Alferd Packer: The Musical

Yes, I have to say it, I am a South Park fan. I watch the show religiously, and that is the reason why I watched this brilliantly entertaining film. That's probably the only reason anyone ever watches it. This film is one that you either love or hate, and I can't imagine anything in between. It's wildly uneven, poorly paced, poorly acted, and has rather bad sound quality at times. And I love it for all those reasons. It's simply a student project that Trey Parker and his buddies put together over one spring break, and with such a small budget, and limited film-making skills, they created something brilliant, and inspirational.

Alfred Packer (Trey Parker) is a lonely miner who seems to be in love with his horse, Leanne, and has recently been put on trial for murdering his mining crew and eating them. He tells the real story to a reporter named Polly, and it goes like this. One shpadoinkle morning, he is chosen as a replacement guide for a gold mining expedition to Colorado, though he doesn't exactly know the way. With his five crew members, he sets off on the journey. Of course, when his horse runs away, he ends up leading his crew on an agonizing search in the wrong direction, which leads them into the cold, snowy mountains, becoming hopelessly lost. As they fight to survive, they soon realize that they may need to resort to eating each other...

This movie is a hysterical comedy with many big laughs, but I personally think it works better as a musical. A real challenge with this movie is to see it, and then try and get the songs out of your head. The music is so catchy, and if the film was really popular, I wouldn't have to constantly explain to the people around me what I'm whistling/humming. Sometimes, I leave my iPod playlist of the movie's songs running all night as I sleep, as they provide me comfort. Most people won't love the music that much, but you can't say the music isn't wonderfully catchy. "Shpadoinkle Day," That's All I'm Asking For," and Let's Build A Snowman" are my favorites, though I love them all. The first former and the latter would be considered classics if the film had a wide release.

Now, the main problem with the film that most people have is the pacing, which is extremely slow. The thing is, is that Trey Parker had little knowledge of making a film, and with a tiny budget, the film is of poor quality. The acting, sound, and agreeably the pacing, are all bad. But the film's bad quality is one of it's charms. Much of the humor is unintentional, due to some of the funniest, and most obvious errors ever put on film. They are easy to spot if you pay attention, and don't let the pacing get you down. By the way, if you don't like it the first time, try it again with the hilarious, and helpful directors commentary on the DVD in which Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and the rest of the main cast get drunk and watch the film. They point out many things that you probably couldn't care less about the first time, and their insight makes it really funny (not to mention, it helps the pace quite a bit

Cannibal! The Musical is one of my favorite comedies, and everyone should give it a try. It gets an 8/10 in my book.

It is rated R for Comic Gore/Violence and some Language. Sex: 3/10 Violence: 9/10 Swearing: 6/10 Drugs: 1/10

Cannibal! The Musical is now a small cult classic thanks to DVD. It deserves more because this is simply a great movie, with songs that will leave you laughing for days and some great pop-culture references. Oh yeah, and Japanese Indians. And Confederate solider Cyclopses.

I actually read about the real Alfred Packer on the internet and believe it or not, the movie stays true to what happened. Scary, huh?

Historical background aside, the one-liners and musical numbers (`Let's Build a Snowman' is unbelievably funny) are a good reason to get this movie. If you have a DVD player, get the DVD and listen to the cast/crew's drunk commentary. It's not very informative but it sure is fun. Grade: A.

Rated R for graphic comic violence/gore and strong language. Suggested for ages 14 and up.

Let's get the inevitable out of the way: the movie looks absolutely horrible. There's a reason most of Trey Parker's work has been in animation. Then again, it's Troma, so we can be a little forgiving. It's not so much the budget as general incompetence in the film-making that's a bit annoying here, but it's still a Trey Parker cannibal Western musical comedy from Troma based loosely on the true story of Alfred Packer.

Yes, it's as silly and ludicrous as it sounds, and although it's not quite up there with the best Troma has to offer ("Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead", "The Toxic Avenger", "Tromeo and Juliet", and a less well-liked favorite of mine, "Troma's War"), it's still absolutely demented and crazy throughout, the songs are still good, and the movie has a lot of fun with Western conventions.

This is really Trey Parker's movie through and through, it's his excellent performance as Packer which carries the movie, and it's his songs that immediately made me forget about all the jokes which fell flat in the preceding scene. This movie is far from perfect, and I think I laughed a bit harder at "Orgazmo", but this is still one of Troma's more worthwhile movies, and interesting as an example of the work of a very young pre-"South Park" Trey Parker.

7/10

While my statement could be provided because it is a comedy about a cannibal, I think the film is as strange as it is because it's a comedy/musical about a cannibal. I bet that if the South Park movie didn't have songs it wouldn't make much of a difference of it's greatness (despite them being classics), but in Cannibal, the songs make this film even funnier and turn it from being a lame film about a cannibal into a surprisingly funny if really dumb comedy.

Anyway, Trey Parker's first feature film is presented here and while Matt Stone isn't writing he is a co-producer along with Parker. The film focuses on the only cannibal convicted in America named Alfred Packer. It could've become an equally boring and gruesome film about the scarcely known guy, but it is actually lame for the right reasons by having songs at exactly the wrong time (where else are you going to see frontiersmen sing about dead animals and then argue about being in the wrong key). Not the greatest musical or comedy for that matter, however it is a keen, if ludicrous, freshman effort by the guys who would later go on to make a masterpiece with the South Park show and movie.

Though i count myself a fan of South Park ive never felt that the unique humour of the shows creators has come through in films such as Orgazmo or BASEketball.Here in their first incarnation as filmmakers and purveyors of Monty Python inspired madness,can you see SP's roots."Alferd Packer"or "Cannibal"is a little gem of low/high brow wit mixed with the kind of idiotic banter that makes Cartman so popular.And the songs!to quote :"lets build a snowman/we can make him our best friend" or the Micheal Boltonesque ode to a horse that includes the lines "the sky was a lot more blue/when i was on top of you".Trey Parkers grasp of the essentially idiotic nature of musicals and such will have you hailing him as a Genius even if you hate SP (and some do)and i rate this as a must see.