Movies - Team America: World Police

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	Movies - Team America: World Police

Team America: World Police is a 2004 movie by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of the Comedy Central television program South Park. The movie uses marionettes, rather than animation or live action, by employing a variation of the Supermarionation technique developed by Gerry Anderson in the 1960s (although Stone has jokingly called it "supercrappymation"). This film was produced by Paramount Pictures and MTV Films.

Concept

The inspiration for Team America came from the 1960's British television series Thunderbirds, which Parker and Stone came across by accident. Speaking to Variety, Stone said, "Trey and I loved that Thunderbirds series because of the artistry of the marionettes." Their original idea was to create parodies of movies like The Day After Tomorrow
and Armageddon
with puppets. A second idea was to create an R-rated version of Thunderbirds. Legal problems with both ideas led to them writing their own original script.

The movie uses some fairly advanced marionettes, that make use of servo motors to move the puppets' faces in sync with dialogue and other actions. It also uses clever prop design in animal scenes by replacing panthers with house cats and man-eating sharks with nurse sharks. In addition, while the strings easily could have been digitally edited out of the film, the producers chose to keep them visible for the humorous effect.

The producers reportedly had to tone down a scene of simulated oral sex between two of the marionettes, and eliminate an "explicit" sex scene between two others in order to get an R rating. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) was prepared to give the movie an NC-17 rating until it saw at least nine progressively modified versions of the scene, eventually rating it R for "graphic, crude and sexual humor, violent images and strong language; all involving puppets." Parker said he was surprised that the MPAA was not very concerned about violent content in the movie. The film was released on DVD in two different versions: the R-rated version that was shown in theaters, and an unrated version with the sex scenes intact.

The movie theme song was "America, Fuck Yeah".

Plot synopsis

The film tells the story of an overzealous gang of anti-terrorist "global peace" enforcers known as Team America. Much of the film is a parody of the Bush Administration's War on Terror. Most of the heroes and villains represent extreme caricatures of both conservative and liberal attitudes towards the war, and American foreign policy in general. The film also heavily parodies the clichés of other action movies (including a song about having a montage, although the song originally aired in modified form on South Park).

Despite the teaser trailer's boast that George W. Bush and John Kerry (along with a whole slew of celebrities) are going to be really, really mad when they see Team America: World Police, neither Bush nor Kerry are actually seen or mentioned, although puppets that look similar to them (and their wives) can be seen in the audience of Lease, a parody of Rent
. While the protagonists are fictitious, the real names of several Hollywood celebrities and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Il, are used. None of them approved the use, nor were asked for their approval, of their names and likenesses in this movie, for obvious reasons.

The story starts with an attempted terrorist bombing in Paris which is foiled by Team America, although the team manage to lay ruin to Paris in the fight, destroying a number of French landmarks such as the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower (in the movie all of the major Paris landmarks are located in one small plaza). Sarah destroys the Louvre to foil the terrorist's plan. As Carson, one of the team members, proposes to colleague Lisa, a terrorist—left for dead—rises up and shoots Carson, killing him.

In New York City, Team leader Spottswoode tries to recruit Broadway actor Gary Johnston to join the team. After some confusion, Gary joins Spottswoode in a limo, which turns into an airplane and takes them to the Team America Headquarters inside Mount Rushmore. There, Gary is introduced to the other team members: Sarah, an empath who senses the obvious, seems to be from San Francisco, California; Chris, the best martial artist from Detroit, Michigan; Joe, an all-American quarterback from the University of Nebraska; the computer I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E. (voiced by radio personality Phil Hendrie); and the aforementioned Lisa, to whom Gary is attracted. After some soul searching in Washington D.C. (with a satire of country music playing the background), Gary is convinced to join.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Team America: World Police ]

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