Inside joke
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters / Trying to talk about Aqua Teen Hunger Force to the uninitiated is a Herculean task, something I learned at least four years back when the cartoon first debuted.
‘It’s about a box of french fries, a milkshake and a piece of meat,’ I tried to explain to a coworker in her late 50s, though surprisingly hip (Fight Club is one of her favorite movies). ‘They’re supposed to fight crime,’ I continued, ‘but all they do is sit around the house and insult each other.’
She didn’t get it.
Matt Maiellaro and Dave Willis, writers and creators of the television show understand that there are a lot of people in the world who can’t, don’t or refuse to ‘get it.’ Indeed, when the show first aired in 2000 on Adult Swim, a late-night, adult-orientated block of programming on Turner’s Cartoon Network, the company was flooded with e-mails and letters demanding its cancellation. Now it is the network’s highest-rated block of original programming. But it hasn’t gotten any easier to describe.
If pressed, one could say Aqua Teen and its new full-length outing, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters, is any and all of the following: juvenile, absurd, low-budget, low-concept, puerile, rude and non sequitur. It is also, for those familiar with the characters, totally hilarious.
Shot with an animation budget that makes the early episodes of South Park look like high art–most characters remain perfectly still with only mouth movements and the occasional eye blink to remind us that they are alive–the humor is forced to rely on largely improvised vocal cues and timing. Most of this rests on the skill and shoulders of Dana Snyder, voice of Master Shake, easily the most popular character of the show.
Shake is the Id of the trio, totally impulsive and self-obsessed, constantly battling the Superego of Frylock (voiced by Carey Means). Finally, there is Meatwad (Willis), whose childlike innocence means he will take instruction from either side, so long as it gets him attention.
Don’t be fooled by the high-faluting psychoanalysis, however, ATHF isn’t a cleverly disguised satire on societal mores. Really, it’s a series concentrating on one-dimensional characters whose most profound moments are to refer to breasts as ‘Boob Meat.’
It’s profane infantile humor like that which makes fans of the show a close-knit club, and one that is for the most part, a boys’ club. Rather than attempt to bring new fans into the fold, ATHF:MFT rewards them with plenty of winks and nods. In this aspect, the film is refreshing–too many movies based on characters with an established, if limited, fanbase wallow in so much exposition that it drowns in backstory. (The first Spider-Man comes to mind.)
The result is incredibly rewarding to those who watched the television episodes religiously, who will start giggling uncontrollably at the slightest visual cue or reference, from the first appearance of the Mooninites, MC Pee Pants, a quick appearance by Willie Nelson (not the tax-evading country singer, but rather an onion-shaped monster who spends his time shaving) and the appearance of Chicken Brittle, the fallen fourth member of the team (voiced by B-Movie hero Bruce Campbell). The uninitiated, however, will be scratching their heads, wondering what the hell is going on and more likely, trying to figure out how they can break away from this first date early.
Still, as most loyal viewers will acknowledge, the 12-minute television show has aired several episodes in which it was obvious that they ran out of ideas five minutes earlier. In an 87-minute film, the lack of structure becomes painfully apparent, with only the flimsiest of plot holding the film together. The entire Movie Film for Theaters almost seems designed for future airings in the short installment from which they were originally conceived.
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