(S11E10) Holy crap. Where to begin?
I think this is going to be the first three-parter in South Park history. I'm only inferring this from their use of the world "trilogy" in the opening credits (right after "Kyle Sucks Cartman's Balls"). Which opening credits are they trying to emulate in that segment? I think it was the Superman movies.
Cartman seemed to be staying true to character with his selection of code names for his team, such as "Blacky" for Token and "Faggot" for Butters.
The "ringleader" character is a bit of a cross between Willy Wonka and the Wizard of Oz. I loved how Butters asked if he was going to rape the kids and his response was "Um...uh...no." It's difficult to know how to answer such a question. Given Butters' history with sex (such as "Cartman Joins NAMBLA" or "The Fellowship of the Lord of the Rings"), it's not surprising that he asked the question. The "Imagination" song was so long and had such a horrific (lack of) melody that it reminded me a bit of synagogue services.
I tried to place all of the characters in Imaginationland. I got the following list: Count Chocula. The evil characters from Yellow Submarine. Twinkie the Kid. The Brown Hornet. One of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. One of the monsters from Where the Wild Things Are. Astro Boy. Optimus Prime. Dick Tracy. A Smurf. Charlie Brown. Ronald McDonald. Raggedy Ann and Andy. Cinderella. Snarf from Thundercats. Red Riding Hood. A CareBear. That dragon with Sean Connery's voice from that movie (That is from my notes verbatim). Humpty Dumpty. Pan. The Flash. For those of you with DVRs, who did I miss?
I loved how they paid homage to Saving Private Ryan when Ronald McDonald picked up his own arm which was severed in the attack.
The trial segment was hilarious. "And yet my balls remain dry." "And draw it up succulently for no less than thirty seconds." "This is a victory for the justice syste
South Park wouldn't be complete without some sort of real-world critique. This time it was about the lack of imagination of certain Hollywood directors and producers. They even paid a nice compliment to Mel Gibson (a far cry from "The Passion of the Jew"). Mel is nuts, but at least he knows basic story structure.
It wouldn't surprise me if the theme of this mutli-episode arc was the lack of imagination of terrorists. It seems to be going that way. However, Trey and Matt are good at dishing out surprises so I'm going to just watch next week and see where their imaginations take us. They're still on a roll with another great episode.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
10-18-2007 @ 10:41AM
Aj said...
I know it flashed that it was a trilogy, but the voice over after the credits said something to the effect of "join us next week for the conclusion"
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10-18-2007 @ 10:50AM
fred said...
Oh yeah, brilliant episode!! Those guys are still making episodes even more hilarious than they did eleven years ago, it's hard to believe.
I'm not sure how they do it, but I couldn't enjoy it any less, freaking awesome!
About the "terrorists controling our imagination", I tought it also had to do with the whole Mohammed drawings thing...
http://88.191.26.34/i_watch_tv/2007/10/18/south-park-imaginationland/
Anyways, great funniest animated series ever!
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10-18-2007 @ 10:51AM
Ryan said...
You missed Orko from He-Man.
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10-18-2007 @ 10:53AM
Nick said...
I think they were trying to take a poke at disney with the imaginationville major resembling dreamfinder from the imagination attraction at epcot.
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10-18-2007 @ 11:00AM
Matt said...
The imagination song was like a bad Family Guy joke.
I'm sorry, that was redundant.
It was like a Family Guy joke. There, that's better. :)
I'll reserve judgment on this week until I see next week's.
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10-18-2007 @ 11:04AM
gwangi said...
There was also Totoro
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10-18-2007 @ 11:05AM
Mandy said...
I spotted HR Pufnstuf.
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10-18-2007 @ 11:09AM
superbagman said...
Nick's right, the mayor guy was supposed to be the Dreamfinder, my wife is a big Disney nut and picked it up, she claims that the end of the imagination song is set to the melody of Figment's imagination song from the same ride. After she mentioned it I noticed it too. Also, I'm pretty sure Super Mario was killed by terrorists in Imaginationland, what a tragedy!
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10-18-2007 @ 11:10AM
Cody said...
I saw a totoro. I think you may have missed some others too, there were some group shots with lots of characters.
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10-18-2007 @ 11:12AM
AD said...
That episode was awesome, definitely one that I think breathed life into this season. What do you think is on the other side of that wall? I'm guessing something that is not-so-evil, such as bad episodes of "The Winner" or characters from "Battlefield Earth"--in other words, badly imagined things.
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10-18-2007 @ 11:18AM
Curt said...
haven't watched it yet, but they kind of already done a trilogy. Remember the meteor shower party episodes from season 3. That was loosely a trilogy based around the same events... just saying.
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10-18-2007 @ 11:22AM
Adrienne said...
Strawberry Shortcake was there too.
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10-18-2007 @ 1:28PM
Steve said...
That was probably the funniest south park episode ever, cartmans speech about his vendetta and justice at the end was hilarious
I can't believe cartman is so determined to have kyle suck his balls, wasn't there a episode last season where cartman put his alls in butters mouth while he was sleeping
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10-18-2007 @ 11:28AM
Jon said...
Cheetara from ThunderCats was in a couple of shots.
Like Ryan said, Orko was there, but had a "D" on his shirt rather than an "O".
Goldilocks was seen twice. The first shot established her in the tower. The second shot showed the tower being blown up and Goldilocks dying.
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10-18-2007 @ 11:33AM
quikkie said...
This episode is pretty simple, the whole story is about how the government uses fear as a method to keep us from thinking straight....
The whole imagination thing is about how they create this imaginary fear of "potential attacks" to fire up their propaganda thus being able to control us...
Gov't comes up with an imaginary idea of terror then, as south park's General puts it, "it's only a matter of time until our imagination runs wild".
BRILLIANT!!!!! By far one of the greatest episode and yet very current, loved it. Loved the whole cartman contract, them making fun of the hollywood writers/directors, etc..
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10-18-2007 @ 12:19PM
Happy Steve said...
heh, I used to love that Imagination Ride at Epcot many, many years ago. He even had a very similar blimp vehicle thingy. Sadly, that whole section in the park is a pathetic shell filled with marketing interactive booths.
Gizmo from Gremlins can also be found, although somewhat obscured by the Comedy Central logo.
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10-28-2007 @ 3:21PM
Dave said...
It wasn't Goldilocks in the tower it was Rapunzel.
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10-18-2007 @ 12:53PM
Dan said...
This actually wont be the first 3 parter because there was that one that happened a few years back where Kyle was at Jew Camp and spoke to Moses. That one was in three parts. This episode was awesome, but I HATE having to wait for the conclusion!
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10-18-2007 @ 1:20PM
Casey said...
Cartman at the end was a take off of John Rambo in First Blood, not from Terminator...
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10-18-2007 @ 12:57PM
James Jonas said...
Quikkie- I definitely think you are on the right track about this episode. At least that's the feeling I got. The difference with my interpretation though isn't as much that the gov't is coming up with this imaginary idea of terror, but rather that the terrorists (which are real and are capable of terrible things) are using their actions to attack our imagination making things seem like a bigger threat than they actually are and potentially breaking the wall between the good things in our imagination (i.e. all the positive aspects that define america) and the evil side of our imagination (torture, abu grhaib, guantanamo, warrantless wiretapping, etc). I think this is a commentary not just on the gov't, but the US population as a whole in response to terrorist attacks. But, that's just my reading of it.
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