilliant writing, and this film is no exception. Even being such an early addition to 'South Park's library, I can still go back and watch this one today without it feeling too old or outdated. Great for any fan of the show!

---