Team America: World Police - 20th Anniversary Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

I know Paramount loves to license out their titles to a third-party label and then quickly offer their own version (sometimes in a SteelBook), but usually there’s a bit of a wait in between releases. This turnaround for Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s Team America World Police from Shout’s Blu-ray to Paramount’s 4K is a scant eleven months. That’s not as bad as the six-month turnaround from Arrow’s Waterworld Blu-ray to Universal’s 4K, but it’s close! This isn’t a movie I pull off the shelf on the regular. I tend to go years between viewings so two reviews within 365 days is an anomaly for me. I still think it’s funny as hell and it’s a film that’s gotten better with age, so my thoughts from last year’s review stands pat. That said, I don't want to review this movie again for a while. 

From my 2023 Team America World Police Blu-ray Review:

It’s weird to think there was once a time when South Park was relatively still new(ish) and Matt Stone and Trey Parker weren’t multi-Emmy Award, Tony Award, and Peabody Award-winning personalities. By 2004, they figured the show would end at any time so they were ready to branch out and get back into filmmaking. During the height of the war on terror, well-meaning but pretentious celebrities and bad Michael Bay action movies were everywhere. So Parker and Stone decided they’d make the mother of all satires with Team America World Police - a film that deftly skewers everything from Alec Baldwin to Kim Jong Il to hyperactive-toxic patriotism to Michael Bay movies to Maaaaatt Daaaamon. Only instead of animation, Parker and Stone brought this action-packed comedy gem to life with Marionette puppets! 

The story for Team America isn’t exactly complicated. Basically, take any generic action movie and replace the tropes for early 2000s post-9/11 American fervent patriotism through the lens of Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor with puppets, add some body fluid humor and you pretty much have this movie. No global personality, well-meaning celebrity, or action movie was spared... and Maaaaatt Daaaamon. 

But the film might have been a little too ahead of the game in 2004. While it did well enough at the box office, it wasn’t exactly a massive success like South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, and as a result, Matt and Trey retreated back into doing what they did best. I thought it was funny, but given that the world tensions of the era were so raw, the humor didn’t always stick the landing. Puppet sex and over-the-top action sequences were hilarious, but skewering world events didn’t always tickle the funny bone. However, nearly 20 years later, the jokes work better now for a genuinely hilarious action-packed puppet flick… Maaaaatt Daaaamon. 

For my take, I thought the film was amusing when I saw it in theaters, but I didn’t love it. I bought the unrated DVD, watched it once or twice more, and then basically forgot about it. Aside from knocking various celebrity personalities, it felt like a lot of the humor and the Michael Bay jokes were pretty one-note. At that point, Bay had made only one genuinely bad movie with Pearl Harbor (or two if you count Bad Boys 2). The film was best when it was going for the same brand of shock comedy as South Park; the puppet sex scene is a notable example there. 20 years later the Michael Bay jokes hit better because we’ve endured and survived five increasingly numbing and mindless Transformers films among other films he’s either directed himself or produced. Those celebrity personality jokes have only gotten funnier with Alec Baldwin’s puppet becoming an even more hilarious surrogate given recent tragic events. Sitting down with this again after so many years away I was surprised and happy to see it’s a better movie than I remembered and a brutally sharp satire at that.

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Maaaaatt Daaaamon. 

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Team America World Police celebrates 20 years of raunchy puppet sex with its first 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release from Paramount Home Entertainment. A two-disc 4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital release, the Theatrical Cut 4K scores a BD-66 disc with a BD-50 serving up the Unrated Cut in 1080p and dishing out the bonus features. Both discs are housed in a standard black 4K case with identical slipcover. Each disc opens to a static image main menu with a standard navigation system.

NOTE - we haven't been able to pull 4K disc-sourced images yet, but when we can we'll try and circle back and update the review with new images and hopefully a new video sample. 

