South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut (1999)
Paramount/Warner Brothers
Directed by Trey Parker
Rated R
It should come to no surprise when I say that my all-time favorite television show is South Park. With its clever writing and political satire, this is the show that would put Viacom affiliate Comedy Central on the map in terms of basic cable. To this day the show is still running, as creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone already signed a deal for three more seasons right after the 17th season ended.
For the two or so people that don’t know, and for those who’ve lived under a rock for god knows how long, I’ll give you the skinny. You see, in the early 1990s, Columbine students Trey Parker and Matt Stone made two short animated Christmas cards, both of which are called The Spirit of Christmas. The first one, which is also called Jesus Vs. Frosty involves four foul-mouthed boys who build a snowman only for it to come alive as a monster and wreak havoc upon the town, and the only person that could kill him is Jesus Christ himself. After the video went viral, Matt and Trey created another one entitled Jesus Vs. Santa, which involves the four boys encountering both Jesus Christ and Santa Clause, both of which begin to fight each other over who has control of the holiday. The latter became the official pilot for South Park. The animation was submitted to Comedy Central, and they loved it so much that they signed a deal with Matt and Trey for a 2 season animated series, leading to the premiere of the first episode entitled Cartman Gets an Anal Probe in 1997. The show would eventually become a mainstay for the network, and to this day, it is considered to be their most iconic program overall.
Fast-forward to early 1999, when the second season was about to end within months. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone had an idea to go out with a bang, so they signed a deal with Comedy Central’s film affiliate Paramount Pictures to make a feature-length motion picture based on their license. Paramount accepted the deal, and Trey Parker was set to direct the project. They also managed to get the help of Warner Brothers Pictures to assist with the production. The movie was finally released on June 30th, 1999, and it became a huge box office success. The movie also got some high praise from critics, with Lisa Schwarzbaum from Entertainment Weekly calling it “the funniest, most risk-taking, most incisive movie of the summer” and Stephen Holden from the New York Times calling it “the year’s funniest comedy and the best movie musical in years.” Yes. You read that right. It’s a movie musical. Before I get into that, let’s get to the plot, shall we?
"Lemme have some candy, Cartman."
"Oh, well let's see...Hmmm...nope. I don't have any Jewish candy."
The movie focuses on the main four boys from the series: Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman (or Eric). They go to see an R-rated movie starring their two idols, Canadians Terrance & Phillip. They start swearing up a storm after seeing the movie, until their parents find out what they've been saying, and they become outraged. Eventually, the whole craze gets out of hand when other kids all over South Park start shouting obscenities to the point where the parents start to protest the movie. It gets even worse when Kenny re-enacts a scene from the movie that gets him killed. Terrance and Phillip are arrested, and the Canadians bomb the Baldwin residence in response. The United States declares war on Canada and Terrance and Phillip are sentenced to death. At the same time all this madness happens, we see that Satan himself is engaged in a relationship with former terrorist leader Saddam Hussein. Yes…a relationship. A literal gay relationship between Saddam Hussein and Satan, the prince of darkness himself (hush Ozzie Osbourne fans). This adds to the plot, as Satan reveals to Saddam a prophecy that states if the blood of Terrance and Phillip is spilled on the ground, he will rise and bring two million years of darkness to the world. Kenny would eventually warn Cartman of this as a ghost and he passes it onto Stan and Kyle. So it’s up to the kids of South Park to stop the war, free Terrance & Phillip, and prevent two million years of damnation from the rise of Satan and Saddam Hussein.
Now I myself have personally seen every single episode of the South Park television show, mainly thanks to the official website which allows visitors to watch episodes for free (though with commercials). However, I was not introduced to South Park through the show itself. No. I was introduced to it by watching the movie for the first time. I was 13, and I stayed up at midnight to watch the movie, with the only consequence having to sit through the movie Little Nicky (and that movie sucked ass). The movie is just downright hilarious from start to finish in my opinion, mainly due to what they were able to get away with. The main focus of the movie is the view on censorship and freedom of speech, so because this is South Park, what better way than to go to the extremes. The show is known to have a lot of profane language and some violent images and sexual references in a comedic manner, but this movie turns that up to eleven, knowing that the filmmakers don’t have to deal with FCC regulations breathing down their necks. It basically set the fine line as to what animated films were for families, and what animated films were solely for adults (i.e. this). After all, cartoons aren't just for kids.
As I mentioned earlier, the movie is a musical, which is a fact that took many moviegoers at the time by surprise. This, you can say, is making fun of the trend that almost every single animated movie production had to have songs in it, which to say was quite a popular trend, mainly thanks to the various Disney movies that were around at the time. The music alone is one thing that makes the film different from the show at the time, as they used a full orchestra instead of the usual acoustic guitar riffs you’d hear from time to time as a scene transitions or something composed on music software using a keyboard. The songs themselves are hilarious, with songs like “Uncle Fucka”, “What Would Brian Boitano Do?”, “I Can Change”, and “Blame Canada”, which got an Oscar nomination for best original song (losing to “You’ll Be In My Heart” from Tarzan). The funniest song, however, is the “Kyle’s Mom Is A Big Fat Bitch” number sung by Cartman, which is a throwback to the first time he sung it on the episode “Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo”, which was the first Christmas episode from season 1 of the TV series (and no, Mr. Hankey is not in this movie). The songs were written by Trey Parker, and the musical score was done by veteran film composer Marc Shaiman, who is also known as composing the scores for movies like George of the Jungle, Sleepless in Seattle, A Few Good Men, The Addams Family , and City Slickers, to name a few.
"Hey, fuck face, have you seen Gracie?"
Comparing the animation and presentation of the movie to the original TV series at the time, aside from several scenes, there’s actually little to no difference here. The use of green-screened fire instead of using construction paper to make flame-like shapes, and the use of CGI in some parts (i.e. the scene where Kenny is plunged into Hell) for example are what makes the movie's quality in animation differ, but that's it. However, the animation really shines during action scenes and, of course, the musical numbers that are sometimes parodies of segments from the renaissance Disney films like Beauty and the Beast or The Little Mermaid. Other than that, you can say that this is more of a musical episode of the show stretched out to motion picture length. This, sadly, dates the film a bit, as the quality of the animation in current seasons of the show have drastically improved with the uses of modern animation software such as Autodesk Maya and various Adobe programs, making the techniques used in the film look a bit primitive. Look at the Coon Trilogy or Imaginationland Trilogy episodes and you'll see what I mean.
Of course, I cannot forget that there are some voice cameos in the film. George Clooney, one of my personal favorite actors in Hollywood today, for example, does the voice of the head doctor during the scene where Kenny is getting surgery after being burned alive. Monty Python member Eric Idle also does a voice in this as the doctor who gives Cartman a V-chip, a device in his head that shocks him every time he says a swear word. This is the funniest scene in the entire movie next to the scenes with Saddam and Satan. I cannot tell you how hard I laughed the first time I watched this scene.
To conclude, unless you're easily offended by certain things or language (which I highly doubt on this site), if you're a die hard fan of South Park or are looking for a clever, raunchy comedy or animated film, this is a movie I most highly recommend. It is cheap-as-chips on DVD and Blu-Ray if you browse sites like Amazon or eBay. It's sad, though, that even though the movie made millions at the box office and was highly praised by audiences and critics, there have been no plans for a theatrical sequel or follow-up. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is up to you, though. Until then, the closest you're probably gonna get to that is the direct-to-video movie version of the three Imaginationland episodes.
