About Heroes

I know South Park really isn’t about heroes, but this mini movie had so many hero and villain cameos I couldn’t wait to review it. Before starting, yes I just bought this DVD on Friday and I don’t have cable at my house so I know many of you have probably already watched this movie. But I’m late to the party and I’m also going to talk about the extras on the DVD itself.

The plot of this mini movie goes like this: Kyle loses a bet when Cartman proves a Leprechaun does exist. Kyle now has to suck Cartman’s balls. This is really the central theme of all three episodes but the setting of this story takes place mostly in Imagination Land. I don’t want to type out Imagination Land every time in this review, so I’m going to refer to it as IM (remember, this doesn’t stand for Iron Man or anything like that). So the after losing the bet to Cartman, Kyle and crew are approached by the mayor of IM in his magical balloon. Kyle, Stan, Kenny, Butters, Jimmy and more decide to follow go with the mayor and enter IM. Butters fears the mayor will rape them, but that is no the case. After singing a terrible song, the mayor and boys enter IM. We are first introduced to the good characters of IM. Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears, Orko from He-Man, Snarf, Lollipop Land thing, and others reside here. Jimmy has one of the best lines of the entire story when meeting the citizens of IM: “This is incredible, and completely fucked up at the same time!” The mayor brings the boys down and they mention how they met the Leprechaun from the beginning of the episode. The Leprechaun told them terrorists were going to attack IM, but before the boys can tell the citizens of IM the message the terrorists actually attack IM. Many IM characters are killed, and the boys escape but Butters is captured and left behind.

The next morning the Stan and Kyle realize they had the same dream, and Mr. and Mrs. Stotch tell everyone Butters is missing. In IM, a huge rocket thing that is alive is used to destroy the barrier separating the good IM land characters from the bad ones. The forces of evil pour through and begin to kill even more IM characters. Some of the evil Im characters include: Predator, Alien, Storm Troopers, Joker, Darth Maul, Jason from Friday the Thirteenth, Freddy Kruger, Carnage, the Woodland Critters (from season 8’s Woodland Critter Christmas) and the first appearance of the true Manbearpig. Butters escapes with Snarf and Lollipop land guy and head for the magical castle outside the gumdrop forest. Back in our world, Kyle is about to suck Cartman’s balls when the government comes and takes Stan and Kyle to the pentagon. The government witnessed the video of Butters asking for Stan and Kyle to help him, so the boys must remember the exact chords to the IM song to open the government’s own IM doorway portal. Cartman is very pissed at this since he has gone to court and received a document declaring Kyle must suck his balls before the next 24 hours are up.

The evil IM characters torture Strawberry Shortcake. She has an eye cut out and the Woodland Critters want to pee in her eye to give her AIDS and make he suffer a slow death (yes, that is exactly what they say to her) while Butters, Snarf and Lollipop guy try to stay quiet. Back in our reality, the government sends Kurt Russell through the now opened doorway to IM with other government troopers. In IM, Kurt and the soldiers run into the Woodland Critters and the Critters begin to rape and kill Kurt and crew. Cartman makes his way to the Pentagon and shows the government the court order, thus Kyle and Cartman are sent to a room so Kyle can finally suck Cartman’s balls. Kyle wants to get it over with, but Cartman doesn’t want to rush this and gets some thrill from Kyle’s suffering.

Back in IM, Butters and crew meet the imaginary council of nine at the castle. The nine consists of the best imaginary characters ever. Some of the nine include Aslan the Lion, Morpheus from the Matrix, Popeye, Wonder Woman, and even Jesus himself (Melanie didn’t care for that when I told her and Omar about the council) and Butters realizes he is the key to saving IM. He is from our world so anything he imagines will come true. However, Butters is nervous and can’t seem to imagine Santa Claus. The council needs Santa as the evil IM characters storm the castle for the final battle. At the pentagon, Manbearpig breaks through the barrier getting the attention of Al Gore. Al shows the video to everyone, and at the pentagon Kyle and Cartman are told to report to the main lab by the IM doorway. Cartman is pissed and Manbearpig is sent back through the portal. The government realizes they must now nuke our very own imagination to stop other characters from entering our world.

Back in IM, the battle of good vs. evil explodes. Have you all hear the song “The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny?” If so, this is almost that song brought to animated life. Optimus Prime and other characters show up to fight for the forces of good. But without Santa Clause the evil forces will prevail. In the battle Popeye is raped by the Woodland Critters, Jesus is losing to the Alien, countless characters fall, and there isn’t a power ranger in sight to help the forces of good. Butters finally imagines Santa being there, and he then uses his imagination to give Popeye more spinach which helps him defeat the woodland critters, while Jesus is given a huge gun to take down the alien.

Just as things look like they will work out, the doorway at the pentagon opens up and sucks Kyle, Stan, the government, and the nuclear missile right on top of IM. Everything is blown up and destroyed.

The screen goes white and Butters appears. He uses his imagination to undo all the damage caused by the terrorists and evil characters. He also brings everyone back to life and things are back to normal. However, Cartman learns that if he uses his imagination he can create anything while staying in IM. He imagines Kyle really going to town on his balls, and everyone laughs at Kyle. Back in reality, Butters wakes up in his room and is grounded by his parents for not helping his mom clean out the basement.

Thoughts/Comments:
This DVD is a must for any South Park fan. Not only is the DVD uncensored, but Matt and Trey do a super long commentary on the mini movie. They usually only do commentary minis on South Park DVD episodes, but they did a great job talking about this story. They even considered this being a theatrical release for a while, the story itself was supposed to be five episodes long at one point. I would have loved to have seen this in theaters since the story was much better than the original South Park movie. Bonus features on the DVD also include the episodes “Woodland Critter Christmas” and “Manbearpig.” All in all, this DVD was a lot of fun and deserves a solid A. Go pick it up, it’s great to pause the scenes with all the IM characters.