As a devout follower of 'Adult Swim' since its VERY early days in the 2000s (and its 'proto' years on cartoon network in the late 90s) I've always had a soft spot for its unwavering dedication to trying to do anything and everything in its power to be subversive against more traditional comedies or animations.
I love 'Tim and Eric Awesome Show (Great Job!)', I love 'Sealab 2021', I love 'Home Movies' and 'Space Ghost Coast to Coast'...and I LOVE 'Aqua Teen Hunger Force'.
Back in the mists of time when Adult Swim first got air time in the UK, they pretty much played the first 4 seasons of 'Aqua Teen' before the network that was hosting 'Adult Swim' over here went bump and went off the air permanently...Leading to a long LONG history of Adult Swim being ressurected on UK television in a graveyard slot that noone can watch, where its unceremoniously dumped after a year or two due to poor ratings, the network its on dying, or both.
Its last iteration housed nothing but 'Family Guy' and 'American Dad', its current iteration, is streaming only on the UK's 'Channel 4' and has barely any consistent content. but...I digress.
The 'Aqua Teen' movie never made it to UK shores on initial release (or at least, it didnt come to my neck of the woods) which infuriated me as a fan...it didnt really get a UK dvd or bluray release either which just made matters worse...But a month or so ago, I spotted the 'Aqua Teen Baffler Meal' (a 20 disc dvd set of all the episodes and the movie) was on a lightning sale, so I picked it up looking for a nostalgia hit. and I really wasnt dissapointed.
'Aqua Teen Hunger Force' is an oddity of a tv show in the sense that, until its 4th season, it didnt really have ANY consistent plot or character growth, and worked on a genuine level of absurdity that didnt shy away from being unappealing. These 10 minute chunks usually had a self contained plot that amounted to our main characters (Master Shake, Frylock and Meatwad) standing about in there home while something happens, and they basically discuss the thing thats happening, until the thing resolves itself...or takes out there neighbour 'Carl' in increasingly bizarre ways.
Not wanting to grow stale, the show prides itself on subverting itself every couple of years, while simultaineously being incredibly rigid to the core concept of 'these are loser characters, who dont ACTUALLY do ANYTHING...But seem to find themselves in trouble quite often.'
So when it came to a movie adaptation, you'd be curious to see what a show that prides itself on subversion would ACTUALLY do with a bigger budget and a runtime almost 9 times longer than the average episode...and the answer is, they subvert expectations...
Y'see, the marketing implied that this movie was going to subvert the standard format by establishing lore, a journey, character backstory...a POINT. Instead, this film subverts audience expectation OF grander things...by just...making a really long episode of 'Aqua Teen Hunger Force' that has a couple of nicer graphical moments and some celebrity voice acting work from Tina Fey, Bruce Campbell and Neil Pert.
They dont UTILIZE those celebrity voices...AT ALL. they just have them turn up...and thats it...which is BRILLIANT in the same way that classic simpsons used to be where a celebrity voice appearence wasnt lauded...quite often itd be inconsiquential.
The plots as meandering and madcap as ever, with the main story focussing around the ghost of christmas past, from the future (a robot chicken) travelling to the present to warn of an imminent robot uprising in the form of a set of gym equipment known as the 'Insano-Flex' which will make one man SO incredibly buff, that no woman can resist him and it leads to the apocalypse and a HELL of a lot of incest.
And...the rest of the movie is watching a large group of imbiciles, comprising of the main Aqua teen gang, the mooninites (vulgar 8 bit aliens from the moon), and 2 plutonians called Oglethorp and Emery, fail to stop the exercise machine for 80 odd minutes, because...they're simply too stupid to realise theres any danger, despite the warnings.
The one time they DO try to do some kind of BIG lore changing reveal, its great, because the lore they reveal, you realise is of ZERO importance. It doesnt matter. and our characters are all too stupid to even BEGIN to take it in. Which is great.
My review up to this point is largely incoherent and inconsistent because the movies purposfully incoherent and inconsistent. and thats kind of the charm of 'Aqua Teen'. its incredibly hard to explain why the very dry, very simple and very stupid humour works...it just does for me.
I personally really enjoyed 'ATHFCMFFT' in the sense that it really delivers what I wanted from this kind of movie. something that just, did the tv show, and did it well. If you havent seen the 'Aqua Teen' TV series, this will be utterly impenetrable. You likely wont have a clue whats going on or why its funny. But to longtime fans, and enjoyers of 'Adult Swims' style of humour, I think everything you could want in a movie like this is here and present.
My honest advice? if you've never seen an episode of 'Aqua Teen' go hit youtube and watch a couple. if you like the vibe, this movies DEFINITELY for you. I really personally enjoyed it, and im a little mad at myself that I waited this long to check it out.
source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/aqua-teen-hunger-force-colon-movie-film-for-theaters/
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