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South Park - The Complete First Season

South Park - The Complete First Season

List Price: $39.98
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I understand ...........
Review: I understand that some of these individual episodes have been released on DVD already, but having them together and in chronological order is really convenient. In all truth, I could have done without the short clips in the begininng of each episode. But certain ones (specifically the cowboy ones) have more comedic value than others.

The only downfall of this DVD collection is the inability to go directly to certain points within each episode. Of course I realize each one is only 20 minutes long, but that doesn't mean I don't want that option.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: You cannot get a better deal
Review: The entire First Season of South Park on DVD is a must-have for any fan of the extraordinary series of little kids with foul language and hilarious (mis)adventures. I like it because I can skip around and watch the episodes I want to, and also because there is the side-splitting commentary by South Park's creators. I have seen this same DVD selection at much higher prices, so this collection comes highly recommended for cost, content and entertainment value.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: about time
Review: it's about time that WB is releasing the first season on DVD when in fact they've already realeased the fourth season on DVD in the UK last year. other than that South Park ROCKS! I give it a 3 stars since the DVD lacks features and was Authored very poorly.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Beginning of the Madness
Review: I was kinda miffed when I discovered that South Park™ was being released in full-season DVD box sets elsewhere in the world before it became available state-side. After all, you'd think that the first video release of a movie would occur in the country it was made in, right? I mean, how would the British digital videophile feel if Monty Python™ was available on DVD in the US before being released in the UK, you know? Or a Japanese disc-hound if he discovered the Akira™ Special Edition platter was gonna first hit the street in Toronto instead of Osaka? But, since Warner Brothers™ is a gigantic multinational corporation, and they have the license to distribute South Park™ on video, I guess they can release it anywhere and at any time they danged well feel like it-- which is pretty much what they did of course. Fortunately, I still had the original single-release DVDs to tide me over 'til the new platter's release date rolled around...

... Anyway, let's get away from fomenting an international incident and get down to the skinny. I found this set to have its advantages; for one thing, the picture quality is even sharper than that of the previous series of DVDs that Rhino™ put out! Of course, considering the animation... um, quality of the show itself, it's not like this "improvement" is all that big a deal. But at least the entire box set takes up a tad less space than those bulky single-release platters, which means that much more space on my video shelf for the second season box set! Unfortunately, I detected no real improvement in the sound quality, but at least it didn't get worse...

But there's also a bit of a downside, such as the English-language captions. Curious to see whether or not Kenny™'s muffled words would be clearly depicted in the subtitles, I decided to activate the captions. Unfortunately, the written words depict just the most important pieces of the spoken dialogue, which means you'll be missin' out on some of the verbal bits if you're hard-of-hearing! Of course, considering how rapid-fire the dialogue can be sometimes, I can understand why the captions are clipped back to such a degree. And you might as well forget about trying to sing along with Chef™ or any other South Park™ character-the songs aren't even captioned at all! As for finally figuring out what Kenny™'s actually saying: I ain't gonna tell ya! You'll just hafta find out on your own...

There's also the things that have stayed the same-- the Trey-and-Matt wraparounds from the original Rhino™/Warner™ video releases have been reincorporated into this set. And with the exception of disc three, each platter holds four episodes, just like their digital ancestors of yore did! The third disc includes a fifth eppie, the infamous 'Cartman™'s Mom is a Dirty Slut', which would segue into what I thought was one of the funniest April Fools gags of all time! Yes, I'm one of those South Park™ fans who can take a joke; deal with it!

Finally, there's the bonus bits, including Jay Leno™'s visit to Mr. Garrison™'s third-grade class at South Park™ Elementary, where our four lovable tykes waylay him with several somewhat predictable gags about his gargantuan jawline. This segment had a couple good zingers, but nothing too hard-hitting. The boys' CableAce™ presentation segment was kinda weak, but at least it was reasonably brief. Rounding off the Additional Bonus Features: a bit o' Yuletide cheer as Cartman™ tries to sing 'O Holy Night' whilst being cattle-prodded by Kyle™, and Ned Gerblansky™ whips out his voice-box to croon a very dull, monotone rendition of 'O Little Town of Bethlehem'. I didn't find either of these particular 'special treats' particularly entertaining-- as a matter of fact, I was so bored with them, I switched 'em off before they'd even finished their tunes! I've never much cared for Christmas songs, anyway...

