Product Description

In TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE, a group of marionette puppets form Team America, an international police force dedicated to maintaining global stability. Discovering that a power hungry dictator, Kim Jong II, plans to destroy the world and is brokering weapons of mass destruction to terrorists, the team enlists the undercover help of Broadway star Gary Johnston and embarks on a harrowing mission to save the world. Opposed to this, is the Film Actors' Guild, or F.A.G., whose members include puppets representing actors Alec Baldwin, Tim Robbins, Matt Damon, Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn. In spite of the lack of support they receive, the team sticks to their plan of saving the world and putting an end to terrorism.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3949 in DVD
• Brand: PARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO
• Released on: 2005-05-17
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Animated, Collector's Edition, Color, DVD, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: Arabic, English, French, Korean
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 98 minutes

Amazon.com
An elite U.S. counter-terrorism squad loses a member while decimating half of Paris in the reckless pursuit of Middle Eastern maniacs; a Broadway actor with a traumatic childhood secret is naturally hired to replace him. Oh--and they're all marionettes. South Park maestros Trey Parker and Matt Stone (along with co-writer Pam Brady) came up with this shameless satire of pea-brained Hollywood action flicks and even smaller-minded global politics, so don't expect subtlety or even a hint of good taste. Team America is soon on the trail of North Korea's evil Kim Jong Il, who treats us to a tender song about his loneliness before ensnaring Alec Baldwin and the rest of the oblivious Film Actors Guild (F.A.G. for short) in a plot to blow up every major city on the planet. Just as the mindless squad cheerfully demolishes everything in sight, so do director Parker and company. Throwing punches Left, Right, and in-between, the movie's politics leave no turn un-stoned; there's even time to bludgeon the musical Rent. It's offensive, irresponsible comic anarchy seemingly made by sniggering little boys. Painfully funny sniggering little boys.--Steve Wiecking

From The New Yorker
Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the unruly spirits behind the "South Park" series, return with their second feature film, a satirical extravaganza with an all-puppet cast. The puppets have large, lambent eyes, and, compared to some Hollywood stars, their faces are actually very expressive. Parker and Stone have a lot of devious fun with their helpless toys: they blow them up, feed them to fish, and capture them in gymnastic moments of intimacy (this last stunt almost earned the film an NC-17 rating). The story has a team of U.S. Special Forces flying out of their base inside Mt. Rushmore to find weapons of mass destruction, a scenario that provides plenty of opportunity to mock G.I. Joe heroism, where America is always coming to save the day! Parker and Stone's recklessness has (and evokes) a certain giddiness, but this is satire delivered via body blows. The best moments are the subtler scenes about the craft of acting (which turns out to be a crucial weapon against terrorists), and the songs, with their improbable lyrics. The movie's surreal high point may be a puppet pining for his true love while crooning about Michael Bay. -Michael Agger
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Without doubt, one of the most hysterical parodies ever!
"Without doubt, one of the most hysterical parodies ever!"

Given the current world political climate, Trey Parker and Matt Stone hit the ball right out of the park with this film. I haven't laughed so hard so frequently in a theater in years! This was simply amazing.

The sheer goofy look and movement of the deliberately low-tech puppet bodies, combined with their high-tech heads and incredibly elaborate sets, makes for some truly classic moments. When the World Police thoughtfully swoop down to take out a handful of terrorist, while simultaneously destroying much of the surrounding city in the process, you can't help but laugh at the irony. Can you say "collateral damage"?

And the overly extended scene of the two lead puppets engaging in the obligatory sex scene had me laughing so uncontrollably that I thought they'd have to take me out of the theater on a stretcher. Oh my Lord was that funny. It was one of those rare movie moment that had me laughing days later just thinking about it.

Not only do Parker and Stone mercilessly poke fun at the silly, over-the-top nature of certain Hollywood filmmakers like Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay (e.g., his nearly unwatchable "Pearl Harbor"), but they also take the public personas of world leaders like North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il and practically feed them into a wood chipper. How this film didn't spark an international PR incident with North Korea is just astounding to me.

