| "Imaginationland" |
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"Imaginationland" is episode 1110 (#163) of Comedy Central's South Park. It premiered on October 17, 2007. [1] It is the first episode in a three-part story arc.
The episode begins in the woods, with Cartman directing the other boys in setting up traps and spying on the surroundings, searching for a leprechaun. Cartman claims to have seen it in the woods for several days in a row, and a skeptical Kyle is there, having made a bet with him—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 chase it down, and catch it in a trap. As Cartman demands gold, the leprechaun warns the boys of a terrorist attack, before vanishing with magic. Cartman, triumphant, declares that Kyle must now suck his balls, but Kyle refuses, insisting that the leprechaun could not have been real.
The next day, as Kyle is discussing the leprechaun with Stan, Kenny, Jimmy and Butters, a strange man suddenly appears, asking them if they have seen it. 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", while he serenades them with "The Imagination Song" (consisting simply of the word 'imagination' sung repetitively in various tonal inflection). They arrive in a bizarre place called Imaginationland, where all the beings created by human imagination reside, 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. Just as they are about to tell them about what it said to them, however, a band of terrorists suddenly appear and set off a series of bombs, which quickly kill hundreds of the imaginary creatures and destroy most of the city. The boys flee, and a passing dragon tells them to climb on its back so it can fly them to safety. Butters, however, is left behind at the last minute and beaten by the terrorists, as the others fly away without him.
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 same dream. They also soon discover that Butters is missing. Meanwhile, Cartman, angry that Kyle has refused to fulfill his part of their agreement, takes Kyle to court, where the judge, seeing the written contract the two made, orders Kyle to suck Cartman's balls within 24 hours or he will be arrested.
Meanwhile, the United States Department of Defense has learned about the attack on Imaginationland, and is horrified to discover that terrorists have managed to "attack our imaginations". 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, and calls out to Stan and Kyle as the video ends. Unsure of how to counter such a move, they turn to Hollywood film makers, hoping that they can use their creativity to get ideas[2]. Eventually, the advice of Mel Gibson is sought. He suggests that they examine the video the terrorists sent, and determine if there is anyone in it that somehow doesn't fit. Surprised to finally hear a good idea from a Hollywood director, the general comments, "Say what you want about Mel Gibson, but the son of a bitch knows story structure."[3] The officials at the Pentagon perform a background check on the video and realize that Butters is not an imaginary character. The general orders digital imaging and resource magnification on Butters and sends his men out 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 them. Butters stands in front of the wall just as the terrorists are about to do it, and urges them not to, arguing it won't make them "feel any better" and that they should learn to live in peace with other people. The terrorists blow the Barrier up anyway; as the characters chide Butters on what he was trying to do, the explosion causes it to begin to crack.
Cartman, meanwhile, throws a huge party, during which the other kids are supposed to watch Kyle come over and suck his balls as he is wearing a sultan's robe and hat. Kyle and Stan are about to walk into Cartman's house, when the members of the military suddenly show up and take the two of them away for questioning about what they know about Imaginationland. Cartman, furious at being foiled, quickly leaves and begins to hitchhike to Washington, D.C. to force Kyle to fulfill his obligation.
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."[4] [5]
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 18-34 and ranked #1 in cable among Persons 18-49. [6]
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." [7] 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.[8] TV Squad also gave a positive review saying that "They're still on a roll with another great episode." [9]
Among the citizens of Imaginationland are[11]: