It's a puppet movie!

That's the uncomprehending reaction of Trey Parker, co-creator of the action parody Team America: World Police, to the blistering reactions from several quarters to their riotous but distinctly naughty film. Parker and his equally mischievous collaborator and former college buddy Matt Stone are promoting next Tuesday's home video release of a project that has upset governments in both the U.S. and North Korea to say nothing of Liberal-minded film stars, all of whom are savagely lampooned by these equal-opportunity offenders.

As the grinning guys behind TV's edgy adult animated series hit South Park, they should be used to such reactions, and perhaps they really aren't as baffled as they appear.

"What we set out to do is make a funny puppet movie," Parker explains innocently. "The last thing we want to be is another Michael Moore, going out there and shoving our philosophy down people's throats."

Parker say that while there is politics in Team America, art should make you think about your own ideas and beliefs.

"There is a side that we're on. It's just not the extreme to this or the extreme to that. It's a middle ground."

The film is an obvious spoof of Thunderbirds, the low-rent 1960s children's TV action series that used marionettes as the team of heroes who jet to the rescue from their hidden island base. But in this version, our heroic but reckless global cops (their secret lair is inside Mount Rushmore) are dangerously indifferent as they battle bearded Middle Eastern terrorists, blowing them up along with such landmarks as the Eiffel Tower and the Pyramids.

The two lead characters, Gary and Lisa, also indulge in a lovemaking scene so graphic that the film was originally threatened with the dreaded NC-17 rating. The sequence was trimmed to R standards for the theatrical release but emerges on one version of the DVD totally uncensored, now running about two minutes in length, not 40 seconds. And it's fair to say these lovers go where none have ever gone before on the silver screen.

Parker reveals that they never intended the scene to be so explicit but shot it that way just to give the ratings board something to cut, then when they found how funny it was decided to leave it in the home video version intact.

"It's like what every kid in the whole world does with GI Joes and Barbies, that's the whole point," says Stone. "We're doing it in a $30 million movie!"

The boys seem to revel in reports of complaints from within the White House and a protest letter they received from actor Sean Penn (that they could have influenced the outcome of the last U.S. election, no less). But their juiciest piece of free publicity came from a North Korean diplomat who was quoted as demanding the film be banned - get this - because its parody of leader Kim Jong Il harms his country's reputation.

"Which is very funny because Kim Jong Il is actually harmful to their reputation," quips Parker who understands that Kim loves movies and has his own screening room.

"We're gonna send him a print of Team America."

One thing Parker and Stone want clear is that they avoided computerized animation, that everything that happens in the film, happens for real on the set. They even made a conscious decision not to digitally erase the puppet strings which, in fact, are part of the whole send-up.

"We spent so much time making it basically the anti-CG movie," says Stone. "We're all pretty sick of seeing these CG movies where you know nothing is real onscreen."

While their fans seem to love the sauciness of Team America, the pair agrees there won't be a sequel. In fact, they never want to work with marionettes again because the shoot was so difficult.

There are the limitations in movement, especially on a film set where the puppeteers had to manipulate strings from a much greater height than usual and where everything had to be built to miniature scale.

Take the scene - made up on the spot - where one character is told he's going to have to commit suicide, and is handed a hammer to do the job.

"We're like 'Oh, this'll be sweet. Get us a hammer'." explains Parker. "And it's like 'Well, we gotta shoot it tomorrow cuz we gotta go make a little hammer."'

Stone says other props and sets had to be built months in advance, which is not the way they're used to inventing their comedy.

They've been quoted as saying they wanted to do a remake one of those Jerry Bruckheimer blockbusters like Armageddon or The Day After Tomorrow, word for word and scene for scene, but with puppets. But now, forget it.

"If we see a puppet now we go into convulsions," says Stone, adding that he would like to see Oliver Stone do the sequel.

"Someone we can't stand," adds Parker. "It'd be like 'You should do it' and then watch him totally suffer."

[ source: NATIONALPOST ]