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South Park: Imaginationland - Uncensored Director's Cut
R1 - America - Paramount Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (4th April 2008). |
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The Show
 Unlike “The Simpsons” (1989-Present) after 11 seasons “South Park” has remained funny, inventive and always entertaining. While “The Simpsons” started to take a dip around season 7, I suppose the difference between a network show and a cable show is that on cable you can take more risks and the line can be pushed further and further. “South Park” is that kind of show, right out the gates when it originally premiered it was willing to push the boundaries of language, violence, sexual content and general cartoon mayhem. Not afraid to offend and as result has produced some memorable and defining episodes along the way tackling issues such as religion and Scientology, terrorism, homosexuality, politics and many others. “Imaginationland” is yet another example of a brilliant series of episodes, aired as a trilogy these episodes garnered high ratings among the season and can be considered the Holy Grail episodes of the 11th season, much like the Scientology episode “Trapped in the Closet” and “Bloody Mary” was for season 9. Originally conceived as a theatrical movie, the three-part episode was put into production months before release, but for some reason it never made it to the big screen and instead was aired as three separate episodes in October last year. The scope and scale of these episodes can easily transfer to the big screen especially considering the amount of characters that populate “Imaginationland”, it’s a shame really but at least Paramount has seen fit to release it as a film, uncut and uncensored on DVD. “South Park: Imaginationland” follows the threat that has plagued Imaginationland, a land where all the imaginary creatures, cartoons and character live. Cartman (Trey Parker), Kyle (Matt Stone), Stan (Trey Parker), Kenny (Matt Stone) and Butters (Matt Stone) fly off with a strange man in his Imagination Flying Machine, the man who Butters think will probably rape them turns out to be the Mayor of Imaginationland and takes the boys there, while in the land terrorists have shot their way in and taken the characters hostage, the boys flee but Butters is left behind. Upon hearing the news the U.S. Government must react but first they have to get the gateway to Imaginationland to work first before they try and fire off a nuclear missile to wipe out the terrorists who have taken the world’s imagination hostage. Some of the most inspired gags in these episodes are the references to popular movies and TV shows, the scene in which the terrorists attack parodies the Omaha Beach invasion sequence from “Saving Private Ryan” (1998), in a hilarious moment Ronald McDonald searches the immediate area for his severed arm, as Stan takes cover. The “Star Wars” (1977-2005) references are also great as well as all the evil imaginary characters. The numerous characters that populate Imaginationland deliver the laughs but best of all the scope is so grand for a series of episodes that it’s fun to simply ‘pause’ the frame and see how many characters you can recognize. Even the imaginary characters of South Park make an appearance including the Christmas Critters and finally Manbearpig makes his appearance. For fans of the series this is a great moment calling back the episode of the same name (which is featured as an extra on the disc) where Al Gore tries to convince the world of the dangers of the Manbearpig, “why won’t anyone take me serial?” Truly awesome stuff. Many of the jokes and gags revolve around an insane amount of violence and grotesque sexual humor, so if you’re not already familiar with their brand of humor I’d question why you’re even considering watching it, let alone reading this review. This DVD is made for fans...die-hard fans. And thankfully it delivers in spades, I found myself enthusiastically retelling moments from the episodes to friends. That is the true litmus test. “South Park: Imaginationland” maintains the high level of humor and brilliance that this series has show for over 11 years now. This disc features the uncensored version and is worth checking out.
Video
When these episodes aired they were in full screen but this DVD presents the three episodes edited into a movie and presented in a widescreen ratio of 1.78:1, non-anamorphic transfer is only slightly better than I anticipated. The series retains the crude style but is much flashier with some computer elements thrown in like fire. But I still found some pixelation especially around hard lines, there was some artifacting as well and the image feels flat, but that's more to do with the animation style than anything related to the transfer. Overall the presentation displays colors well, it's bright and clean without any dirt.
Audio
Two audio tracks are included in English Dolby Digital 5.1 as well as English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its 5.1 soundtrack. When aired the episodes would have been broadcast in stereo, this surround mix however does a fairly good job of immersing the viewer although it's not as aggressive or active as I'd like. Dialogue is clear and distortion free, surround effects are mixed well as is the music. Which is all you can really ask for in this case. The disc does not feature any optional subtitles.
Extras
Paramount has included an audio commentary, 2 storyboard reels, 2 bonus episodes and a collection of bonus trailers. Below is a closer look at these supplements. First up is a feature-length audio commentary by series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. These two provide a fairly decent track, although there are some quiet gaps. They focus their comments on the development of the episodes and the limited time in which they had to complete the trilogy. These two provide a fairly light track as they gloss over the stuff that wasn't allowed to be broadcast that has been put back into this DVD. It's not too detailed or in-depth, which I'd have preferred. Next up are 2 storyboard reels, these are sequences cut together in their original storyboard format and include: - "F**k me it's a Leprechaun" which runs for 2 minutes 15 seconds. - "What Is This Place?" which runs for 1 minute 41 seconds. Next up are 2 bonus episodes that include: - "Woodland Critter Christmas" which runs for 22 minutes 4 seconds, from season 8 this episode introduces the Christmas Critters. - "Manbearpig" which runs for 22 minutes 4 seconds, from season 10 this episode feature former Vice-president Gore as he tries to convince the world of the existence of the Manbearpig creature. Rounding out the extras are onus trailers for: - "Lil' Bush: Season 1" which runs for 1 minute 12 seconds. - "South Park: Season 10" which runs for 1 minute 20 seconds. - "Drawn Together: Season 2" which runs for 1 minute 27 seconds.
Packaging
This disc is packaged in an amaray case that is housed in a cardboard slip-case.
Overall
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