South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut

Scoff if you must, but this foul-mouthed expansion of the TV series turns out to be easily the best Hollywood musical of our times: a devastating parody of Disney's moldy old animated-cartoon formula, complete with expository opening production number--a grand tour of "this quiet little redneck podunk white-trash mountain town"--and the traditional maudlin "I Want" song, warbled mournfully by Satan from the bowels of Hell. The ceaseless profanity might have proved wearisome were it not justified by some fairly incisive satirical jabs at America's hysterical attitude toward popular entertainment and its allegedly corrupting influence; in my favorite bit, Kyle's activist mom rants about the need to protect our children while pointedly ignoring Kyle himself, who's standing at her feet, trying (in vain) to get her attention. The shock value begins to wear off after a while, and much of the latter half of the movie is devoted to material that's less daring than just plain stupid, but overall it's funnier than any animated feature since Toy Story. Cautiously recommended. (M. D'Angelo)