Free Willzyx
"Free Willzyx" | |
---|---|
South Park episode | |
Episode no. | Season 9 Episode 13 |
Directed by | Trey Parker |
Written by | Trey Parker |
Production code | 913 |
Original air date | November 30, 2005 |
"Free Willzyx" (/ˈwɪlziæk/ WIL-zee-ak) is the thirteenth episode in the ninth season of the American animated television series South Park. The 138th overall episode, it originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on November 30, 2005. In the episode, which parodies the film Free Willy, Kyle, Stan, Cartman and Kenny go to an amusement park, where aquarium employees prank them into thinking the orca Jambu is telling them he needs to be sent back to the Moon where he truly belongs or else he will die; the prank backfires as the boys embark on a misguided mission to set him free.
Plot
The boys are at
The boys rally some of their classmates to help them liberate Jambu. They put together a plan that involves the pool from
In
Kyle, Kenny, Cartman,
Production
According to the DVD commentary, "Free Willzyx" was a "very last minute" episode because the season was nearing its end and Trey Parker and Matt Stone had "no ideas". The episode's plot evolved from the idea of having an image of a dead whale on the Moon. Once it was decided that this would be the final shot at the end of the episode, the rest of the story was about how to get the whale on the Moon. Despite the episode being "last minute", Parker and Stone really liked the episode because they felt it was "a great example of a simple idea done well", as opposed to an episode filled with too many ideas, which they felt was the case with "Marjorine", the ninth episode of this season.[1][2]
The appearance of one of the park workers that pranks the boys, the one with a beard, is based on the appearance of Kyle McCulloch, a member of the writing staff. McCulloch was originally going to voice the character as well, but Parker and Stone were dissatisfied with his voice work. The character's appearance was based on McCulloch because Parker and Stone felt that McCulloch would actually do what the character does in real life.[1] In one scene, the park staff are playing a video game resembling the Mortal Kombat video game series.[3]
In the episode, when the two park workers are looking for the whale, they show one of the boys' parents a realistically drawn sketch of Kyle, Cartman, Kenny and Stan.[4] According to the South Park Studios FAQ, the model for Stan and Kyle was Nico Agnone, a voice actor who formerly worked for the show. The image was drawn by storyboard/production artist supervisor Adrien Beard and storyboard/production artist Valerie Fletcher. The drawing was originally going to be a primitive stick figure, but Parker felt that the joke had been done before. Parker settled on the idea of having it be a facial composite sketch because "our drawings are so shitty anyway it could be the reverse of that". The construction of the drawings themselves sparked debate because everybody had their own vision of what the boys would look like in real life.[1]
After the Russian Government demands $20 million to send Willzyx to space, Stan says "They were going to do it for that 'N Sync guy."
References
- ^ a b c Trey Parker and Matt Stone on the DVD commentary for this episode.
- ^ Trey Parker and Matt Stone DVD commentary for "Marjorine".
- Complex. Retrieved February 4, 2017.
- ^ "Facial composite sketch of "The Boys"". Archived from the original on 2014-08-13. Retrieved 2021-01-02.
- ^ "Lance Bass Officially Kicked Off Space Flight". Billboard. September 9, 2002. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
External links
- "Free Willzyx" Full episode at South Park Studios
- "Free Willzyx" at IMDb