Imaginationland

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“Imaginationland”
South Park episode
Imaginary characters are taken hostage by terrorists.
Episode no.	Season 11 Episode 163
Written by	Trey Parker Matt Stone
Directed by	Trey Parker
Production no.	1110
Original airdate	October 17, 2007
Season 11 episodes
South Park - Season 11 March 7, 2007 – November 14, 2007
With Apologies to Jesse Jackson Cartman Sucks Lice Capades The Snuke Fantastic Easter Special D-Yikes! Night of the Living Homeless Le Petit Tourette More Crap Imaginationland Imaginationland Episode II Imaginationland Episode III Guitar Queer-o The List

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List of South Park episodes

"Imaginationland", or "Kyle Sucks Cartman's Balls" (as it appears on DVD), is episode 1110 (#163) of Comedy Central's animated TV series South Park. Imaginationland premiered on October 17, 2007. ^[1] It is the first episode in a three-part story arc.

1 Plot
2 Production
3 Reception
4 Pop culture references
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Plot

The episode begins in the forest, with Cartman directing the other boys in searching for a leprechaun. Cartman claims to have seen it in the woods for 3 days in a row, and a skeptical Kyle is there, having made a bet that if Cartman can prove leprechauns exist, Kyle will suck his balls, but if not, Cartman will owe Kyle $10. Suddenly, a leprechaun is spotted. The boys, now shocked by this, chase it down, and catch it in a trap. The leprechaun warns of an impending terrorist attack before vanishing. Cartman, triumphant, declares that Kyle must now suck his balls, but Kyle initially refuses, saying why would a leprechaun be warning of a terrorist attack and that there has to be an logical explanation for this.

The next day, as Kyle is conversing with Stan, Kenny, Jimmy and Butters, a strange man suddenly appears, asking them if they have seen the leprechaun. When Kyle argues that leprechauns are just imaginary, the man tells him that just because something is imaginary doesn't mean it isn't real. He then invites the boys for a ride in his magical "Imagination Flying Machine" (the blimp from Little Nemo) while he serenades them with "The Imagination Song" (consisting simply of the word 'imagination' sung repetitively in various tonal inflection, similar to the song in the OCEAN episode of WONDER SHOWZEN). They arrive in a bizarre place called Imaginationland, where all the beings created by human imagination reside (various pop culture icons such as Mario, Mighty Mouse, Grumpy Bear, Gizmo, and the creatures from Where The Wild Things Are and My Neighbor Totoro can be seen), and the man turns out to be the Mayor of this land. The imaginary creatures are all fascinated by the presence of the "creators," and ask them about the leprechaun. At that moment a band of Muslim terrorists suddenly appear and set off a series of bombs, which kill hundreds of the imaginary creatures and destroy most of the city as Stan stares into the mayhem (as Captain Miller did in the Omaha Beach Scene in Saving Private Ryan, complete with Ronald McDonald looking for, finding and grabbing his own severed arm amidst the chaos). The boys flee on the back of Draco (the dragon from Dragonheart), who flies them to safety. Butters, however, is left behind at the last minute and he and the surviving imaginary characters are held hostage by the terrorists.

The next morning, Kyle wakes up in his bed, and is at first sure the whole thing must have been a dream—until he calls Stan, and discovers that he had the exact same dream. They also discover that Butters is missing, much to his parents' shock. Meanwhile, Cartman, angry that Kyle has refused to fulfill his part of their agreement, sues Kyle in court, where the judge, seeing the written contract the two made and the evidence put up by Cartman, orders Kyle to suck Cartman's balls within 24 hours or he will be arrested for contempt.

Meanwhile, the United States Department of Defense has learned about the attack on Imaginationland. They receive a video from the terrorists, showing that they have the survivors of the attack, including Butters, hostage. Butters reads a note from the terrorists at gunpoint, and cries out to Stan and Kyle as the video ends. Unsure of how to counter the terrorists, they turn to Hollywood filmmakers, hoping that they can use their creativity to get ideas.^[2] After being disappointed by several directors, including M. Night Shyamalan (who only provides plot twists) and Michael Bay (who suggests special effects), they seek the advice of Mel Gibson. He suggests that they examine the video the terrorists sent, and determine if there is anyone in it that somehow doesn't fit. The officials at the Pentagon immediately perform a background check on the video and realize that Butters is not an imaginary character. The general orders his men to locate both Stan and Kyle.

