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South Park: The Complete Twelfth Season
Score: 90%
Rating: Not Rated
Publisher: Paramount
Region: A
Media: Blu-ray/3
Running Time: 308 Mins.
Genre: Animated/TV Series/Box Set
Audio: Dolby TruteHD: English 5.1,
           Dolby Digital: English 5.1,
           English Stereo

Subtitles: English

Features:
  • Six Days to South Park: A Day-by-Day Making of South Park
  • Making Boobage: Behind the Scenes of "Major Boobage"
  • Behind the Scenes: "About Last Night" HD
  • Mini-Commentaries by Creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone

When I first heard South Park was coming to Blu-ray, I wasn't sure how well it would translate to high-definition. After all, the show is designed to look low-rez, but I have to say, when I popped the disc into my PS3, I was stunned by how crisp and sharp the characters looked and there were several times when I said "Wow, I didn't know Kyle's hat had that texture," or "Hey, look at the detail on Stan's poofball."

Besides the beauty of seeing the show in 1080i, South Park: The Complete Twelfth Season also features quite a few good episodes. One of my favorites is "Major Boobage," which is nothing but a non-stop homage to the cult-classic animated movie Heavy Metal. When a new way to get high sweeps South Park, Kenny is the first kid to experiment and keeps finding himself on a strange trip where nudity is abundant, and there is a bodacious babe just waiting to spend time with the orange-parka'ed-one.

Another episode has Ms. Garrison deciding she wants to go back to being a guy again, but a lack of the right amount of material makes the procedure tough. Thankfully, a controversial cloning process means all hope isn't lost. Except when the lab mouse with Garrison's appendage on its back gets out and runs amok around town.

One thing South Park is known for is staying up on pop-culture references, and the ability to turn out an episode related to some current event without much lag. Well, this season isn't much different. Not only does the show find time to poke fun at the Writer's Strike, but also take some major jabs at Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Cloverfield and the 2008 Presidential Election.

"About Last Night...", the election episode, is especially impressive since a special feature reveals that the crew threw together that episode in just 24 hours since the episode was scheduled to air the day after the elections. In this episode, we learn that the election between Obama and McCain was all a massive setup to allow one of the two access to the Oval Office, and thus a secret tunnel that runs under the Hope Diamond. If you are a fan of Ocean's 11, you will love this episode (no matter what side of the election you were on).

Meanwhile, the Cloverfield spoof is a two-parter that will have the boys (and Clyde) heading down to Peru. Needless to say, the kids' adventure this season is just as extravagant as before, though it starts off a little slow.

Special features not only include the aforementioned behind the scenes look at "About Last Night...", but also a day-by-day making of the "Super Fun Time" episode and an extensive look at "Major Boobage" and how the team used different animation styles to get the desired effects.

If you've been following the series so far and you happen to have a Blu-ray player, then definitely pick up this version of South Park: The Complete Twelfth Season, becasue you won't be disappointed.



-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications
AKA Chris Meyer
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