Perhaps no movie better sums up, and decimates ruthlessly, the American media follies that followed the Iraq War. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone take such a fine razor to contemporary times that in twenty-five years young audiences might not even understand it. Today though, it’s funny as hell and that’s enough for me.
All of the characters are literal marionettes, complete with visible strings, and not one of them is a good guy. Right-wingers, left-wingers, Americans, Arabs, Koreans… they’re all some mix of stupid and arrogant here. The plot is about America vs. Kim Jong-Il, but it’s really about Parker and Stone vs. Hollywood. Don’t look for anything thoughtful here. Don’t look for any solutions. Don’t look for much of any political point of view. That sort of thing would only undermine one of the film’s main messages, which is that entertainers—actor-cum-pundits such as Sean Penn and Tim Robbins, in particular—are a bunch of goobers who don’t belong at the forefront of world affairs. (The marionettes, mostly voiced by Parker and Stone, are here for more than just sight gags of puppets that hop around with guns. They’re also a clever way for Parker and Stone to not defang their satire of actors while working with a cast of name actors.)
The story flies by under a flurry of X-rated humor, puppet gore, and movie parodies. Michael Bay-style action movie cliches form most of the foundation, with the film’s look taken from the old British sci-fi puppet show, Thunderbirds.
Credited with puppeteering, puppet producing, and puppet supervision are the Chiodo Brothers of Killer Klowns from Outer Space semi-fame.