It would be understandable if creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone began to lose their edge a little bit. After eleven years, I would think it could get tiring coming up with ideas and then having to turn those into an animated adventure. Apparently, the primitive animation style adopted by Parker and Stone, allows them a fairly quick turnaround and an ability to stay topical. As usual, season eleven finds the writers taking shots at a variety of people and things: Video game culture, Bono, lesbian bars and Cartman’s homosexual tendencies, pop culture and Islamic fundamentalism. Appearances from political figures like Hillary Clinton and Jesse Jackson keep things topical while the constant barrage of toilet humor and profanity keeps them controversial and funny.
South Park centers on four boys: Stanley “Stan” Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Theodore Cartman, and Kenneth “Kenny” McCormick. There are many recurring characters on the show, including the boys’ families, school staff, and other students. These include Leopold “Butters” Stotch, Mr. Hankey, Towelie, Jesus, and Satan. There are also many other minor characters.
By the eleventh season, Kenny’s back at full steam, Butters has a much bigger role in the series, and Mr Garrison, his sex change complete, now looks like a very manly woman. The Imaginationland Trilogy (which was released on its own earlier this year) stands out as a highlight of an overall rock solid season. That said, South Park fans should be more than happy with this three disc set of the series twelfth season. Here’s a rundown of the season’s fourteen episodes:
Disc One:
“With Apologies to Jesse Jackson” Randy Marsh becomes a social pariah after saying the ‘N word’ on Wheel of Fortune, which leads to tensions between Token and Stan. Meanwhile, Cartman angers a dwarf who comes to give a talk at the school.
“Cartman Sucks” Butters’ dad sends him off to special camp to “Pray the Gay Away” when he believes that his son is bi-curious after catching him in a compromising position with Cartman. Meanwhile, Cartman does his best to retrieve a photo of him in that compromising position before too many people find out about it.
“Lice Capades” When a breakout of headlice hits South Park Elementary, Mrs. Garrison refuses to say which child brought the plague to the school. So, Cartman takes it upon himself to find out who it is so the kids can make fun of them. Meanwhile, a louse Travis, is desperate to save his fellow lice from imminent destruction from a conscious world.
“The Snuke” The citizens of South Park are gearing up for the arrival of Hillary Clinton for a big campaign rally. Meanwhile, Cartman suspects that a new Muslim student is involved in a possible terrorist attack. Every minute counts for Cartman as he uses his own interrogation methods on his suspect. But could the plan to target Clinton be just the tip of the iceberg?
“Fantastic Easter Special” Stan wants to know the real reason kids have to decorate eggs for Easter, and what, if anything eggs and bunnies have to do with Jesus dying for his sins. To get to the bottom of it, Kyle and Stan get wrapped up in a bizarre society that guards a legendary secret.
Disc Two:
“D – Yikes” Once again Mrs. Garrison gets dumped, but this time she decides to take it out on her fourth grade class. When the boys have finally had enough of their teacher’s erratic mood swings and excessive homework assignments, they find out that there are people-for-hire that can help out in any situation. Meanwhile, Mrs. Garrison is finding life without men has its upsides.
“Night of the Living Homeless” Masses of homeless people invade South Park. The parents of South Park are trapped on a rooftop, while the children trace the cause of the epidemic.
“Le Petit Tourette” Cartman pretends to have Tourette syndrome so he can say whatever he wants without being punished. However, he gets more than he bargained for when he begins to involuntarily admit the truth.
“More Crap” Randy Marsh becomes a local hero in South Park after the guys at the bar see the size of his latest crap. After some talking with the guys, Randy believes he could be a contender for the World Record. But is there someone else who wants it more?
Disc Three:
“Imaginationland, Episodes I, II & III” In this three part episode, Cartman bets Kyle that leprechauns are real and Kyle signs a contract agreeing to suck his balls if he can prove it. When Cartman does manage to find a leprechaun in the woods, the boys wind up on a magical journey into Imaginationland where they witness a horrific attack from some Islamic terrorists who manage to free all of the evils things that people imagine. A war breaks out between the good parts of imagination and the bad parts of the imagination and Butters appears to be the only one who can help good to triumph over evil. Meanwhile, Cartman is insisting that Kyle honor his contract and the American military is considering nuking Imaginationland to stop the terrorists from winning.
“Guitar Queer-o” Stan and Kyle become obsessed with Guitar Hero to the point where they’re breaking high score records and it doesn’t take long for Stan to realize that he could go even further with a different partner. Will the stress of being a rock star get to Stan now that his best friend is no longer by his side?
“The List” As the season closes, the girls in the fourth grade class make a secret list that rates every boy’s looks from cutest to ugliest. The fourth grade boys discover this and steal the list. They are, however, unprepared to deal with the results.
The series’ animation is pretty primitive so that does limit how good the series can ever really look but these DVDs do a fine job of bringing the episodes to your home theater. The colors are deep and bright and the video shows only minimal graininess. Each one of the episodes is presented in an English language Dolby Digital Stereo mix with optional English closed captions provided for the hearing impaired. There are no alternate languages or subtitles available on this set.
The special features provided with South Park: The Complete Eleventh Season are minimal. The only real features are mini commentary tracks by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Most of the tracks run for about four minutes, but they are funny and keep in line with the general feel and theme of South Park.
