If you thought making an animated episode of television in six days was stressful, the “South Park” team is here to test your nervous system. The first trailer for “¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!” has arrived, Sweet Relief In and MTV Documentary Films’ deep-dive into Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s purchase of the beloved Colorado restaurant.
“¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!” already scored the Tribeca Film Festival Audience Award earlier this year and will screen at the prestigious Telluride Film Festival on Sept. 1. The documentary comes from the same producing team behind “6 Days to Air,” the 2011 film that chronicles the hectic behind-the-scenes process that goes into creating a new episode of Comedy Central’s “South Park.”
“Hello, welcome to Casa Bonita! Anyone’s parents divorced?” a wizard puppet cheerfully says in the first few seconds of the trailer. The trailer then zips between shots of what makes Casa Bonita as a restaurant so remarkable, showing off cliff divers, puppet shows and caverns begging to be explored.
“When you grow up in Colorado, you just remember how awesome it was,” Stone says in the trailer.
“When I was a kid, it was a dream that one day I could own Casa Bonita,” Parker adds. “The kid in me was just like, ‘Hey do you want to buy Disneyland?’ I could do that?”
However, as the video progresses, that dream spirals into a nightmare. Gleeful photos of people laughing, eating and drinking are replaced with video footage of broken glass and roaming pigeons. As workers pull up rotten floorboards and half-jokingly compare the place to “Kitchen Nightmares,” the tone of the trailer becomes more somber. “We’ve inherited this building that is f–ked,” someone off-camera summarizes.
At one point, an unseen producer asks Parker if there’s a chance Casa Bonita will never open. “Yeah, there is,” Parker says.
Watch the trailer below:
Casta Bonita first opened in 1974 and has been described as the “Disneyland of Mexican restaurants.” It became known for its indoor waterfall, cliff divers and haunted caves before it filed for bankruptcy in 2021. That’s when “South Park” creators Stone and Parker stepped in and took over the failing restaurant. The duo’s love of Casa Bonita has been long documented; they even wrote a now-classic episode of “South Park” set in the space. But, as the documentary covers, it’s one thing to reminisce about a beloved part of childhood. It’s quite another to keep a crumbling part of Denver history from collapsing.
“¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!” will open theatrically on Sept. 6 in Denver. It will then have a select theatrical rollout across the U.S., including New York and Los Angeles, on Sept. 13. The movie will debut on Paramount+ later this fall.
Here’s the full list of theatrical dates and locations for “¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!”:
Sept. 6:
- Denver, Colo.: Alamo Sloans Lake
Sept. 13:
- New York, N.Y.: Alamo Brooklyn, Alamo Lower Manhattan
- Los Angeles, Calif.: Alamo Downtown LA
- Austin, Texas: Alamo South Lamar
- Boston, Mass.: Alamo Seaport
- Chicago, Ill.: Alamo Wrigleyville
- Minneapolis, Minn.: The Main Cinema
- Nashville, Tenn.: Belcourt Theater
- San Antonio, Texas: Alamo Park North
- St. Louis, Mo.: Alamo City Foundry
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