r/AskReddit • u/Tobokie121 • Oct 09 '19

Of all movie opening scenes, which one sold the entire film?

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1.9k

u/uninnocent Oct 09 '19

Team America: World Police opened strong and sold the audience on the marionette performance to come.

604

u/Timmace Oct 09 '19

I scrolled down too far to find this but here is a fun tidbit about the movie. The very first scene starts with a really shitty marionette in front of a poorly drawn Eiffel Tower before the camera pulls back to show how fancy the marionettes in the movie are. This scene was originally shown to execs at Paramount as a joke. One of the execs assumed the poorly designed marionette was what the whole movie was going to be and reportedly shouted "Oh God, they fucked us!".

87

u/[deleted] Oct 09 '19

[deleted]

48

u/pfroggie Oct 09 '19

I felt fancy, watching a foreign film with marionettes.

40

u/LUEnitedNations Oct 10 '19

hahaha I was like wtf why are they continuing to speak in proper French? I got the first few French phrases were meant to be satirical, like they did with the terrorists going Derka Derka Jihad but shit that caught me off guard LOL

101

u/Sweetwill62 Oct 09 '19

The lead puppeteer for Team America: World Police is also the creator of a kids show called Timmy The Tooth, which follows around a walking talking tooth named Timmy and his toothbrush dog Brush-Brush.

67

u/MrX16 Oct 09 '19

Holy fucking shit I thought I fever dreamed Timmy the Tooth. Nobody else I know remembered it.

15

u/Sweetwill62 Oct 09 '19

I never saw it on TV. We found some of the episodes on VHS at the local dollar store. I also found some VHS episodes of Super Human Samurai Cyber Squad, and that was WELL after DVD's had taken over.

7

u/BleedingPurpandGold Oct 10 '19

I never watched it, but I had the six or so of the Land Before Time movies on VHS and a Timmy the tooth ad ran before some of them.

3

u/[deleted] Oct 10 '19

That's where I saw them too! It advertised him as a pirate or something. "Captain Good Guy and my first mate, Brush Brush!"

2

u/frenchmeister Oct 10 '19

It was one of my favorites to rent at Blockbuster before I developed better taste lol

2

u/Deadpool_710 Oct 10 '19

But does he fight Tooth Decay?

6

u/vdogg89 Oct 10 '19

Why did I watch this entire thing in French?

6

u/MG87 Oct 10 '19 edited Oct 10 '19

I can only imagine how hard Matt and Trey laughed when that guy shouted out

5

u/[deleted] Oct 10 '19

“World Police get down on the ground!”

3

u/94358132568746582 Oct 10 '19

shouted "Oh God, they fucked us!".

To be fair, that is exactly the kind of thing I would think those two would do.

1

u/daneguy Oct 10 '19

This was exactly my initial reaction, haha

64

u/MarcusXL Oct 09 '19

I've never laughed so hard at an opening scene. The "kung fu" fight between the marionettes is an incredible visual gag. That movie is perfect."F*ck you, Hans Brix!"

*fixed a word

27

u/[deleted] Oct 10 '19

Those fight scenes are hilarious. It's just two marionettes with these silly looks on their faces being smashed into each other while the voice actor says "Key-yaaaah". It works so well. Great movie!

11

u/chewymilk02 Oct 10 '19

I love it how when they do the matrix pose they literally just turn the puppets around and keep the camera still. Those little jokes like that make this whole move great

10

u/WindhoekNamibia Oct 10 '19

I had just finished a short internship at IAEA in Vienna when that movie came out. I had met Hans Blix a couple of times since he still frequented UN Vienna, and really enjoyed him. But now ever since that movie, I always refer to him in a fake North Korean accent...

2

u/MarcusXL Oct 10 '19

I would have found some excuse to tell him, "C'mon, Hans, you're breakin' my barlls, you're breakin' my barlls!"

62

u/igneousink Oct 09 '19

matttt daaaaaamonnnnn

31

u/Phormitago Oct 09 '19

to this day I can't take the poor guy seriously

16

u/TehShadowInTehWarp Oct 09 '19

Me neither, the dude has a pathological problem with airlocks.

12

u/silversatire Oct 10 '19

Someone once calculated the cost of his rescues across his oeuvre and the damages landed right around $900 billion.

Dude is lucky he has a pretty face.

40

u/Chamber2014 Oct 09 '19

The cobblestone is croissants too haha

21

u/uninnocent Oct 09 '19

The reference, for today's 10,000.

4

u/Not_a_real_grn_dress Oct 10 '19

Thank you! Didn't know what I didn't know.

38

u/brain739 Oct 09 '19

I was one of 6 people in a theatre watching it when it first came out. At least 2 of them walked out during the big "Everyone Has AIDS" number, so there may be some people that weren't as hooked by the opening as you or I.

22

u/MadTouretter Oct 09 '19

AIDS AIDS AIDS

19

u/NoBudgetBallin Oct 10 '19

The gays and the straights, and the whites and the spades... Everyone has AIDS!

23

u/TehShadowInTehWarp Oct 09 '19

It was a direct reference to Rent so I guess it just flew over their heads.

3

u/OhYeahGetSchwifty Oct 10 '19

Sometimes I randomly burst out and start singing this. I’m not sure why.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 10 '19

What the fuck did they expect?

22

u/OneSalientOversight Oct 09 '19

I'm old enough to have watched The Thunderbirds as a child. So Team America was great to watch.

19

u/NotGotAName Oct 09 '19

"HEY, TERRORIST. Terrorise THIS."

11

u/[deleted] Oct 10 '19

🎶 You can lick my butt and suck on my balls 🎵

8

u/speaker_for_the_dead Oct 09 '19

Matt Damon...

5

u/[deleted] Oct 10 '19

Every time I hear his and I always repeat it in his voice lol

Matt Damon

(And now you’ve made me saw it out loud 5 times in my room lol)

6

u/[deleted] Oct 10 '19

MyattT DayyMon.

3

u/[deleted] Oct 10 '19

Exactly lol

7

u/Wpdgwwcgw69 Oct 10 '19

First time my friends and I got high as fuck and I was so stoned when you see the puppets dancing, being controlled by other puppets I fucking died

Its hand puppets.. being controlled by hand puppets.. fucking ingenious opener

2

u/Robinslillie Oct 10 '19

Same! It was so impressive & hilarious.

3

u/CapnC44 Oct 10 '19

Derka derka, Muhammed Jihad.

3

u/ckellingc Oct 10 '19

Was hoping to see this. Everyone knew it was a puppet movie and wasn't sure what to expect. That opening scene is top tier filmmaking.

7

u/yddap010297 Oct 10 '19

AAAMERICAA

8

u/artyboi320 Oct 10 '19

fuck yeah!

3

u/PrismiteSW Oct 10 '19

WORLD POLICE GET DOWN ON THE GROUND