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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
South Park-Volume 11 (1999)

South Park-Volume 11 (1999)

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Released 6-Nov-2000

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Comedy None
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 1999
Running Time 87:56 (Case: 89)
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding 2,3,4,5,6 Directed By Trey Parker
Eric Stough
Studio
Distributor

Warner Vision
Starring Trey Parker
Matt Stone
Isaac Hayes
Mary Kay Bergman
Eliza Schneider
Andrew Kemler
Giancarlo Ganziano
Case Amaray-Transparent
RPI $39.95 Music Adam Berry
Trey Parker
Bruce Howell


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Frame English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None
16x9 Enhancement No
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles French
Dutch
Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    This particular collection of South Park episodes is a real mixed bag. On the one hand, we have the funny-at-times but often dragging Christmas special - Mr Hankey's Christmas Classics, and on the other we have the hysterically funny The Brown Noise. Nonetheless, this remains a disc that can be recommended to any and all South Park devotees.

    The episodes contained on this DVD are the final four Episodes of Series 3; Episodes 14 to 17.

    The Red Badge Of Gayness (Episode 314, 21:59). It's Civil War re-enactment time again in South Park, but this time Cartman decides to play on the Confederate's side (for those unfamiliar with American history, they were the side that lost the American Civil War). However, Cartman is not one who likes losing, and the schnapps-fuelled re-enactment rapidly escalates out of control as a result.

    Mr Hankey's Christmas Classics (Episode 315, 21:59). Essentially a collection of songs, this episode really varies in its quality. A dull first 12 minutes or so is atoned for by Mr. Garrison's hilarious (and grossly politically incorrect) contribution.

    Are You There God? It's Me Jesus (Episode 316, 21:59). The new Millennium is upon us, and the people look to Jesus for a miracle. Jesus in turn looks to his father...and Rod Stewart. Meanwhile, Cartman mistakenly thinks he has entered puberty, and Kenny and Kyle do the same. Stan is left behind, and finds a drastic solution to his dilemma.

    The Brown Noise (Episode 317, 21:59). This has to be the funniest South Park episode I have seen to date. The boys are off to Arkansas to take part in a massed recorder concert but things go slightly awry when Cartman discovers The Brown Noise. Meanwhile, Mr. Garrison has to confront the demon of his father's sexual abuse, in a completely unique South Park way.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    Overall, this is probably the best-looking South Park DVD to date.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is nice and sharp most of the time, but does lose a little resolution during pans. Shadow detail is as good as the animators allowed it to be and no low level noise impinges on the transfer.

    Colours were always clearly and strongly rendered, with not a trace of colour bleeding nor chroma noise at any stage.

    No MPEG artefacts were seen. There was some aliasing on fine horizontal lines at times on this DVD - a relatively new artefact to South Park DVDs, and most likely a consequence of the increased sharpness of this transfer. The trademark South Park dot crawl artefact was present at times on this DVD, but at a considerably reduced frequency compared with previous instalments. The worst occurrence of this artefact is during Mr Hankey's Christmas Classics, on the stars visible between 2:58 and 3:18.

    No other artefacts, film-sourced or video-sourced, were noted.

Audio

    As was the case with the video transfer, this is also the best-sounding South Park DVD to date, with occasional quite deliberate surround effects clearly audible.

    There are two audio tracks on this DVD; an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack, and a French Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. I listened to the default English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack, although the French soundtrack does make for amusing listening.

    Dialogue was as easy to understand as on previous South Park DVDs, within the limits of the voice actors. It is worth noting that during Mr Hankey's Christmas Classics, voices are spread across the front soundfield, making it much easier to pick individual lines of the rounds. Mr. Garrison's song in the same episode exhibited some minor distortion on vocal peaks. No audio sync problems were evident.

    Are You There God? It's Me Jesus had a significantly louder soundtrack than the other episodes on this DVD.

    There were quite a few words beeped out in these episodes - I cannot comment on whether this was deliberate or was censorship unique to our DVD version of these episodes.

    The music is credited to various sources, with Adam Berry having the primary credit. The opening music is mono and is of limited fidelity, but other musical cues are quite definitely stereo and of rather good fidelity in comparison to the dialogue.

    The surround channel was not used for the first two episodes of this DVD, but the last two had significant and deliberate surround effects used. The subwoofer was minimally used.

Extras

    There are no extras on this disc other than cover shots of other South Park DVDs.

Menu

Censorship

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    These episodes are not yet available in Region 1.

Summary

    South Park is crude but it is very very funny. This compilation of Episodes from Series 3 is a bit of a mixed bag, presented on the best DVD technically to date.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna (read my bio)
Tuesday, June 26, 2001
Review Equipment
DVDDenon DVD-3300, using RGB output
DisplayLoewe Art-95 (95cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 576i (PAL).
Audio DecoderDenon AVD-2000 Dolby Digital decoder and Denon AVD-1000 dts decoder. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum.
AmplificationEA Playmaster 100W per channel stereo amplifier for Left & Right Front; Marantz MA6100 125W per channel monoblock amplifiers for Left & Right Rear; Philips 360 50W per channel stereo amplifier for Centre and Subwoofer
SpeakersPhilips S2000 speakers for Left, Right; Polk Audio CS-100 Centre Speaker; Apex AS-123 speakers for Left Rear and Right Rear; Hsu Research TN-1220HO subwoofer

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