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The Movie: South Park's Season 6 continues the raunchy adventures of grade schoolers Stan, Kyle, Kenny (well, later on Kenny comes back) and Cartman, who live in a small mountain town. Originally conceived as a small Christmas special that gained fame in Hollywood, the show eventually became the highly controversial Comedy Central show it still is today. Although the show's a bit more inconsistent today, the new seasons still offer plenty of inspired situations for the kids, great supporting characters and plenty of classic lines. The seventh season boasts one of the funniest episodes of "South Park" in ages - "Christian Rock Hard", where Cartman starts a Christian rock band ("It worked for Creed!") and Kyle, Stan and Kenny get busted by federal agents for downloading music for free. In the episode's best bit, the three are lead on a tour of the homes of famous musicians, where an agent discusses the hardships that the stars have had to endure due to downloading music - for example, Britney Spears had to sell her Gulfstream 4 private jet for a Gulfstream 3, which "...doesn't even have a remote control for the surround sound system." The episode that follows ("Grey Dawn") also has some brilliant moments, as well. "Dawn" follows the kids as they join up with the adults to stop old people from driving, as they cause too many accidents. Although the town succeeds in stripping the old folks of their licenses, it's only a matter of time before the powerful AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) starts air-dropping reinforcements as the first part of their plan to stage a takeover. The boys realize that they must hit the seniors at their weak point - Country Kitchen Buffet. As terrific as those episodes are, the most clever offering this time around is the season opener, "Cancelled", which opens with the boys realizing that their morning is a "repeat" of what happened ages ago in the first season. Something strange is going on, and after the satellite comes out of Cartman's butt again, it's slowly revealed that Earth is actually just an intergalactic reality show that is about to be cancelled by an alien race called the Joosians. The boys' only hope is to meet with the all-powerful network execs, who are happy that the show managed to get past 100 episodes. The episode offers some hilarious digs at the sci-fi genre and reality TV, and also offered some clever twists. Other great episodes from this season include: "Lil' Crime Stoppers" (the boys find themselves suddenly graduating to real officers when tasks like finding a lost doll get them the chance to bust a meth lab), "Toilet Paper" (Cartman convinces the boys to toilet paper their teacher's house), "Fat Butt and Pancake Head" (Execs replace Jennifer Lopez with Cartman and his hand puppet version of J-Lo. Although the puppet J-Lo gains fame, it also eventually gains its own mind, as well.), "Butt Out" (after the kids of South Park get a visit from an anti-smoking performance group, they realize how "cool" smoking is and take up the habit) and "Krazy Kripples" (Jimmy and Timmy pull together a group of similar kids and call themselves the "Crips". When they find out there's another group like themselves in the city, they head to Denver to join forces.) 97. 7- 1 19 Mar 03 Cancelled 98. 7- 2 26 Mar 03 Krazy Kripples 99. 7- 3 2 Apr 03 Toilet Paper 100. 7- 4 9 Apr 03 I'm A Little Bit Country 101. 7- 5 16 Apr 03 Fat Butt and Pancake Head 102. 7- 6 23 Apr 03 Lil' Crime Stoppers 103. 7- 7 30 Apr 03 Red Man's Greed 104. 7- 8 22 Oct 03 South Park is Gay! 105. 7- 9 29 Oct 03 Christian Rock Hard 106. 7-10 5 Nov 03 Grey Dawn 107. 7-11 12 Nov 03 Casa Bonita 108. 7-12 19 Nov 03 All About the Mormons? 109. 7-13 3 Dec 03 Butt Out 110. 7-14 10 Dec 03 Raisins 111. 7-15 17 Dec 03 It's Christmas in Canada The DVD VIDEO: All of the episodes in this 7th season are presented in their original 1.33:1 full-frame aspect ratio. The show's animation is certainly quite basic, but its presented well here. Sharpness and detail are perfectly satisfactory, while no edge enhancement or print flaws are present. Compression artifacts are also not seen. Colors are well-rendered, with no smearing or other flaws. SOUND:The show's 2.0 soundtrack is perfectly fine, clearly presenting both dialogue and sound effects. EXTRAS: The show's creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, provide "mini-commentaries", which are essentially audio summaries that last a few minutes and give an overview of each episode. Previews for other titles from the studio are also offered. Final Thoughts: The 7th season sees "South Park" making a strong comeback after a fine - if somewhat uneven - 6th season. There are definitely a few classics in this bunch, such as "Cancelled". The DVD set once again offers minimal supplements, but good audio/video quality. Recommended. |