As pride month comes to a close, I feel it's as good as time as any to do a not-so-little coming out post. That's right, I'm
...going to talk about my favorite animated movie, which I've seen around 30-40 times, which celebrates its 27th anniversary today, thereby granting me As Good A Time As Any to discuss it:
This post necessitates a TLDR, because it's going to be a dumping ground. Maybe an intriguing dumping ground worthwhile! But a dumping ground of thoughts and my relationship to this film and the show by proxy and getting all of the very strong feelings I have for it out. This is going to be rambly and long and impassioned and not very organized, but from the soul! Actually!
TLDR: After nuking my old blog for a number of reasons, one of the most prominent being "I can't have anyone finding all my South Park art and thoughts from when I was a teenager, I hate that show now, that was a different and cringey old version of me", the hyperfix returns with an embarrassing vengeance and kneecaps me right in the gut. My favorite aspect of the entire franchise is the film, and has been the one link I've salvaged even after I was long disenfranchised from the show and community. The movie is mostly what got me in, and I've still felt a lot of love for it even and especially when I felt the complete opposite towards the show, and now that it's what's brought me back around AGAIN, I'm realizing what a big source of passion it is for me, despite my many, many, many complicated feelings about the franchise it's connected to. I'm honest with myself and sharing my love of a film I love instead of bottling it up full to bursting and still clinging onto some residual shame (which is not unfounded, will go into that). So this is my rambly catharsis!
SP has been the hyperfix in question I've been alluding to recently, biting me ferociously and making an entire sideblog for it so I don't flashbang my good natured followers with "Hey I'm really getting into that show with the obnoxious libertarian politics again, which is really a mild way to actualize it. Yeah I'm not proud of it either. Yeah"
It'sssss complicated. Or, maybe it isn't, and I just say it's complicated. I'm not gonna act like I'm some oversensitive silly goose who has to hide behind a sideblog, but I realized it's okay, I can be FREE, hehe how silly of me to hide my TrUe SeLf1!!1! or what have you becauseeee... I get it. I completely get and have also felt every gut "South Park? eugh" reaction that is so commonly elicited. I was a fan as a teenager and my ducktracy blog actually began as a SP blog, which is also why I wanted to delete it once and for all to finally get rid of any crumbs floating around of my embarrassing teenage behavior.. only to desperately be going through chains of dead blogs about 2 months later trying to archive my stuff. I've seen 22 seasons out of 28, I know--or at least did--know the show very intimately. Because of that, I am, or at least was, very, very very vocal about my critiques and criticisms of the show. To a fault. I used to flippantly talk about how I hated 90% of the show and was only here for [xyz] blah blah blah, and then wonder why people would be rude to me. As I'm screaming about how I hate the show
I'm not here to do a "SP is... good.. actually.. just misunderstood.. I see the light now" spiel because, again, completely get all the reservations. Likewise I'm not trying to go "SP has enabled some toxic ideologies but I like when the kids are cute so don't be mean guys ok :( that's my comfort show :(", and I'm likewise aware that I still might accidentally come off like that. Just asking you to bare with me here
What is the appeal of the show to me. Why do I keep coming back to this show where I loudly proclaimed how much I hated it and how I hated the community. What keeps me watching the film even after I was long distanced from my time with the show.
There are multiple factors, but trying and failing to condense them down:
The '90s-ness of it. My heart and main interest is in '90s SP, with both what the show was doing and how people were reacting to it. I guess the best point of comparison, for me, would be to say "I'm into The Simpsons because of Simpsons-mania", like that but for SP.
