inspired by volcano-related Hollywood disaster films, such as Dante's Peak and Volcano (1997), which came out around the time they were writing the script; Parker and Stone considered the films two of the worst ever made. Stone said, "If you watch this episode and then go watch Volcano, this makes more sense than Volcano does." Debbie Liebling, who served as a South Park producer at the time of the episode's broadcast, said the volcano erupting in South Park helped establish the setting as a place where "anything can happen". Although Stone and Parker acknowledged that a volcano could not actually erupt in this Colorado town, they felt they were entitled to create the episode anyway because the Volcano film was set in Los Angeles; Stone said, "If they could do it, we could." Similarly, the duo acknowledge the tunnel built in the episode would not really divert the lava, but they included it because Parker said, "Any movie today, that's basically how dumb they are." Another influence on the plot was the amount of hunting Parker and Stone saw around them while growing up in Colorado. Neither of them were hunters, and Parker said Stan's hesitation about hunting was based largely on himself and his father, who hated the idea of killing an animal even though Parker's grandfather, like Jimbo, was enthusiastic about the sport. Parker said he feels many of the first-season episodes considered taboo in 1997 would have been considered less controversial five years later, but that "Volcano" is an exception. Since the episode involved children drinking beer and threatening each other at gunpoint during hunting trips, Parker said he did not believe Comedy Central would have aired it following the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. Parker said, "Back then, it was just sort of funny, kids pointing guns at each other, and it's just not so funny now." South Park animators spent the first four episodes of the show trying to perfect the animation of the characters. By "Volcano" – which was produced after "Weight Gain 4000" –, Parker and Stone felt the textures were improved, as well as smaller details like the lines around the eyes of the characters. While the series pilot "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe" was animated with construction paper, subsequent episodes were made using computers. Nevertheless, Parker and Stone wanted the show to maintain its crude paper look; for example, they