Individuals Parodied
Famous people depicted as puppets, and lampooned, in the film include Michael Moore, Alec Baldwin, Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Helen Hunt, George Clooney, Liv Tyler, Martin Sheen, Susan Sarandon, Janeane Garofalo, Matt Damon, Samuel L. Jackson, Danny Glover, Ethan Hawke, Kim Jong-il, Tony Blair, Queen Elizabeth II, Peter Jennings, and Hans Blix. With the exception of Jennings, Tony Blair, and Queen Elizabeth (and Sheen, whose death is not shown despite being involved in the F.A.G. vs. Team America battle), all are killed in dramatic and extremely violent ways.
Reactions from those parodied were mixed; Baldwin found the project "so funny", and expressed interest in lending his voice to his character. In a 2008 video interview with Time, Baldwin related how his daughter's classmates would recite Kim Jong-Il's line to him, "You are useress to me, Arec Bardwin." Sean Penn, who is portrayed making outlandish claims about how happy and utopian Iraq was before Team America showed up, sent Parker and Stone an angry letter inviting them to tour Iraq with him, ending with the words "fuck you". Both George Clooney and Matt Damon are said to be friends with Stone and Parker, and Clooney has stated that he would have been insulted had he not been included in the film.
Kim Jong-il, a noted film buff, never commented publicly about his depiction in Team America: World Police, although shortly after its release North Korea asked the Czech Republic to ban the film. The filmmakers acknowledged this in a DVD extra and jokingly suggested he sing "I'm So Ronery".
Moore is depicted as a fat, hot dog-eating glutton who partakes in suicide bombing and is referred to as a "giant socialist weasel" by the supercomputer. Stone explained the reason for this portrayal in an MSNBC interview:
We have a very specific beef with Michael Moore...I did an interview, and he didn't mischaracterize me or anything I said in Bowling for Columbine. But what he did do was put this cartoon right after me that made it look like we did that cartoon.
A deleted scene also shows Meryl Streep and Ben Affleck (who is portrayed with a real-life hand).
Read more about this topic: Team America: World Police
Famous quotes containing the word individuals:
“It is for want of a man that there are so many men. It is individuals that populate the world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)