A great musical!

Rating: 10/10 (29 August 1999)

Musicals are rare these days and so for this film to turn up and be so good is a treat, in fact it is probably one of the best musicals I've ever seen. The songs are all so brilliant and much of the hilarity of the movie comes from watching top heavy cartoon characters with fat stumpy legs trying to do Gene Kelly dance routines. You get a feeling that Parker and Stone have an ambivalent attitude towards the musical for while they show how stupid some of the dances and tunes can be they are done with a wonderful exuberance.
The film is also marvelous because it not only takes a dig at the so many stupid things like moral panics, xenophobia, Bryan Adams and such but the musical genre is one of celebration and the film is a celebration of so much, of freedom of speech, friendship, of being young, of being young and learning swearwords for the first time, and of so many other things.

Whereas films like Austin Powers are similar in that they have a rapid fire of crude one liners and visual gags you aren't left with the empty feeling of those films because beneath all South Park's expletives and jokes this movie has a plot and a hell of a lot to say. So if you aren't of an easily offended disposition this is highly recommended viewing.