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Stirring trouble and controversy just as easily as it basks in the ratings, one of television's most unlikely success stories is South Park. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone started with crude construction paper motion animation and ended up crafting a tentpole series for Comedy Central and a merchandising behemoth with over $30 million in sales since its premier last summer. The animation style has a certain colorful and simple elegance, and their stories are, essentially, an R-rated version of Kids Say the Darndest Things. Set in an uneasy Colorado suburb, South Park centers around four third graders navigating a wild and unpleasant world featuring flaming flatulence, alien anal probes, and an adult population that doesn't have a clue.
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While animated feature films predominantly lean toward integrating more complex and lifelike animation, the visual style on programs like South Park and those like MTV's Beavis and Butthead and Daria are deliberately, almost aggressively, simplified. Each plotline offers a satirical, hyper-exaggerated spin on contemporary headlines, filtering them through the sensibilities of grade school children in order to indicate that our own adult discussions of these subjects are not a whole lot more sophisticated. Parker and Stone describe the series as a reflection of childhood sans nostalgia, reflecting a surreal, malicious, and brutal picture. In the words of Parker, rejecting the notion of idealized childhood innocence, "Kids are total [expletives], but for some reason everyone has kids and forgets about what they were like when they were kids."
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South Park shows little sign of slowing down, aside from poor Kenny who is horrifically mangled in new and creative ways each episode. A theatrical picture based on the show is in early development with a potential release speculated for next year, while the series itself enjoys positive ratings midway through its second season. Piqing our interest, Austin-based Iguana will be developing a South Park video game for N64, PlayStation, and PC. Its genre and any further details remain a mystery for now, though it is our hope that the final product will prove as disturbing and iconic as the animation.
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[Article from the September/October 1998 Issue of PPM]
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