On this date in 1999, "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut" was released.
Primarily centered on themes of censorship and bad parenting, the film also parodies and satirizes the animated films of the Disney Renaissance, musicals such as "Les Misérables", and the controversy surrounding the show itself. The film also heavily lampoons the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA); creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone battled the MPAA throughout the production process and the film received an R rating just two weeks prior to its release.
The reason Parker and Stone reportedly made the movie so inappropriate was because they thought their show would be getting cancelled. On TV they could not do much, so they wanted to let their audiences know how bad they could make it, thinking it would be a good sign off to the show.
The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Blame Canada". When Parker and Stone attended the 72nd Academy Awards ceremony, the two wore dresses as a joke. When the time came to perform the track live at the ceremony, as is customary for the Academy Awards, it ran into trouble with ABC's standards and practices department: censors demanded they write TV-friendly lyrics. "It would be ironic to have to change the words in a movie about censorship," remarked song co-writer (with Stone) Marc Shaiman. When Parker and Shaiman declined these requests, Robin Williams, a friend of Shaiman's, sang the song with black tape over his mouth and turning his back when curse words were to be sung. The song ended up losing to "You'll Be in My Heart", a Tarzan song by Phil Collins. In response, Parker and Stone ridiculed him in two consecutive episodes of the series' fourth season ("Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000" and "Timmy 2000"). In the DVD commentary for "Timmy 2000", Parker remarks, "We were fully expecting to lose, just not to Phil Collins." (Wikipedia/IMDb)
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Reply by sukhisoo
on July 16, 2021 at 7:15 PM
Does Amazon Prime count as a major studio?
Reply by JustinJackFlash
on September 9, 2021 at 1:35 AM
I would doubt they'd need a crowd. I can't imagine it costing much to make.