South Park Imaginationland opens up with Cartman making a bet with friend Kyle. If Cartman can prove leprechauns exist, Kyle must suck his balls (hey it is of course South Park). When the leprechaun appears he warns them of an impeding terrorist attack but gives no more details then that. Cartman in turn wins the bet, but is now at war with Kyle to pay up.
The next day, Kyle, Stan and Butters meet the Mayor of Imaginationland. The Mayor takes them on a hot air balloon ride to the world of Imaginationland. Along the way he sings one of he worst little tunes ever recorded, to their dismay. Here the leprechaun’s warning comes true and the terrorist arrive and unleashes all of our worst enemies imaginable to wreck havoc.
So begins our little tale to thwart the terrorist’s dastardly plan, restore order to our imagination and last but not least, Kyle to deliver on the bet. Now on DVD the three episodes are now put together as one complete story. Imaginationland is a little short to be called a feature length movie, clocking in at 65 minutes, yet it does feel like a full complete story. Along with our film, a few bonus extras are provided for our enjoyment, including two bonus episodes of characters that made their appearances in previous episodes.
First up are two examples of the early rough sketches of two scenes from the film. One is the opening sequence where they spot the leprechaun and the second is when the boys travel to the world of Imaginationland. They are interesting but maybe worth watching once.
The commentary track by Matt Stone and Trey Parker is great. I’ve always been a fan of commentary especially if it’s by the creative forces behind the movie. Matt and Trey’s commentary are funny, fascinating and gives you a window inside their brains into their creative process. The only bad thing I would say is their commentary is a little short, running almost 50 minutes and does not cover the whole movie. Still 50 minutes is a long time and is worth listening to if you want to watch the film a second time around.
The only other extras are two episodes from previous South Park seasons. Episode 814: Woodland Critter Christmas, explains the sadistic woodland creatures that are in Imaginationland. In the commentary, Matt and Trey talk about this episode being one of their all time favorites and have always wanted to find a way to bring them back.
Episode 1006: Manbearpig, explains why Al Gore is so crazy to rid the world of the Manbearpig in Imaginationland. Sort of, it’s basically an episode of Al Gore just being completely insane for 20 minutes ranting about this creature that is a Manbearpig (again it’s South Park).
The only feature I would have liked to have been provided is perhaps a little featurette on who are all of the characters in the world of Imaginationland. Part of the fun of watching Imaginationland is trying to spot all of the characters we watched as a kid from cartoons, to movies, to comic books and even Saturday morning shows. You have everyone from the Smurfs, Freddy Kruger, Indiana Jones, Khan from Star Trek, HR Pufnstuf, Predator, Rock and Bullwinkle, even the ghosts from Pacman and that’s only a fraction of the characters (good and bad) that make an appearance. It’s a blast trying to spot one of these crazy characters from your childhood. I’m sure I missed plenty of them so a little featurette would have been wonderful to help us spot them.
I’ve always been amazed at what Mat and Trey get away with on Comedy Central. This may be the unrated edition but even when the original episodes aired they could say suck my balls. With that said, deep within and between all the obscenities there is a lot of social commentary as well, and this story is not just all about Cartman getting his balls sucked.
So if you are a fan of South Park then do yourself a favor and pick up South Park Imaginationland, it is sure to be a classic that was well deserving it’s own disc. Imaginationland is one of those movies I can watch again and again and laugh every time.
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