There was a lot of early branding that boiled down to, essentially, "what if the Peanuts characters said bad words" that I find incredibly charming. This is again best reflected in the first 3 seasons or so in the '90s and is where the heart of my interest lies. The show, the characters, the humor, the art direction is all more juvenile, but in a way I'm very smitten with
Part of it is because it reminds me of growing up and playing with my neighbors. We were all around the same age, but I was the only girl in the neighborhood and so I assimilated with Da Boys. Not saying that we were spouting or doing atrocities or, to quote a very beloved post, being racist egg children, but early SP does capture a certain "rawness" to childhood that I resonate with and can identify with because I experienced it firsthand. But I'm again judging by the early seasons where the kids in the show believably behave like shitty annoying children and not mouthpieces for the opinions of middle aged libertarian billionaires who've been out of touch for over 20 years now, and nor do I mean shitty little children comparably to what they do in episodes now
There is just an overlap of interests. I'll get into this more in a bit. For so long I was like "my SP phase was someone entirely different, I'm a whole new person now", and while that's not inaccurate, revisiting the show has me realizing. Ah. Man. No wonder why I loved [x] so much. Unfortunately it just does have things that appeal to me
I am 25 years old now and no longer 15 years old and know where my thoughts and morals lie. I don't need to keep screaming I'M INTO SOUTH PARK BUT DON'T WORRY I HATE 90% OF IT I PROMISE I'M GOOD AND THINK CRITICALLY AND DON'T SUPPORT IT I ONLY LIKE THIS BUT NOT THIS PLEASE DONT KILL ME IM SORRY every time I wanna talk about it, I know where my priorities are. Do not construe this as me saying Ummm well just let people enjoy things I'm immune from propaganda because I say I think critically don't be a wokescold :/
As typical, some screenshots courtesy of past me articulating my relationship and thoughts a bit better than current me
I do want this post to be centered on the movie, specifically though, and my passion for it, as opposed to explaining myself silly and begging for forgiveness--which is, again! Not to downplay any genuine and real criticism of the show, criticism that I am certain I hold myself, but moreso we will be here all day if I allow myself to do that and so for your sanity and mine I just ask you take my word for any forgiveness and Sorry for South Park-ing. I'm here to share an unlikely passion and discuss something that makes me happy and its artistic merit, in reaction to something that can be a little "at odds" with me
I Will Now Proceed To Talk About My Favorite Animated Movie, Which Has 399 Swear Words, 128 Offensive Gestures and 221 Acts of Violence
Today is the 27th anniversary of the SP film! Even when I wasn't an active fan of it, June 30th was still always mentally "BLU Day" to me. I'd rewatch the film on every June 30th during my time in the community, and think of it otherwise
The film's story is actually an expansion of one of the earliest episode plots in the show: the boys learn a litany of swear words and offensive language from the new Terrance and Phillip movie ("two very untalented actors from Canada--nothing but foul language and toilet humor"), and this escalates into an extremely bloody and violent war between America and Canada, started by Kyle's mom as censorship against T+P escalates into their attempted execution. The boys start their own resistance group to try and save Terrance and Phillip, and it all ends happily ever after hooray
It was intended to be the series finale of the show, which was in the middle of its third season. I'm forgetting the exact reason why it ended up not being the case, and now we're some 25+ seasons later and clearly still going, but there are a lot of ingredients in it that make it feel like a big bombastic finale. A lot of old characters and jokes and running gags get a final hurrah, and there are more "damning" moments such as Kenny taking off his hood and speaking unmuffled for the first time (voiced by Mike Judge!), and permanently dying (as opposed to dying in every episode of the show and coming back later, oh my god they killed Kenny etc etc. And then this "permanent ending" for him Also became this considering an episode aired the very week after this was released lol). It still feels like a big special event, maybe doesn't hold up as a definitive finale considering how drastically the show has evolved since then, but if you view it within the context of everything that came before and to that point (like we do with our LT reviews!) it does feel like one big last shebang
Main points of appeal for the movie to me is that it... well one, it's a BANGIN' MUSICAL. Incredible songs. They felt like they had to keep the fact that it was a musical a secret until release because musicals weren't seen as "cool", but my god it really does have an incredible soundtrack. Main songs and backing score. More again on this soon. But I mean c'mon, truly you can't deny this isn't an incredible earworm. Give it time
But, likewise, the movie is most everything I love about this era of SP and almost devoid of what I don't love about it. It's lightning in a bottle for me
I like when the kids in the show act like kids. I won't waste my breath going "guys trust me you really get attached 🥺", but if I love the juvenile aspects of the show, then it really is felt here to a great strength. These kids acting LIKE kids and having kid-like solutions to things, all while going up against very large scale issues. A lot of story devices but also directing decisions and shot compositions that really heighten the difference between the kids and the adults and makes the kids feel small and more like a palpable underdog you want to root for
I think the opening song number of the film does a good job of introducing the characters and their dynamics, hinting at some of the show's humor, and just The World of South Park™️ as it existed in 1999. The bigger the World™️ has gotten in recent years has, ironically--at least for me--made it feel more hollow and small. Not the case here. I was streaming this movie with friends in May and didn't realize how succinct of a primer this sequence is to people unacquainted with the show
My two favorite characters in the show are exclusive to this movie! Which is awesome and awful at the same time. Awesome because that's part of their appeal to me, I enjoy that they're limited to this time capsule in 1999 and free of the insurmountable critiques and gripes I have with modern SP today. They show up and serve their purpose in the movie and that's it. But it is also gut wrenching because DAMN is it hard when your favorite characters in the entire franchise are "locked" to this movie, and haven't even shown up in games or "extras" or anything like that--they've had ample opportunity to return and they HAVEN'T. UGH. But again it might be for the best... but also...
