South Park - Complete Fourth Season  (2000)

Voices/Creators: Trey Parker, Matt Stone

Rating: NR

Distributor: Paramount Home Entertainment

Release Date: June 29, 2004
Review posted: June 24, 2004

Spoilers: Minor

Reviewed by Dennis Landmann

SYNOPSIS

This season introduces one of South Park's favorite characters, Timmy! Season Four also marks the boy's passage into 4th Grade for the launch of their boy band, "Fingerbang." So Join Stan, Kyle, Cartman, Kenny and TIMMY for Season 4 as they take on the Tooth Fairy, NAMBLA, Satan and Janet Reno. For them, it's all part of growing up in South Park.

CRITIQUE

The fourth season of South Park is simply the bomb. There are no other words to describe it really, but I guess I can try. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone did something different this season; they commented on hot news and events by coming up with similar stories for a number of episodes, much like third season's Chinpokomon episode that ridiculed the whole Pokemon craze.

The stand-out episode is easily Quintuplets 2000 which tells the story of five 8-year old Romanian girls who defect to the United States. They live with Stan's parents, but their father in Romania wants them back. Wouldn't you know it, Trey and Matt make Janet Reno dress up in a bunny costume and lead the SWAT team into the house. The parallel is obviously the big story of the Cuban kid Elian Gonzalez (or something) who immigrated illegally to Miami some four years ago.

Chocolate, the root of all evil! Seriously!

Similarly themed episodes include Chef Goes Nanners, Chef protests the South Park flag, Trapper Keeper, Mr. Garrison holds a student election for Kindergarten Class President that results in recount after recount (an obvious take-off on the 2000 Presidential Election between George Bush and Al Gore), Fat Camp, Kenny becomes a star of his very own reality TV show (including pulling off a pretty nasty stunt for the finale), and The Wacky Molestation Adventure, the kids of South Park report their parents to the authorities on molestation charges and soon rule the town (and Cartman is the new major).

Also making their entrance to the fourth season is everyone's favorite prince of darkness, the beloved Satan, and a certain dictator by the name of Saddam. Satan and Saddam get into a love/hate battle in Do the Handicapped Go To Hell? and Probably, the two-part episode that also features the kids going to their first Communion and Cartman taking the lead role of evangelist. And who can forget everyone's favorite new best friend, Timmy himself. In the Thanksgiving episode, entitled Helen Keller! The Musical, Timmy takes a great liking a handicapped turkey he calls Gobbles. Meanwhile, Cartman and the kids go to great lengths to make their Thanksgiving play a hit. Well, as everyone knows, Timmy rules! And he's also great in his introduction episode Timmy 2000.

"Gooobbbbblleesssss!!"

Remember Cartman going online to meet a new friend and joining NAMBLA? Sure you do. Remember Cartman go to prison and the music from Oz plays in the background, and him crapping out Disneyland at the end? Classic, strike! Well, there are many, many, many more funny things happening in each episode, I just can't list them all. You have to find them yourselves. Some jokes and dialogue bring back great laughs. On the other hand, episode 405 (Pip) is not very good. (Trey and Matt kind of apologize for it in the commentary, but they happen to like it.) Mr. Hanky's return in A Very Crappy Christmas is not all that great either, but it's still fun.

Overall, season 4 is the bomb, alright. Anyway, here is a breakdown of all seventeen episodes spread over three discs.

Disc One:

402 - The Tooth Fairy's TATS 2000

401 - Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000

404 - Timmy! 2000

403 - Quintuplets 2000

406 - Cartman Joins NAMBLA

407 -Cherokee Hair Tampons

Disc Two:

408 - Chef Goes Nanners

409 - Something You Can Do With Your Finger

410 - Do the Handicapped Go to Hell? (1)

411 - Probably (2)

412 - Fourth Grade

413 - Trapper Keeper

"Just move along, sir."

Disc Three:

414 - Helen Keller! The Musical

405 - Pip

415 - Fat Camp

416 - The Wacky Molestation Adventure

417 - A Very Crappy Christmas

THE VIDEO

Paramount presents South Park in its original 4x3 broadcast aspect ratio. Colors look perfectly fine. Print problems are not visible in the larger scope except for tiny dirt in spots. Slight edge enhancement appears as does some shimmering around our heroes and other characters. Hey, this is an animated TV show. The video quality is just fine. No subtitles are included this time around, but the show is closed-captioned.

THE AUDIO

Paramount presents South Park in English Dolby Surround Sound. All the farting, insults, and idiosyncrasies are clearly audible. The front speakers do a good job here. Not much else to report on other than French Dolby Surround and Spanish Mono dub tracks are available.

Hell doesn't look all that bad, now does it?

THE EXTRAS

Again, there are mini-commentaries on all 17 episodes by Trey Parker and Matt Stone that range between 3-4 minutes, or alternatively referred to as "commentary lunchables". They're quite a lot of fun and very informative, but ultimately too short. They often say, "I'm sorry we've already talked too much about this episode" or, "we'll move on to the next one - we don't want to bother you", but in truth that's not the case at all. Personally I wouldn't mind them talking longer than only four minutes. On the other hand, they talk for almost six minutes on the first episode. Strangely, they skip commentary on episode 10, which kind of sucks.

Parker and Stone cover a great deal of topics over the course of the season, such as their writing and production process (the writer's retreat, and they start production Sunday night and finish just hours before the show airs on Wednesday), the various stories from the episodes, and so on. It's cool stuff, but I want more, just like Cartman wants more Cheesy Poofs.

If you care, there are also about nine minutes worth of previews available for South Park and Chappelle's Show.

The boys are as disappointed as the fans about the lack of extras.

FINAL THOUGHTS

South Park is the bomb, I said. Video/audio quality is perfectly fine. The mini-commentaries are fun and informative, but run too short. For fans and newcomers (do they exist?), the fourth season DVD is highly recommended.

VERDICT: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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