Team America: World Police (2004)

Directed by: Trey Parker | 98 minutes | action, comedy, animation, adventure | Original voice cast: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Kristen Miller, Masasa, Daran Norris, Phil Hendrie, Maurice LaMarche, Chelsea Magritte, Jeremy Shada, Fred Tatasciore

‘Team America: World Police’ is the brainchild of Trey Parker and Matt Stone. This duo is best known for the successful television series ‘South Park’, an animation series about a group of schoolchildren from the town of the same name. ‘South Park’ owes its success mainly to the combination of parody, hard satire and adolescent humor. Since ‘South Park’ is certainly not politically correct, it is typical such a case of “love it or hate it”. The latter also applies, but to a lesser extent, to the duo’s latest film.

‘Team America’ is not an animation but a puppet film à la ‘Thunderbirds’. Although you can see the puppets hanging from their wires continuously, it doesn’t bother you for a moment; The amazement is too great for that at the expressive doll faces and the breathtaking scenery, from the Taj Mahal to the palace of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il. Because ‘Team America’ is also a real action movie, lovers of explosions, shootings, flying stunts, fearless heroes and evil terrorists will also get their money’s worth. That spectacle often looks beautiful, albeit that sometimes a lot of blood flows.

The biggest attraction of ‘Team America’, however, is the humor. Every conceivable Hollywood cliché is parodied, from the fearless action hero who blows hundreds of terrorists into oblivion with one salvo, to the sentimental outpourings that real Hollywood heroes spew before risking their lives again. The satire is also top-notch. Opponents of American foreign policy are especially targeted, with committed actors such as Sean Penn and Tim Robbins having to pay the price. But the approach of the current US administration, which often leaves behind smoldering rubble in its efforts to catch as many terrorists as possible, has been strongly criticized. Finally, there is the Asshole/Pussy/Suck my Dick humor category, which will not be to everyone’s taste, but can be enjoyed by the enthusiast.

The last strong point is the music. The sentimental songs in particular are hilarious, culminating in Kim Jong Il’s heartbreaking ballad, finally revealing the root cause of this dictator’s aggressiveness. But the spoken one-liners are often great too (Hey terrorist, terrorize this!). And what about the beautiful sentences of Matt Damon…

The conclusion must therefore be that ‘Team America: World Police’ is a fine film by the Parker/Stone duo. Lovers of ‘South Park’ can buy a ticket blindly, haters of that series should just walk around it and reviewers can confidently give four stars for so much humor and craftsmanship. And now that we finally know what Kim Jong Il lacks, world peace will come. At least, as long as that Baldwin doesn’t get involved.