South Park 1-3
Four foul-mouthed tykes in parkas and wool caps navigate the treacherous snows of adolescence, such as puppy love, sibling jealousy, and alien abduction, in the cartoon that celebrates the American art of bad taste with crude, cutout animation and construction-paper color. This collection contains all the episodes from previously collected in three separate volumes. Highlights of this winning set include the pilot, "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe," which establishes the tone and style of all episodes to come. As with other episodes, gentle homilies about childhood innocence arise from a twisted plot with grotesque and bizarre twists--in this case involving UFOs, flaming flatulence, and a 20-foot antenna array that springs out of Cartman's butt. In "Weight Gain 4000," "big-boned" Cartman decides he must slam dietary supplements to beef up for a TV appearance with Kathy Lee Gifford, while Mr. Garrison (egged on by insidious hand puppet Mr. Hat) plots his revenge. "Damien" has the makings of a classic, both for its boxing match between Jesus (of the public access, call-in showJesus and Pals) and the 350-pound red Beelzebub as well as for the twisted and excessive celebration of Cartman's birthday. "Starvin' Marvin" (1997's Thanksgiving episode) features an attack on the townspeople by genetically altered turkeys while the boys adopt an Ethiopian boy accidentally sent to them via airmail. Other episodes included in this set are "Volcano," "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride," "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig," "Death," "Pinkeye," "Mecha Streisand," "Tom's Rhinoplasty," and the musical extravaganza of "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo."--Sean Axmaker