South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut Review

Let me start by saying that I am an admirer of South Park and when a high-quality episode comes along, I end up watching it multiple times. But looking back at its history it’s clear that in its early days it didn’t have the same level of appreciation. In the 90s many thought it was just going to be a fad that would come and go. So, it is unusual that at that early stage the creators were able to get a film made that would go on to get some very high praise – that film being South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut.

It was directed by Trey Parker of course, who also wrote the script with show co-creator Mat Stone (with Pam Brady). The starting point is nothing more than an extended plot point from a Season One episode. The plot follows the four main characters Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman (all voiced by either Stone or Parker), whose obsession with the new and highly obscene ‘Terrence and Phillip’ film leads to a war on art censorship as well as the country of Canada itself. Meanwhile Saddam Hussain and Satan (Stone and Parker again) have world domination on their minds, but relationship troubles get in the way.

This is definitely going to please most the South Park fans – just about all of the characters that they have come to know and love make an appearance, from Mr Garrison and Mr Mackey to fan favourite Chef (Isaac Hayes); and of course the late Mary Kay Bergman provides most of the female voices. All the voice acting is on the same level of quality as the show and most of the jokes land (though some don’t). Being given the cinematic treatment doesn’t help the film look better or worse, it just looks like any other episode of the show from that era.

Once again, satire plays a huge part in the narrative, a lot of it stemming from Parker and Stone’s hatred of censorship as well as the struggle they had with the MPAA about what rating the film would receive upon release. In the end it got an R in the USA, but apparently it was only one F-word away from being slapped with NC-17.

The subplots include the hostile action of Canada that leads to a full-blown world war, Terrance and Phillip being treated like war criminals, Satan and Saddam, the kids setting up a resistance group and Stan having to fight with a new boy in town for the affection of his love interest Wendy. Everything seems to jump around a lot; one scene will try to move one of the plots forward and then the next will do the same with something else. It’s also noticeably short, with a runtime of less than an hour and a half. Personally, I think it needed a little longer so that the plot could have been explored some more, or maybe just let the characters engage in more of the outrageous humour the show revels in without worrying about the end of the world.

There is one minor aspect that rubbed me up the wrong way, the musical numbers. It’s no secret that Park and Stone are fond of musicals and with a film budget they seem unable to resist the opportunity. Parker wrote the songs while Marc Shaiman is behind the score. Many of the songs are still well-known today, like ‘Blame Canada’ which received an Oscar nomination as well as an extended rendition of the song about how Cartman views Kyle’s Mom, which like the plot itself, originated in the first seasons. I was fine with that making a comeback but all the other songs just drag on and aren’t much good. The film has to grind to a halt every so often just so that some characters can sing about the town they live in or how easy it is to avoid swearing. They start out well but get progressively worse by the time the plot should be in full swing.

A huge number of random but talented people are put in small and thankless roles that either consist of one scene or a few lines of dialogue. Examples include Brent Spiner as Conan O’ Brian, Minnie Driver as Brooke Shields, Eric Idle as a scientist and George Clooney as a doctor who tries to save a severely burned Kenny (you can guess how that ends up).  Stuart Copeland, of all people, voices a nameless American soldier a very odd casting choice I thought.

South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut is likely to please those who enjoy the characters the humour and the satire, but if you don’t care for musical numbers that get in the way too much, best to leave it alone and stick to the TV show. But just a heads-up: some of the film’s material progresses into the fourth season, so if something there doesn’t make sense you may assume it came from here.

I know it has its fair share of fans, which I can understand, but I guess that this was far from what I had hoped for in a South Park film. You might say I found it to be very un-kewl.