Who are these masked marvels that enthrall you so? You ask, and I am so glad you did, which you definitely did, because I heard you, just know. They are:
Described in an early draft of the movie as "the British bastard". Hilariously pompous 8 year old who wears an open-buttoned shirt. He's like the stereotypical Charming Suave Romantic Lead Who Is Perfect And Smart And Does Everything and instead of that being admirable, it is infuriating. Has eyes for Stan's crush Wendy which makes Stan hate him. Big part of spearheading La Resistance (their resistance group to save Terrance and Phillip), which also makes Stan hate him and tries to take charge back. Movie ends with Wendy telling him to get fucked in the ear and we never see him again.
Described in same draft as “a bitter little nine year old with a THICK French accent”. Kid who helps the boys act out their resistance mission is a little French kid who smokes cigarettes and goes on long monologues about how he hates god. Got grounded by his mommy because he said he hates god. According to the director’s commentary, was created just because Matt and Trey thought it’d be funny to make a kid said he hated god over and over again—something more shocking in 1999 than now lol. Aaaand he dies
Both characters have a whopping 8 MINUTES of combined screen time out of a 90 minute film and a 29 year franchise 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥💯💯💯💯💯 and yes. They’re my favorites. Why!
They embody the juvenile attitude and indulgence and fun of early SP I love and resonate with most. These two kids, the joke sort of is how “mature” they are: 8 year old mini Errol Flynn slash Enjolras with his open button shirt and the misotheist chain smoking French kid who talks about how god ruined his life but never actually about how or why. And through this supposed maturity, they actually end up looking more juvenile than ever
Like cool you’re so cool. Button your shirt. He didn’t know what the secret password was to get into the meeting the kids were organizing and thought “bacon” was a good password (he was correct). Cool you hate god and smoke cigarettes and curse a lot. You’re also grounded by your mommy and at one point make a poop joke (“Do you have the mirror?” “Check!” “And the rope?” “Got it!” “And the buttfor?” “What’s a buttfor?” “For pooping, silly.”)
