Watch Your Studio and You For Free

Excellent but underrated film

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

"Your Studio and You" is a 14-minute live action mockumentary from 1995, so this one is already over 20 years old. It was made by the relatively young Trey Parker (and Matt Stone) back then and we also hear Parker as the narrator in here. It's perhaps somewhat interesting to compare his voice in here to his voice work on South Park, his long-running trademark show. I must say I really love South Park, still do after all these years, but the black-and-white film we have here wasn't really to my liking. It is basically a spoof of all the studio-themed documentaries from the old age of Hollywood, for example about MGM, but here the focus is on Universal. I really wonder how they got the likes of Cameron, Spielberg, Lansbury, Stallone, Moore etc. to participate in here. I guess Parker really must have had great connections at that point already to get in all these big names playing alternate versions of themselves basically. They sure elevate the material, especially Stallone. Anyway, I still did not find the material too funny here from Parker pre-South-Park and that's why I give this watch a thumbs-down. It's not a failure by any means, but you should not expect too much if you decide to see it. Oh yeah and you really need to know and have seen some of the originals that this one is actually spoofing, otherwise you will just wondering what this is. I suggest you take the easy way out and watch something else instead.

Do yourself a favor. Go to Google and type in "Your Studio and You" and then hit the Video button. This will bring up a wonderful short film that very few people have actually seen--Matt Stone's and Trey Parker's film made to inaugurate the purchase of Universal Studios by Seagrams. I assume it was meant to be shown at a corporate meeting or stockholders meeting--the public at large wasn't shown this film. This is really a shame, as it's amazingly clever and cute and deserves to be seen by the ignorant masses! The film is narrated by Trey Parker and the whole thing has the look of a 1950s corporate film--complete with black & white camera-work and cheerfully bland 50s elevator music. What makes it even funnier are the completely happy mood (almost as if the participants are drugged), the constant references to Seagrams Wine Coolers and the bizarre references to deer lawn ornaments. In addition to the kooky atmosphere, the writing is exceptional and it's really neat to see many of the studio's talent acting in this film. While not exhaustive, you can see Steven Spielberg (as a tour guide), James Cameron, Demi Moore and Sylvester Stallone (who has fun poking fun of his dumb-guy image).The bottom line is that this is an exceptionally funny and cute film. Even if you don't like SOUTH PARK, this film should make you laugh. However, there is a bit of rough language, so this is not a film for the little ones.

If you know anything about Hollywood then watch this you will laugh your butt off! It's worth finding it just to see James Cameron plant trees and say "Sweeten, enhance, beautify"! Really fun short!

This is a terrific parody of 1950's informational films. It's an underground Hollywood movie, just like Parker and Stone's "Spirit of Christmas," which prompted South Park. It's a very funny, tongue in cheek look at Hollywood.