In the late '90s, Cartoon Network was the king of edgey cartoons that could still appeal to a family-friendly audience (for instance: "Ed, Edd 'n Eddy" - three children practicing to become con artists, "Dexter's Laboratory" - a little boy who stays in his room all day long and has a pretty big secret that he keeps from his parents, "Johnny Bravo" - a buff womanizer trying to pick up women and "Courage the Cowardly Dog" - a dog protecting his often-neglectful owners from frightening horrors... among others). But when MTV started animated shows like "Beavis & Butt-Head", they had to come up with something new: an entire block of cartoons that would appeal to older teenagers. To start it off, they created a new talk show out of a very old character, "Space Ghost Coast to Coast"; the idea being that the famous cartoon character would interview celebrities (who often spoke to a guy in a "Space Ghost" costume and most likely never knew they were being talked to for a TV show). One episode involved country music superstar Willie Nelson, but its biggest impact would be in three other guest stars. Space Ghost, in the episode, had racked up a pretty big bill for a local restaurant and settling the debt meant the three mascots of said restaurant would show up: Master Shake, Frylock and Meatwad. They caused chaos and unsettled Space Ghost enough that he eventually left the show in the middle of "broadcast". The episode's script was so strange and nonsensical it didn't air (or even get animated) until years later. But something about these characters struck a cord with Mike Rizzo, the head of [adult swim] (the moniker that Cartoon Network eventually created for its late-night programming). He employed Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro (two of "Space Ghost"'s head writers) to come up with a series involving said characters.
What the world got was "Aqua Teen Hunger Force", a cartoon that rivaled "Seinfeld"'s famous declaration that it was "a series about nothing". Maiellaro said in an interview with the AV Club, "We get to do things nobody else would let us do." And yet, [adult swim] viewers thought it was hysterical. The show followed no real formula: in the first season, it was said that the Aqua Teens were detectives facing off against monsters/strange creatures sent by the criminally insane mad scientist Dr. Weird and his reluctantly loyal assistant Steve (both voiced by C. Martin Croker). This was quickly dropped as Willis and Maiellaro lost interest. The plots soon began to revolve around the antics of the vain and egotistical Master Shake (voice of Dana Snyder), the experiments of the remarkably intelligent Frylock (voice of Carey Means) and the playfulness of the impressionable Meatwad (voice of Willis); they all live in a "third-world hellhole" in South Jersey next door to the slothful and lovably repugnant Carl Brutananadilewski (voice of Willis) who hates his neighbors and loves the band Boston (and other '80s hair rock bands). Often the Aqua Teens would come into contact with villains such as the Mooninites (two 8-bit video game characters) who try to scam them, MC Pee Pants (a dead rapper who keeps returning to the land of the living under different animal disguises voiced by mc chris), the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future (a time-traveling robot with an addiction to telling "severely long" stories) and the Plutonians (two dumb aliens out to conquer the universe if only they knew where to start). The show was famous for its non-sequitur endings (each episode is only 11 minutes long) and often Carl would end up dead. Still, viewership continued to rise and "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" quickly became a cult favorite.
[adult swim] fans were overjoyed when it was announced that an actual theatrical film based on "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" was heading to theaters. The only film to come from a Cartoon Network show prior to this was The Powerpuff Girls Movie. In adapting an 11-minute cartoon to a feature-length film, Maiellaro and Willis decided to finally tell the Aqua Teen's origin story. In their own ways, naturally. And without network censors, that meant a lot more swearing, sex jokes and comedic depravity than ever before.
NOTE: This is not the actual ATHF:MFFT trailer, but one of my own creation.
The Aqua Teens come into possession of a mysterious piece of gym equipment known as the Insanoflex. However, they cannot do anything with it without the final piece of its puzzling mechanics. Their neighbor Carl naturally offers no help, so the Aqua Teens set off on a journey to find the missing piece. Meanwhile, in space, the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future (voice of Maiellaro) teams up with the Plutonians, the passive Emory (voice of Mike Schatz) and the short-tempered Oglethorpe (voice of Andy Merrill), to prevent the Insanoflex from being put together as it could set off the end of the world. As the Aqua Teens travel, Frylock begins to have nightmares about his creation at the hands of Dr. Weird and comes to suspect there may be more to the story than he thought.
Naturally, the audiences seeing the film who hadn't seen the series were repulsed. Some were calling it the latest Dadaist piece of cinema since Tom Green's Freddy Got Fingered; a movie essentially designed to trick people looking for a comedy into seeing something surreal and disquieting to make them think more about themselves and the world around them. Methinks such critics were reading waaaaaay too much into it. It's utterly stupid, yes, but there is worthwhile entertainment in it. Of course, [adult swim] sent Carl out to encourage fans to see the film in theaters and not listen to negative criticism.
The film's random humor is hit and miss, but so much hit than miss. It goes to show how well the jokes fly in a shorter setting than over an hour. A cameo by Bruce Campbell as the lost member of the Aqua Teens, Surprisingly, the film actually made it onto the shortlist of nominees for Best Animated Feature in 2008. Not surprisingly, it didn't make the final list. But I'm sure if one asked Willis and Maiellaro, they'd definitely say it was a success. A sequel was bandied about for years, to be titled Death Fighter, involving the return and subsequent revenge of Dr. Weird. It never came to be as the series was brought to a close by the network in 2015, against the creators' desires. Supposedly, the heads of [adult swim] wanted to move on from the show that had been running since the programming block's debut.
While I do believe the creators are sincere in their declaration of the series actually being over and that it is not part of some elaborate hoax, it is quite a testament to how things will be different now at [adult swim]. There'll be original programming, like the ever-popular "Rick & Morty", but it won't have that in-house feel to it. "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" was the last of the old guard, the final cornerstone of what gave birth to a counter-cultural phenomenon - which included 13 seasons, a feature film, a PS2 video game, a Boston bomb scare and even a holiday music album. Sure it's not nearly as historical as "South Park" or "The Simpsons", but from where it was, it had a good run and left behind an indelible mark of adult-brand silliness that few will ever forget.
And now... just for fun... my favorite Aqua Teen Hunger Force episodes (random order, just how they'd like it).
While I do believe the creators are sincere in their declaration of the series actually being over and that it is not part of some elaborate hoax, it is quite a testament to how things will be different now at [adult swim]. There'll be original programming, like the ever-popular "Rick & Morty", but it won't have that in-house feel to it. "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" was the last of the old guard, the final cornerstone of what gave birth to a counter-cultural phenomenon - which included 13 seasons, a feature film, a PS2 video game, a Boston bomb scare and even a holiday music album. Sure it's not nearly as historical as "South Park" or "The Simpsons", but from where it was, it had a good run and left behind an indelible mark of adult-brand silliness that few will ever forget.
And now... just for fun... my favorite Aqua Teen Hunger Force episodes (random order, just how they'd like it).
"Space Conflict from Beyond Pluto"
"Super Bowl"
"The Clowning"
"Unremarkable Voyage"
"Gee Whiz"
"T-Shirt of the Dead"
"Carl"
"Intervention"
"Last Dance for Napkin Lad"
"Chicken & Beans"
"Total Re-Carl"
"The Cloning"
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