I’ve been a fan of South Park ever since a friend introduced me to the internet Christmas card that started it all. It was Santa versus Jesus and these short potty mouthed kids that somehow wormed their way under your skin. Pretty soon I was downloading the episodes and watching them on my computer. For some reason I can’t quite explain, I’ve very rarely watched an episode on Comedy Central. By the time things were getting tighter and riskier downloading the shorts, the single disc, 4 episode DVD’s began to arrive in stores. So, my South Park viewing moved from the PC to the DVD player. In a short time season sets began to arrive, and I looked forward to them with much anticipation, still watching it infrequently on television. After all, who needs the commercials and those silly network bugs that distract you on the screen? The series itself evolved in that time. The show was once achieved through a stop motion process using construction paper cutouts. The animation was crude. After the Christmas card, the characters were significantly redesigned. They had a very evil look on that short. The first couple of episodes brought us an evolution toward the characters we know and love today. After a while the animation went to a computer process. The look remained the same, but gone were the paper cuts and stop motion photography. As the show progressed there were less and less bleeps. It’s not that the language got any tamer. Standards got a little looser. Finally the bleeps would disappear from at least the DVD releases. And now South Park has crossed another milestone. Welcome to Blu-ray and high definition, South Park.
Show
I often have trouble believing that South Park has been around for as long as it has. It’s not just the passing of 12 years, but the sheer brilliance in the face of an increasingly politically correct society. It’s like watching old episodes of All In The Family. Who believes that Archie Bunker would have any chance of survival in the 21st Century? It’s no wonder that Norman Lear has become involved in the series. It’s the last remaining vestige of a once great freedom to be ridiculous and offend. Eric Cartman’s a lot worse than Archie ever was. We always knew that, in his heart, Archie had a soul. Cartman’s a psychopath without a conscience, and in a civilized society we would be terrified of the existence of such a demon spawn…except he’s just so dang funny. Trey Parker and Matt Stone have been walking a tightrope for over 12 years now, and it just doesn’t get old. One of the reasons the show doesn’t grow stale is their ability to make such a quick turnaround on current events. Because the show takes literally days to write and produce, they are quite often always the first to address an issue. They had an election night episode on literally the next day in this season. That means the ideas stay as fresh as the headlines. Finally, you have to credit the expanding universe of good characters. The core group of Cartman, Stan, Kyle, and Kenny were great for a lot of years. But, watching this 12th season you have to admire how much Butters has infused himself into that core. We also have such great semi-regulars as Timmy, Jimmy, Token, and lately the Goth kids. These characters allow the stories to expand in ways the core group could not. I’ve honestly come to think of Butters as one of the core now.
So what about the episodes themselves? Let’s play a little game called: The Good The Bad, and The Ugly, shall we?
The Good:
- Canada On Strike: This one is obviously aimed at the writer’s strike. Plus it’s always fun to see the guys rip on Canada (all in good fun, of course).
- Over Logging: WOW! Is this one dead on. I lost internet for nearly a day just last Friday. Do we panic, or what? In such a short time we’ve come to expect it’s there just like we do telephone and electricity, or even our water. This Grapes Of Wrath comparison is one of the best the show’s done.
- Super Fun Time: Any time Cartman tries to sneak away for his own good time, you know it’s going to be funny. I can’t deny I’m a Cartman fan. Here it’s Cartman and Butters sneaking away from one of those historical villages to a nearby amusement park. Meanwhile crooks invade the village and take hostages. It’s certainly a super fun time.
- Breast Cancer Show Ever: Okay, no one thinks that breast cancer is funny. But, that’s not what this one’s about. It’s about Cartman putting his foot in his mouth (again), and now he has to fight Wendy. It’s a Kobiyashi Maru scenario for Cartman. If he wins, he gets it for beating up a girl. If he loses, he’s a wimp for getting beat up by a girl. Watching Cartman squirm is always fun.
- The Ungroundable: Hey, a Butters episode! Butters thinks he’s a vampire when he joins the latest vampire craze at school.
The Bad:
- Tonsil Trouble: Cartman getting AIDS? ‘nuff said.
- Major Boobage: The guys try to do Heavy Metal. Sorry, the looks don’t work, and Kenny was the wrong character to take on this trip.
- Elementary School Musical: This High School Musical stuff is bad as it is. What makes these guys think watching it on South Park would be any better?
- Pandemic: Did this one need to be a two part episode? Guinea pigs running around with costumes. Who thinks this crap up?
The Ugly:
- Britney’s New Look: I’m all for making fun of Spears, but the top of her head blown off gag doesn’t work. It’s just butt ugly.
- The China Problem: No one thought that The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull was another Raiders Of The Lost Ark, but it wasn’t another Temple Of Doom either. Watching Indy getting raped every 3 minutes I didn’t need to see. Guys, the movie was simply okay. Get over it.
- EEK A Penis: While the Cartman Stand and Deliver stuff is great and the Patriot’s cheating lesson is classic Cartman, there’s a mouse with a penis running around.
- About Last Night: If you think politics is ugly. The idea was clever enough but…………
Video
Each episode of South Park is presented in an interesting center expanded 1.78:1 aspect ratio. I’m still not sure what exactly I was looking at. When I compared it to the standard DVD there didn’t seem to be that much more on the screen. This is the first time the show appears in any form of widescreen. Colors are fantastically bright in this 1080i image. Brought to you by a solid AVC/MPEG-4 codec, the picture certainly looks as good as it ever did. There are some problems here, however. I suspect it’s a flaw in the animation, but the faces often look out of focus, or at least blurred from time to time. At first I just kind of caught it, but once I knew it was there it was hard not to notice. Otherwise the picture is very clean and sharp.
Audio
The Dolby Digital TrueHD 5.1 track is perfect. Even though I did not care for the episode, the Major Boobage episode made incredibly good use of surrounds. There’s some high flying music and wonderfully immersive ambient sounds. Otherwise, the audio differs mostly in the greater range of dynamics to the sound. It certainly felt much fuller than the standard DVD.
Stone and Parker are back with their “commentary minis”.
Special Features
All of these features are in HD:
- Six Days To South Park: This piece runs nearly an hour an a half. It features comments from members of the show’s production staff over episode clips and storyboards. They take you on a day to day countdown of how an episode is created. While I loved the idea of taking us through a production schedule, this presentation is too tedious. I’d have much preferred real life looks behind the scenes. While it’s nice to finally get some solid extras, this one is a bust for me. There are also half hour versions that cover the specifics of two of the season’s episodes.
Final Thoughts
South Park was never about picture quality. Just take a look at that first cartoon that sucked us all in. I find myself facing a major reviewer dilemma here. It’s definitely cool to see the show step into the latest technology. Most of us would rather begin collecting Blu-rays and less DVD’s. Still, I can’t in good conscience tell you it’s worth the extra cash. The picture’s not that much better, and it never really mattered anyway. Also they used a shrunken version of the DVD case. It has the same height as the Blu-ray cases do, but it will not fit comfortably into that shelf. Maybe the thing to do is buy the DVD and rent the Blu-ray. You won’t be disappointed either way. If you’ve got the extra jack, go ahead and start loading up on the Blu-ray now. If not, you’re not missing a whole lot. I certainly won’t be replacing my old sets with BD’s once they start to re-release them in the superior format. And if Parker and Stone think they’re going to make me, they can “Eat my underwear”.
