The movie Matt Stone describes as “the worst time of my entire life”
In the world of modern animation, few creative duos have been as influential as Matt Stone and Trey Parker. As the visionaries behind South Park, Stone and Parker brought a unique approach to animation which weaponised comedy to generate important discourses about political structures and rapidly deteriorating political trends. That’s exactly why South Park is regularly cited as a mirror which never fails to reflect America’s biggest hypocrisies.
While the early seasons of South Park delivered hard-hitting critiques of contemporary society, the recent seasons have drawn mixed receptions from both fans and critics. The latest season of the show was released earlier this year, approaching many topical subjects – ranging from Kanye West’s antisemitism to ChatGPT. In fact, the episode about the AI software was actually partially written by ChatGPT, making it an important experiment in the current climate.
In addition to South Park, Stone and Parker have worked on several other projects – including Cannibal! The Musical and The Book of Mormon. However, there’s one specific film under their belt that received a lot of criticism from its creators, especially Stone. That production is none other than the 2004 comedy Team America: World Police – an incisive satire that parodies the frameworks of commercial action cinema and examines America’s omnipresent influence on global politics.
During an interview, Stone revealed his contempt for puppets and claimed that the production process was so arduous that he was ready to give it all up. While talking about the stress, the filmmaker said: “It was the worst time of my entire life – I never want to see a puppet again. It ruined all the serious relationships in my life. You just become a different person, get completely stressed out and don’t pay attention to anything else.”
When asked about the challenges of making a feature film with puppets, Stone pointed out that he had to work 20-hour shifts to get the project done while indulging in extensive self-medication to maintain his productivity. He added: “You work 20 hours a day, take sleeping pills to go to bed and drink coffee to stay up. You feel like a piece of shit, none of your friends like you, your parents don’t like you, but you have a movie at the end.”
Stone continued: “I don’t know why we thought doing a puppet movie would be fun because it was terrible. It was really hard because they can’t do anything at all.” While his complaints about the production are definitely valid, it all paid off in the end because Team America: World Police ended up becoming a critical and commercial success. It has now become an important part of popular culture, serving as an interesting extension of South Park’s legacy.
