If there is an animated show that is known for being pretty harsh and bold, it would definitely be South Park. The show has made a huge impact in the world of pop culture thanks to its unique dark tone. South Park makes fun of celebrities regularly, something that people have begun to associate with it. And the show has accurately talked about the future in many instances, which amazes fans.
Like any other show, South Park has a certain formula, but there is one episode that totally goes against the grain. We're talking about episode 8 of season 10. "Make Love, Not Warcraft" sees Kenny, Stan, Kyle, and Cartman playing the super-popular video game "World of Warcraft" and taking on a massive challenge. Keep reading to find out the real reason why South Park's "World of Warcraft" episode was so revolutionary.
The Animation Style In South Park's World Of Warcraft Episode Was Creative And Brilliant
While fans praise one South Park episode in particular, "Make Love, Not Warcraft" has also gotten a lot of positive attention.
What makes this episode stand out is the video game within the show concept. Written by co-creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the episode sees the main characters playing World of Warcraft and getting tired of one player who is winning by killing all the other players. The characters want to beat him.
J.J. Franzen was interviewed about this South Park episode on Machinima.com, and Tristanpope.com shared a copy of the interview as the website no longer exists.
J.J. Franzen said that Trey Parker is the person who came up with this episode concept and as he explained, "he wanted the in-game stuff to be full 3D, not the 2.5 D that defines the normal South Park look."
Trey wanted to follow the World Of Warcraft game and J.J. said, "I mentioned the possibility of trying to shoot the in-game stuff actually in-game. I’d been following machinima off and on for years, and knew people were getting some decent results out of WoW." Making the episode seemed tough, since Trey wanted a "level of detail and expressiveness," and J.J. figured that the animators would have to "develop everything ourselves."
When everyone was still really interested in the idea, Trey and J.J. and the team had a meeting and J.J. explained that Blizzard Entertainment was happy to work on the concept as well. The same animators from the show took on this challenge, and fans were definitely impressed with the look of the episode.
Matt Stone talked about season 10 of South Park in an interview with IGN in 2012 before season 10 premiered. When asked if he could share any stories that would take place in the upcoming season, he mentioned this episode and said, "We are going to do a World of Warcraft show. It might be first - probably will be first but it might not be."
J.J. explained of the animation style, "we basically ended up with in-game and Maya versions of the exact same characters which allowed us to cut back and forth between in game footage, and footage we animated and rendered ourselves."
The episode's animation style is called "machinima" and according to nvidia.com, this means that you use computer graphics in your animation. The publication explains it as "repurposing video game assets to generate animated films for sharing on the web."
The episode is particularly fun for video game fans, especially those who are super familiar with World of Warcraft, and it's such a creative idea.
Trey Parker Had An Interesting Reaction To This 'South Park' Episode
As for Trey Parker's reaction to this South Park episode, he didn't want it to make it to TV.
According to Cheat Sheet, Trey Parker believed that people wouldn't like this episode and that popular opinion of the series would change. But that didn't happen as people were definitely big fans.
Cinemablend.com reported that Trey Parker said, "There’s one episode we did, it was the first show of the season, and I’m like, I’ve lost it. I don’t know how to do this anymore. I was like, please, I was begging Anne, ‘Do not let this go on the air, because I don’t want the South Park legacy to be ruined, and this show is going to ruin it, because it’s so bad and I’m just going to feel terrible."
Many South Park fans love that this episode is about a beloved video game. A fan shared on Reddit, "I think alot of people could sort of relate to it expecially if you played any mmo. When I first saw this episode I thought it was pretty cool they actually showed in game footage."