| 14 February 2012
I might be a little late on this one but in an episode of South Park back in 2003, Kyle wants to celebrate his birthday by going to the happiest Mexican Disneyland on the planet, Casa Bonita. And it turns out, this is a real place.
In the episode, it’s Kyle’s birthday and he is allowed to take only three friends to Casa Bonita and chooses to leave Cartman out. Cartman then spends the entire episode trying to take Butters place. And after hundreds of episodes, this episode is one of co-creator Trey Parker’s top ten favorite episodes.
Turns out, this is a real place in Denver, CO that both Matt and Trey used to dream to be taken to on their birthday. The actual business was said to be “cool enough to let us use the real name when a lot of companies won’t let Southpark do that”. It’s been around for over 30 years and is one of the nation’s top ten road side attractions.
Hit the jump to watch the video of Matt and Trey talking about the episode and see real pictures of the “Mexican Disneyland”...
The front of the real Casa Bonita over 85 feet tall and has a dome made of “22-karat gold leaf and features a statue of the last Aztec emperor - Quahuatomec”. The entire grounds have enough room to hold over 1,000 people, has 52k square feet of dining room space and 30+ attractions complete with a 30ft waterfall and a 14ft deep pool.
Upon finding this information out, I now have to add to my growing list of “must see places”.
Pictures of the Real Casa Bonita
Watch the full episode of Southpark featuring Casa Bonita on Comedy Central’s website
