credit: amazon.com
Cast:
Trey Parker….Stan Marsh/Eric Cartman/Randy Marsh/Mr. Herbert Garrison/Philip Niles Argyle/Timmy/Jimmy Swanson/Additional Vocies
Matt Stone….Kyle Broflovski/Kenny McCormick/Gerald Broslofski/Stuart McCormick/Leopold ‘Butters’ Stotch/Additional Voices
Eliza Schneider….Principal Victoria/Liane Cartman/Sharon Marsh/Wendy Testaberger/Mrs. Crabtree/Additional Voices
Isaac Hayes….Chef
The Show
Not being a diehard ‘South Park’ fan I did not really know what to expect with this DVD set. I must say I was pleasantly surprised and now question why I have not been more dedicated to the series.
The DVD includes 15 episodes that run over three discs. Episodes one to seven originally aired between Mid-March 2003 and the end of April 2003. Episodes eight to 15 ran from Late October 2003 to Mid December 2003. At first one might think there would be a natural “break” in the flow of the show as there is a nearly six months gap between the first half and second half of the season. However watching the series straight through on DVD you get no feeling of this.
Pretty much all of the 15 episodes I would put in the above average to great category, with the worst, and this is only in comparison to the others because its still very good, being the first episode ‘Cancelled.’
I could list off the other 14 episodes and explain why they are all great, as each has their own moments, but instead I will focus on just a few favourites of mine.
‘Fat Butt And Pancake Head’ has Cartman making his hand into Jennifer Lopez and creating a new hit song titled “Taco Flavoured Kisses.” Topped off with the fact Ben Affleck leaves the real Jennifer Lopez for Cartman’s hand, the episode is an instant classic.
‘Grey Dawn’ spoofs one of my favourite cheese ’80s movies of all time ‘Red Dawn.’ After senior citizens are banned from driving the AARP take over the town leaving Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny to save the day.
‘Casa Bonita’ shows Cartman for his pure evil. He decides to keep Butters in a bomb shelter so that he can attend Kyle’s birthday party at Casa Bonita in Butters’s place.
‘All About Mormons’ goes down as another classic where Stone and Parker set their sights on another religion, and in many ways religion itself. The animated story of Joseph Smith was amazingly funny.
‘Raisins’ has the boys heading over to a Hooters-like establishment in order to help Stan getting over Wendy dumping him for Token. It fails but Butters falls in love with a waitress there, totally reminds me of a friend who once honestly thought a waitress at a strip bar we went to liked him because she touched his arm. He is over 10 years older than Butters so its much sadder. While Butters falls in love Stan joins the Goth group because he now hates life. Before that Stan’s recreation of John Cusack in ‘Say Anything’ with the boombox over his head and Peter Gabriel on fails, sadly he plays ‘Shock the Monkey’ not ‘In Your Eyes.’ I bet it was a tough debate if he should go with ‘Shock the Monkey’ or ‘Sledgehammer,’ I would have gone with the later though.
There are so many other memorable episodes and moments you will just have to discover them for yourself.
Score
9.5
The DVD
Video
The video is shown in full screen and looks just how it would when it aired on TV originally. I did however have a few minor hiccups, not sure if that was my DVD or the discs, but they were minor and only lasted a couple of seconds.
Audio
The audio is in Dolby Digital and was sounded perfectly fine to me.
Special Features
The disc is not loaded with special features. Every episode has a mini-commentary by Stone and Parker. They only last maybe three to five minutes at the beginning of the episode. I actually prefer this to a full commentary. Both of them know what to say, what to leave out, and when to cut things off not to bore the viewer. They give some great insights into what prompted the decision for certain jokes or episode themes. They also remind viewers what was going on in the world at the time that episode aired, such as how Sadaam was captured just days before the ‘It’s Christmas in Canada’ episode were Sadaam was made to be the new Prime Minister of Canada.
Score
6
