Team America: World Police (2004)

Team America: World Police is a 2004 American puppet comedy film directed by Trey Parker, who co-wrote it with Matt Stone and Pam Brady. Parker and Stone also star alongside Kristen Miller, Masasa Moyo, Daran Norris, Phil Hendrie, Maurice LaMarche, Jeremy Shada, and Fred Tatasciore. A satire of action film archetypes, American militarism, and the foreign policy of the United States, the film follows the eponymous international counterterrorism force, which recruits a Broadway actor to assist in saving the world from Kim Jong Il and his coalition of Islamic terrorists and progressive Hollywood actors.

The film 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. They worked on the script with Brady, a former South Park writer, for nearly two years. Production was troubled, with various technical problems regarding the puppets and the scheduling extremes of finishing in time for its theatrical release. Like Parker's previous film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, it also came into routine conflict with the Motion Picture Association of America, which returned the film multiple times with an NC-17 rating, particularly due to an explicit sex scene involving puppets.

Team America: World Police premiered at the Grauman's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California on October 11, 2004, and was released in the United States on October 15, by Paramount Pictures. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed over $50 million worldwide on a $32 million budget.