Matt Stone should have been a boxer.

Problem is, he’s a skinny, dorky looking guy from Littleton, Colo. An animator who cannot draw, a comedian who doesn’t do stand-up or act. A filmmaker who, with his friend and collaborator Trey Parker, temporarily ditched the two-dimensional success of “South Park” to make the feature film “Team America: World Police.”

Employing marionettes similar to the creepy string dummies from Orbitz ads and Gerry Anderson’s “Thunderbirds” series, “Team America” is only a small departure from Parker and Stone’s usual “South Park” fare. Much of the comedy throughout the film is the same stinging satire found in Stone’s foul-mouthed fourth-graders — there’s just a lot more puppet jokes.

Still, Stone should be a boxer — just look at the way he ducks and weaves in this telephone conference-call interview:

“I think ‘Team America’ is non-partisan if anything,” he explains to one poor, caffeinated collegiate interviewer.

“But Matt, what about the implications of your movie’s release and its proximity to the election? Who is your vote going to?” several more reporters implore.

“I don’t know. I don’t think that’s important to the movie so I really don’t want to talk about that.”

Whoa. There’s a silence across the phone lines, a distant shuffling and re-shuffling of papers as more college reporters rearrange their questions to exclude all Bush-bashing and Kerry-praising. One poor soul does not.

“Hey, who do you think would win in a fight between Kerry and Bush? If Kerry had lasers and, let’s say, Bush had teleportation?”

Stone’s counter is quick and precise.

“Well, obviously Bush would because he could teleport into the future and get stronger lasers and come back.”

“Okay.”

With “Team America,” Stone and Parker have made a film doused in politically-driven comedy. The title itself had Internet chat rooms abuzz with controversy weeks before the movie’s release.

The plot is no less satirical — an action feature