South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
★★★½ — South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
Trey Parker and Matt Stone had been running South Park on Comedy Central for just under two years when Paramount and Warner Bros. co-financed this theatrical spin-off, released in the summer of 1999. The pair wrote, directed and voiced the bulk of the film themselves, as they had done with the show, and structured it largely as a musical (Parker handles the songwriting), with original numbers that would go on to earn an Academy Award nomination for "Blame Canada." The film arrived at a particularly charged cultural moment, with American debates around censorship, the V-chip and parental advisory ratings all running hot in the wake of the Columbine shooting just weeks earlier. Mary Kay Bergman, who voiced nearly all of the female characters in the series, died later that year. The film grossed over $83 million worldwide against a $21 million budget, a healthy return that confirmed the show's audience was willing to follow it onto the big screen.
Watching South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut again after seeing it on repeat as a ten-year-old feels like meeting an old school friend who hasn’t changed a bit. Still loud, still swearing, still throwing bombs at good taste. It’s crass, chaotic, and packed with jokes that shouldn’t work but somehow do. The songs are stupidly catchy, I still know every word to “Blame Canada,” and the whole thing has this anarchic energy that only Trey Parker and Matt Stone could pull off. It’s not just shock for shock’s sake, though there’s plenty of that. Under all the fart gags and Satan musical numbers, there’s actually a bit of sharp satire about censorship, moral panic, and how adults always blame cartoons for turning kids evil, while being complete idiots themselves. It’s silly as hell, but it’s also kind of smart in a “wink while flipping you the bird” kind of way. It hasn’t aged perfectly (some jokes land flat or feel dated) but as a time capsule of late-’90s irreverence, it’s gold. And for anyone who grew up with Cartman’s voice echoing through their bedroom stereo, it’s pure nostalgia. Not a masterpiece, but absolutely good all round.
Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 1999 | Watched: 2025-08-25
Where to watch (UK)
Stream: HBO Max Amazon Channel
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