What The South Park Creators Think of Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Giving an interview to The Ringer during the week, South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker had their say on 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Rarely taking time off from their Comedy Central series that is now into a 20th year beginning way back in 1997, the pair like to make a habit of roasting and poking fun at all types of characters, musicians, politicians, sports stars and films.

Parodying the franchise for their 2012 episode Obama Wins!, the duo have taken particular relish at making fun of George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and JJ Abrams, with the latter utilized by the US government to essentially save any intellectual property that has fallen on bad times. Whether it be Donald Trump, Kanye West or Tom Brady, Stone and Parker are not afraid to tell you what they think.

Force Awakens Like A Bad Episode of Happy Days For Matt and Trey

Matt Stone began with some words of praise, but admitted that the experience did fall flat as it regurgitated a number of tropes from the original.

"I like the movie," he said. "I thought it had amazing acting and I don't wanna sit here and bad mouth that, but this is like lab-grown meat. This is a secondary derivative of something that was from 40 years ago. In fact, in a lot of ways, it's like the same movie (from) 40 years ago."

Trey Parker was more blunt in his assessment. Equating it to a reunion show on television that feels contrived, he was not a fan.

"To me, I kept equating it to the Happy Days reunion special where they would do that reunion thing where they get all the people back and they kinda do a half-ass story, but it's all just about having people walk onto camera and having everyone clap for them and everything, and that's exactly how the new Star Wars felt to me. It was just a reunion special. It was just a big, 'Remember this? Remember that? Remember this? Remember that?'"

Kennedy: Last Jedi Production Started Over After CF Passing

LucasFilm head Kathleen Kennedy was confronted by Entertainment Weekly about how the studio dealt with Carrie Fisher's passing, and while they were careful to manipulate their corporate response as well as possible, she did admit that they had to go back to the drawing board after they had time to morn.

“Obviously, with Carrie having passed away, it shook everybody,” Kennedy outlined as she turned attention to the production of Star Wars Episodes 8 and 9. “We pretty much started over."

Initially planned to span both, Kennedy said that General Leia will be a strong influence for the 2017 edition.