Cartman, Kyle, Stan, and Kenny make their big screen debut in a story about Terrence and Phillip, the cartoon character’s they watch with potty mouths. After the boys begin to mock the foul language from the movie, ”Asses of Fire” they are severely reprimanded. Kyle’s mom Sheila recruits the entire country of the U.S. to declare WW III against Canada for their culture being opposed on their children. The four boys must find a way to stop Sheila and her crusade and save Terrence and Phillip from being executed before Satan and his lover Saddam Hussein, who has died and gone to hell, gets their wish and the world ends.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone did an intelligent thing when creating this film. They simply made a longer version of the show where they could be even more profane, offensive, and graphic. What comedy central held them back from doing on their show they could go wild with on their obviously “R” rated film. So, the appeal this film gives is it’s completely similar to the show in storyline and and character arcs, but takes even less prisoners than the show already does.
What makes South Park get away with being so crude, disgusting, and offensive is the fact that an enormous intellect is behind the show. Very serious subjects are satirized through fouled mouthed immoral characters, but what is so clever is the foul mouthed immoral children generally end up being the voice of reason, while the adults are the confused screw-ups that need to be shown the right way.
Also South Park is an equal opportunist. It goes after anyone and anything with no discriminating. The show is a voice for anyone or anything that screws up, not a specific group. And in mocking government officials, celebrities, and the American public in general, they are wise enough to take shots at themselves.
The semi-musical of the film initially put me off as it seemed out of place, but it quickly found it’s medium and soon I was laughing as hard at the songs as I was at Satan and Saddam’s love affair. And after understanding the relevance of the song “Blame Canada” I also understood why it was nominated for an Academy Award.
People couldn’t call Cartman their favorite character on television without somewhere in between cursing and name calling there being a voice of reason. The reason we laugh is because the humour is true though exaggerated. South Park is unforgiving and makes no apologies for it’s crudeness or bluntness, nor should it. The spirit of the show and obnoxiously hilarious characters translated fantastically into a full length feature. Unless they have something really big to say again, I don’t see another film in the future, but I feel like this time around Trey Parker and Matt Stone were heroes of offensively brilliant satire. Obviously this movie is not for everyone, but for those that love the show already, it’s pure genius humour. South Park gets three and a half out of four stars.
