[DVD Review (R1)] SOUTH PARK: IMAGINATIONLAND
In Off The Shelf – Issue #33 : Animation I referred to Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut as follows:
“…This should never have worked! Never in a million years! Even if it had worked, it should never have worked on the level that it did whereby it managed to mock the musical genre, the TV-show-going-to-the-big-screen subgenre and the whole conventions of the large cast disaster movie/men-on-a-mission style of story! This is a film that I’ve seen time and time again, and I laugh out loud consistently every single time. I know every joke and every story beat and I still come away surprised every time. I wasn’t that much of a South Park fan going into this but I came out with a new found respect afterwards. Compare the recent Simpsons Movie to this and you’ll understand why there were a lot of people disappointed with this year’s offering. When South Park made a movie this friggin’ brilliant with only a trio or so of writers, why couldn’t The Simpsons clan equal it or better it with a team of fifteen or so of the best comedy writers from that show?”
I stand by those comments to this day and – having encountered Parker and Stone’s Season 11 three-episode run / direct-to-DVD “sequel” South Park: Imaginationland – I now think they’ve delivered a piece of accompanying work that is the equivalent, quality-wise, of Toy Story 2 to Toy Story, Godfather Part II to Godfather or Aliens to Alien. I’m not kidding. Seriously. I’m not fucking around. Within its particular genre… THIS. IS. A. WORK. OF. GENIUS.
When Cartman bets Kyle that leprechauns do indeed exist, the wager falls on Kyle sucking Cartman’s balls if he is proved wrong. Things kick into motion when a leprechaun does indeed turn up, warning of an impending terrorist attack, and transporting Stan, Kyle and Butters to a magical place known as ImaginationLand where said impending terrorist attack is immediately launched. The attack unleashes a war where stormtroopers fight care-bears, aliens and predators take on Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny and the likes of Jason Vorhees and Freddy Kruger battle Strawberry Shortcake and Mighty Mouse. The world’s imaginations start spinning out of control as a result so the US government prepare to nuke the mystical land to put an end to the chaos. Racing against time to prevent nuclear devastation, the good-side of ImaginationLand realise their only hope lies in the hands of the one human boy left behind in the battle – Butters! All the while, ignoring the threat of nuclear devastation and utter chaos, Cartman goes all the way to the Supreme Court before beginning a lone Rambo-esque campaign to get his dry balls moistened with Kyle’s saliva.
And amongst all of this Saving Private Ryan, Stargate, Lord of the Rings, Mel Gibson, Michael Bay, Al Gore, M. Night Shymalan, Jerry Bruckheimer productions, Kurt Russell and pretty much every single pop culture icon in the realms of horror and fantasy get skewered to perfection.
This is satire at its pitch perfect best. It’s a masterclass in how to rip the piss so boldly whilst telling a solid story with a satirical bent. It’s also one of the most consistently amusing flicks I’ve ever encountered. I’m not kidding. South Park: The Movie Mk I was up there with the likes of Airplane! and Dumb & Dumber in terms of laughs to running time ratios. This little production supersedes Mk I and then some. It would kill Parker and Stone to be compared to Family Guy but I genuinely thought their Blue Harvest was a fantastically well done piece of TV-to-Movie crossovers but at only 45 minutes it was a touch lacking. South Park: ImaginationLand puts Family Guy: Blue Harvest to shame. It’s a solid twenty minutes longer, more inventive in that time then the entire last season of The Simpsons (I shit you not!) and is a genuine work of genius in terms of what they manage to cram in and what point they manage to subliminally work into the material in just 65 minutes.
If you’re not a South Park fan then I feel confident enough to suggest that this offering could well convert you over… Maybe… Okay, let’s be honest, there’s not a chance in hell of that. But if you like Parker and Stone’s schtick in terms of their movie output and what they’ve done with South Park for the last eleven years then this is definitely for you.
I’ve never laughed as much and so hard at anything coming out of Hollywood since… funnily enough Parker and Stone’s Team America. And you have GOT to take me seriously when I tell you that this is even better!
A must own piece of pop culture!
4 Responses to “[DVD Review (R1)] SOUTH PARK: IMAGINATIONLAND”
Got to agree, South Park rocks.. but IMHO it’s getting old (like The Simpsons)..
Shows like Family Guy and American Dad are IMO better shows… this is until they have been going for far to long, and the writers no longer have original ideas of what to do with the show..
Said that South Park is still cool… but I wouldn’t pay to watch it…
I have a special place in my heart for the South Park movie. The Uncle F**** song almost killed me. Literally. I was laughing so hard that I choked on my popcorn and needed a smack on the back from my dad(yeah, he took me to see it. Needed somebody to get me in).
“Family Guy and American Dad are IMO better shows.”
Those shows combined aren’t 1/10th as good as South Park.
the southpark movie is really one of my favourite movies, but I wouldn’t pay to watch it
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