This is a musical based on the TV series South Park
(which is set in a mountain town in Colorado where pretty much the entire
population is mad or stupid or both). It's a brilliant send-up of Disney
musicals (which I didn't realise at the time. OK I'm stupid I admit it.)
Director Trey Parker has enormous talent for songwriting, demonstrated in his
earlier movie Cannibal! The Musical. Some of the music and lyrics in South
Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut are just plain brilliant, although not to
everybody's taste, in particular the Uncle Fucka song by Terrance and Philip
who sadly disappeared for most of the movie after this. The movie differs fom
the TV series in many ways. The animation has been improved somewhat for the
big screen, in general (eg. some characters have moving feet) and in some
specific scenes in Hell, but the main difference is the language. There are
hundreds and hundreds of swearwords, and the whole movie is coarser, and not as
satirical or witty as the TV series, but who cares, it's damn' funny.
The plot: South Park kids Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny manage to see an
R-rated movie, Asses of Fire starring Terrance and Philip, two flatulent
Canadians. The resultant stream of swearwords from them that they picked up
from the movie prompts their parents, in particular Mrs Broslovski, to take
action, which ultimately results in America declaring war on Canada. There's
also a subplot involving Saddam Hussein and Satan in a somewhat unlikely
relationship.
The celebrity voices include Minnie Driver, George Clooney (a massive South
Park fan apparently), Brent Spiner and Eric Idle, although to be honest they
could have been anybody. My main gripe with this movie is that there's too much
damn Mrs Broslovski. As Cartman says, she is a big fat bitch, so why is she on
the screen so much? And I really missed Mr Hankey and Jesus, and Chef didn't do
much either. Also the movie is a bit too long, despite only lasting 80 minutes,
and the second half wasn't particularly funny. And why isn't that Going To Hell
song on the soundtrack? But the funny bits more than make up for these
shortcomings, and make this a good movie, although I can see why some people
might be offended by the language and some of the images. For this reason this
movie is best watched by those who like the TV show, and is not one to take
children to.
The Players:
Trey Parker as Eric Cartman, Stan Marsh, Mr Garrison, Mr
Hat, Officer Barbrady and others
Matt Stone as Kyle Broslovski, Kenny McCormick and others
Mary Kay Bergman as Mrs Broslovski, Mrs Cartman, and well hell practically all
the female parts
written by Ed in August 1999