Image copyright © by Marcus Trahan

Team America: World Police

(2004)

Lee was extremely dubious, I wasn’t sure what to expect. In the end, it just didn’t quite work. There are basic problems, and the biggest is that the puppet stuff wears pretty thin after about 30 minutes. I got tired of looking at the blank faces. Sure, they’re more expressive than Howdy Doody, but not much, and they all walk exactly like Howdy. There are some very funny moments, and the production design is awesome. A lot of work went into the incredibly detailed sets. I’m happy a lot of puppeteers and model makers got a lot of work, but this is an experiment that’s not worth repeating.