It’s good for someone like me whose heart of interest are the kids acting like kids. Weird, bratty kids. But kids nonetheless. Likewise, the indulgence I mentioned.. a bit difficult to articulate without going into the whole history of the show, but these two characters are such remnants of their time and a beacon of the kind of indulgence Matt and Trey were willing to do. They had Pip from Great Expectations as a character. The kid from the 70s The Omen movie, Damien? Appears as a character in an episode. Lots of Star Trek references in these early episodes, and there’s one that parodies a whole episode and has the character named after a character in the episode.. need to do my research to remember what the name was, sadly I am no Trekkie. (EDIT: it's a parody of the Dagger of the Mind episode, there's a kid named Van Gelder who's named after a character named Simon van Gelder in the episode who have similar roles)
But these movie kids (their names are Gregory and Christophe, or in the latter, “The Mole” because he has a shovel and digs holes!) feel like a sort of last gasp of that kind of indulgence from M+T. It’s not like everything immediately changes after the movie—it’s a show, gradual evolution, but this was at the point where the show was no longer a fad but here to stay and here to grow. For better or worse, depending on your perspective
A huge point of appeal of early SP and, by proxy, the movie, is its looks. The (final, there are technically like… 3 or 4 different pilots) pilot was made by hand, actual paper cutouts—incredibly labor intensive and so it’s the only episode where this is the case. But the first few years of the show of course maintain the paper cutout aesthetic. The art direction evolves over time, backgrounds and scenarios get more complex, and eventually characters, etc… the art direction of the movie is a beautiful middle ground of where the stuff they were doing was genuinely advanced for its time, comparing to the show at the time. It also looks “bad.” Which is the source of one of my favorite jokes they ever did, again from the movie:
And it’s a beautiful marriage! The crude aesthetics are maintained, but you see them working within their limitations and yet it still feels so tactile and gosh I really love it. There are really things they did to elevate the looks too, even beyond using photorealistic elements and special effects like an entire CG sequence. The animation, believe it or not, is genuinely advanced, the characters move in ways they never had in the show—there are inbetweens and arcs and settles which, again, the show didn’t get the luxury of. Stuff like “Cartman has splayed fingers here for the first time ever”, seeing the kids actually have legs, special poses.. there’s a really endearing elevation that still looks crude, but in a way that is really captivating and endearing rather than ugly
And again. The songs. Marc Shaiman did the score for the movie and the best way I can describe it is Carl Stalling-esque. We have all these brilliant main scores and motifs of the main songs, but he also finds ways to turn them into leitmotifs throughout. It’s so rewarding and charming listening to all the different variations on the same piece of music. And, again, the music is just supremely, supremely good.
This is my favorite score from the entire movie and feels particularly Stalling-esque, the way it combines the motif of Mountain Town with a pastiche of Sleigh Ride, all while contextually being a pastiche of the skating sequence in A Charlie Brown Christmas:
And the lushness of the orchestration all throughout! I could do a whole separate post analyzing the music and chords alone. I already have numerous times actually and still could. But the BRUSHES ON THE DRUMS!!
They frequently utilize these Wizard of Oz-esque vocal choruses as a parody, but they’re also sincerely hauntingly beautiful. As someone who genuinely eats that sort of thing up and that “aesthetic” or whatever you’d call it I just love it.
And I just gotta drop this when discussing the music in this film. I used to think this song was overhyped, it was one that people not into the show/film talked about (for excellent reason) and it took me awhile to see what was so Great about it but it really is stellar. The medleys are all reprises of songs within the actual movie
And it’s the music that got me into SP “for good” back as a teen and back again as an adult.. as a teen it was because What Would Brian Boitano Do was the answer to a Jeopardy question and I remembered the song after having seen the movie a few years prior during my first stint as a SP fan, and now as an adult I was getting moved by the lyrics of this, which is maybe also kind of funny to say considering some of the lyrics. Can’t timestamp now since I’m on mobile but it starts at 0:29
“Everything worked out, what a happy end
Americans and Canadians are friends again
So let’s all join hands and knock oppression down!”
Maybe it’s funny to get all emotional about it.. but there are Factors. The biggest being that it’s again, sort of a last hurrah (if all were intended and this was the true finale of the show)—Chef had so many great songs in the show and they were very iconic, and so I love the idea of ending out the show on one last Chef Song sung by all the denizens of the town, filled with cameos from the show. Likewise, Chef is one of my absolute favorite characters and another who is the embodiment of the heart and soul of SP to me.. Isaac Hayes passed away in 2008 and his character stepped away from the show in 2006–it’s a whole Thing but Chef’s ending is incredibly sad due to multiple circumstances and is a big nail in the coffin for me personally. SP is not SP without Chef to me. So that sort of warmth for his character and what he represented gets thrown in the mix, too
In my utopia, the show never evolved from this
And they’re just nice lyrics. “So let’s all join hands and knock oppression down” is just a really nice sentiment and one I think hits me particularly hard haha. There’s an optimism I really resonate with. Maybe even a sweetness. It just gets to me. But that again may likewise be compounded with my love of the film in general, and I listened to this song and watched this entire ending resolution incessantly, so it’s already got incredible importance to me. It’s making me emotional, again, right now! Argh!
