Plot: What’s it about?
The third season of South Park was produced in conjunction with their feature-length movie, “South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut”. This doesn’t mean a whole lot as the movie went onto financial success and saw Trey and Matt rake in ever more cash. The movie, unlike the television show, gave the four foul mouthed kids an outlet to really cut loose verbally (no where better evidenced than when Cartman shouts every profanity in the book at the end of the movie). Still, this was the third season of the television show and there were still limits as to what the kids (if that be “Trey and Matt” or the actual South Park Kids) could really get away with. Clearly the creators of the show were impressed with their efforts during this season and they produced several more “interesting” episodes to say the least. The undisputed highlight of the season is the three part “Meteor Shower Party” in which three episodes unfold over the course of one night. This isn’t something that you see in cartoons (animation) very often, if ever.
I would go so far as to say that this was the show at its peak. The show is still running today and offending more and more people every day. This is good, however, as a show that remains static and constant ultimately gets tired and dull. Also, with this season, we get actual episode commentaries (the creators call them “commentary mini’s”) on the episodes. For those die hard fans that remember the first season, Warner cut the commentary tracks off the DVD and to get them, you had to buy a separate DVD to hear what the guys had to say. And even once we heard the commentary tracks, no one could really figure out what all of the fuss was about. The individual episodes in this season were a bit different, as we have a reference to “Mr. Hankey’s Christmas Classics” that was actually a real CD; we have “Tweek vs. Craig” which uses live action in the otherwise animated world of South Park and the singing of “The Morning After” to save Chef from whatever trouble he’s in. Clearly this is South Park at it’s peak and we can only wait until the next season is released to see how we can be offended again.
Video: How does it look?
It’s almost a joke as to how low budget these episodes look. Essentially they’re cardboard cutouts that have a somewhat “cartoonish” look to them. Each episode is presented in a full-frame transfer that reflects the original aspect ratio. For the most part, the colors are very bright and vivid, even surpassing broadcast quality (there happened to be an episode airing on Comedy Central while I was doing my review, so I switched back and forth from Satellite to DVD to compare the two). There’s not a real problem with edge enhancement, considering the source, and all of the other factors that are normally considered are thrown out the window here as we don’t really know what to expect. Bottom line, if you have seen the other South Park DVD’s, then this is how these episodes look. No major complaints here.
Audio: How does it sound?
Again, only the movie was presented in Dolby Digital 5.1, but this is the third season we’re talking about here! All episodes are in Dolby Surround, which more than serves the purpose. You’ll hear each and every verbal slur as they’re constantly dished out and all of the voices and sound effects are intact. There is some depth to the tracks, however, as it tends to supercede what we would call “acceptable” when it comes to animation. Not a lot else to say here, it sounds pretty good and I wasn’t let down at all.
Supplements: What are the extras?
The only real extra here is something that South Park fans will love. Trey and Matt actually do commentaries for the entire season. Though they’re referred to as “Commentary-Mini’s”. No matter what they call them, it’s a welcome addition to the set as Matt and Trey dismiss some episodes, all of Season 2 and get a kick out of their work. Clearly, these guys enjoy what they do for a living.
