insane ( but inspired ) musical about alferd packer , the first man ever tried for cannibalism in america . as the story unfolds we learn what events led to packer ( trey parker ) supposedly killing and eating the five men who got lost while accompanying him through the mountains of colorado in search of gold . throughout , packer must contend with evil trappers bent on stealing his prized horse , a tribe of `ute' indians that doesn't seem quite on the mark , and a terrible winter storm that leads to the eventual cannibalism . parker obviously knows his musicals very well , because the viewer is also treated to some of the most maddeningly catchy songs to appear in a film ( he would accomplish this again in his post-cannibal ! musical motion picture , south park : bigger , longer , and uncut ) . apart from the inherent interest of seeing a pre- " south park " parker and stone in their first effort , cannibal ! also offers up some pretty decent laughs . the aforementioned `ute' indian tribe that packer's group encounters is a definite highlight , as are two rousing musical numbers about snowmen ( one of which ends on a comedically deadly note ) . stone's humphrey character steals the show , especially when complaining about the prospect of having to `eat butt' or revealing what's underneath his muff cap . jason mchugh's character of mr . miller is the stand out performance though , as he offers a hilarious dissenting voice to the proceedings . as i mentioned before , parker's songs are very catchy . you'll be hard pressed to get `it's a shpadoinkle day' out of your head once you've heard it ( incidentally , the braniff logo that appears at the end of every " south park " episode is scored with a few notes from this song ) . other songs you'll find yourself humming include `when i was on top of you' ( a love ballad ) , `the trapper's song' ( the villains leit motif ) , and `hang the bastard' ( the rousing finale ) . thankfully , none of these songs are quite as embarrassing to find yourself singing in public as south park : bigger , longer & uncut's songs are . released as a pick-up through troma studios , the film is available on videocassette and dvd . the videocassette includes an intro by the beautiful jane jensen and an interview segment with lloyd kaufman , discussing his admiration for parker and stone and the fact that they had been hired for a zucker brothers film ( which turned out to be the hilarious baseketball ) . there are also multiple trailers for upcoming troma films . as for the dvd . . . well , that's a different story . probably one of the best dvd packages of the year ( and potentially of all time ) , cannibal ! the musical ! the dvd is a massive achievement . presented in 1 . 33 : 1 ( full frame ) only , the disc has the usual troma inclusions : the tour of troma , the troma intelligence test 2 , trailers for upcoming releases , but where the disc truly shines is in its cannibal ! specific extras . the first thing i must note is , the transfer is about as beautiful as any i've ever seen on any disc . the picture is crisp , clear , and free from any noticeable artifacts . add to that one of the funniest commentary tracks i have ever heard , featuring trey parker , matt stone , jason mchugh , dian bachar , and andy kemler getting drunker and drunker as the track continues and you still haven't scratched the surface of the extras . there's also behind the scenes footage of the shooting of the film , a clip with trey , matt , and lemmy ( of the band motorhead ) from the film terror firmer , an index for easy location of all of the songs in the film , and finally , an index of all the songs as performed by the cast of a stage production of cannibal ! . it's good to see this film finally get the treatment it deserves . kudos to the entire production staff at troma and aix for making one of the most entertaining dvds i have seen in a very long time .
