Animation in all my years producing reviews i've seen animated shows come and go alot leaving no impact. However there has always been one show that has not only stuck around but managed to change what it meant to be an adult animated series from it's raunchy humour to it's often controversial takes on recent topics South Park has been there to guide us and to make us laugh and so here is my review of the very first episode of the show which I have edited "Cartman Gets An A**l Probe" enjoy everyone.
The plot of the episode is Kyle's brother Ike finds himself kidnapped by Aliens which Cartman doesn't believe exist and so it's up to Kyle to get him back before there parents find out. Plot wise this is the strongest of South Park episodes which is something that even Comedy Central agree with since they weren't even sure if they were going to commission more episodes but with that being said it is still a fun story to see play out.
Starring in the episode is co-creator / co-writer / producer and director Trey Parker as Stan Marsh , Eric Cartman and Mr. Garrison. Also starring in the episode is co-creator , co-writer and producer Matt Stone as Kyle Broflovski , Kenny McCormick , Cows , Pip and Carl , Mary Kay Bergman as Liane Cartman and Wendy Testaburger , the late great Isaac Hayes as Chef and Franchesca Clifford as Ike Broflovski.
In terms of what I thought about the acting in the episode it was honestly pretty average at best and alot of that comes down to the fact that both Trey and Matt aren't experienced writers or directors and so they have no clue what will work but as we find out they do improve over time. However what I found to be pretty over putting and at the same time interesting is the fact that alot of the characters voices are alot rougher then what we are used which while it did make the episode hard to watch just because im more used to the voices that they have now it was also interesting seeing where the characters voices started out.
Doing the animation for the episode is Celluloid Studios and if you haven't heard of them don't worry because I haven't either. As we all know South Park is known for having a cut out animation style but what many don't know is that this is the only episode to feature cut out animation and even with that in mind the animation does look pretty good yes you can tell that they are just moving the characters by hand and I think you can see a few of the animators hands in some frames but to me that adds to the charm of the show.
This episode is actually pretty freaking tame at least in terms of swearing and other adult things seen in the show. Don't get me wrong it's still there but it was more present in other episodes which to me seems like an odd way to go for this debut episode since you'd normally go all out in the first episode just to get people's attention but no Trey and Matt seem to have taken the opposite approach with this episode instead going a less equals more approach which oddly works in the episodes favour but at the same time it's not the South Park we know and love but it's close.
Now this is something that I actually didn't know and that's the fact that this episode is basically a re-edited version of an un-aired pilot both going by the same name. What makes this interesting is that the un-aired pilot gives Cartman a family we see his father and sister in the un-aired version I can't say if they speak or not but I find it interesting that these two characters would be wiped from the show's canon.
The un-aired pilot also adds in alot of scenes which I don't know if they add to the overall story or not but it does make me wonder why alot of the scenes were cut out of the final version. You can actually watch the un-aired pilot as it's on the complete second season DVD box set so it would be interesting to watch just to see why the removed scenes where cut from the aired version of the episode and to see what Cartman's father and sister were like as characters.
Now if you know the show and considering it's been on for well over twenty years then you'll know that Cartman's mother has a bit of a shall we say past with the whole male gender of the town. Well shockingly they did kind of hint at her more I guess naughty side in this episode i'm not going to repeat what's said but let's say it has something to do with the fact that Cartman called his cat a d**do and his mother said that the cat is sleeping with her tonight.
I can honestly see why Comedy Central didn't want to order more episodes after this one since this isn't the best representation of the show whatsoever. Don't get me wrong it's damn close to how the final show would end up being but at the same time this pilot episode feels like a pilot to another show and not to South Park since it barely resembles what South Park is and what it's capable of doing when it's at it's best.
Now then since this is a comedy that means that I have to talk about the jokes that are in the episode itself. Which I honestly have very mixed feelings about because while there are indeed some very funny jokes in this episode like the fact that the Aliens have Cartman "transform" and sing "I Love To Singa" is a very funny joke but at the same time there are jokes that aren't like the fart jokes which are never funny.
Overall this is very mixed bag of an episode with alot of good things in it but there's also alot of bad things present as well. There are hints of how good South Park can be when it's at it's best with alot of funny jokes but at the same time there are hints of how bad the show can be as well with alot of jokes not landing and the writing being very hit and miss as such this episode gets an 8.5 out of 10 from this long time South Park fan.
All of the images used in this review were gathered from either Wikipedia , Google Images or the official South Park fandom wiki page. I will admit that I was one of those kids who when he was seven years old would watch this show when it was first broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK (yes my parents knew) so i've literally grown up with the show and so it was nice to go back to the episode that started it all and the fact that I was able to find alot of high definition images pretty much all of them from the official South Park fandom wiki page made my inner child very happy indeed.