South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut review

SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER & UNCUT:

HILARIOUS BACK IN 1999, HILARIOUS IN 2006 WHEN I FIRST WATCHED IT, AND STILL AN OFFENSIVE LAUGH RIOT IN 2016!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: A+ (4 stars)

PARAMOUNT PICTURES, WARNER BROS. PICTURES, AND COMEDY CENTRAL

America VS Canada in South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut

            I know, the main reason I created the Psychopath Classic Reviews blog originally was to show an archive of all my earlier work prior to the development of my Moviewatchin’ Psychopath blog or a collection of reviews I’ve written in film study classes. But there is a very important movie to me that I feel I should talk about this year while it’s still 2016, that movie is the incredibly raunchy but undeniably hilarious animated comedy, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.

            Now, why am I talking about this movie right now? Well, the movie was first released in 1999 but I first watched it in summer 2006 (Yeah, ten years ago was my first viewing of the film). Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s Comedy Central series, South Park was a show I was always curious about, obviously I wasn’t the right age to watch it at the time but two of my best friends in elementary school quoted it a lot, showed me some of the merchandise and characters, and they even created their own version of the Terrance and Phillip song, Uncle Fucka.

            It wasn’t until I became a tween in middle school where I made more friends that talked about it often and this was coming after my Simpsons obsession at the time. I thought to myself “Hey, I’ve already watched Simpsons, Family Guy, and Futurama in my life, what other mature shows can my pre-teen brain take?” So I finally gave South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut a rent, invited two of my best friends over one night, and the three of us watched it from start to finish.

            The movie alone made me a South Park fan, I was hooked on the movie right when it started, we were laughing our asses off, cursing like Uncle Fuckers, and it introduced me to one of the best animated shows of all-time and it followed in the footsteps of The Simpsons as one of the longest running animated shows of all-time. I barely knew anything about the show prior to watching the film, except the four boys’ names, Kenny always died, and Ike is a baby that always gets kicked, but the movie gave me pretty much everything I needed to know about the show and I was able to follow along with my pals.

            The film follows elementary school boys, Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman sneaking into the R-rated adult comedy, Asses of Fire, starring their favorite farting Canadian comedy duo, Terrance and Phillip and it warps their fragile little minds. The next day at school the boys share their vulgar knowledge with their classmates and get in trouble.

            Outraged by the offensive material, all the South Park children’s moms begin protesting against Canada for “Corrupting America’s Children” and it soon gets out of hand as they wage war with Canada. Meanwhile in Hell, Satan and his lover, Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein are plotting to rise up and take over the world when Terrance and Phillip’s blood touches American ground.

            So it’s up to the boys and all the kids in South Park to rebel against their parents, save Terrance and Phillip, and stop Satan and Saddam’s evil plans. All while singing some hilarious, offensive, and sometimes beautiful songs.

            Yeah, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut works both as a comedy raunch-fest and as a musical and it was probably the first adult animated musical that came to my knowledge at the time. From the sweet, Disney-style song, Mountain Town, to the more obscure Uncle Fucka and Kyle’s Mom’s a Bitch, to the emotional Up There, and of course the Oscar® nominated song, Blame Canada, which was also performed by the late Robin Williams at the Academy Awards.

            It’s one of my favorite comedies for several different reasons, one, I was able to watch it as a movie and enjoy it just as much as my already South Park fan friends, constant laughs, clever writing, and even has a sense of life in the material the film tackles, freedom of speech, censorship, war, these are all very important and realistic topics and South Park brings them to the viewer’s knowledge perfectly.

            This movie was following the success of Paramount’s earlier adult animated release from 1996, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, which was also a critical and commercial success upon release and another movie that lured me in like Bigger, Longer & Uncut. Both Beavis and Butt-Head Do America and South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut were critical hits and inspired other adult animated films based on TV shows to get made such as Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters, The Simpsons Movie, and an upcoming Family Guy movie.

            I’ve been watching this movie and the show, and listening to the film’s soundtrack for ten years now and I’ll watch and listen to them for ten more years. South Park is one of many things that inspired me creatively and I incorporated several ideas and things I got from the show into my own work. Trey and Matt really outdid themselves with the show and movie, it lasted for nineteen seasons going on twenty, always knew how to stay current, and it was funny and quotable back when the show first premiered in 1997 and it continues to be today.

            I don’t plan on stopping my South Park watching any time soon, really, the 20^th season is going to be a new start and hoping it will lead to offensive, controversial, and comedic greatness.