Review: South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (1999)
OK, I’m finally getting around to write about this movie, which I saw this past weekend. From a business point of view, it’s a little disappointing that the show wasn’t sold out. I suppose that simply reflects how South Park has a certain audience, and this audience has probably gone and seen it on opening weekend, and not the subsequent weekend like me.
The film is truly epic. Most TV shows that go on to become films have a problem expanding out of their 30-minute time slots into something larger, leaving numerous soft spots. Witness the Beavis and Butthead movie, any number of Saturday Night Live derived films, the revivals of certain series from the 1970s. “South Park” succeeds where others have failed: not only does it make the transition from small screen to big, it does it in grand, brilliant fashion, spanning the universe from the deepest pits of Hell to the, uh, celestial spheres of heaven. It’s funny throughout: the number of minutes you spend not chuckling or laughing out loud can be counted on your fingers. Granted, this is mostly gross out humor and the amusement of seeing third graders curse floridly, and it’s just damn funny. Yes, we’ve known all along that South Park is a raw-for-TV show with a even more raw R-rated movie inside waiting to break out, but seeing Cartman let loose, a sort of apotheosis of Eric, is a wonder in itself. It’s what we’ve been waiting for.
“South Park” even has a point to make, particularly relevant after the Littleton, CO, shootings, where everything remotely connected to the media or computer gaming industry was blamed for the violence of two disturbed individuals. This is not a simple, potty-mouthed movie, but a sharp bit of social commentary as well. A stand is taken, and I leave it to the movie to make its argument.
One nice thing about this transition from small to big screen is that they don’t try to drag out every peripheral character that’s ever been on the show. Yes, Damien Son of Satan is in the background, as is Jesus and, I think, Pip, but they have no speaking roles. It’s like any other SP episode where they have to show a crowd shot: the whole town’s there, but no talking. I winced a few times during, say, one of the Star Trek movies where Ensign Bob who appeared in a few episodes back in season 5 and 6 had to get his two lines in. When a TV series makes it to film, it generally tries to hard to be golly gee about the whole thing. SP doesn’t.
Not that there aren’t references to South Parks Past and the other epics of the Parker/Stone ouvre. Kenny dies in the hospital after having a baked potato put in his chest, an apparent reference to the main song [1] of “Cannibal: The Musical” [2]. And the whole Brian Boitano thing is baffling only if you haven’t seen the animated short that started it all, “The Spirit of Christmas” [3].
For that matter, one of the things little remarked upon about this movie is the fact that it’s a musical, complete with sophisticated production numbers and a wonderful part towards the end when the main songs of the movie are interwoven into a four-way medley. Broadway shows are parodied — Les Mis was skewered — as well as Disney animated films — Satan as the Little Mermaid. This shouldn’t be surprising giving the large musical content of the weekly show, as well as previous Parker-Stone efforts like “Cannibal” (all singing, all dancing, all flesh-eating).
So, how would Brian Boitano end this review?
[1] http://www.wedgieworld.com/cannibal/shpadoinkle2.html
[2] http://us.imdb.com/Reviews/167/16750
[3] http://us.imdb.com/Title?0122264