Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie for Theaters

The Adult Swim portion of Cartoon Network's broadcast day has, for a few years now, provided viewers with a sampling of some of the more off-color and sometimes violent content afforded by a medium that was once relegated to innocuous fare: cute forest animals and the like. Cartoons aimed at older audiences have been around for decades, though. Not just patently adult works by Ralph Bakshi et al. Even Mr. Walt Disney and the merry men at Looney Tunes spiced their animated shorts with more sophisticated humor.

Finding sophistication in AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE COLON MOVIE FOR THEATERS, or the Adult Swim show upon which it is based, takes a bit more effort. As other raunchy latter day cartoons like South Park and The Simpsons have recently leapt to the silver screen, so go the exploits of Meatwad, Master Shake, and Frylock. Our three main characters are, respectively, a meatball, a milkshake (pistachio flavored, by the way), and a levitating box of French fries with a Van Dyke. The premise of the TV series: this motley band of food, amateur detectives all, have united in a ratty New Jersey suburb to battle Dr. Weird, a rather insane individual who (ineptly) plots world domination. Meatwad is the dimbulb, Shake the grouchy leader, and Frylock, the rational, even-tempered one who actually gets work done. Their misadventures provide many a collegiate with some late night guffaws and occasional belly laughs. Ready made cult piece, this series.

How does it fare as a feature? Ask a dyed-in-the wool fan. They could better answer. I like the show, have spent some nights here and there laughing (and scratching my head) along with it, but I never became a fan-atic about it. The fans might tell you everything that's wrong with this movie. Maybe how it betrays the series' characterizations and all. I dunno. The movie is just as oblique as the show. I am certain that a high percentage of the jokes whizzed right past. Still, I got what I expected.

...COLON MOVIE involves the central trio with Dr. Weird and Carl, the trio's hairy and overweight neighbor who constantly sports wife beater tees, yet again, but also McPee Pants, a rapping spider, Oglethorpe and Emory, creatures from the future, and a robot who bills himself as the Ghost of Christmas past. It is the latter character who, for me, best exemplifies the crux of the humor of series creators Matt Maiellaro and Dave Willis. GCP's voice is an often unintelligible metallic echo that is guaranteed to piss you off within 10 seconds of hearing it. So of course he gets a lot of dialogue. We also have Walter Melon, a slice of watermelon who seems bent on thwarting anything Meatwad and company try to "accomplish". And how about a miniature Neil Peart? Yes, the drummer from the Canadian rock band Rush. One of his trademarked wicked drum solos plays a major part in the plot. Quite surprisingly, the real Peart did the voice for his pint-sized counterpart. Other famous folks lend their vocal talents as well.

The plot also leaves room for two creatures who appear as like renegades from an 80s home video game, Err and Ignignokt, and a sinister exercise machine. And so on. The opening sequence is easily the best thing in COLON MOVIE, as we see the familiar cartoon snackies from the famous old "Let's All Go to the Lobby" short film begin to sing a little pre-movie ditty (the lyrics are amusing). Then, other snack foods wielding instruments violently take over and do a blistering heavy metal throwdown warning viewers to leave if they don't understand the plot, not bring crying babies into the theater ("leave the seed outside"), and not try to sell pirated copies later. The music is courtesy of Mastadon. It is such a great scene that I knew the film had nowhere to go but down after it.

You read all of this, and you're either (perhaps) guiltily intrigued or completely immune. Most will either love it or hate it. I felt both ways as I sat through this nonsense. And no, I did not partake of any chemicals while doing so.

P.S.: The film's DVD commentary is often even funnier than the movie. Having singer Patti Smith offer her opinions alongside Maiellaro and company might've seemed like an odd inclusion, but it works.