BluRay Review: South Park The Complete Twelfth Season

South Park: The Complete Twelfth Season
1080i High Definition
Dolby TrueHD: English 5.1; Dolby Digital: English 5.1, English Stereo
Special Features: Six Days to South Park: A Day-by-Day Making of South Park, Making Boobage: Behind the scenes of "Major Boobage", Behind the Scenes: "About Last Night" HD, Mini Commentaries by the creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and a digital copy of the season for portable media players.

South Park is back on DVD with the release of The Complete Twelfth Season. This release also marks the first time the show is available in BluRay High Def and the difference is notable.

The show looks incredible. The animation is smooth and there isn't a blemish to be seen. It really takes the show to a new level.

Season 12 finds our favorite fourth graders in fourteen new adventures that find them infected with HIV, helping a near headless Britney Spears, dealing with a striking Canada, coming to terms with the rape of Indiana Jones (probably the most brilliat episode of the season), and much more.

Compared to other seasons, 12 isn't one of the best. It's started a marked decline in the episodes that continues to the current season. That said, season 12 has some extremely good episodes. When we get a bad episode we get a bad episode, namelythe two part "Pandemic" and "Super Fun Time." But when the shows are good, they're up there with the best of the series.

South Park has been on the air since 1997 and to only now start to have a couple misses per season is remarkable. The Simpsons has been on the air nearly twice as long and that show became almost unwatchable years ago.

12 years down the line, South Park does continue to be smart and funny more often than not.

This set does seem to have more features than usual. We get a couple interesting Behind The Scenes features, including one for "Major Boobage" the Heavy Metal tribute episode and one for "About Last Night" which is presented in HD. It's a great set of features for any fan who are curious as to how these episodes are done and what exactly goes into each weeks show. We also get the standard mini commentaries that are featured on each season release.

In the end, it's not the best season of the show but it is one of the best released sets, especially in terms of special features. Any fan of the show will be all over this and with good reason. It has a couple misses but like I said, when it's funny, it's really really funny.

South Park is a welcome edition ot the world of BluRay and I hope we get the rest of the seasons in the format.

South Park: The Complete Twelfth Season hits DVD and BluRay on March 10.

Here is the complete episode list for Season 12.

Episode 1: Tonsil Trouble
After Cartman and Kyle are infected with the AIDS virus, they turn to Magic Johnson for assistance in finding a cure.

Episode 2: Britney's New Look
Distraught over the media's nonstop coverage of her, Britney Spears attempts to commit suicide, but survives despite blowing the top half of her head off. Disgusted by this treatment of her, the boys attempt to help, only to learn the secret behind the media's cruel scrutiny of celebrities.

Episode 3: Major Boobage
South Park declares cats illegal after kids start getting high on cat urine. Cartman starts hiding neighborhood cats in his attic to protect them, and Kenny becomes an addict and starts having "Heavy Metal" hallucinations.

Episode 4: Canada on Strike
Canada goes on strike and demands more money, but nobody takes the strike seriously. However, the boys try to make money for Canada by turning Butters into an Internet video star.

Episode 5: Eek, a Penis!
Cartman is commended for his excellent substitute teaching, so he his brought to the inner city to help the high schoolers. Meanwhile, Ms. Garrison wants to be Mr. Garrison again.

Episode 6: Over Logging
A prolonged Internet service outage hits South Park and most of the rest of the country, and Randy moves the Marsh family to California hoping to find a connection (and Internet porn for himself).

Episode 7: Super Fun Time
A class field trip to a frontier park turns into a hostage situation when a group of robbers use the park to evade the police, but the park employees won't help resolve the situation because they won't get out of character.

Episode 8: The China Probrem
Cartman and Butters go to P.F. Chang's to try to uncover the Chinese conspiracy to take over the U.S.. Stan and Kyle accuse Steven Spielberg and George Lucas of raping Indiana Jones

Episode 9: Breast Cancer Show Ever
Cartman makes of fun of Wendy after she delivers a report on breast cancer. She challenges him to a fight, but he keeps finding ways to get out of it. But he also won't stop making fun of her.

Episode 10: Pandemic
With Craig's help, the boys start up a Peruvian pan flute band to make money. However, they are detained by Homeland Security and sent to Peru to end the "Pandemic." In the pan flute bands' absence, giant guinea pigs invade South Park.

Episode 11: Pandemic 2: The Startling
Craig and the boys are stranded in the Andes Mountains while giant guinea pigs wreak havoc all over the planet. Craig is the only person who can end the terror, but he doesn't care and won't do anything about it.

Episode 12: About Last Night...
While the rest of the nation is distracted by the results of the presidential election, Barack Obama and John McCain set out to complete their true combined objective: a daring "Ocean's Eleven" style jewel heist.

Episode 13: Elementary School Musical
The boys try to resist the "High School Musical" fad when it hits South Park Elementary, while also trying to convince the school's top singer that he should follow his dream and try out for the basketball team.

Episode 14: The Ungroundable
Butters starts hanging out with the Vampire kids, who are angering the Goth kids at South Park Elementary because everybody is confusing the Vampire kids with them.