South Park: The Complete 12th Season A Movie/DVD Review	DVD Rated - Unrated It's 3 DVD's Long Blu-ray Version A Review by The Dude on the Left

On to the extras and Blu-ray stuff…
One of the special features of the Blu-ray edition is you get a free digital download copy of all the episodes.  As of the time I was writing this review, a few days before the actual DVD release, the download was not available yet, so no review of that, but I will say that the documentation with the DVD says that the download copy can be downloaded to a single PC and one mobile device, but the iPod is not supported.  Yea, that iPod thing is a fad; you wouldn’t want to support that.  I’ll try to post an update after the download is available to let you know how it works, and if there is a way to make it work on a portable player you may actually own.

Other bonus features include:
Six Days to South Park, A Day By Day Making of South Park
This six segment, special feature, shows the development of the “Super Fun Time” episode from story boards to final animation.  Each segment shows the entire episode, and how far they developed on each day leading up to the initial airing on Wednesday night.  It’s interesting to hear how the technology has changed to tools like Corel Draw and Photoshop for editing from using a red Sharpe for the blood on Kenny in the early seasons.  I found it pretty amazing that a new episode that airs Wednesday night isn’t completed until 10AM Wednesday morning (Pressure make diamonds as they say).  It’s really interesting to see the sheer amount of effort that goes into getting a half hour show finished in 6 days, but it is a bit hard to essentially watch the same episode 6 times in a row in one sitting.

Making Boobage: Behind the Scenes of “Major Boobage” 
This feature breaks down the animation process used in “Major Boobage”.  Four different scenes are discussed one at a time as the scenes are shown in this cool, 4-way split screen at different levels of development, from initial sketches to 3D wire, background, and final product.  You get to see the chick they based the animation on.  She’s pretty hot, but not anywhere near as well endowed as the final animated version.  I have to take offence to them saying that Heavy Metal was a really bad movie, although they did clarify that they weren’t high and it wasn’t 1980 when they watched it. 

Behind the Scenes” “About Last Night” – in HD
This feature shows the final day of development of “About Last Night,” which originally aired the day after the presidential election.  Because they used Obama’s speech, the animation was developed weeks ahead and audio recorded after the speech.  They did not do two episodes in case McCain won, but they did have elements of a different episode developed.  They based the South Park resident’s celebration on tape of Boston Red Sox fan’s World Series celebration, and this feature goes through a lot of the technical details of how the show is developed and animated.

Mini-commentaries by Trey and Matt and South Park in HD
One thing I will say about the commentaries is like the other South Park DVD releases, Trey and Matt limit the commentaries to a few minutes at the beginning of each episode.  I really like this because you can get a feel for what the guys were thinking when they came up with the episode, but you don’t have to listen to them through the whole thing.  I’ve always found it difficult to listen to the commentary tracks on DVD’s because they tend to get to distracting, and I think people sometimes stretch things to find relevant things to say, but this idea is great and I wish more DVD’s would release things this way.

As far as the fact this was release on Blu-ray, I must say that I wasn’t expecting to notice or care about the improved video quality for South Park in HD, I mean, really, it’s not exactly cutting edge animation, but boy was I was wrong.  Having never seen an episode of South Park in HD (I don’t know if Comedy Central broadcasts in HD, but Comcast in the Chicago area doesn’t carry it), I didn’t know what I’ve been missing.  There are a lot of little details and textures that you just don’t see in standard definition so I was actually impressed at the difference.

On to the episodes…

Disk 1
Tonsil Trouble
Cartman get AIDS, gives AIDS to Kyle, they have to go find Magic Johnson for the cure to AIDS. Hilarity ensues.

Memorable Quote:  Cartman: “Not not just sure, I’m HIV positive”

Britney’s New Look
Britney Spears blows her head off with a shotgun and wanders around the rest of the episode with the top of her head gone.  Very disturbing.

Memorable Quote: “She’s sportn’ toe like never before!  It’s a slap in the face to camels everywhere”

Major Boobage
This is hands down my favorite episode of the season.  Kenny gets addicted to “cheesing,” huffing cat urine to get high.  It’s called cheesing ‘cuz it’s fon-to-due.  Kenny’s cheesing trips take him to a “Heavy Metal” fantasy world, complete with ogres and a hot, naked chick.  Also, Cartman hiding cats in his attic like Ann Frank is just priceless. 

Listening to the commentary, it’s funny how much they really hate the movie “Heavy Metal.”  They both thought the original moved sucked and say it was just an excuse for geeks that wanted to draw boobs.

Memorable Quote:  “We have to face it, cats are deadly animals.  If you stick your nose up their crotch and snort their piss, they can kill you!”

Canada on Strike
The guys take on the writers’ strike.

Eek a Penis!
From the commentary, Matt and Trey were really angry about the whole New England Patriot’s “camera gate” incident and that the sports media sort of blew off the whole thing, as such there are a lot of rips at Bill Belichick.  Half of the episode is a “Stand and Deliver” homage with Cartman teaching a group of kids how to cheat their way through school and life, for example, Cartman tell one student that abortion is the ultimate form of cheating, you cheat life itself. 
The other half of the episode has Mrs. Garrison chasing the mouse that has his new genetically grown penis growing on it.  I can’t really do it justice, you just have to see it.

Memorable Quote:  Mr. Cartmenz to his students: “If you cheat and fail you’re a cheater; If you cheat and succeed you’re savvy”

Disk 2
Over Logging
What would happen if we ran out of internet?

Super Fun Time
The class goes to a pioneer village; Cartman and Butter sneak off to “Super Phun Thyme.”  A group of criminals on the run from the cops hide out in the pioneer village. Hilarity ensues.

Memorable Quote: Cartman “Oh my Jesus monkey balls”

The China Problem
This is another great episode.  The main story line is Cartman’s fear of China taking over the US, but the funnier aspect of this episode is Kyle, and eventually the other kids, coming to terms with the rape they witnessed.   Spielberg and Lucas raping Indiana Jones, a la Jody Foster in “The Accused,” is very disturbing sight.

Memorable Quote: Stan: “Aliens don’t belong in an Indian Jones’ movie!”

The Breast Cancer Show Ever
Windy kicks Cartman’s ass for making fun of breast cancer.

Disc 3
Pandemic and…
Pandemic 2: The Starting
This two-part episode is a story about trying to control an outbreak of Peruvian pan flute bands (hence, a “pan”demic), and the secret evil these bands control.  Cartman speaking Spanish to the other pan flute bands is classic. 

About Last Night
Another great episode.  Originally airing the night after Obama was elected, they actually used the words from his acceptance speech.  The story line is a nice combination of the over-reaction of the Obama supporters celebration, and the McCain supporters fear that the world will end because Obama was elected.  They cut the whole political aspect with an Ocean’s Eleven-esque heist with Obama and McCain using the election to distract everyone while they steal a jewel.

Elementary School Musical
The kids get sucked into the High School Musical fad.

The Ungroundable
Butters become a vampire because they can’t be grounded.  The goth kids get pissed because everyone confuses them with vampires.

Wrapping up…
This was another great season for South Park.  The show has managed to stay topical and maintain its irreverent edge through all of these years, and there are so many great one-liners in the episodes (I’ve tried to pass along a few).  If you’re a real AV geek you’ll want the Blu-ray version for the video quality, and since the special features are basically the same on both the Blu-ray and DVD versions, I think for most people aren’t going to miss a thing with the DVD version.  I’ll give 4 stars out of 5 to “South Park: The Complete 12th Season” – Blu-ray Edition.  I would have given it 5 stars if there were some more compelling special features, but 4 out of 5 isn’t bad.

Hang Loose!