Junk food heroes (not heroes who eat junk food; literally heroes made of junk food!) save the world from alien invasion.

CRITIQUE

Okay, I recently talked about how subversive Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law was in a previous review, but Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters makes the flying mouthpiece seem like Newt Gingrich by comparison! The only thing they have in common is that fact that they’re animated and both have a colon in their titles. (Though Aqua Teen even has the audacity to spell out the word “colon!”)

This feature is the weirdest thing to hit the screen—any screen, big or small—since La Chien Andalou. If you never heard of that one, don’t fret. It’s a silent classic of surrealist cinema rarely seen outside of film schools. Highly recommended… and exceptionally strange.

Anyway.

ATHF, as they’re known to those in the know, was a series that appeared on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim timeslot which achieved instant cult status. It’s why the word “outré” was invented. South Park rivals it for scatology, Birdman for cleverness, but ATHF is pretty much in a class by itself. If any readers were around when Firesign Theater and Monty Python first came on the scene, they’ll immediately understand its vibe.

Here’s the basic protagonist rundown. The heroes are: Frylock, Master Shake, Meatwad—human-sized, sentient representations of a typical Happy Meal… as channeled through the Marx Bros. and marinated in The Three Stooges. Are you getting any of this? Meatwad is sorta like Curly/Harpo; the innocent village idiot. Master Shake is like Larry/Chico; an incompetent, know-it-all wannabe. Frylock is like Moe/Groucho; team leader by default; smarter than the rest but not smart enough to hang out with anyone else.  That’s as close as I can get to describing the good guys.

The antagonists are aliens (led by the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past) who unleash the ultimate exercise machine (called Insane-o-Flex) which grows to Godzilla-like proportions and begins stomping on cities. Why? Well, what other kind of motivation would a giant exercise unit need, answer that smarty pants! Running around the periphery are two life-size Atari video game icons who steal coffee tables and annoy everyone. Oh yeah, the aptly-named Dr. Weird is there, as well as their crabby neighbor Carl. If “annoying a-hole” counts for villainy, Carl’s in. That’s as close as I can get to describing the bad guys. Let’s not get started on plot. It’s totally irrelevant to an effort such as ATHF. Just mix your basic disaster film with a sitcom and bury it deep beneath a running series of non-sequitur/stream of consciousness gags. Rinse, lather, repeat.

At first, practically every line seems like it was generated at random from the Mad Libs Book of Screenwriting. Viewers with no tolerance for this freeform style will, in all probability, not get very far into the movie. In fact I’d be surprised if they survive the pre-credits sequence—a parody of “Let’s all go to the lobby,” (a concession stand foot-tapper well known to cinephiles). Only in this version, the amiable dancing hot dog and popcorn container are met by other candies who engage them in a thrash-metal war. It’s all uphill from there.

THE VIDEO

ATHF revels in the fact that it’s created with the cheapest version of Flash animation, as if to say “This is a conceptual exercise! Stop focusing on the animation and start laughing, you idiot!” It works fine on the small screen. (My sympathy to those who had to endure it in the theater.) Flash, of course, is 100% digital so the picture is transferred directly from the computer. No print dirt or scratches possible.

THE AUDIO

The sound effects are a bit overmixed in comparison to the dialogue. As I found out firsthand during a late night screening… you’re better off watching ATHF when everyone in the house is awake. Or suffer the consequences.

THE EXTRAS

Featurette:Round Table Discussion - Making of the Movie

Matt Maeillara, Dave Willis, Jay Edwards, Dana Snyder, Andy Marrow, and Gary Means. It’s almost stranger to hear the creators and voiceover artists as themselves, speaking rationally about such a bizarre piece of work. Intermittently amusing.

Rounding out the extras are the following self-explanatory items:

- Alternate endings

- Deleted Scenes

- Music Video

- Promos - from the San Diego Comic Con in 2002.

- Stills Gallery

- Theatrical Trailer

FINAL THOUGHT

Creators Matt Maiellaro and Dave Willis have delivered precisely what their fans want and what the rest of the world will ignore. But as the characters say during the opening moments, “We already have you money. Go ahead a leave, who cares?”