Because they're re-rendering the entire show from the ground up, all such fears can safely be put to rest.
Remember: aside from the first episode, all of South Park is CGI. That means every scene exists as an arrangement of polygonal/curved objects on a virtual stage, like a Pixar movie, but 2D. The characters' actions on the virtual stage are captured by a virtual camera. This camera can be either 4:3 or 16:9 -- either way, it will capture a full, properly framed image. No crops or stretching necessary. The only catch is if there are any scenes where they didn't move excess junk far enough from the main stage to avoid being caught by the wider camera. Fortunately, I don't think that should be too hard to fix.
For most traditionally animated shows, the problem is far less simple than that. Typically, they only draw what they have to to fill the screen, with just a little excess permitted so that the crop doesn't have to be too perfect. Anything outside the frame does not exist. That's not the case here; it's one of the benefits of their limited, drawing-free animation process.
And when it comes to things like the Heavy Metal parody, I'm sure they had enough foresight to leave extra room. It's not too hard with digital animation programs such as Flash.
Remember: aside from the first episode, all of South Park is CGI. That means every scene exists as an arrangement of polygonal/curved objects on a virtual stage, like a Pixar movie, but 2D. The characters' actions on the virtual stage are captured by a virtual camera. This camera can be either 4:3 or 16:9 -- either way, it will capture a full, properly framed image. No crops or stretching necessary. The only catch is if there are any scenes where they didn't move excess junk far enough from the main stage to avoid being caught by the wider camera. Fortunately, I don't think that should be too hard to fix.
For most traditionally animated shows, the problem is far less simple than that. Typically, they only draw what they have to to fill the screen, with just a little excess permitted so that the crop doesn't have to be too perfect. Anything outside the frame does not exist. That's not the case here; it's one of the benefits of their limited, drawing-free animation process.
And when it comes to things like the Heavy Metal parody, I'm sure they had enough foresight to leave extra room. It's not too hard with digital animation programs such as Flash.
Yes, it's a Season 12 episode, but it was in High Def. It's in widescreen. It looks clean. And, remember, they have one other episode ready (besides Sason 12) in HD: "Good Times With Weapons" (saw it on DirecTV's 101 Channel when they aired Imaginationland in HD). Can't wait for Season 13. I'll try to get pics of the HD South Park and the SD South Park posted here soon.