Why South Park’s 1999 Feature Film Never Received a Sequel

25 years ago, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut was unleashed to the masses during the early phases and height of the TV series’ popularity. The movie took the TV series’ bawdy satirical humor and amplified it to 100 as it tackled censorship, the MPAA, scapegoating, and many other themes that would become South Park‘s bread and butter. The movie dealt with its share of issues during production, mostly with creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s fights with the MPAA over its content, but when it was all said and done, the South Park movie became a critical and financial success, even going on to earn an Academy Award nomination.

That was in 1999, and as it stands in 2024, fans of the series haven’t gotten a theatrical sequel to the film, and one has to wonder, given South Park’s continued appeal, why haven’t Parker and Stone ushered in a follow-up to their R-rated animated classic?

The South Park Movie Pushed Boundaries

4.5/5

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut

Release Date

June 30, 1999

Runtime

1h 21m

Studio(s)

Comedy Central Films , Scott Rudin Productions

Distributor(s)

Paramount Pictures

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South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut was developed during the production of the TV series’ first season because of the deal that Parker and Stone signed with Comedy Central. One used to wonder why The Simpsons, which had been on for about 10 years, hadn’t received a film yet, but South Park got one so early in its run, and that’s because Comedy Central’s deal with the duo specified that they had to produce episodes of the show at least through 1999 and also an unspecified amount that could be produced into a film based on the series.

The conditions for Parker and Stone were simple: They wanted to push the bounds of their creation by making it R-rated and more in line with the animated shorts that put them in the sights of Comedy Central to begin with. Paramount Pictures, like any studio, had concerns about the R-rating and pushing things too far. They even tried to explain why a PG-13 rating would be more lucrative, but, in the end, creativity won the battle, and Paramount Pictures went all in on Parker and Stone’s vision.

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut Was Successful Enough to Warrant a Sequel

The film took what made the show great and applied it to a more elaborate theatrical experience by satirizing Disney and adding well-produced musical numbers that served the purpose of selling the film’s message. In the movie, Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormick set things in motion when they sneak into a screening of an R-rated film starring the popular Canadian duo Terrence and Phillip.

The film causes the kids to begin swearing, which sets off panic in their quiet mountain town among the adults and other authority figures. The problem becomes so extreme that the United States declares war on Canada, and it’s up to Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny to save Terrence and Phillip from potential execution. Oh yeah, there’s also the small issue of Satan and Saddam Hussein trying to take over the world. A lot is going on, but it’s all handled with hysterical precision as it tackles many issues and succeeds at turning many of them on their heads.

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut was released on June 30, 1999, to glowing reviews and impressive box office numbers. The film currently carries an 81% on Rotten Tomatoes, with most critics appreciating its bold, crude, yet intelligent sense of humor. Unlike the Terrence and Phillip movie, which takes place within the film, the world didn’t come down hard on the movie. In fact, it was mostly embraced, although some family groups did take issue with the film’s humor, which likely would still have happened if the film rocked the PG-13 rating that Paramount hoped for.

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Budgeted at $21 million, the movie went on to gross $83.1 million worldwide and held the title of the highest-grossing R-rated animated film until the release of Sausage Party in 2016. For its highest honor, the film earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song for “Blame Canada,” with Robin Williams famously performing the number at the ceremony. So, given all of this success, you would think a sequel would’ve been greenlit at lightning speed, and yet, the fans never got another one. What has held it up or prevented Parker and Stone from producing one?

Some of the reasons could be that South Park, in many ways, began to mature and shift tones following its third season and the release of the film in 1999. By Season 4, South Park became a very timely satire of current events, pretty much in real-time, because of the nature of how it’s animated. The advantage of the series is that it can crank out episodes much faster than its competition, like The Simpsons or Family Guy.

While fans love the first three seasons of the show, some of those episodes are more random and goofy and a bit less satirical compared to Season 4 and beyond. So, since South Park tackles current events within a week of the events being topical, it makes it potentially harder to find an angle for a theatrical film that isn’t already being addressed on the TV show. In its infancy, this was easier to do, but with a show in its 28th season that has produced nearly 330 episodes, making a theatrical film that can achieve the same amount of fast-paced reactions to the events of the world proves more difficult.

The South Park Feature-Length Specials

Another reason a theatrical sequel may not have been explored is because South Park has begun to produce feature-length specials for the Paramount+ streaming service. Between Seasons 23 and 24, Parker and Stone signed a deal to produce 14 specials of the series for streaming. The upside to streaming specials is that they aren’t held to the same censorship standards of Comedy Central, which means they can go all out in terms of language and content, much like a theatrical film would, and they’re typically longer than an average episode of the show (between 40–60 minutes).

They don’t have the theatrical polish of the 1999 movie, but in terms of content, they serve the same purpose. The brand can tell more contained stories, such as “The Streaming Wars,” which took on cryptocurrency and advertisements in its sequel special, without having to take the required amount of time it would take to produce a feature film. Even with the series’ animation style, a theatrical South Park film takes more time from production to Parker and Stone’s desire to elevate the material beyond television.

Parker and Stone’s struggles with the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) could also be another issue. During production of the South Park movie, the duo constantly battled with the organization over the film’s language and content, with the MPAA wanting to slap the film with an NC-17 rating, a financial death curse for most films (unless you’re the recently released unrated Terrifier 3). The movie was screened by the MPAA six times, with five of these screenings earning it an NC-17 rating.

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The last screening for the film, which earned it an R-rating, was two weeks before the movie was released, a headache for any creative behind-the-scenes, as well as its studio. The creative pair also went through issues with the MPAA on 2004’s Team America: World Police, which also went through multiple screenings, getting the dreaded NC-17 before it finally was granted an R-rating after cuts were made. Parker and Stone have expressed on many occasions how tedious this process was, growing more frustrated because the MPAA seemed to not understand the satire of both projects and took things very literally when making their rating decisions.

Some of the reasons could also be timing or not having the necessary time to make a feature film that would stand up against the original. When the “Imaginationland” trilogy was in development for the TV series, plans were explored to produce it as a film, but that came to an end due to the production schedule of the show, which proved to be demanding because of how current the episodes need to be for production. There were also issues regarding the rights of the IP. Over the years, Warner Bros. and Paramount have retained rights to the IP, and it has been stated that Paramount has a certain amount of time to produce a film, or Warner Bros. will regain the rights to the IP. The future films never happened, and, as of now, Warner Bros. still shares the rights to the IP with Paramount.

Perhaps South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut represents a moment when the creators struck while the iron was hot and created something special that doesn’t need a sequel. Back in 2011, when it was asked on the official South Park website FAQ if a sequel would ever happen, a reply was written that stated, in part, “The first South Park movie was so potent, we’re all still recovering from the blow.”

The film hit so many marks at the time that were topical and necessary, as art was in constant danger of being censored and blamed for the atrocities of the world. Times like this aren’t as bad now, so a sequel would need to find a new angle, but with South Park still going strong and cranking out episodes that speak about the events of the world, maybe that’s enough. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut is streaming on Paramount+ and Prime Video.