In Imaginationland, the terrorists take one of the creatures, "Rockety Rocket", and begin to modify him, planning to use him to blow up "the Barrier" - the wall that separates the good and evil halves of Imaginationland. The imaginary creatures urge Butters to stop the terrorists. Butters urges them not to destroy the Barrier, arguing it won't make them "feel any better" and that they should learn to live in peace with other people. The terrorists refuse to do so, launch the rocket at the Barrier anyway, and the Barrier begins to collapse.

Cartman, meanwhile, dons a Sultan's robe and throws a huge party, during which the other kids are supposed to watch Kyle come over and suck his balls. Kyle has resigned himself to the task, and is about to walk into Cartman's house with Stan when members of the military arrive and take them away for questioning about Imaginationland. Cartman, furious at being foiled, quickly leaves and hitchhikes with a trucker (who is concerned for his safety) to Washington, D.C. to force Kyle to fulfill his obligation. He ends the episode tracing his finger lustfully across a photo of Kyle.

[edit] Production

Production for the episode began in July, 2007, nearly three months before the final airing, which is very uncharacteristic of South Park, in which most episodes are produced in one week or less. This is because the original intention was to make the story into a feature-length film, however, for unknown reasons this did not come about, and it ended up as a television trilogy. According to the source "It's a shame [that it did not end up as a movie] because we rendered some of the shots in 4K and it would look amazing on a big screen."^[3] ^[4] The three episodes were later put together with additional unseen footage and rendered completely uncensored to create a second (Straight-To-DVD) South Park movie. The movie was released Tuesday, March 11, 2008. For the release of the movie, however, South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker denied this statement, saying that they "only thought about making it into a movie." ^[5] Later, however, it was announced that Imaginationland: The Movie will be able to be streamed online for free in summer 2008.^[6]

On May 30 and 31, 2008, Imaginationland was aired in high-definition on the DirecTV channel, The 101 Network. This was the complete uncensored version of the trilogy presented without commercial interruption, and in full resolution HD. It also included a new HD render of the Season 8 premiere episode, "Good Times with Weapons".^[7]

[edit] Reception

The episode was both a critical and commercial success. It drew in over 3.4 million viewers and was the most watched program in all of television for Wednesday night among Men between ages 18-24 and 34-49 and ranked #1 in cable among Persons 18-49. ^[8]

On the critical side, IGN gave the episode a rating of 9.1/10 and praised it for being "smart, inventive and provides a number of moments that'll stick with you long after it's over." ^[9] 411Mania also gave the show a positive review, calling it "a great episode", praising it as an improvement over what the site perceived to be two weak episodes, and awarding it 7/10.^[10] TV Squad also gave a positive review saying that "They're still on a roll with another great episode." ^[11]

[edit] Pop culture references

Mr. Imagination is directly based on the character of Dreamfinder from Walt Disney World's EPCOT Theme Park Ride, "Journey Into Imagination". Dreamfinder wears a similar outlandish outfit featuring a top hat and turn-of-the-century styles, and perhaps more distinctly, pilots a large dream-fueled airship. Dreamfinder always sings his signature song, "One Little Spark", while flying this ship, which has a chorus featuring the word "Imagination" in repeated succession.

The character of Mr. Imagination may also be based on the character of Mr. Sophistication in the John Cassavettes movie The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (134 minute version)^[12]. Like Mr. Imagination, Mr. Sophistication has a top hat and drawn-on mustache, and sings a tuneless a capella tune called "The Imagination Song."

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

The scene where Cartman tries to resuscitate Kyle is directly parodying the scene from The Abyss where Bud (Ed Harris) tries to resuscitate Lindsey (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio).

Also, the scene where the terrorists first attack Imaginationland, is a parody of the scene at the beginning of "Saving Private Ryan".