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 doesn'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 haven'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 .