Customer Reviews

Cannibal! The Musical

5 star:		(135)
4 star:		(39)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

The movie itself is a great bit of inspired gross lunacy that you'd probably expect from the South Park team (Parker and Stone). It's a homage to the old Hollywood movie musicals like Oklahoma, but it's about a true story of cannibalism in Colorado Territory before it became a state. You wil not be disappointed: the movie is a hoot, and the songs are terrifyingly catchy.

But the DVD special features are extraordinary, and the director's commentary audio track is worth the price of the disc alone. Parker gets together with Stone and many other stars of the movie, they announce their intention to drink heavily during their commentary, and proceed to do just that. A constant stream of hilarious behind-the-scenes anecdotes, the complete low-down on Lianne (the girl who broke Parker's heart and inspired a lot of the movie's content), and a lot of jovial abuse of the movie itself (they cheerfully admit they were 22 and didn't know what they were doing half the time). The banter among the commentators is lightning fast, uniformly profane, and unbelievably funny. I wanted to split a bottle of whiskey with these guys before I heard the director's commentary, and now I have to at least once before I die. The cast and Troma should be proud: this is what all DVDs with Special Features should aspire to.

I can only hope that Parker stages a similar event for the as-yet-unavailable Orgazmo disc (when, Trey, when?).

Trey Parker of South Park fame makes his acting and directing debut in this strange and hilarious take on the life and times of one Alfred Packer, a man accused of multiple murders and cannibalisim in the rough days of mining, trapping, and open frontiers. It tells the story from Packers point of view, and follows his journey to find his best friend, an arabian mare named leeann. Continuous idocy and hilarity result when he and his band of miner wannabes meet trappers, indians, and get stuck in the wilderness during the middle of winter. Note: the horse jokes are his way of getting even with and old girlfriend of the same name.

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!

Filmed in 1993 but picked up and released in 1996 by Troma Entertainment. For those of you who don't know about Troma they have more than 32 years of experience in the business of producing and distributing Independent films. They specialize in gory exploitation movies and are best known for The Toxic Avenger.

So what differs between the past version and the recently released 13th Anniversary Edition?

For one there are never before seen deleted scenes that are so funny and twisted that they should have kept them in the movie. At least now we get to take part of them as well.
There is also a new commentary track that involves some of the other people involved in the production and you get to hear their take on things. I can only say one thing; the production of it seems to be as interesting as the movie.
But the real treasure is the 1 hour of interviews that has been located and shares with us. Here you get to hear what everyone thinks of the movie and Trey Parker and Matt Stone. And its not all good things haha
Other features include new production stills and many things more.

This is my favorite Parker/Stone movie and Troma release and I can highly recommend it to all of you South Park fans, Troma fans, or general movie lovers. And if you already own it. Buy it again like I did.

/FJH

This has to be one of the most hysterical movies I've seen in a long time. Trey Parker and Matt Stone filmed this one during one of their Spring Breaks while they were still in college. It's loosely based on a true story of a man tried and convicted of murdering and eating his counterparts on the way through the Rockies. The acting is terrible. The cinematography stinks. The beginning credits take a year to get through. It's so bad it's good. Troma was smart to snatch up this gem.

The extra stuff on the DVD is FANTASTIC. The commentary is worth the price of the disc alone. You watch the move, then watch with the commentary. I laughed just as hard (if not harder) through the comments as I did through the movie itself.

The original songs are catchy, witty, and all written by Trey and performed by the cast (for the most part). You'll end up singing/humming them for days after you watch it. I have been for months, now. I made a friend of mine sit down and watch it with me for the first time. She's not the type to like Trey and Matt's humor - she went home (Australia) and bought the sound track. "I think I know precisely what I mean, when I say, 'It's a shpadoinkle day!'"

I was really ill when my friend bought me a copy of cannibal the musical. I laughed until I cried, I fell asleep, and then I woke up and laughed some more! I was singing the songs from this film to myself for days...I love this movie!

If you like anything else by Stone and Parker, you'll love this film!

Trey Parker teams up with Lloyd Kaufman to tell the true story of Alfred Packer, the only person ever convicted of cannibalism in America. Making a musical about people eating human flesh? BRILLIANT! This is an amusing little jaunt into nerdy absurdity.
Some gold-diggers(men actually mining for gold)set off on a dangerous expedition from Utah to Colorado in search of riches. They meet some friendly Japanese Indians? and battle against some troublemaking trappers along with the harsh elements.
There's gore and gay songs and humor along the way. The sick side of Troma actually seems toned down quite a bit though, this is no BloodSucking Freaks.
Overall, this is some nice entertainment although I expected more grotesque killings and raunchiness. Still a worthy production from those crazy Troma folks.

What can you say about Cannibal but one of the greatest comedic musicals. The first time i had watched this movie i thought it sucked and then about an hour later it hit me. I started singing the great music form a great comedic musical and had to watch it again and then had my friends watching it. They got the same reaction. Just when i didn't think it could get better I listened to the comentary. Nothing like listening to Trey and Matt and some of the rest of the cast get drunk and talk about the movie.

I didn't know what to expect when I first rented this movie. I'm a huge fan of Trey Parker and i've seen pretty much everything else that he has done, but not this. Well anyway I saw this, loved it, bought it on DVD, watched it atleast 30 more times. I've watched it with the drunken commentary a few times also. This movie to me can never get tiring. The way some nerds feel about Star Trek, I feel about Cannibal The Musical. Trey always adds subliminal things into his work. And they are evident, with the constant alien sightings.

This is the incredible fact-based story of Alfred Packer (The first man convicted of Cannibalism). It is the story from Packer's point of view, but Trey added in some great stuff from his own life. Liane (also Cartman's mom on SP's name) is the horse, and the story of the horse running off was an interpretation of Trey's fiance Liane leaving him.

I could go on forever about his movie but, I won't. I'll let you view it for yourself. To view this movie and enjoy it, you must not take it too seriously. Look at it for what it is, a bunch of college kids trying to get their movie out there. But then view it again to look at how genius this film really is.

"You know what they say about sunrise..."

People put it down for it's "numerous fart jokes" (which is greatly exagerrated), "crass humor", and "horrible" acting. What they don't realize is that the horrible acting is the joke. It's the 90's version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It's making fun of every bad musical ever made, just like Rocky Horror was a parody of ever single b-movie ever made. And in true Rocky style, they made it so bad that it was comical.

The style is of a movie that is trying to be serious but desperately fails (you know the type I'm talking about.) Everyone knows that the "facts" about the movie are false, that Packer really was guilty, but that's part of the joke. A perfect example is how in the beginning, the prosecuting attorney was telling how Alfred Packer brutally killed and ate his fellow travelers. Packer looks at the camera and says "But that's not the way it happened." It's satirizing the movies that are "based on a true story" that really just make the entire thing up. The songs, while catchy, are purposely cheesy as hell (my heart's as full as a baked potato!) and much to spontanious (let's build a snowman!) to satirize the woefully inept musicals out there. The plot is extremely cliched. And many don't get the fact that the acting is supposed to be bad and exagerrated to parody how badly many actors over acted in the western's in the 50's. But through it all, it's the home to one of the best movie lines of all time- "Shpadoinkle!"

I guess there's a reason it's a called a cult classic. To the untrained eye, the jokes are too spread apart (although extremely hilarious.) To the rest, the entire movie is a joke. So I say that if you're a Rocky Horror Picture Show fan like me, or if you just enjoy sublte parody, then you should buy this movie. If you like joke-a-minute movies, the skip over it. But please don't put it down only because it was made by the creators of South Park, appreciate it for what it is-a genius piece of satire.