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Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters Review By Shawn McKenzie 05/07/2007 The Synopsis: Our heroes…giant pistachio shake Master Shake (voice of Dana Snyder), rotted ball of ground beef Meatwad (voice of Dave Willis), and flying box of fries Frylock (voice of Carey Means)…are the Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and they still live next door to balding, overweight human Carl Brutananadilewski (also the voice of Dave Willis) in New Jersey. As the story begins, Shake is telling the story of their origins, where they were attacked by a giant poodle in ancient Egypt and saved by Time Lincoln (voice of Fred Armisen.) When the story includes the fact that Frylock was killed, the obviously alive Frylock calls him on his bullcrap. Shake then tries to put together his new exercise equipment machine called the Insan-O-Flex, which attempts to take over the world pumping up mortal men into musclemen…using Carl as its power source (seeing Carl getting massively pumped up cracked me up.) The Insan-O-Flex was actually Carl’s machine that he bought from Dr. Weird (voice of C. Martin Croker) and his assistant Steve (also the voice of C. Martin Croker), but it was missing a screw (they used a pencil in its place.) The ATHF aren’t the only ones who want to use the machine. The Plutonians…Oglethorpe (voice of Andy Merrill) and Emory (voice of Mike Schatz)…want the equipment and they partner up with the robotic Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future (voice of Matt Maiellaro) to get it. As the Aqua Teens try to get the machine back, they find out the real origins of their creation…including a long lost Aqua Teen named Chicken Bittle (voice of Bruce Campbell)…a talking chicken nugget. The Aqua Teens are not only confronted by the Plutonians and the Cybernetic Ghost, but Dr. Weird and Steve, primitive computer game characters the Mooninites…Ignignokt (also the voice of Dave Willis) and Err (also the voice of Matt Maiellaro)…and giant spider/housefly MC Pee Pants (nerdcore rapper mc chris.) All of this is being observed from space by a giant watermelon slice named Walter Melon (voice of Chris Kattan) and his assistant Neil Peart (voiced himself.) The Review: It’s a risky decision to do a full-length theatrical version of a cult TV series. It’s probably an even more of a risk when that cult series is animated. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters succeeds…but you do have to be a fan to like it. First, let me give you a little background on the movie’s source. “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” is a series of 11-minute shorts that air on the Cartoon Network as part of its Adult Swim late-night programming block. It was originally created for an episode of Cartoon Network’s “Space Ghost Coast to Coast” called “Baffler Meal” (they mention to literally take a shot at Space Ghost, voiced by George Lowe, in the movie.) It started as a series in December of 2000 as one of production company Williams Street’s four original shows (the other three being “Sealab 2021,” “The Brak Show,” and “Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law”), and it is the longest-running current show on the network (“Harvey” is scheduled to end this year.) There have been 68 episodes of the show produced over four seasons (the fifth season is tentatively scheduled for late 2007.) It’s also the second movie based off a Cartoon Network series (the first one being 2002’s The Powerpuff Girls Movie.) Being that the show airs late night on Sundays and appeals mainly to teens and college students, it’s a little odd that they made the movie. If you watch it and you like it…you’re most likely a fan, because its story won’t make any sense. It also happens to help if you are high, because the “plot” doesn’t really go anywhere, and its attempt leaves you saying, “Huh?” According to my review so far, it sounds like I don’t like the movie. Quite the contrary…I thought that it was hilarious! I do happen to be a fan (no…I don’t watch it high either), and I’ve seen all 68 aired episodes. There is just something so absurd about this trio of fast food “superheroes” that don’t actually do anything heroic. They usually end up unintentionally torturing their neighbor Carl. Shake himself is so selfish that he is almost a villain. Meatwad is too childlike to be effective (he also mumbles so much that I can’t understand what he is saying most of the time. At least on TV I can watch the closed captions.) Frylock is the only one that does heroic things, but he is so busy keeping the other two in line that he falters. Stars like “Saturday Night Live’s” Fred Armisen, Evil Dead’s Bruce Campbell, former “SNL” cast member Chris Kattan, Rush drummer Neil Peart, and “30 Rock’s” Tina Fey (as a giant 9-bean burrito) all decided to contribute their voices to the movie…which means that the show has a few celebrity fans (or they were paid well…or high themselves.) It’s just a case of “you’d have to see it to understand it.” That brings us back to my original point…paying to see a movie based on an odd cartoon. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters will obviously be a hit with the fans of the Adult Swim shorts. It won’t be as successful as other movie adaptations of adult cartoons though like 1999’s South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut or this July’s The Simpsons Movie (I’m just assuming that will be successful because it has been anticipated for almost two decades) because those shows were already huge hits on television. I advise checking out a few episodes of the show on DVD (or by watching the episodes available on adultswim.com) before checking out the movie. I do recommend seeing it though, because it is frickin’ hilarious for fans. Oh…make sure you get there early, because they do this parody of the “Let’s Go Out to the Lobby” intro where this other group of snacks (voiced by the metal band Mastadon) interrupts them and explicitly warns the audience about what not to do before a movie (“Do not explain the plot. If you don’t understand, then you should not be here. Your money is now our money and we will spend it on drugs. Do not crinkle your food wrappers loudly. Be considerate to others, or I will bite your torso and give you a disease.”) Come to think about it…that should precede all movies!
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