BSA 206 W14 : Animation Companies and Team America

2D

- Walt Disney
- Warner Bros. Animation
- Sunrise Inc
- Oriental Light and Magic
- Toei Animation
- Fuzzy Door Productions
- Rough Draft Studios
- South Park Studios
- Disney Television Animation
- Williams Street Productions
- Cartoon Network Studios
- Laika Entertainment
- Nickelodeon Animation Studios

3D

- Pixar Studios
- Sony Pictures Animation
- Blue Sky Studios
- Illumination Entertainment
- Dreamworks Animation

In class, we also watched the puppet parody pic Team America: World Police (2004).



The film is a parody of big blockbuster action movies and a satire on American Patriotism, serving as somewhat of a commentary on America's response to that tragedy that took place on September 11th, 2001 and the US army's presence in Iraq.

The movie is the spawn of the same team behind South Park (that show being written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Stone acting as one of the head writers on Team America and Parker taking the director's chair).

The satire is present from the title itself with the contradiction between the two halves of the title: Team America and World Police, illustrating one of the films' main observations that the American military takes it upon themselves to intervene in conflicts around the world, even when they ultimately worsen the situation.

Creators said the idea was to do a Jerry Bruckheimer movie with puppets:





They say in this second interview that the central conceit was never to make political commentary, rather just a puppet action movie - something they illustrate is a funny idea by painting the picture of films like Armageddon and The Day After Tomorrow being done with puppets and how humorous those films would then be. The real-world implications came later, during the development of the story, something they are also known for in their South Park TV series, where they often explore current affairs in a comedic and arguably offensive manner.

 

I had never seen anything from these guys, other than some very limited peripheral exposure - like having seen a few clips from their show South Park and being familiar with the "America Fuck Yeah" song - so watching this movie in class was my first impression of the comedic duo.

And a good impression they made, I thought that Team America was amazing, the movie is similar to Wallace in Gromit from a couple of weeks ago due to its perfect combination between effective parodical comedy and technical comprehension.

Team America is very funny as it rightly ought to be, but it's also very well made, being a masterclass in how the big action blockbusters of its time should be made from a visual and aural perspective, the movie feels very cinematic with its camera moves and editing, the story even follows the same structure that is so often used for disaster action flicks at the turn of the century. The movie felt safe in a way, adhering to the narrative norms that we as an audience have become used to, but it has the extra layer of the offensive humour to keep it freshly engaging. It was a wonderfully comfortable experience because of knowing what kind of story is being told, making it more accessible to enjoy it raunchy humour.

The movie chose the perfect vehicle to deliver its unique brand of humour.

It's also quite admirable that the movie was made and released when it was, Parker and Stone seem to thrive of controversy, their success a product of their ability to offend. The topics that the movie tackles, and lampoons, were at their height during the time that this movie was released, I could see how it would be much more palatable to people now - almost two decades after 9/11 - but the movie was released a mere three years after the tragedy, at the prime of the Bush administration and height of America's campaign against terrorism.

The movie is the perfect film for its time and places itself in a good place to be forever mentioned in the history books, I am surprised it got funded and distributed at all. I am not surprised it was successful though. The movie is even the perfect representation of where the movie industry was at the time with how well it captures the way films were made at that time.

I actually ended up listening to a lot of interviews of these guys through the week, especially during the last half hour of my shift where I am left to do night jobs alone, I usually use this time for music but found interviews much more entertaining of late: 









I was very enamored by these two guys and the things they had to say are very articulate and even inspiring to a degree. From these interviews I got a much better understanding of what their work means and how much of a commentary it can usually be (like how they have won and Emmy for one of their politically motivated South Park episodes).

It's quite captivating to hear them talk about how their work is received, not just in the types of people they offend, but particularly in regard to how audiences started looking towards their show to see what comment it was going to make on current events. It's an art form, a particularly low-brow one at that, which managed to subvert its' own description as pure entertainment and became a form of political commentary to which people actually listened and considered.

At the end of it all they always stress that their work is not supposed to be a representation of their own beliefs, and that they don't try to say what's right and wrong, rather it's an interesting story first and foremost and through the inspiration it takes from the creators' own lives and recent worldly events it manages to explore a topic from a variety of interesting angles.

I loved listening to these guys, and still I haven't seen a single episode of South Park - I am sure to check it out at some point now though, especially after the love affair I formed with Team America and the two auteurs behind it.

 One of the most inspiring things they said in these interviews is that they feel like they are fighting the good fight against evil - hence their roasting of specific companies, political figures and celebrities in their work (see Team America's vilification of popular Hollywood actors - of which the duo said that they were representing the way these actors see themselves, as important on a much larger scale, an international one where they have divine right to comment or make decisions on world wide affairs). They feel like they are doing something important and that is very motivating to hear, especially considering how rough their technical execution is, and how low-brow their humour can be. It proves that even their brand of film-making has an important place in the world and that this type of content - this level of personal expression - can resonate with audiences on a massive scale.



I also learned that the couple made a musical called Book of Mormon, something else of theirs that gained a lot of critical acclaim, and as a big fan of this particular genre I'll definitely be checking it out first, most likely before even South Park.