South Park: Post Covid (2021) Review

 "Maybe the pandemic was a big test...and we all failed."

-Stan Marsh

40 years after the pandemic began, it finally starts to come to an end.  The children of South Park have all grown up, drifted apart, and moved with their lives.  When Kenny, now a scientist studying the origin of the pandemic, dies, his childhood friends return home for the funeral and reunite.  They quickly discover that Kenny's death may have been part of a larger conspiracy.

Spoilers below!  If you like South Park and don't mind when the show deals with more serious emotional moments at times, then you will really like this movie.  Spoilers!!!!!  You've been warned.

What Works:

South Park is a comedy, first and foremost, but every so often, they drop the jokes and go for the emotional gut punch.  Post Covid definitely does that a few times.  We get it right away in the opening sequence where we learn it has taken 40 years for the pandemic to end.  I figured the movie would start with the main characters as kids and then we would jump forward in time.  Nope!  We get a newsreel celebrating the end of the pandemic with the now adult Stan watching it.  Feels bad, man.

This film takes place in the future.  South Park is a show that focuses on satire, so of course they give us a very satirical view of the future and that future sucks.  It also hits so close to potential reality that it barely counts as satire.  It's still funny, but it's unnerving how the movie feels like it's predicting the future.

At its core, the movie is about a group of childhood friends returning home after a tragedy.  They've all grown up, changed in some ways, stayed the same in others, and have to deal with their relationships and the way their lives have gone.  I really like this type of story and it works really well for South Park.  It's interesting to see how the characters have turned out, especially Stan and Kyle essentially becoming their fathers.  

The highlight of these characters is, of course, Cartman.  Whoever had the idea to make Cartman a rabbi is a genius.  It's strange enough that Cartman has fully embraced this life (if he's telling the truth), but it's utterly unnerving to see his children, essentially young Cartman's, following in his footsteps.  It's absolutely hilarious, but feels so wrong to watch.

I love how much this movie makes fun of anti-vaxxers.  40 years after the beginning of the pandemic, Clyde still refuses to get vaccinated because there hasn't been enough research.  He's also willing to snort cocaine, but doesn't want to put the vaccine in his body.  Hilarious.

Finally, the final scene of the movie reveals that Kenny's insane lab partner is actually Butters.  This twist is both genius and hilarious and I feel stupid for not figuring it out earlier.  I don't know what this reveal means for the next film, but I love it as a cliffhanger and I'm beyond pumped to see where we go next.

What Sucks:

I got nothing for you.

Verdict:

South Park managed to start extremely strong with their first Paramount+ film.  Post Covid has a few emotional gut punches, while still managing to be funny.  I love the story, the character development, and the ending.  This movie has definitely got it going on.

 10/10: Amazing