Through all this waffling I’ve hardly scratched the surface. I just love this film too much for words. I’ve downplayed my adoration of it in recent years because, again, I can totally see “Oh my favorite movie ever? The South Park movie” can ring alarm bells to the uninitiated lol. I only just showed the movie to my closest friend group, who know me inside and out, who I’ve been with for over 6 years now! And I still apologized incessantly before, during and after!
But I do love it. I’ve seen it genuinely an insurmountable quantity. I still have almost the entire script memorized and can recite it all chronologically. I do estimate it to be somewhere within the 30 or 40 range, not counting “false starts”, AKA watching the film Every Day on the bus to and back from school on my phone. Here is not-so-live footage of me watching it on the last day of my sophomore year, 9 years ago, while they played The Secret Life of Pets for us in the auditorium because ?
This was every day for me, and thus has made it impossible for me to keep track. I’ve been trying, though! Which is why my LB looks like this because I forgot it would log if you register old dates.
I never expected to get back into this series in the big ‘26. I had bad memories associated with the fandom and all I remembered was how liberating it felt to embrace things like SpongeBob and Camp Lazlo and eventually Looney Tunes, where I didn’t have to spend 90% of my time talking about it how I actually can’t stand them and only enjoy a minute percentage. I could just. Enjoy something! And without discourse or drama!
But getting back into it 10-12 years later, while embarrassing, has been, dare I say it, nice! I’ve been rewatching the series from the very beginning to refresh myself and see where my thoughts and opinions lie. I’m still early on, s4 out of 28 and this is still technically my “sweet spot”, so I haven’t yet encountered many of the things that make me gripe and groan at best and viscerally repulsed at worst… but I’ve been able to enjoy it for what it is more… or at least “for what it is” in terms of the ‘90s. A lot of things making me laugh. A lot of things I notice with a more astute eye since I now work in animation. And also just getting references and allusions and jokes I missed as a teenager.
It’s.. not inevitable, but there’s a lot of overlap, my relation with SP and my relation with LT. I call myself a cartoon anthropologist, facetiously but also with genuine intent, and SP for better or worse is the cartoon anthropologist show. I like seeing how films and shows and writing reflect the thoughts of the people at the time, I like this metaphorical time travel device we get. Perhaps I enjoy the ‘90s episodes most because I wasn’t alive during the ‘90s and so I can have a similar nostalgic detachment (though there is some lived attachment with the era, too, for me, as someone who had a brother who grew up in the ‘90s and had a lot of those experiences and remnants handed down). Whereas I dread revisiting the episodes I watched live covering the 2016 election because I lived it. But maybe I’ll have a new perspective 10 years later, watching the episodes all at once, rather than having the season trickled down to me weekly which, wording that sounds awful because I don’t like the binge model BUT. It’s a special kind of painful to wait a whole week for an episode that just makes you mad and irate, and then waiting for the next week hoping something good will happen lol. But this is getting into broader background of the show not necessarily relevant to this post, 2016 SP is a different beast than 90s SP.
What's been really funny/interesting/whatever is revisiting all of my old art and realizing that there is a bit of a direct throughline from my SP days to now... it makes sense because getting into the show just. Straight up taught me how to draw. I was drawing fanart incessantly and that skyrocketed my improvement and was pretty instrumental and getting me here. I've been working on a redraw of this currently, but these are from May 2016, September 2016, and April 2017.. not even a year apart
(and 2026, wip of course :-))
But I'd forgotten how many STORYBOARDS and ANIMATICS I made as a teen! I was constantly doing fake storyboards for cut scenes in the movie draft, or just quotes from other shows with the characters, or ideas I had myself. I knew absolutely nothing about storyboarding and a lot of it was me just tracing the character models and acting like I was making really cool art. But now I do this very thing for a living, and much better! Practice that I didn't know would be practice.
