The Spirit of Christmas (short films)
The Spirit of Christmas is the name of two different animated short films that launched South Park. To differentiate the two they are often referred to as Jesus vs. Frosty and Jesus vs. Santa.
Background
In 1992, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, then students at the University of Colorado, made Jesus vs. Frosty, under the "Avenging Conscience Films" moniker. Parker and Stone animated the film using only construction paper, glue, and a very old 8 mm film camera, and premiered the film at the December 1992 student film screening. It featured prototypical versions of the kids of South Park, including a character resembling Cartman but called "Kenny," as well as three nameless boys resembling Stan, Kyle and Kenny.
In 1995, Fox executive Brian Graden paid them $2000 to make another animated short as a video Christmas card he could send to friends. In turn, the duo created Jesus vs. Santa. This version of The Spirit of Christmas featured more developed versions of Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny. It established the characters as they would be used in South Park. The film reportedly had a budget of $750, with Parker and Stone keeping the rest of their commission.
Graden initially distributed the video to 80 friends in December 1995, one of the friends rumored to be George Clooney. After months of being passed around on bootleg video and the Internet, the film caught the attention of cable network Comedy Central. The network hired the pair to develop South Park, which premiered in the USA on August 13, 1997.
In 1997, Jesus vs. Santa received a Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for best animation.
The episodes remain free to distribute and are available to watch at the South Park Studios website.
Kenny's Deaths
- In Jesus vs. Frosty: The boy resembling Cartman (and called "Kenny") gets grabbed by one of Frosty's tentacles and slammed into the ground. The boy resembling Kenny gets grabbed by the throat by Santa (actually the snowman in disguise) then tossed to the ground and is decapitated. A small dog or fox nibbles at "Kenny"/Cartman at the very end of the film. During Cartman/Kenny's death, the other two boys make their famous "they killed Kenny!" cry; for Kenny/Kenny's death they merely comment that that probably wasn't the real Santa after all.
- In Jesus vs. Santa: Kenny gets decapitated by Santa, causing his head to fly off and hit a statue which topples over, crushing some children. Rats eat his corpse at the end of the film.
External links
- South Park Studios: Creator Bios
- Script of Jesus vs. Frosty
- Spirit of Christmas Official Distribution Site (including transcript, the episodes are also available from here but are of poorer quality than those above).
- [1] Watch Jesus vs. Frosty here.
- [2] Watch Jesus vs. Santa here.
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References
- South Park Studios: How it all began (this page contains links to both episodes available to view).
- South Park Timeline