insane ( but inspired ) musical about alferd packer , the first man ever tried for cannibalism in america .
as the story unfolds we learn what events led to packer ( trey parker ) supposedly killing and eating the five men who got lost while accompanying him through the mountains of colorado in search of gold .
throughout , packer must contend with evil trappers bent on stealing his prized horse , a tribe of ` ute ' indians that does n't seem quite on the mark , and a terrible winter storm that leads to the eventual cannibalism .
parker obviously knows his musicals very well , because the viewer is also treated to some of the most maddeningly catchy songs to appear in a film
( he would accomplish this again in his post - cannibal ! musical motion picture , south park : bigger , longer , and uncut ) .
apart from the inherent interest of seeing a pre- " south park " parker and stone in their first effort , cannibal ! also offers up some pretty decent laughs .
the aforementioned ` ute ' indian tribe that packer 's group encounters is a definite highlight , as are two rousing musical numbers about snowmen ( one of which ends on a comedically deadly note ) .
stone 's humphrey character steals the show , especially when complaining about the prospect of having to ` eat butt ' or revealing what 's underneath his muff cap .
jason mchugh 's character of mr .
miller is the stand out performance though ,
as he offers a hilarious dissenting voice to the proceedings .
as i mentioned before , parker 's songs are very catchy .
you 'll be hard pressed to get ` it 's a shpadoinkle day ' out of your head once you 've heard it
( incidentally , the braniff logo that appears at the end of every " south park " episode is scored with a few notes from this song ) .
other songs you 'll find yourself humming include ` when i was on top of you ' ( a love ballad ) , ` the trapper 's song ' ( the villains leit motif ) , and ` hang the bastard ' ( the rousing finale ) .
thankfully , none of these songs are quite as embarrassing to find yourself singing in public as south park : bigger , longer & uncut 's songs are .
released as a pick - up through troma studios , the film is available on videocassette and dvd .
the videocassette includes an intro by the beautiful jane jensen and an interview segment with lloyd kaufman , discussing his admiration for parker and stone and the fact that they had been hired for a zucker brothers film ( which turned out to be the hilarious baseketball ) .
there are also multiple trailers for upcoming troma films .
as for the dvd .
..
well , that 's a different story .
probably one of the best dvd packages of the year ( and potentially of all time ) , cannibal !
the musical !
the dvd is a massive achievement .
presented in 1 .
33 : 1 ( full frame )
only , the disc has the usual troma inclusions : the tour of troma , the troma intelligence test 2 , trailers for upcoming releases , but where the disc truly shines is in its cannibal ! specific extras .
the first thing i must note is
, the transfer is about as beautiful as any i 've ever seen on any disc .
the picture is crisp , clear , and free from any noticeable artifacts . add to that one of the funniest commentary tracks i have ever heard , featuring trey parker , matt stone , jason mchugh , dian bachar , and andy kemler getting drunker and drunker as the track continues and you still have n't scratched the surface of the extras .
there 's also behind the scenes footage of the shooting of the film , a clip with trey , matt , and lemmy ( of the band motorhead ) from the film terror firmer , an index for easy location of all of the songs in the film , and finally , an index of all the songs as performed by the cast of a stage production of cannibal ! .
it 's good to see this film finally get the treatment it deserves .
kudos to the entire production staff at troma and aix for making one of the most entertaining dvds i have seen in a very long time .
Output: P