"SOUTH PARK: THE COMPLETE TWELFTH SEASON"
DVD Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: ***** (out of 5 stars)
DVD EXPERIENCE: **** (out of 5 stars) STARRING Trey Parker as STAN MARSH/ERIC CARTMAN Matt Stone as KYLE BROFLOVSKI/KENNYMCCORMICK Not Rated Studio: Comedy Central Back to DVD Review Home |  |
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
For the twelfth season of the hilarious and irreverent comedy show, the four kids from the quiet mountain town of South Park face strange adventures that take them to the White House, to the Andes with Peruvian flute bands, to Canada to save the world and into the psychedelic world of “Heavy Metal.” Most episodes provide a biting social commentary about very recent events, ranging from the political fight over the AIDS “epidemic” to breast cancer.
WHAT I LIKED
There was a time in the late 1990s when I watched “South Park” religiously. That was a brilliant time for cable television, and “South Park” led the way for cable shows to be taken seriously when the famous “Mecha-Streisand” episode garnered the best ratings ever. I stopped watching over the years, but I have recently found the show again, and I’m thrilled that it is as edgy, biting and irreverent as ever.
As much as I loved the “More Crap” episode from Season Eleven, this season has probably produced some of the funniest shows yet. Stand-out episodes include “Over Logging,” in which Randy and his family wind up in a refugee camp when their internet goes does (and includes a shot that even Trey Parker admits in the commentary that probably should never have aired); “About Last Night,” which gives a hilarious “Oceans Eleven” spin on the historic election of 2008; “Tonsil Trouble,” in which Eric Cartman strikes out a Kyle by giving him AIDS, making him not just sure but HIV positive; “Canada on Strike!,” which skewers the politics behind the WGA strike and makes fun of all the Internet memes in one shot; and “The China Problem,” which makes a pretty caustic statement about what George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have done to Indiana Jones.
If you have ever thought that “South Park” might be losing its edge, give this box set a look and be proved wrong.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
As reluctant I am to sound like a rabid fan, I can’t find much wrong with “South Park.” Previous seasons have had substandard episodes, but this batch of fourteen stories that are hilarious, relevant and often politically incorrect but saying the right thing.
If only there were more episodes in a season. But what am I complaining for? Comedy Central has renewed the show up through season fifteen.
DVD FEATURES
Unlike many television series that go past season five, there are still plenty of bonus features to this DVD box set. The most informative is the commentary that Trey Parker and Matt Stone provide for each episode. They don’t run through the whole episode, but usually only the first five minutes. However, they offer grand insight into what went into each story. In particular, their explanation of how they achieved the election episode “About Last Night” is pretty funny.
There’s also another installment of “Six Days to South Park,” in which the animators take the viewers through the six days of production to make “Super Fun Time.” There’s also a look at how they animated “Major Boobage” with plenty of behind-the-scenes footage. Finally, the election episode “About Last Night” gets a behind-the-scenes look in a truncated version of “Six Days to South Park.”
WHO’S GOING TO LIKE THIS MOVIE
Fans of the show and anyone who doesn’t mind watching politically incorrect comedy that they probably agree with.
