MEOW!
Happy Good Friday everybody! What better film to review on this day than...South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut?
Happy Good Friday everybody! What better film to review on this day than...South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut?
Now...I understand that this film isn't the kind you would review before a holiday as holy as Easter, so the following words that you are about to read may cause quite a bit of a shock. This is coming from someone who has enjoyed religious musicals such as Godspell and The Prince of Egypt. This is also coming from someone who has worshiped the animated musicals created by Disney ever since the beginning of my existence. And this is coming from someone who has never seen a full-length episode of South Park. Ever. So take my opinion with a grain of Mexican rice, will you? You can? OK, here we go. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut not only deserves to be ranked alongside The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Prince of Egypt, AND Beauty and the Beast as the best animated movie musicals ever made; it stands among the most impressive films that I've ever seen in the eighteen years of my existence.
You won't believe your eyes with the amount of detail placed on the animation, which is practically an arts and crafts project coming to life. The detail during the unbelievably outrageous climax--I emphasize the words *UNBELIEVABLY OUTRAGEOUS CLIMAX*--is some of the best I've ever seen in animated feature. The songs by Trey Parker and Marc Shaiman are just ingenious. "Blame Canada" is a great satire surrounding America's perception on how "they're not even a real country anyway." "La Resistance" is an EPIC homage to the song "One Day More" in Les Miserables (Though you die, La Resistance lives on!). "Mountain Town" is another BRILLIANT homage to the opening numbers of classic movie musicals such as Beauty and the Beast and Oklahoma. And "Up There" is a song sung by Satan.
I kid you not. Satan sings about wishing to be "up there, where there's so much room/where babies burp and flowers bloom." He's also in a relationship with none other than Saddam Hussein, and they both live in Hell together. By all accounts, I should not find any enjoyment in this; I should find this over-indulgent in the film's attempts to make everything controversial. But good god (pun?), it works. It absolutely works one-hundred and three percent! When Satan does sing "Up There," it's not only hilarious on a surface level, but you could argue that when taken out of the film's context, it's an intensely amusing song about an average Jo(ann)e wanting to go to heaven after (s)he dies. It's an amazingly fearless risk that pays off enormously.
But that's not the only risk that pays off enormously, however. The social commentary in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut couldn't be more appropriate today. As much as I enjoy the sound of *bleeping* on shows like The Colbert Report, I believe (see what I did there?) that everyone should have a chance to express themselves in any entertaining form--such as music, video, writing reviews, etc.--as long as there is, of course, a purpose behind the expression. If this film had the most excessive amount of swearing I've ever heard without an implicit meaning, then it would be written off as an unnecessary R-rated raunchfest. There is one, however, and it's more than just a typical rebellion for the freedom of speech. The film takes a dive deep into all of the characters' desires and motivations; what we discover from them is something rare coming from a film of this ilk: humanity. There's no escape from it: we've all been naive, we've all had prejudices, and whether you know it or not, we have sworn at least once in our lives, even if it we just performed those swears under a proscenium arch. If we all had the same personality as somebody as legen--wait for it--DARY as Neil Patrick Harris, then we wouldn't be as legendary as we want to be. Humanity allows us to have an integrity based on what we firmly believe in, and I believe that there are people that deserve a chance to be who they are today. If humanity can be its own word, why can't anybody else?
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut is a film that takes an incredible amount of risks, and every single one of them pays off enormously. It's one of the most brilliantly entertaining pieces of cinema in the eighteen years of my existence, while also being one of the most in-depth social commentaries you will ever see in a motion picture. It's not for children of all ages (those under ten should wait), and some might take offense to certain moments, but oh man, for anyone who can see any implicit meanings under the outrageous surface, this is a film I cannot recommend enough. I cannot think of one flaw to say about this film. It's unlike anything I've ever seen.
Out of five Kennies, I give South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut...
Until next time,
SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET
and MEOW, of course!
You won't believe your eyes with the amount of detail placed on the animation, which is practically an arts and crafts project coming to life. The detail during the unbelievably outrageous climax--I emphasize the words *UNBELIEVABLY OUTRAGEOUS CLIMAX*--is some of the best I've ever seen in animated feature. The songs by Trey Parker and Marc Shaiman are just ingenious. "Blame Canada" is a great satire surrounding America's perception on how "they're not even a real country anyway." "La Resistance" is an EPIC homage to the song "One Day More" in Les Miserables (Though you die, La Resistance lives on!). "Mountain Town" is another BRILLIANT homage to the opening numbers of classic movie musicals such as Beauty and the Beast and Oklahoma. And "Up There" is a song sung by Satan.
I kid you not. Satan sings about wishing to be "up there, where there's so much room/where babies burp and flowers bloom." He's also in a relationship with none other than Saddam Hussein, and they both live in Hell together. By all accounts, I should not find any enjoyment in this; I should find this over-indulgent in the film's attempts to make everything controversial. But good god (pun?), it works. It absolutely works one-hundred and three percent! When Satan does sing "Up There," it's not only hilarious on a surface level, but you could argue that when taken out of the film's context, it's an intensely amusing song about an average Jo(ann)e wanting to go to heaven after (s)he dies. It's an amazingly fearless risk that pays off enormously.
But that's not the only risk that pays off enormously, however. The social commentary in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut couldn't be more appropriate today. As much as I enjoy the sound of *bleeping* on shows like The Colbert Report, I believe (see what I did there?) that everyone should have a chance to express themselves in any entertaining form--such as music, video, writing reviews, etc.--as long as there is, of course, a purpose behind the expression. If this film had the most excessive amount of swearing I've ever heard without an implicit meaning, then it would be written off as an unnecessary R-rated raunchfest. There is one, however, and it's more than just a typical rebellion for the freedom of speech. The film takes a dive deep into all of the characters' desires and motivations; what we discover from them is something rare coming from a film of this ilk: humanity. There's no escape from it: we've all been naive, we've all had prejudices, and whether you know it or not, we have sworn at least once in our lives, even if it we just performed those swears under a proscenium arch. If we all had the same personality as somebody as legen--wait for it--DARY as Neil Patrick Harris, then we wouldn't be as legendary as we want to be. Humanity allows us to have an integrity based on what we firmly believe in, and I believe that there are people that deserve a chance to be who they are today. If humanity can be its own word, why can't anybody else?
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut is a film that takes an incredible amount of risks, and every single one of them pays off enormously. It's one of the most brilliantly entertaining pieces of cinema in the eighteen years of my existence, while also being one of the most in-depth social commentaries you will ever see in a motion picture. It's not for children of all ages (those under ten should wait), and some might take offense to certain moments, but oh man, for anyone who can see any implicit meanings under the outrageous surface, this is a film I cannot recommend enough. I cannot think of one flaw to say about this film. It's unlike anything I've ever seen.
Out of five Kennies, I give South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut...
Until next time,
SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET
and MEOW, of course!
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