Well, eleven months after Shout Factory’s two-disc Blu-ray of Team America, here we are. Paramount inexplicably only offers the Theatrical Cut in 4K with Dolby Vision HDR. Granted the only thing missing between the two versions is about a minute of graphic (but hilarious) puppet sex, I’m not convinced that the barely sixty seconds of extra footage couldn’t have been included via seamless branching. Whatever the reason for that decision, Team America World Police does look pretty damned fantastic on 4K with HDR. 

Now dollars to donuts, the improvement in details from Shout Factory’s disc to this 4K disc isn’t immediately clear. Actually, the opening Paris action sequence isn’t all that impressive. The bitrate is weirdly low (average in the low 40mbps). The extra color pop thanks to HDR was the only initial positive. Strangely enough, as soon as that Paris sequence was over, that bitrate came roaring back to life with a much more impressive and healthy average well into the 70-80mbps with peaks into the 90s. Fine details in the puppets’ facial features and textures, the micro detailing in the costumes, or Gary’s leather coat start to really stand out nicely. Film grain is retained without any signs of troublesome “Paramounting” modulations or excessive smoothing. The only sequence that looks odd is the “Freedom Isn’t Free” scene where the Gary puppet visits real landmark locations since that footage was shot on early-era HD cameras gorilla-style without permits. It’s a scene that’s always looked wonky and looks even more so in 4K. 

As I said, initially the Dolby Vision grading was the main highlight because that Paris scene had nicely rich colors and image depth the previous Blu-ray didn’t quite match. Later when we meet Gary singing “Everyone Has Aids!” the shadow depth and black levels are much improved giving some lighting nuance and more three-dimensional depth. That carries on throughout the rest of the film. Blues are a nice royal shade with red carrying more crimson tones and yellows getting more pop. Whites are brilliantly crisp without blooming issues and spectral highlights get some extra sparkle. 

Certainly not the greatest A to B upgrade ever seen, but a worthy one. Again the big gripe here is only the Theatrical Cut gets the upgrade. 

This release ditches the DTS-HD MA 2.0 track and sticks with the vastly superior DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix. Not really a loss there. Some may complain about the lack of Atmos or whathaveyou, but this mix is still a rip-roaring beast. Dialog is clear without issue. The big action movie music cues sound terrific. The action scenes themselves are fully immersive with wall-to-wall sound and plenty of rumble in the subs. Imaging is terrific, levels are spot on, really I doubt there’s a lot that could be approved on. 

As for the bonus features, the same set of extras returns exclusive to the Unrated Cut Blu-ray disc. Nothing new was added to the soup.

• Team America: An Introduction (SD 5:10)
• Building the World (SD 12:42)
• Crafting the Puppets (SD 8:01)
• Pulling the Strings (SD 10:09)
• Capturing the Action (SD 6:44)
• Miniature Pyrotechbnics (SD 4:50)
• Up Close WIth Kim Jong-Il (SD 5:10)
• Puppet Test (SD 4:10)
• Dressing Romm Test (SD 2:05)
• Deleted/Extended Scenes and Outtakes (SD 6:07)
• Storyboards
• Trailers

Less than a year ago I lamented the lack of a 4K disc since Shout put the effort into delivering both cuts of Team America sourced from a (then) new 4K scan and restoration on Blu-ray. Well, like a number of their licensed titles, Paramount Home Entertainment is celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Team America World Police by giving the film a true 4K UHD Dolby Vision upgrade. The Theatrical Cut at least sees that upgrade. Like many other fans, I’m completely baffled as to why both cuts weren’t presented in 2160p HDR. It’s a genuine head-scratcher when you consider it’s only a minute of footage. And that minute may be the reason why a number of people don’t buy this set. For a lot of collectors that one minute of puppet sex is what moves this release from being a “Day One” upgrade to “well, maybe when it’s on sale…” It’s truly giving me pause about offering a full-throated Recommended. I will give it that much because the Theatrical Cut 4K is a solid disc. Those happy with that much should be pleased. However, I can’t help but wonder how long before Shout gets this film back and then offers us another release with both cuts in 4K HDR?

Order Your Copy of Team America World Police on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray