By – Gareth Jones

For fans of South Park, Nostalgia Documentaries, Class Action Park

I have never been a huge fan of South Park.  I have remained loyal to The Simpsons.  It is more in line with my type of humor.  However, I have appreciated what Matt Stone and Trey Parker have done over the years including South Park, The Book of Mormon, Team America, and one cannot forget Cannibal! The Musical. Society needs folks like Stone and Parker to push the limits of taste and humor.  I am the same age as Matt Stone and Trey Parker is a couple of years older than us.  We all grew up in the West, with Parker and Stone in Colorado, and me in Salt Lake City.  We all have the fuzzy memory of Generation X.  We grew up on the same media and we visited many similar places that provided our childhood with strong memories.  For me it was the old and unsafe amusement park called Lagoon.  For Parker and Stone, it was the bizarre restaurant/amusement park called Casa Bonita.

This documentary dives into the history of that place, and follows the rollercoaster ride that Parker and Stone went on when they purchased the place out of bankruptcy for just over 6 million dollars in 2021.  They thought they had to only invest a few more million dollars to get it up and running, but they quickly found out that their beloved Casa Bonita was the ultimate money pit. The film presents the incredible journey of getting this place open, whilst showing us the madness behind the creative genius of Parker and Stone.  Any sane business savvy person would have walked away from this investment after finding out all the repairs that were needed.  However, we see how it is the very willingness to do what others say is wrong that has been the secret to their success throughout their careers.  In particular, it is Trey Parker who has the strongest connection to the place.  It is a place that allowed his young imagination to run wild, and even in the remodelling you can see how this challenge sparks his creativity.  Stone is the business side of the relationship and his trust in Parker is profound.  That is one of the great joys of this documentary is seeing how these two lifelong friends continue to support one another’s ideas and what looks on the outside as pure madness.

The film is directed by Arthur Bradford who is a renowned author in addition to being the creator of How’s Your News? Series.  Here he does not break any new ground in the documentary world, but because he had such a great relationship with Parker and Stone, he was able to get some incredible access to them that was revealing and important to the story of the film.  Parker in particular, is quite vulnerable at times in the frustration with the whole process.

Nostalgia can definitely be a dangerous emotion that can make the past seem to be something that it most definitely was not. However, this film does a great job of showing how nostalgia can also have a positive effect especially when one realizes that things do change, often for the better.  This is exemplified in the fact that safety conditions and work conditions have improved greatly since the 70s.  This is a good thing.  The fact that things used to be unsafe is a bad thing.  Renovations to a place like Casa Bonita can also be applied to our own memories.  It is important to give things context and look at the past with fresh perspectives.  This is personified in the fact that they approached a Mexican female chef to do the new menu.  Even the rose-colored tendencies of nostalgia could not make people forget how bad the food originally was.

Available to stream on Paramount +