Team America: World Police

AMERICA! F**K YEAH! That’s right! Team America! The RSA gang wraps up their Trey Parker and Matt Stone feature films. They wrap it up with the most American of all films, not to mention the only film in cinematic history to be made with puppetry! A satire of action film archetypes, American militarism, and the global implications of the politics of the United States, the film follows the titular paramilitary police force, who recruit a Broadway actor to assist in saving the world from Kim Jong Il and his conspiracy of Islamic terrorists and liberal Hollywood actors. Team America: World Police intertwines puppetry and miniature effects in a manner similar to Supermarionation, known for its use in the television series Thunderbirds, although Stone and Parker were not fans of that show. The duo worked on the script with former South Park writer Brady for nearly two years. The film had a troubled production, with various technical problems regarding the puppets and the scheduling extremes of finishing in time for its theatrical release. It also came into routine conflict with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which returned the film multiple times with an NC-17 rating due to an explicit sex scene involving puppets. Team America: World Police premiered at the Denver Film Festival on October 14, 2004, and was theatrically released in the United States the following day. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and was a modest success at the box office, grossing over $51 million worldwide on a $32 million budget.