What makes their political edge so refreshing and sidesplitting is they're willingness to take on everybody, rather than merely bolstering a right- or left-wing view. And the merciless way they go after Hollywood celeb-activists was profoundly funny. Too often I've been sickened by the overly simplistic mentality that comes from the mouths of certain actors when they use their status as public figures to comment on the world affairs. Parker and Stone portray acting notables like Penn, Baldwin, Robbins, Sarandon, and Garofalo as complete idiots, who are as easily herded about by Kim Jong-Il as so many sheep. Matt Damon is practically a troglodyte who is so stupid that all his brain can manage is to say his name over and over again.

Like "South Park Bigger, Longer and Uncut," this film has numerous musical numbers that are used to punctuate the humor of various scenes. The song "America, F**k Yeah!" once again practically had me on the floor, especially when it was uses a second time but with a much slower beat. The level of adult humor and vulgarity here will probably not make this film suitable for small kids, and much of the political edginess may be lost on most teenagers. But if there were a category for "Best Comedy Film," Parker and Stone would both win an Oscars, hands down!

You won't be "so ronery"
Trey Parker and Matt Stone have a unique ability to blend the nuanced with the obvious, to mix cerebral humor with cheap sight gags and fart jokes. If this appeals to you (watch an episode of "South Park" if you are unsure), and you don't mind having your sacred cows slaughtered and made into taco fillings, this film is a must-see --for repeated viewings.

Mad dictator Kim Jong Il plans to subvert Hollywood and become the megaproliferant of the stars. Who can stop him? Only Team America, a gang of ultra-right wing marionettes who think Rush Limbaugh is suspiciously liberal. But don't fret, conservatives: Hollywood pinkos and Michael Moore take a beating, too. Nothing is sacred to Parker and Stone.

Puppets were a mad choice for a medium, but they are done hysterically. I don't know what had me laughing more, the whiskey glass soldered to the team leader's hand, or the thought of the splinters and friction fire from marionette sex!

The sound track alone makes this film worth it. "Freedom isn't Free" could have been a real country hit and Kim singing "I'm so ronery" had my wife blowing her cola out her nose in the theater!

If you are straight-laced, have a poor sense of humor and can't admit it, or can't laugh at yourself, this may not be you're film. If you've got a slightly warped sense of humor, you'll love this!

screamingly funny
[...]

After I had dried my eyes from the tears of laughter; after the 'theme song' with its catchy headline ("America, f... yeah, got to save the m.....f...... world") had finally stopped bouncing around in my head; after I managed to stop chuckling quietly, or not-so-quietly, occasioning my wife and daughters to look at me oddly and shaking their heads; after sleeping over it for a night...I finally asked myself whether it was really necessary to be quite as vulgar to get a point across: whatever that point may have been.

The answer, I decided, was 'yes', for, in its contrast with the piss-takes on the universe of Hollyweird movies and the merciless and welcome satire on the theme of actors-and-other-insignificants-turned activists, it makes a serious statement, more profound than any learned discussion is ever likely to produce (or me, writing this!). Tray Parker made it explicit it in an interview with 60 Minutes: "Society is our only hope".

Indeed. And society consists of human beings, most of whom have a definite element of vulgarity. I wonder if it isn't true to say that _everybody_ has a core of vulgarity, even if it's covered up by the layers upon layers of thin and fragile veneer. American society evidences this vulgarity more openly than many others, though that isn't an indication that it actually _is_ more vulgar than, say, some of those European nations, who consider themselves more 'refined' and 'cultured'.

The final speech by the actor 'Gary', in front of an assembly of 'world leaders' captivated by the vapid utterances and platitudes of 'Alec Baldwin' (Parker-and-Stone's satire is without mercy or fear) is a vulgar, graphic and utterly to-the-point summary of the essence of Amercian society, what it stands for and against; on those who stand against it; and on the fundamental substance of the 'War on Terror'.

TA:WP not a movie for the faint-hearted, and it has a truly disturbing sequence (and I don't mean the one with the puppets having sex, and at some length) that had the audience dead-silent. But Gary's final verbal show-off against 'Alec', with its extensive and extended use of genital and anal metaphors, was a profoundly patriotic (and screamingly-funny) tirade that surely must go down as one of the most outrageous monologues in film history.

[...]