South Park--Imaginationland(2008).
© Paramount/Comedy Central

Mania Grade: B+
Title: South Park-Imaginationland
Rating: Unrated
Starring: Trey Parker, Matt Stone
Written By: Trey Parker
Directed By: Trey Parker
Distributor: Paramount Home Entertainment & Comedy Central
Original Year of Release: 2008
Extras: Extended Footage, Episode 814: Woodland Christmas Critters, Episode 1016: Manbearpig, Storyboards, Full commentary by Matt & Trey

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SOUTH PARK: Imaginationland

It seems the new trend for the studios is to release TV “event” episodes as single DVDs despite the same episode being released in box set later down the line. It must be profitable because South Park has been doing it for a while and long before Family Guy’s ‘Blue Harvest’. ‘Imaginationland’ is the culmination of three episodes totaling an hour and seven minutes of pure uncensored South Park. I am not a huge fan of the series and occasionally watch the “event” episode everyone talks about. I thought I would give ‘Imaginationland’ a chance. The last episode of South Park I watched was the very funny World of War Craft episode (via Youtube). Could this top it?

To create a more cinematic event for ‘Imaginationland’ the opening titles are reminiscent of ‘Superman the Movie’ albeit brief. Jumping right in, Cartman is on the hunt for a Leprechaun. Apparently Kyle bet him that he couldn’t find one. The wager? Cartman will have his balls sucked by Kyle if he can produce one and if not he’ll pay Kyle ten dollars. Kyle, believing he’s going to win, helps Cartman set up some traps with the other kids and, believe it or not, a Leprechaun comes running through the forest. They catch him but he pleads with them to let him go because he needs to get a message through. The message: the terrorists are coming. What terrorists and where are revealed shortly and the Leprechaun disappears leaving Cartman the winner of the bet. 

The next day the boys are met by a fat version of Willy Wonka who is looking for the Leprechaun. He takes the boys in his magical flying balloon singing a highly repetitive song using only the word “Imagination”. The boys arrive in Imaginationland and learn that every character that has ever been imagined exists in Imaginationland. In a quick glance we see Rom (Space Knight from the Marvel Universe), Snarf (from “Thundercats”), Osiris (Egyptian God), Jesus (Christian Messiah) and Uncle Remus (from Disney’s ‘Song of the South’) to name a few. Before they know it the terrorists appear and enact a scene from Jamie Foxx’s ‘The Kingdom’ and blow the place apart. 

Being a fan of pop culture and movies, my personal favorite moment in the chaos is when Kyle is living in a hyper-reality where everything is slowed down ala the Omaha Beach scene from ‘Saving Private Ryan’. Ronald McDonald looking for his blown off arm and then picking it up was priceless. 

The terrorists are there to disrupt Imaginationland and destroy the wall between the good imaginations and the bad imaginations. Of course the United States government gets involved and brings in Hollywood’s top imaginative directors for advice. The plot spools through numerous pop culture references and jokes about the power of imagination and why Stan, Kyle and Butters (who maybe the chosen one of Imaginationland) need to help save the day. These three little boys are the key to pushing back the power of the bad imaginations and bringing the slain imaginations back to life (especially Santa Claus). A child’s imagination can, after all, slay the darkness, breathe hope and create enough archers to keep Luke Skywalker and Aslan (The Chronicles of Narnia’s lion) safe and secure.

Nothing is sacred to Matt Stone and Trey Parker which is what made this three part “event” episode deliciously twisted. Yet, at its core, the message in ‘Imaginationland’ is of the power of imagination and how it has changed our world. That alone made it not only thought provoking but touching as well. How many people have been affected by the power of Luke Skywalker? Who hasn’t been inspired by “the boy who lived”, Harry Potter? Which one of us doesn’t know that with great power comes great responsibility. A great reminder and great episode from two guys who love to use the F word and laugh as they pay fines to do so.

Special Features:

There are two bonus episodes on the disc that are worth watching first if you don’t watch South Park on a regular basis. “Woodland Critters Christmas” with its Christmas poem approach to telling yet another holiday episode of South Park is as raunchy and foul as anything I have ever seen. Why watch this first? The Woodland Critters feature heavily into ‘Imaginationland’. However, if you don’t like your holiday cheer mixed with three orphaned mountain lion cubs performing a satanic abortion on a kid then you should probably skip this one.

“Manbearpig” was barely worth the few chuckles or eye rolls I experienced while watching it. It does however, set up Manbearpig and Al Gore’s appearance in ‘Imaginationland’. The joke of Al Gore not having any friends and being obsessed with a cause just wasn’t doing it for me. In ‘Imaginationland’ his appearance can stand on its own without viewing “Manbearpig”.