Cannibal! The Musical (Special Edition[!])
Director: Trey Parker
Don't let the title fool you. This really is a musical. Fuckin goofier than shit, this first outing and somewhat bastard child of Parker and Stone (creators of South Park) would never have seen the light of day if not for our good friends at Troma. Why, you axe? Because they could. Because they could.
Historical inaccuracies and homosexual innuendoes aside, I can't imagine why it hasn't risen the ranks of popularity to join the likes of its counter-part Oklahoma, as the introduction implies. A small band of miners sets out from Utah to find big riches and dreams in the gold rush allegedly taking place in Breckenridge, Colorado. Left suddenly with no guide, the die-hards quickly elect Alferd Packer (Parker, or "Schwartz" as he's credited), who's at least been there, to lead them. But the love of a horse and no fucking clue whatsoever as to how to get to their destination leaves most of the small band of men at each other's throats. Literally. And in the dead of winter in the mountains, to boot. You connect the dots. You can even hum along if you like.
This movie is...what it is. A spoof on the old musicals, with some gay humor and minor bits of gore thrown in just to make it well-rounded. The music, well done, is that saccharine sappiness of the Rogers & Hammerstein era gone-by. Like any "worthwhile" movie, it is also a love story. Of a man, a woman, and a horse. And some dirty French trappers. And some Ute Indians who are of slightly suspicious origin. Seeing it is the only way to believe it. Shot in 16mm, it's been re-mastered to look and sound surprisingly decent, and pretty good as far as Troma productions are concerned. Based on a true story.
Great Scene: The whole "Snowman" theme is altogether wrong, yet disturbingly catchy. The French trapper's song and dance is pretty well done also.
DVD Notes: Troma was the last resort for distribution on this, and luckily knew they had a decent-enough product on their hands to give it a good treatment. The movie itself starts off with a decent little introduction by Troma President Lloyd Kaufman, telling us a little about the history of getting the movie released as well as his own little bits of humor, and then, well, pure insanity. Gotta hand it to Troma, plenty of extras and behind-the-scenes footage (including Lemmy! [yes, that one]), most of it pretty funny. Yeah, a lot of it's shameless promotions for their other stuff, but it's brilliant marketing in the least. Plus there's a quality, TRUE DMR commentary by Parker, Stone, and some of the cast and crew. Not quite as funny as you would expect, but still pretty funny (They get really trashed, complete with a bit of a "pause" and suspicious loss of commentary for a couple minutes,then they're absolute drunken fools heading off to the titty bar by the end.)