While South Park immediately became a big sensation in 1997, it seemed to fade pretty quickly. I remember thinking that its time had passed when South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut hit movie screens in the summer of 1999.

To me, it felt like the franchise’s last gasp, one big cash grab before fans moved on to the Next Big Thing. Clearly I was wrong.

Still on the air more than a quarter century later, South Park isn’t quite a sensation anymore, and it’s had its creative ups and downs over the years. Still, it remains a popular show that continues to provide occasional cleverness and biting humor.

All the kids in South Park love Canadian TV show Terrance and Phillip, so mania arrives when their theatrical movie Asses of Fire hits screens. Unexpectedly “R”-rated, the youngsters emulate their heroes’ profanity in school and outrage the local adults.

This leads American grown-ups to blame Canada for these woes. Eventually war ensues and the South Park children need to figure out how to prevent the apocalypse.

Even though I’d grown weary of South Park by June 1999, I saw and liked Uncut. The only factor that hindered my enjoyment of it stemmed from the crowd.

I saw it with a raucous group who simply went nuts over the material. As such, I looked forward to a screening of the movie at home so I could watch it without anyone kicking my chair due to their paroxysms of laughter.

Seeing Uncut on home video shows that my enjoyment of the movie definitely wasn't due to any hilarity contact-high. Despite the creative doldrums I'd sensed from the show the last few times I'd watched it prior to the summer of 1999, the show's creative force - Trey Parker and Matt Stone - snapped out of it for this sucker.

Maybe the ability to do what they wanted to do without worrying about TV's constraints made a difference. Whatever the case, this film offers South Park as good as it ever was, and in some ways better.

It helps that Parker and Stone clearly felt a sense of purpose. I work for a school system and I grow increasingly weary of hearing various morons blame videogames, movies and TV for any number of societal ills that involve kids.

I don't buy it myself. However, these self-righteous idiots seem certain that if all anybody did was play Pac-man and watch the Care Bears, the world would be a perfect place.

Uncut takes on these boneheads with a scathing satirical attack on the notion that a movie can make that big a difference in a person's life. It nicely pinpoints the intolerance and smugness of these crusaders as it provides a rousing example of the exact kind of material against which they're fighting.

Chances are excellent that you'll never hear a more profane movie than Uncut. Geez, I don't even know if it'd be possible to pack more foul language per minute into a film and still maintain an actual storyline, as you'd have to just curse without stop.

The profanity becomes integral to Uncut and amusing due to its nonstop pace. Could it seem like vulgarity for vulgarity's sake?

Sure. It's difficult to define why I find the crudeness in this movie funny when I thought the baseness of the crummier South Park TV episodes was unamusing, so it's just one of those intangible things. For whatever reason, it works, and works well in this film. Perhaps it's partially due to the immense glee with which the material gets delivered.

Indeed, the joy behind the creation of this movie seems palpable. It's pretty clear that Parker and Stone were happy to be free of the limitations of TV, and they also seemed more than content to knock the so-called moral authorities down a few pegs.

That they do. They make a terrifically funny and entertaining movie at the same time.

And that's all I'm going to say about Uncut. To discuss it any more might give away some of the gags, and you're better off seeing them for yourself.

Just remember: this film is rated "R" for some very good reasons: incessant profanity, animated nudity and extreme violence. Discussions of some pretty gross sexual themes enter the equation as well along with a character who has some rather harsh things to say about God.

The movie had to be trimmed to avoid an "NC-17," so one will assume that the final result comes pretty close to that rating. We're a long way from DisneyWorld here, but this turns into a wild and amusing ride.

Footnote: a minor tag scene pops up after the end credits conclude.

South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. For better or for worse, the disc accurately replicated the original material, and for the most part, the Dolby Vision image looked pretty good.

The issues related to the crudeness of the source. Although one would assume that Parker and Stone enjoyed a bigger budget for the film than they normally received for the show, not much of a difference showed up on screen.

Other than some computer-animated effects for scenes in heaven and hell, the film relied on the exact same style and quality of animation that we saw on the TV program circa the late 90s. South Park eventually embraced a more fluid and vivid visual style but it retained an intensely “hand-made” look here.

Because Uncut never looked very good, it could be tough to evaluate the quality of the film's image. Overall, I thought the disc offered a fairly accurate representation of the intended presentation.

Sharpness consistently seemed fairly solid and distinct. I witnessed only small concerns related to softness, and the image seemed adequately defined.

Moiré effects and jagged edges presented no concerns, and I detected no signs of edge haloes. Light grain appeared, and no print flaws manifested.

Colors seemed positive but plain for the most part. Another link to the series’ basic style, they didn’t demonstrate great vibrancy but they seemed fine, and HDR gave the tones a minor boost.

Black levels appeared reasonably deep and dense, while shadow detail was clear and logically opaque. HDR added some heft to contrast and whites. Ultimately, Uncut won’t qualify as demo material, but it seemed to offer a fairly good picture based on the original material.

Uncut offered a pretty good Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix. It didn’t bring a tremendously vivid mix but it did pretty nicely for itself.

The quality of the sound felt terrific, so voices always sounded clear and natural - well, except for Kenny, of course - and effects seemed accurate and well-defined. The music appeared especially strong, which was important since Uncut was really a musical.

Dynamic range was great - check out the thumping but clean bass during the brief rap version of "Uncle Fucka" - and it always sounded very smooth and lively.

As far as the soundstage went, it seemed good but nothing special. The music made nice use of the front channels and provided an active stereo mix that also offered some filler in the rear.

Effects seemed fairly lively in the front as well, with some occasional good split surround usage. The rears were most active during the war scenes at the climax and in some of the hell segments. Though never stunning, this felt good enough for a “B”.

How did the 4K UHD compare to those of the original Blu-ray from 2009? Both came with identical audio.

As for the 4K’s Dolby Vision image, it showed a minor bump in terms of accuracy, colors and blacks, and it lost some minor print flaws. I preferred the 4K’s visuals but the nature of the source meant it didn’t feel like a major upgrade.

No extras appear on the 4K disc. However, the included Blu-ray copy includes some materials.

We get two trailers– one teaser, one theatrical – as well as a music video. “What Would Brian Boitano Do?” by DVDA lasts two minutes, 45 seconds and just mixes TV show clips with the band’s punk take on the song. It’s pretty annoying.

The biggest attraction here comes from an audio commentary with writers/directors/actors Trey Parker and Matt Stone plus a rotating cast of others; along the way, we also hear from animation director Eric Stough, storyboard supervisor Adrien Beard, co-produce Anne Garafino, and producers Bill Hader and Vernon Chatman. During this running piece, we get lots of anecdotes but not a whole lot of specifics.

And that’s fine with me, as the result remains consistently entertaining. We hear about battles with Paramount and the MPAA, musical numbers, the Oscars, and a mix of other subjects.

Does any of this give us a great examination of the filmmaking process? No, but I don’t care; it’s a fun, interesting piece.

Definitely not for everyone's taste, you might not want to trot out South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut when the family comes to visit. However, it certainly will satisfy anyone who enjoys irreverent, incisive and gleefully crude comedy. The 4K UHD provides good picture and audio as well as a very enjoyable audio commentary. After 25 years, Uncut remains an irreverent and amusing tale.

To rate this film, visit the prior review of SOUTH PARK: BIGGER, LONGER & UNCUT