Matt Stone gives noisy comedy a less abrasive voice without making it polite. We rate his Kyle Broflovski for the way he varies the quarrelling in South Park; the writing sometimes needs more of that restraint.
Fi1m perspective
In South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999), listen to what happens when Kyle Broflovski speaks alongside Eric Cartman. Trey Parker makes Cartman petulant without asking us to find him endearing, while Stone gives Kyle a calmer rhythm that allows the quarrelling to vary. It is useful comic work in a film where indignation is so often the joke. His other parts include Kenny McCormick and Big Gay Al, but counting characters tells us less about his contribution than listening to Kyle.
Stone's career has largely kept that performance work inside his collaboration with Parker. The animated series South Park (1997) established their partnership in topical adult satire, with Stone working as co-creator, writer, director, producer and voice performer. BASEketball (1998) put him alongside Parker in live action as Doug Remer; after the animated feature came the puppet film Team America: World Police (2004), which he co-wrote and voiced. Across these changes of format, Parker remains the recurring collaborator, so there is little separation between Stone the actor and Stone the joint author of the material.
In the animated feature, Stone's acting also serves a script he wrote with Parker and Pam Brady. The adults' anxiety about what children hear lets them avoid considering their own behaviour, and the voices keep those arguments brisk. We laughed at the supposed protectors' satisfaction with themselves, because the writing makes their concern for children sound so conveniently self-serving. Stone has useful company: Mary Kay Bergman makes the differences in authority between children and adults audible, while Isaac Hayes's Chef gives the competitive indignation a welcome pause.
The feature does not always know when to stop: some jokes carry on after they have ceased to be funny. The songs earn their place, and we recommend the film, but a few shorter jokes would improve it. Start there, and give Kyle as much attention as Cartman.
Biography
Matt Stone is an American actor, voice artist, writer and producer. Born in Houston, Texas, he studied at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he met creative partner Trey Parker.
Stone and Parker created the animated series South Park (1997–), in which Stone provides voices for characters including Kyle Broflovski, Kenny McCormick and Butters Stotch. They wrote, produced and voiced roles in the feature film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999). Stone has also appeared in BASEketball (1998) and co-wrote and voiced characters in Team America: World Police (2004).
The pair later co-created the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon (2011). Stone has received multiple Primetime Emmy Awards for his work on South Park.
