Trivia for
Team America: World Police (2004)

• The very first footage screened for Paramount executives was of a poorly crafted puppet in front of a background of a badly drawn Eiffel Tower, prompting one executive in the audience to yell. "Oh god, they fucked us!" This was a prank pulled by the directors and the shot then pans over to a beautiful Parisian landscape with much better looking puppets. This actually ends up being the opening shot of the movie.
  
  
• The idea for the film came in 2003 when Matt Stone and Trey Parker were watching television and came across re-runs episodes of "Thunderbirds" (1964), which Parker had never seen. Instantly intrigued, the two decided a marionette action film would be "the perfect way to send up all those Jerry Bruckheimer movies".
  
  
• Before Trey Parker and Matt Stone settled on the final plot for this film, one of their original ideas was to do an all-puppet version of The Day After Tomorrow (2004). They had been given a copy of the script and thought it was already funny as was; but thought that if they were to make it into an all-puppet movie; then it would substantially funnier. The main reason why this idea never came to fruition was because of legal problems with the studio who owned the rights to the film.
  
  

• When Trey Parker and Matt Stone showed the first footage of the film at the 2004 San Diego Comic Convention, it began with the tagline (words flying at the screen) "Alec Baldwin, George Clooney, Janeane Garofalo, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Sean Penn, Michael Moore, George W. Bush, John Kerry, Jong-Il Kim.... will all HATE this movie!" A teaser trailer shown in theaters used a longer list of names, including Alec Baldwin.
  
  
• Due to a puppet sex-scene, the movie was given a NC-17 Rating by the MPAA. The scene was edited twelve times before they received the R rating they were shooting for.
  
  
• Team America first meets Gary performing in a play called "Lease", an obvious parody of the popular broadway musical Rent in which several of the characters are struggling with AIDS.
  
  
• A billboard in Times Square reads "Chiodo: You Go Now." The Chiodo Brothers are responsible for the puppets seen in the film.
  
  
• Marc Shaiman composed songs and a score for the movie, but the score was rejected by Paramount execs about three and a half weeks before the movie was released. Harry Gregson-Williams was hired to rewrite the score and compose it at the 11th hour. Marc Shaiman's songs, however, still remain in the finished film.
  
  
• The MPAA gave this film an R rating, accompanied with the specific explanation "For graphic crude and sexual behavior, violent images and strong language - all involving puppets."
  
  
• During the attack on the Panama Canal, the puppets repeat the line "No me gusta" which is Spanish for "I don't like it."
  
  
• All of the puppets in the movie used the same two bodies (one for the males and one for the females) with different heads- except for Kim Jong Il, to make him look that much smaller.
  
  
• The song "Montage" is the only non-original song in the movie, having been previously featured, with slightly different lyrics, in the "South Park" (1997) episode "Asspen" (episode 2 of season 6, first aired on March 13, 2002).
  
  
• In the overhead shot of Gary lying in the giant puddle of vomit, it is actually Trey Parker wearing a pair of fake legs so his proportions more closely match those of the marionettes.
  
  
• Matt Stone reffered to the puppet technique used in the film as "supercrappymation".
  
  
• Sections of the Cairo set are a meticulous recreation of the cover to Iron Maiden's album "Powerslave".
  
  
• The dress worn by Lisa during the film's finale is a near-exact replica of the one worn by Kate Capshaw in the opening moments of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984).
  
  
• The tavern scene is an homage to the Mos Eisley Cantina scene in Star Wars (1977). Many of the same camera angles and character positions are used, and many shots are replicated. The band is using the same instruments as the Cantina band and in fact, they're playing the theme, only it's backwards.
  
  
• In the style of the "Thunderbirds" (1964) show which the movie is a spoof of, close up shots of hands were not puppet hands but rather real hands dressed up to look like puppet hands.
  
  
• The statue in Kim Jong Il's palace is actually a human in heavy makeup. In the first scene in which he appears, you can see his eyes blinking.
  
  
• All of the puppet heads consist of nine different servo motors that control the various facial expressions/actions
  
  
• The leaves on the palm trees in Hollywood during the F.A.G. meeting are made out of dollar bills.
  
  
• When the Film Actors Guild decides to go to North Korea, the members all shout "Qaplah!," which is Klingon for success.
  
  
• Household objects were used as props in order to, according to Trey Parker and Matt Stone, remind the audience the actual size of the puppets. A pair of nail clippers can be seen on a Team America's utility belt in their first scene; in Cairo, a citizen is carrying a basket of Goldfish snacks on his head; and a set of palm trees have leaves made out of dollar bills.
  
  
• In the opening scene in Paris, the Mime resembles Trey Parker.
  
  
• During the Alec Baldwin and Gary Johnston scene on stage at Kim Jong Il's palace, in some shots the screens at either side of the stage show footage of the real Alec Baldwin in a tux, and Trey Parker recording the voice over.
  
  
• When the camera first shows us the palace in North Korea, several of the smaller buildings are actually Chinese food take-out boxes.
  
  
• As a subtle detail in the opening scene in Paris, the streets are paved with croissants.
  
  
• For the record, "9/11 times 2,356" is 2,146,316.
  
  
• During the fantasy sequence where several different countries are being destroyed, America is shown and a movie theatre is visible which is apparently showing the films I Heart Huckabees (2004) and Seed of Chucky (2004).
  
  
• The Paramount Logo, which starts the film, runs backwards.
  
  
• The Michael Moore puppet was stuffed with ham before it was blown up.
  
  
• Originally, Matt Damon (who Parker and Stone have admitted is really a "pretty cool guy") was going to be portrayed as intelligent and articulate, but when they saw the puppet, they noted that it made him "look retarded" and decided to portray him as such.
  
  
• Bill Pope agreed to be the movie's director of photography because it was a refreshing change from the last few movies that he had done, like the Matrix and Spiderman sequels, where large portions of filming were blue/green screen photography.
  
  
• When the terrorist is seen by the little french kid, we hear Turkish music - it's a song about a girl whom the singer fell in love with.
  
  
• When Team America arrives in Cairo and they are moving to the tavern, there is a mosque in the background. This is the Aya Sofya mosque in Itanbul, Turkey.
  
  

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