Cannibal! The Musical

Rating:
Summary: It's a Shpadinkle Trey Parker pre-"South Park" musical
Review: If you have never sat all the way through a Troma film or have never found anything about "South Park" to be funny, then do not bother to watch "Cannibal! The Musical," because you are not going to enjoy it. Matt Stone is around in 1993 when this film was made (but not released to mass consumption until 1996), but Trey Parker gets the primary credit for not only writing the script and songs, but also directing and starring as Alfred Packer (and the Cow Bell Guy).

In 1873 Packer and five prospectors were snowbound, lost and hungry in the San Juans of Colorado. Only Packer returned alive and when the other bodies were discovered it was clear they had been eaten. Parker was eventually convicted of murder and not cannibalism, although Colorado lore likes to claim he was "the only man in U.S. history ever convicted of cannibalism." At the University of Colorado at the grill at the Student Union is named the Alferd Packer Grill (the spelling of Packer's first name is but one of several points of dispute in the story).

Parker and Stone were students at Colorado and so it is not surprising that Parker would turn Packer story into a musical. The film was originally entitled "Alfred Packer: The Musical", but Troma's owner Lloyd Kaufman argued for the name change because while Packer is a legendary figure in Colorado, his cannibalistic claim of fame is little known outside of the state.

Actually, there is not as much cannibalism as you would think in this movie, and there are certainly enough songs. The latter is the bigger complaint, because the songs are the best part of the film and the funniest parts as well. The humor outside of the songs is just not that ambitious: the best bits are the Nihonjin "Indians" being played by Japanese (with "Nihonjin" being Japanese for "Japanese") and the debate as to whether "The Trapper Song" was in F sharp major or E flat minor (as the relative major of F sharp with the relative minor being three half-tones down). And if you do not know that the lead characer is going to be offered fudge at some point, you have just not been thinking ahead. The good news is that when you get to the "Finger Food" extras you can go back and do the songs, not only as they appear in the film but also as performed in a live version of "Cannibal! The Musical" by the Dad's Garage Theater Copany.

As he proved in "South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut," Parker can master the nuances of the musical forms identified with both Broadway and popular song. It is hard not to think of Curly opening "Oklahoma" when Parker as Packer shows up and starts singing:

The sky is blue and all the leaves are green.
The sun's as warm as a baked potato.
I think I know precisely what I mean,
When I say it's a shpadoinkle day.

My favorite song has to be "Ode to Liane" (a.k.a. "When I Was on Top of You"), which Packer ostensibly sings to his horse, but which Parker apparently wrote to revenge himself on an ex-girlfriend who obviously did not know what sort of person she had dumped (she also contributes to her own demise by doing the choreography for the big finale and dancing in it as well). I also like "This Side of Me," sung by reporter Polly Pry (Toddy Walters), which is a sweet little song about a woman's forgotten side, until one little line in the final chorus skews it a wee bit. The "Trapper Song" and the big finale, "Hang the Bastard!" are the big productive numbers, relatively speaking. It really is much more of a Cowboy musical than a cannibal music (notice the lowercase "c" for "cannibal") and once you understand that you can stop closing your eyes in anticipation of the eating of human flesh.

As you would expect the DVD is loaded with extras that exaggerate the importance of this film, including Parker, Stone and several other cast members who gather together to get drunk while watching the movie. But if you can take a three-minute trailer as a joke for film class and then raise enough money to actually make a movie that gets sold to Troma, home of "The Toxic Avenger," that is your basic American success story. It was because of this movie that Parker and Stone were able to go to Hollywood and eventually end up doing be "South Park" and thereby corrupting a much larger segment of America's youth than are ever going to stumble on this movie. Finally, if you are looking for some sort of profound and deep meaning to all of this, I would refer you to the lyrics of "Let's Build a Snowman! Part I," which evince a sense of relativism that usually found in the current post-modernism tradition:

Sometimes, the world is black.
And tears run from your eyes.
And maybe we'll all get really sick.
And maybe we'll all die.
So...

Let's build a snowman!
We can make him our best friend.
We can name him Tom or we can name him George!
We can make him tall, or we can make him not so tall.
Snowman!


Rating:
Summary: Matt and Trey's First!
Review: South Park's creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone launched their silver screen avalanche with this cross-eyed nod to Hollywood's most bloated and over-produced musical comedies. The catch here, other than its now well-known creators, is that the plot involves limb-chopping-head-lopping-gut-munching cannibalism! True to form those thoughtful boys from Colorado have made an equal opportunity musical that almost anyone can enjoy. Loaded with high-stepping dances, uproarious dialog, unforgettable tunes, lavish costuming and gouts of blood and gore, Cannibal! The Musical is a movie geared even for the visually or aurally impaired.

Apparently the Sundance Film Festival folks were so enraged at Parker's audacity to submit his minor masterpiece that they even refused to send him a rejection letter. Fortunately, Troma, with their keen eyes for good taste, recognized Cannibal! as a soon-to-be cult classic and made it widely available for public consumption.

Extra features include: Behind the scenes footage, a theatrical trailer, audio commentary by the film's creators and two original Tromatic introductions!

Rating:
Summary: Milk-out-the-nose funny!
Review: I am a big fan of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and this movie deffinately lives up to my expectations.

Rating:
Summary: "Shut up, everyone knows your a chronic liar....."
Review: This movie is really funny. Plese note that this is NOT a historical account of what really happened in a comic style. This is about Alferd Packer. He was a cannibal. This is NOT his real story just "funny." You see, in this movie, he is telling the story, so, it's kind of a movie set through the eyes of the cannibal. And it is grea,.t The funniest parts are the 1 normal guy who's like "why is everyone singing? This is not even a moment that calls for song!" Or something tot hat effect. He does everything you want him to. For example, this guy is singing this hilariously annoying song "Let's build a snowman, we can make him tall or we can--" BANG! He's shot! LOL. Too funny. Anthir noteable quote is "Uh....we're INDAINS!" See it and you'll get it.

Rating:
Summary: Cannibal! The Musical (1996)
Review: Brought to you by the zanies behind the "South Park" craze (Trey Parker and Matt Stone), this tongue-in-cheek pastiche of musicals is reportedly based on a true incident. Parker plays the leader of an expedition of miners trying to make it to Colorado's gold fields. But the ill-fated expedition runs into trouble, not the least of which is ravenous hunger pangs. ...

Rated R For comic gore/violence and some language

Rating:
Summary: If you don't find this funny, you are numb beyond words
Review: Trey Parker and Matt Stone are best known for their hilarious workings of South Park and BASEketball, but not a whole lot of people knew about this little gem. I didn't even know about it until it was recommended to me by a friend. This an extremely funny movie and those who say it's "krap" (go back to elementary school you ignoramus) or is just not funny at all, blah blah blah, they don't know a thing. Their taste in movies are more like Spiceworld or Gigli perhaps. So buy this, you will not regret it.

Rating:
Summary: Krap with a K
Review: This movie was absolute krap. The only good thing about the DVD version is the T.I.T. II Troma Trivia. This movie is not funny at all, and if I had to listen to "My heart is full like a baked potatah" any more I'm gonna puke. The only reason you will laugh at this movie is due to the insanity you will get wondering why you bought this movie in the first place.