Trey Parker & Matt Stone Poke Fun At Their Grueling Casa Bonita Renovation As Doc Debuts – Tribeca Festival
Matt Stone and Trey Parker, born and raised in Denver, were obsessed as kids with Mexican restaurant Casa Bonita, a massive, labyrinthine, Disneyland-ish local landmark that opened in 1974 in Lakewood, Colorado with roving characters, live entertainment — including a cliff diving show — secret rooms and so-so food. It fell on hard times and then closed in 2020 during Covid.
So they bought it after some soul searching and hoped a speedy renovation would delight their kids and others as they had been delighted. The Denver area cheered.
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It was not speedy and quickly soared past the estimated $6 million budget — ultimately passing $40 million. Floors, walls and ceilings were rotten, everything electric outdated and dangerous and plumbing a disaster in the 54,000 square foot emporium. A falcon had been dropping pigeon carcasses onto the roof since the 1970s. There is much footage in the new doc ¡CASA BONITA MI AMOR! of Parker wandering the site in distress, weaving amid an army of contractors, and texting pics to Stone. A lot of, “That’s so disgusting.”
Director Arthur Bradford (6 Days To Air) follows the South Park creators on their journey as the budget swelled and the project often seemed impossible. To the bemusement of many, however, they stuck it out, refusing other work to stay focused on the renovation.
The restaurant opened a year ago to preview audiences and looks rather gorgeous. Parker wrote the script to the puppet show and to offbeat dialogue by two talking skeletons. The animatronic fortune-telling macaw isn’t quite right yet, said Stone after a screening at the Tribeca Festival where the duo, in a rare public appearance, talked with Andy Cohen.
Casa Bonita is expected to open to the general public later this year.
“Friends were like, ‘What the f–k are you guys doing?’” said Parker. “’We’re opening a Mexican restaurant. Yeah. We’ve got this Mexican restaurant.’ We were turning a lot of cool stuff down.”
¡CASA BONITA MI AMOR! is from MTV Documentary Films and will soon head to Paramount+.
The two said they’d considered expanding Casa Bonito into a chain but dropped the idea.
“We’ve talked about it, but we still haven’t got this one right, and we don’t have an extra $40 million lying around,” said Stone. And “sometimes magic is magic.”
“We thought about other markets, but there’s sh-t to do in New York, and LA. In Denver in the 1980s when we lived there, there was nothing to do.”
Casa Bonita was such an influence on them it was featured in a South Park episode (Season Seven, episode 11). Cartman flips out when he’s not invited to Kyle’s birthday at Casa Bonita.
Asked about their favorite voices on the show, Parker said, “I have the most fun when I’m doing Cartman and [Stone] is doing Kyle or Butters.” Otherwise, Parker said, he does so many voices “that sometimes it’s just me talking to me talking to me.”
“I don’t smoke anymore, so they’re all pretty easy,” said Stone.
The doc has great footage of them at the mics recording the show.
Stone and Parker have multiple Emmys, and Tony awards and Grammys. That’s close to EGOT status, Cohen noted. Their animated romp Blame Canada was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2000 but lost out to Phil Collins’ You’ll Be In My Heart from Tarzan. “Tarzan?” Cohen said incredulously.
“We’re never going to get an Oscar,” said Stone.
“It’ll happen,” Cohen said.
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