I am a big fan of South Park. i was a fan even though the small town in Missouri where I grew up didn’t have Comedy Central as part of our package. I spent trips watching shows on channels I couldn’t get at home, which is how I got my Beavis and butthead fix, South Park, and even an introduction to The Sopranos. Hell, I couldn’t even participate in peak TRL because I didn’t have MTV. It wasn’t that we weren’t paying for it, the only way to get it would have been a satellite dish, which wasn’t happening, and in those days were a bit bigger than they are now.
I had South Park merch, and the video game for the N64, so when the film was coming out, it was something I was interested in to put it mildly. Sadly, I didn’t get to see this in theatres, but I have a very fond memory of watching the hell out of the rental when it first came out. I had a printed copy of the screenplay I found online, and by God i was going to memorize those songs. Later, I bought the soundtrack to help with that.
This is early South Park, long before a lot of the side characters started to get screentime. Butters doesn’t exist. There’s no Jimmy, Timmy, Clyde, Tolkien, Craig, or any of the other side character’s. Randy Marsh is barely in this. It is a very different time for South Park. most notably, Chef is here and alive.
But, to properly celebrate this quiet little mountain town, we need audio description. I kno. I hear what you’re saying. I’m just being a big old Karen again. Except here, it is really hard to ignore the lack of audio description. South Park is still making new episodes, and Paramount Plus (where I watched this film) is from the same parent company that owns Comedy Central. This is basically in house. The series has shown incredible longevity, and Paramount Plus has no qualms about benefitting from the new South Park specials that Trey Parker and Matt Stone have been creating exclusively for them. And isn’t 25 years a pretty big heads up?
South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut wasn’t a box office flop.it made 52 million as an R rated comedy in 1999. It’s tough to find a direct comparison, but 199 was the same year for Doug’s 1st Movie from Disney, a movie based on a long running TV series, and that made 19 million with a broader rating appeal.
South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut is also an Oscar nominee, and there’s somewhat of a legend around its encounter with the MPAA. Supposedly, they did not receive an R rating the first time around, got feedback from the MPAA, and they just resubmitted the same film with no edits. They apparently didn’t really notice, or care, and rated the film R.
There are so many reasons to select this for audio description, but even though Paramount Plus is resorting to panhandling at this point, this should still be at the top of their catalog list. It is representative of a franchise they own, and currently are still creating new works from. I love this movie, and I’ve seen it at least 20 times. So, for me, going from sighted to blind, I just used a lot of memory recall. But for a franchise as old as South Park, the only way to continue to bring people in is by making it easy for new fans to come on board. What’s easier than making the one feature length film accessible to all?
There’s a lot of music, and the jokes are often easy to follow as they are frequently verbalized, but not everything.I use the term unwatchable to represent the lack of accessibility, but I can’t blame Canada enough for this and say this is one of my favorites of all time.
So, Paramount, it’s up to you? Just ask yourself, what would Brian Boitano do?
Final Grade: Unwatchable
