Before Southpark, There was Cannibal! the Musical

Before Matt Stone and Trey Parker became widely-known badboys with buckets of talent, they were obscure badboys with buckets of talent terrorizing Film Festivals everywhere with Cannibal: The Musical (then referred to as Alfred Packer). They sent in their $50 to enter it into Sundance and didn't get so much as a rejection letter so decided to show up anyway and hold their own competing, one-film festival. Balls of brass, I tell ya. They fit in well with the other wackos at Troma.

James Humphrey: Excuse me. I've been doing some thinking. Ummm... just kind of looking at our situation here, and I've come to the conclusion that we're completely fucked! Has anybody else made this discovery?

Now, if you're familiar with Troma at all, you know what to expect out of this camp take on Packer, Colorado's legendary cannibal (and supposedly the only man in the history of the US to ever be actually convicted of the crime.) If you've never had the pleasure of hearing the tale, it goes something like this:

Packer was hired by a bunch of miners in Utah to lead them to Colorado where it was rumored that there was tons of gold being found. They ran into a bit of a blizzard being the middle of winter and all, ran out of food, starting going a bit nuts and eventually began killing each other for food. Parker and Stone decide to toss in a few songs just for grins and there ya have it.

James Humphrey: Fudge, Packer?

Being the brats that they are, they put a disclaimer at the beginning (after the new DVD intro from Troma's head honcho) stating that they've removed the violent bits so folks won't be offended... then go immediately into a round of arms being ripped off ala the famous Black Knight scene. It goes delightfully downhill from there, ending 95 minutes later with a disclaimer that children under 13 should not have been allowed to view this musical.

Now, this really is mostly Trey Parker's baby. He wrote it, he directed it. He did the majority of the lyrics to the songs. Matt Stone just played James. But it was the beginning of a long and profitable partnership when they hit the jackpot together with Southpark on Comedy Central.

Frank Miller: A horse is a horse.
James Humphrey: Of course.
Alferd Packer: Of course.

Troma decided to foot the bill to finish the almost complete project and was not real happy to notice it's absence on video rental store shelves, but have been reaping the benefits of rentals now that it's gained some notoriety on the heels of Southpark's success. They even re-released it with alllll kinds of extras. In fact, I think the extras just may last longer than the movie itself does.

As to those extras, well, let's just say that 13 year olds hadn't ought to watch those either. Troma is, after all, known for it's buxom babes and love of boobs tossed liberally in with their Toxic Avenger and other dudes. In the Tour of the Troma building extra do be sure to click on the Sex Department and watch the hot dogs... it's very short but funny as hell.

Alferd Packer: Probably the most important thing is that when things get really bad and the world looks its darkest, you just have to throw up your hands and say "Well, alright!" cause it's probably gonna get a whole hell of a lot worse.

I have to go with 5 stars here and say that if you're the type that enjoys things like Monty Python and Bruce Campbell, then you will be holding your aching sides watching this first effort by Trey Parker. Cannibal is just flat stupidly hilarious.