South Park: Imaginationland

I'm gonna judge this as both a movie and as individual 3-parter episodes since they were originally the latter, but were edited together as a feature-length movie for it's DVD release.

As a MOVIE, it's obviously no Bigger, Longer and Uncut. That film was pretty much a perfect film adaptation. It used as many characters from the show as possible, has gags and elements you'd see on the show (such as Kenny dying), and stays true to what you'd see on the small screen whilst upping the scale to make it feel truly epic. Even after my second rewatch, it's still an experience. Imaginationland is still a really solid movie, but definitely does feel lacking in comparision. It does feel like a movie for the most part, but it becomes obvious when they transition between each episode. They show the original title cards (they also read Kyle Sucks Cartman's B**ls instead of Imaginationland, which is strange), and that confused me since Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story was also three episodes edited together as a movie, but didn't include those credits at the beginning of each part that you'd see in a normal episode. I don't know if this was the case for the actual episodes, but the movie with them combined had an original intro in the style of the 'Road to' episodes that showed the credits there.

But I don't wanna compare it to Bigger, Longer and Uncut too much since the latter was a theatrical release, while this is just something made for TV with a lower budget, so of course they can't reach the same quality as something made for cinemas. It's not really fair.

So how is it as a 3-PARTER EPISODE? Fantastic. Some of the best episodes from the show. The stakes are high, the plot is engaging, and the concept (of fictional characters like Strawberry Shortcake, gods like Zeus, and holiday icons like Santa Claus living in their own land together) is really cool. And because this is South Park, they give it an edgy twist without being too bleak, and instead, hilarious.

As a direct-to-video movie, it's an 8/10, but as a 3-part episode, it's an easy 10/10.

Imaginationland is without a doubt one of the best thing trey and Scott have produced in years, it's a clever and interesting series of episodes that together conclude in one of the most epic stories ever seen on the show. The debt within the characters isn't as deep for someone who is new to the series, and unfortunately the character-development isn't something special. The whole film is according to me based on that you know the character since before (ex. the cartman and kyle dispute within the film). I love how references to earlier episodes is made all the time (similar to the episodes "200" and "201"). And once again does the producers find an interesting plot with an interesting dispute which has an interesting conclusion.

This is absolutely the best direct-to-video film ever made. It's a piece of violent irony, humor, satire, craziness, pointlessness and yet so right to the point. Matt and Trey succeed themselves in this visual masterpiece.

Since season 1, South Park's visuals have improved themselves, and now they are to the best South Park ever: a trilogy/movie with the satire David Zucker still had in the first 'Scary Movie', the satire of Tim Burton's 'Mars Attacks!', a certain complexness and a humor that's just so... absurd.

10/10

Imaginaaaation, imaginaaaaation, I - MA - GI - Naaaaaaatiiioon

My favorite SP episodes are the ones that are more self contained stories instead of direct of the time social commentary. Those are amazing when they release but get dated quickly. But here it feels timeless.

Imagination Land is one of their multi part episodes, it really is an... "imaginative" idea and Trey & Matt really are able to find so many great directions with the story while including a lot of aspects from their history for long time fans.