Review of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut

Video

Oh this is fun. I have been eagerly waiting to see and review this disc, mainly because I am a huge SP fan with all the episodes taped on VHS, and also as I never got round to seeing this at the flicks.

For those that know South Park, this is more of the same, only ruder, in widescreen and with DD5.1 sound. For those that don’t, this is a nice cartoon – in fact quality all round family entertainment… NOT!

The film is presented in anamorphic 1.85:1 format and is split over 26 chapters. Being a cartoon, I was interested in seeing how the DVD transfer reproduced large areas of solid colour. I needn’t have worried, as colour is not overly saturated.

When watching the film on my projector, I didn’t think the video quality was as sharp as it could have been. I was wondering if this was the disc, but when testing it out on my RGB connected TV there was no evidence of this. Probably one of the limitations of LCD projection.

It is obvious that this cartoon enjoyed more flexibility on the budget that the TV series. Some wonderful creature effects are used when Kenny snuffs it and is sent to hell (poor soul!).

Audio

It was a joy to experience South Park in Dolby Digital 5.1 for the first time. This film is packed with many songs and music, and all are very catchy and have wonderfully OTT lyrics (listen to the Terrance and Phillip track near the start…!).

During the all out war scene especially, the 5.1 surround is used to the full with the gunfire and cannon. Also check out that subwoofer on the Terrance and Phillip ‘clip’ the news bulletin plays.

Wonderful stuff.

Features

Unfortunately we are not over endowed with extras here – the disc features static menus and only boasts three separate trailers apart from the film. The trailers are excellent however.

Conclusion

I think you all know if you are going to like this film before you see it. South Park anoraks will of course lap it up, but just don’t let Granny show it to your kids as a ‘treat’ as she will no doubt have not watched it first!

The DVD presentation is somewhat lacking in extras but the audio and video quality will not disappoint.