South Park: Imaginationland

The Film

I've loved South Park since it was first aired on Sky One over a decade ago and, since then, have bought all sorts of merchandise, from shot glasses to the plush toys and of course all the DVDs. Starting as a crude comedy with jokes about farting, anal probes and finding different ways to kill Kenny, it has evolved into something more substantial, with clever jabs at topical stories. In the 3-part Imaginationland story they combined Cartman's desire to have Kyle suck his balls with the paranoia over the terrorist threat. The 3 episodes have now been made into a film and released on DVD.
 
The film begins in the woods near South Park, where Cartman has gathered the kids together to capture a leprechaun he's seen there several times. Permanent sceptic Kyle has bet him $10 that the leprechaun doesn't exist and the whole thing is one of Cartman's elaborate hoaxes, but the flip side of the bet is that if the leprechaun exists then Kyle must suck Cartman's balls. To everyone's astonishment, and Kyle's horror, the leprechaun is successfully trapped and gives the kids a message that a terrorist attack is imminent before disappearing.
 

 
Over the moon, Cartman goes through several attempts to have Kyle go through his part of the deal whilst Kyle and some of the other kids are taken on a strange balloon ride by a weird man in an outlandish purple outfit to Imaginationland, where all fantasy creatures are real. Unfortunately their visit coincides with an attack by terrorists who kill some of the imaginary characters and our imaginations are under threat.
 
When the kids are taken back to reality, Butters is left behind and it is ultimately up to him, as 'The Key', to team up with good imaginary characters like Aslan, Jesus and Snarf to defeat the terrorist and the evil inhabitants of Imaginationland.
 

 
Like such episodes as Best Friends Forever, which took a step back and seemed to rationally look at the Terri Schiavo case, Imaginationland is putting into context the seemingly irrational fear of terrorism that has pervaded society and taken it to an extreme, therefore showing how ridiculous things have become. I've always liked these more 'deep and meaningful' episodes as it shows that South Park is more than just toilet humour and swearing and is something more intelligent. I was unsure whether it would work as a feature film as the beauty with Imaginationland was waiting a week to see what would happen next.
 
I needn't have worried as the twin narrative structure keeps the film both high- and low-brow and permanently funny; it's one of those where you have to forego nourishment for the running time as something unexpected will happen and, if you had anything in your mouth, choking would have been a real risk. Over the course of the film, which is still separated into sections (Episode II: The Drying of the Balls and Episode III: Moistening of the Scrotum), you get the most outrageously silly and serious political commentary coexisting, which works superbly.
 

The Disc

Extra Features
Matt Stone and Trey Parker usually do mini-commentaries on the DVDs and, for this, they try to do a feature-length commentary but show why they stick to talking for a few minutes because, although they do provide an interesting, funny and informative commentary track, they run out of things to say at about the half-way mark.  Rather than blather on and just bore you, they basically say "that's it, we're done" and don't keep you hanging around unnecessarily.  They do have a feature where the end music plays if they say anything illegal or is likely to get Comedy Central sued which they jokingly use a couple of times but there was an odd occasion where I thought that it was genuinely used!
 
You also get two bonus episodes: ManBearPig and Woodland Critters Christmas.  If you haven't seen these, it's worth watching them first as they feature in the film - they're also terrific episodes, one showing a great parody of Al Gore and the other just how warped Cartman is.
 
There are also a couple of storyboards, one for Jimmy's fantastic line "F**k me, it's a Leprechaun!" and the other for Butters "What is this place?" enquiry.
 

                                   
Visuals
I'm not sure if this will apply to the retail version, but the review disc was a letterboxed 1.78:1 picture, which really should have been anamorphic.  The animation is generally nice and clear but I did notice that some of the lines weren't as defined as they should have been and there was a bit of distortion at the bottom of the screen.
 
It shows how much South Park has moved on that they now use computers and some CGI effects which contrasts with the stop motion animation of the early days.
 
Sound
There are DD 5.1 tracks in English and German (which is quite funny just to see how the show sounds when dubbed) and, whilst not spectacular, the surrounds are used quite well for the effects and the dialogue is clear and presented well.
 

 

Overall

If you're a fan of South Park then buying this is almost a no-brainer - it's the sort of disc you could put on almost any time and watch, with no lack of impact; I watched it twice and enjoyed it as much each time.  If you are only a casual watcher then rent it or borrow off a friend, you'll probably find yourself buying the series box sets.
 
This is a good disc of an excellent film, which shows that the show has plenty of legs and it'll run as long as Matt Stone and Trey Parker feel like making it.