The Good: Moments of humor
The Bad: Repetitive, Self-referential, DVD bonus features are not as good as I'd hoped
The Basics: With the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters's penchant for repetition-both within the film and from the series-this movie is easy to pass by on DVD.
There are only so many hours in the day and there are only so many hours of life one has to watch movies and experience all that they can in this life. As a result, sometimes I end up considering something I encounter and force myself to ask the question "If I knew I was going to die tomorrow, would this be something I'd still want to have seen?" As little use as there may appear to be in answering such a question, sometimes it does make my job as a reviewer a little easier and in the case of Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters (now on DVD), the answer is a surprisingly simple "no."
This was not a consideration I came to lightly, as I generally enjoyed the movie when my partner and I sat down to watch the film on DVD recently. Before this, I had only had experience with the first season of Aqua Teen Hunger Force and while I had generally enjoyed it, it was a type of humor I generally found I enjoyed more in small doses. Still, as it was my wife's turn to choose the movie we watched, I gladly opened myself to the experience of watching Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters and while I laughed, my laughs diminished as the movie went on and many of them were for reminiscences to the first season episodes I had seen that were mirrored in this film.
After a pretty filthy song wherein movie theater snacks warn viewers to not talk, ask questions about the movie or let cell phones ring, with dire consequences threatened, Master Shake, Frylock and Meatwad escape the Sphinx in the distant past or now (depending on which title placard one chooses to believe). After fighting a massive poodle, this is revealed to be Master Shake telling a story to Meatwad that Frylock insists never actually happened. Master Shake begins to gloat about his physique because of a new exercise machine he has, an Insanoflex he stole from their neighbor, Carl. The Insanoflex is improperly assembled, though, and soon the trio embarks on a mission to find the missing part, a motherboard which will activate the Insanoflex.
As it turns out, the Insanoflex is the product of an alien that will use the device to destroy the world, a fact which does not stop Master Shake from plugging the mother board into the Insanoflex. With Carl the workout device's prisoner, Frylock leads the gang to the laboratory of Doctor Weird to find a way to stop the multiplying Insanoflex!
The Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters is essentially a rambling collection of in-jokes and cameos from the television series. Fans will thrill to the appearance of the Moonenites and the green and orange aliens who come to try to collect the Insaneoflex as the rumored inventors of it. The problem is that the film is very short, with jokes like the opening song and story eating up five minutes and having nothing to do with the remainder of the plot. Even then, the plot meanders from road trips to the Insanoflex and its origins, ending up as a story that finally explains the origins of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
Yes, while there is little to no actual character development in the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters, questions are finally answered. Frylock's origins are explained and mixed up with a story that has nothing to do with him . Dr. Weird is given more time than in the series (usually episodes begin with him unleashing one of his creations on the world and the trio of Frylock, Master Shake and Meatwad cleaning up the mess) and his origins are explained as well . . . for the most part.
The problem here is that the film is not looking for coherency and as a result, stories get interrupted and go off on humorous tangents that never resolve the initial - sometimes interesting - actions or ideas. The result is a movie that works best for those with a short attention span. Indeed, this might be the ideal Stoner Theatre volume (perhaps a double feature with Dude, Where's My Car?) as when one is high, reason, sensibility and order are less required, than, say, happy moving objects. This movie has happy movie objects aplenty.
But largely, the movie is calling back to the series. The Moonenites arrive - pointlessly as far as the plot is concerned - and steal a coffee table and ash tray. They are jerks just like they are in the television series, but for those who might not have seen the television series, the jokes are likely to fall flat. The Moonenites are a random element in a film that only loosely collects such random elements.
The animation mixes with things like live-action explosions, but there is nothing remarkable about the animation. The Voice-overs are not made to even precisely match the lips of the characters, which makes sense considering that they are a french fry container, a paper cup and a meatball with arms. Yes, for those who have not ever seen anything Aqua Teen related, the main characters are sentient food products and that, at least, is something that is partially explained by the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters. Dana Snyder, Carey Means and Dave Willis provide most of the voices and they do a good job with emoting the various characters.
On DVD, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters is surprisingly blase with the bonus features. One is a simple featurette featuring the men who wrote the script sitting around reading it to one another laughing at their own jokes. There were three trailers for the film which were only marginally different from one another. But there is no commentary track or deleted scenes. In other words, this is a short movie with little additional on DVD.
In the end, this is the death knell of the film and what drags the film - which I admit I did laugh at several times - into the below average territory. It has low rewatchability and it offers little more entertainment value than it initially did in the theaters. And for those who are into Aqua Teen Hunger Force, they are likely to find this to be more of the same, as opposed to truly building on the franchise. And for those not into the series, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters is unlikely to get anyone clamoring for it.
For other animated films, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
Shark Tale
Bolt
The Clone Wars
4.5/10
For other movie reviews, please be sure to check out my Film Review Index Page for an organize listing of all those reviews!
© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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