Is it the rudest, most offensive feature-length cartoon since Fritz the Cat, or a blistering satire on the effects of movies on our nation's children? It's both, actually, and also very funny. As anyone who's ever seen the Comedy Central series on
which the film is based already knows, Kyle, Stan, Kenny and corpulent Cartman (all voiced by the show's creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker) are four eight-year-olds who live in snowy South Park, CO, a "quiet little white-bread, red-neck mountain town," as the film's opening number (yes, it's a
musical) proudly states. But all that is about to change: "Asses of Fire," an R-rated, feature-length cartoon based on a hit TV show (sound familiar?) and starring those flatulent Canadians, Terrance and Phillip, has come to town, exposing the innocent youth of South Park to a constant stream of
toilet-humor and obscenities. Soon the playground is ringing with the sounds of tots spouting profanity and a group of concerned South Park parents quickly forms to do what concerned-parents groups do best — look for someone to blame. In almost no time, war is declared on Canada, the entire
Baldwin and Arquette clans are nuked and Satan is preparing to claim dominion over the world of the living. Often targeted as a prime offender in the ongoing debate over raunch in the media, South Park answers its critics with a double-barreled blast of offending material. Rarely has a
single cartoon — or any movie, for that matter — featured as much profanity, violence, blasphemy and deliberately offensive behavior, and the film suggests that to take any of it seriously would be to throw in your lot with the likes of M.A.C. (Mothers Against Canada) and risk inviting
the apocalypse. Songs (written by Stone, Parker and four-time Oscar nominee Marc Shaiman) include the hilarious Oscar and Hammerstein parody "It's Easy, Mmmkay," "What Would Brian Boitano Do?," and that old favorite, "Kyle's Mom's a B--ch." Brilliant, in its own twisted way. --Ken Fox