Whoops, almost forgot the obligatory gripe I always put in my reviews of Warner™ DVDs:
When is the WB™'s DVD packaging department gonna get outta the digital video stone age, and start putting their platters in plastic cases, rather than these chintzy cardboard dealies that'll just start fallin' apart after several months of use, huh?! I dunno 'bout anyone else, but I am more than willing to lay down a bit more scratch for a PLASTIC case and slipcover that will withstand the test of time a lot better than some fortified paper product! And don't tell me it can't be done with a 3-DVD box set, 'cuz I'll shove my Back to the Future™ Trilogy set (in Widescreen, and don't you forget it!!!) in your face and tell you how much of a two-faced lying fiend you are!!! WHY DO YOU PEOPLE DO THIS TO ME?! AAAARGHH!!!

... All right, all right- I'm calmin' down... countin' to ten... okay, I'm better... I'm better. No, really, I'm A-oh-kay now. I just needed some chill-time, that's all...

'Late

POST SCRIPT- About the rumors regarding commentary tracks for this set: they do indeed exist, but they're all on a separate CD box set that's available exclusively through a particular source (unfortunately, Amazon™ isn't this exclusive source). As I understand it, Parker and Stone wanted to add the commentary to the discs, but for some reason Warner Bros.™ was a bit squeamish about all of the adult language that was contained on the tracks, and balked at putting it directly onto the DVDs. Yes, I know-- it's an unfair world, and you're just gonna have to live with that fact...

'Late (for real this time!)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: SOUTH PARK!!!!
Review: South Park rocks. Period. The first season was much more vulgar than the others and by vulgar I mean better. If you don't buy this then you are "Hellastupid!"

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Absolutely the funniest DVD ever made
Review: If you have any kind of a sense of humor, you will laugh your butt off from beginning to end.

Who cares of the discs are not labeled properly?

Sheesh.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: South Park Rules
Review: This is the ultimate DVD. This collection has all the South Park episodes from the first season. It includes the hits Starvin' Marvin and Mecha-Streisand. This is very funny.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good (not great) DVD set
Review: I was very happy to learn that South Park would finally be released on DVD in complete season sets. Like many others, I had previously purchased the single disc "volumes." As it turns out, the 12 episodes from the first season were on the previously released volumes 1-3. (The 13th episode of the first season was on volume 4.)

The question for those who already own the South Park volumes is whether to purchase the new complete season set. I'm glad to have done so. The packaging is much nicer and each disk has the option of playing all the episodes without having to go back to the menus. (Why aren't more discs of TV shows set up this way?!) The introductions to each episode by Parker and Stone are still included. Beyond that, however, there aren't much in the way of extras. It would have been nice, particularly given that this is essentially a rerelease, to have included a bit more to entice those with the previous volumes. Ah well, maybe for the second season set.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Great show, but horrible DVD
Review: Let me start out by saying that if this first season of South Park weren't so great, I would have given this set 0 or 1 star.

The 2 main drawbacks to this DVD are: 1) the episode listings by disc that are included on the flaps are not even close to the sequencing that actually exists on the discs, with some episodes appearing out of order and in 2 cases not even on the same disc as noted; and 2) no chapter-within-eipsode system exists, which is made painfully obvious after sitting through the howlingly unfunny "Fireside Chat with Matt (Stone) and Trey (Parker)" that prefaces each show. And although the video is quite good (due to the fact that there is only about 95 minutes of video on each disc) the sound is far less superior, filled with many audio "pops" and syncronization issues that were not resolved by swapping out my set for another.

In short, I would like to say that although it is great to see South Park finally come to the DVD format that allows us to appreciate the animation more, Warner Bros fell far short of even my most meager expectations for what a DVD should be. I am glad I received this as a gift otherwise I might try to track down the Warner's CEO for my forty bucks back, and until they correct their glaring technological and quality-control issues they will not see another dime from me on future South Park releases.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Finally, a proper, albeit flawed, season 1 collection
Review: This is the first South Park collection to feature all the shows from a season in a single collection; previous collections contained only handfuls of shows, with later collections being thematically based.

Needless to say, all the first season classics are here, from "Cartman Gets An Anal Probe" to "Cartman's Mom Is A Dirty Slut" and everything in between - with the early crude animation in full effect.

I've taped just about all of the episodes as they've aired, and I've got about a half-dozen of the initial VHS collections, and I think the video transfers have been well done.

The audio is another story. While mostly much fuller sounding, there are clicks in the audio at varying intervals throughout some of the episodes. Since these clicks would be easily repairable on any digital workstation, it's probably safe to assume that they were introduced somewhere in the DVD production process. It's a shame that a relatively high-profile DVD such as this one made it through the process without the clicks being noticed, because they are distracting.

(The packaging could be a little bit sturdier as well, but that's pretty much par for the course these days.)

Finally, I suspect the set could easily have fit on two discs. Drop the cheesy intros by Parker & Stone (unchanged from the original video releases, and hardly essential), and you've got thirteen 22-minute episodes, plus maybe 15 minutes of relevant extras.

In short: GREAT episodes, flawed audio, skimpy extras.


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