But I’ve been having fun! Yeah it’s funny and embarrassing to get right back into the hyperfixation that contributed to me nuking my blog and spending years going Nobody Must Know. But I’ve been treated incredibly charitably by friends old and new, in and out of the community—in in that I’ve gotten a wonderfully warm welcome from people I haven’t kept up with in a decade and getting to bond over our allegiances and what we’ve done and accomplished in that time. Out, in that my lovely friends have all given me multiple variations of “it’s okay if you watch this show” as I spend so much time begging for forgiveness lol. I’ve been drawing lots of art again and expanding my abilities. And unlike LT or Sponge, I don’t really care about ruining the “artistic integrity” of SP with my interpretations of the characters because 1) they’re paper cutouts so I can go hog wild anyway and 2) I truthfully do not mind if Matt and Trey were to look at my art and go “hm. Wrong”. Because then I can go Yeah well I found (x) episode to be pretty hm Wrong myself.. that is to say I’m not bound by the same perfectionism and worries that usually plague me
It’s been fun. Which is weird to say! Because there hasn’t been much that’s been “fun” in regards to my interests these past few years. But it’s the first time in a long time I’ve felt like I can just be a casual fan and do what I want and not worry about being somebody or upholding a certain status quo or worrying about doing it “wrong”.
This also isn’t my attempt to go "South Park is good, actually. Why? Because I like it. So please like it also or I’ll do something drastic." Again, totally understand all reservations, I uphold many of the same ones myself. There’s a reason I’ve quarantined all of my related SP activities
But it’s been making me passionate and I’ve been wanting to talk about and stoke these passions. That doesn’t mean I’m going to talk about it a ton on here, if it all, but my mission with this blog is that it’s my personal blog! It reflects the things I’m into and passionate about. This meets the quota. Especially the film. And I’ve been holding it in, a few months in terms of this recent wave of a hyperfixation but in the long term, quite a many years, regarding my honest love of the movie.
And it’s not a perfect movie either! When I watched it for the first time after a SP hiatus of a few years.. maybe 2021-2022 or so, I was like DANG I don’t remember it being this crass and gore-y and shock value forward, how did I put up with this? And then I rewatched it last year in the airport and a flight ride home after idly watching SP in my hotel a few days since it was all that was on. I found myself going.. hey, I remember why I liked this. Still things I disagree with in here but I still hold a candle for it, somewhere
…and then I rewatched it again in December, and then in May, and then in June, and will again after I publish this post.
I like it! A lot! It’s also very important to me! It’s silly to say, at best! Embarrassing, even! But I’m sort of over keeping it to myself and stifling myself rather than just Owning it. Doesn’t mean I endorse every bad take the show has had, often years after the film was made. I know how to engage with these things smartly and know how to curate myself so I’m not touting it around people who are understandably put off. I’m likewise done thinking that I have to broadcast my every thought and motive and feeling for permission, and that the only way I can sensibly engage is to repent and give my apologies before I proceed. I’ve done a ton of that already. I just—I know where I stand! I know what my takeaways are, and what they aren’t.
I think I’ve preached to the choir enough. But yeah. There it is! Again, embarrassing yes. But also, honest, yes. And it’s been nice to embrace what makes me happy and passionate and I don’t gain anything by swallowing it and acting coy. For awhile I’d been scraping along trying to force any sort of passion into some of my posting when I just felt the complete opposite, so it’s about time I express the genuine passion I do feel, even if the circumstances aren’t “ideal” or palatable
Here are some various LB reviews from me throughout the years also trying to get my never-ending thoughts on the film out (read L to R):
To end off, I got a cool shirt promoting the movie from 1999 :) European exclusive, too! First time I’ve ever had a shirt older than myself. I remember lamenting not being able to collect vintage merch as a teenager because I didn’t have the money for it, so this has been exciting for me too. Plush is from 1998 which is also cool!
OH. POST SCRIPT. SONGS. The Chef-Aid album is particularly emblematic of the SP I love. Ween's The Rainbow is just a genuinely awesome song and Bubblegoose captures the appeal of early SP for me. Getting into the Simpsons-mania-esque appeal of the show for me again
