South Park, Volume 3

Amazon.com

Volume 3 of South Park on DVD contains four episodes from 1997. "Starvin' Marvin" (a 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. "Mecha Streisand" was a chance for the program's creators to unleash their hatred of Barbra Streisand. Paying tribute to the Japanese monster duel movies of the 1960s, the story hilariously portrays Streisand as a rich, egomaniacal celebrity hell-bent on finding the missing relic that will transform her into a giant metal Barbra--a monster that crushes South Park's buildings at one moment while pausing to sign an autograph for Kyle's mother the next. Viewers will find some great musical performances in the "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo": Kyle's "I'm a Lonely Jew on Christmas" lament; Mr. Hankey's "Howdy-Ho"; Chef's original, yuletide song (as only Chef can do); Cartman's "Kyle's Mom Is a Bitch"; and the finale chorus of the "Mr. Hankey" theme. While the town works to put on a "nondenominational, non-offensive" school play, Kyle tries to convince family and friends that yes, indeed, the Christmas turd in a red Santa hat that sang and danced in his bathroom is real. If "Mr. Hankey" is the South Park musical, then "Tom's Rhinoplasty" is the vomiting special. Teacher Mr. Garrison takes a leave of absence to have plastic surgery while the good looks of his substitute, Ms. Ellen, send the boys reeling into lovey-dovey land. As they compete to woo Ms. Ellen during Valentine's Day season, Wendy Testaburger's jealousy festers and grows into an explosively funny climax (due in part to the twists on Ms. Ellen's character). --Karen Karleski

Customer Reviews:

He loves me, I love you - HE LOVES YOU!.......2002-10-28

I bought this for one reason and one reason only - the South Park Christmas Special featuring Mr. Hankey! Truly one of the funniest shows I've ever seen on television!

Oh, "Mecha Streisand" and "Tom's Rhinoplasty" (featuring 'Ms. Ellen') are hilarious, too.

mecha streisand.......2002-01-31

Robert Smith kicks butt.
Disintegration is the best album ever.

Cartman knows what he is talking about

I am not ACTING LIKE A FREEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAK!.......2001-02-21

Okay, well- I'm adding this part to all my South Park Reviews: For this price for four episodes, this is a great deal. I remember buying the VHS versions first (which are split up differently), and feeling I got ripped off on those once I saw how great these DVDs were. I'll review each individual episode the best I can remember now...

(oh, and i forgot to mention this in my earlier reviews, but i guess better late than never: The commentary before each episode by Matt and Trey are priceless. Very funny stuff.)

Starvin Marvin: "click click clack clik." I recall this episode had me rolling around the floor laughing... Like most of the other episodes, there are a couple of storylines going on. One is the adoption of Starvin Marvin, the ethiopian boy, another is the genetically altered turkeys (very boring), and lastly is the shuttling off of Cartman (the funniest part). When Cartman gets mad, it's funny. Why it's funny, I don't know. But I can't stop laughing. It's considered the Thanksgiving episode.

Mecha Streisand: Okay, I don't like Streisand as much as the next fellow, but I didn't like this episode at all. It was boring, unoriginal... and worst of all- you could tell when Matt and Trey were trying to be funny but didn't quite get to that point. Although it's not the worst episode... it's far from the best.

Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo: One of the funniest episodes EVER. This alone is worth the price of the DVD, and it introduces another classic character, Mr. Hankey... I think Mr. Mackey is also introduced in this episode (hearing him say, "he's a clinically depressed fecalfeliac" always cracks me up). Anyway, it's considered the Christmas episode, and is funny funny funny!

Tom's Rhinoplasty: Mr. Garrison decides to quit teaching the kids to bum around and pick up hot chicks with his new nose job. And if watching the "New Mr. Garrison" with mr. hat on his hand run around town isn't funny enough, the "chick from species" also guest voices Ms. Ellen, a gay substitute teacher that Wendy hates because stan is in love with her. Ahh... to only be 8 years old again...

No Starvin' Marvin, that's KENNY's cream corn!.......2001-02-04

This volume of South Park episodes is structurally identical to all six volumes that have been released so far, and suffers from the same shortcomings. In addition, it also suffers from being produced without sub-tittles, so if you are hearing impaired, you're out of luck on this one.

This volume "celebrates" a number of American holidays: Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day, and Christmas/Hanukah to be precise. Halloween receives treatment in Volume 2.

I don't find these episodes as funny as the first time I watched them. A lot of the humor of South Park is in shock value, and that has worn off. But even so, I find them funny enough to be worth watching every now and then. If you are a hard core fan, I recommend you drop thirteen bucks for the DVD. If you are just a casual fan, your money would be better spent elsewhere.

There are no extras on the DVD to make it really stand out from the VHS version. The primary advantage of the DVD is random access to the episodes. You also get Matt and Trey introducing the episodes, which is fairly amusing. However, the lack of substantive extras is very disappointing. Also, the menus are static and silent; the power of the DVD medium has been completely ignored. This is why I only give this DVD 3 stars.

Some have complained that you can't skip the introductions, but I have no problem fast forwarding through them with my DVD player. Many have also complained about the three worthless items appearing at the end of each episode (the Braniff logo, Comedy Central logo, and FBI warnings). But simply pressing the "menu" button on your DVD's remote is all that is required to skip these items. I don't like this rubbish either, but the people who whine on incessantly about this are making a mountain out of a molehill.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!

Episodes
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Originality: A+
Creativity: A
Complexity/Depth: C-
Relevance/Message: C- to A-
Artistic Merit: D
Overall Entertainment Value: A

DVD
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Transfer Quality: A
Extras: D
Use of Medium: D

a DVD review.......2000-08-01

I had already owned volumes 1, 5 & 6 when I got this DVD.

The episodes are absolutely hilarious... the most side-splitting being the classic "Starvin' Marvin."

I gave this DVD a less than perfect rating for the following reasons:

While the other episodes I owned had closed captioning enabled, this DVD did not. There is no explaination as to why there is no closed captioning on this DVD. Not only is closed captioning necessary for the hearing impaired and an aid for those learning English, it's almost a requirement to understand the lyrics of the songs or what some of the kids are saying at times... it's not like you can read the lips of a cartoon to figure out what they're saying.

This DVD loses another star due to the "bonus" skits with Matt and Trey that cannot be skipped. They are cute skits, but who wants to sit through them every single time? People buy these DVDs to see "South Park," not Matt and Trey.

The DVD lables these "introductions" to be a bonus, but you have to sit through 4 of these things, one before each "South Park" episode and you have to fast forward through them instead of being able to skip them. This makes me wonder, why do I have this on DVD in the first place? Of course, if I had it on tape, I would have blown the heads off the VCR by now from all the fast forwarding.

Buy it for the episodes, but prepare to suffer carpal tunnel syndrome from holding on the fast forward button ad infinitum.

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