Aqua Teen Hunger Force Review
Not too late, it's still September!
Premise & Character bios:
The series centers on the surreal adventures and antics of three anthropomorphic fast food items: Master Shake, a selfish, pathological lying milkshake; Frylock, an intelligent, well-meaning box of French fries; and Meatwad, a shapeshifting, simple-minded ball of ground meat. They live together as roommates, and rarely get along with their human neighbor Carl Brutananadilewski, a balding, middle-aged, sex-crazed sports fanatic. The main protagonists also interact with various villains or other individuals in each episode; these interactions are often restricted to one episode, as minor characters rarely reappear in following episodes. Some episodes feature the main protagonists interacting with celebrities (such as adult film actress Tera Patrick) and occasionally with historical figures and professional athletes (such as Bart Oates or John Kruk).
Other Tidbits:
In 2011, for the eighth season, the series' title was changed from "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" to "Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1" Maiellaro later explained that he and Willis were getting bored with the former title and wanted to "come up with a new fresh open and a whole new show, just to try it out".
In 2012 Maiellaro announced that each season from now on will have a different series title, making it a running gag.
In 2012, it was changed to "Aqua Something You Know Whatever"
In 2013, it was changed to "Aqua TV Show Show"
And, for it's final season in 2015, it was changed to "Aqua Teen Hunger Force Forever".
Cold Openings:
During the first two seasons, episodes cold-opened with a glimpse into the laboratory of Dr. Weird. He and his assistant Steve use the first several seconds of the show to create monsters, disasters, and various things. In earlier episodes of the first season, the monsters or creations usually formed the basis for the plot, but as the crime-fighting element of the program disappeared, the Dr. Weird segment became a non sequitur opening gag.
In the third season the Dr. Weird openings were replaced with segments from the pilot episode of Spacecataz, an unaired spin-off created by Willis and Maiellaro. Six episodes were planned for production, but Adult Swim felt that there was little, if anything, that could be made into five more episodes, since all of the characters were destroyed at the end of the pilot, despite the parent series being predominantly non-canon. These segments featured the Mooninites and Plutonians trading insults, gestures, and practical jokes. The full Spacecataz pilot is available as a special feature on the Volume Four DVD box-set. The Mooninites appear to outsmart the Plutonians for much of the series including tagging the Plutonians' ship and reversing a prank that involved 50 million large pizzas.
Cold openings were eliminated completely starting with the fourth season premiere, "Dirtfoot". A one-off cold opening featuring Dr. Weird and Steve was used once again in the season eight premiere "Allen Part One".
A feature film based on the show, "Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters", was released on April 13, 2007. The movie follows the origins of the Aqua Teens, which includes an exercise machine, Neil Peart of the band Rush, a watermelon slice named Walter Melon, and an appearance by heavy metal band Mastodon in the opening sequence. The film also introduces a fourth Aqua Teen, a chicken nugget named Chicken Bittle (voiced by Bruce Campbell). The Plutonians and the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future, recurring characters, both make appearances in the movie, as well as the Mooninites, Dr. Weird and MC Pee Pants (being this his last appearance in the series).
Aqua Teen Hunger Force is the longest-running Adult Swim original series. The pilot episode "Rabbot" originally aired on Cartoon Network unannounced on December 30, 2000, at 5:00 AM, as part of a special preview of upcoming Adult Swim shows. Other shows in the preview block included Sealab 2021, The Brak Show, and Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. Aqua Teen Hunger Force later made its official debut on September 9, 2001 on Adult Swim, where the series has since aired exclusively, in the United States.
My thoughts:
Personally? I love the show. It's my favorite show on Adult Swim, it's amazing. I used to watch it during the late 2000's, and just recently got Satellite TV back in my house. I've started to watch it again, and it's just as good as I remember.
Now, the show isn't without its duds. About 98% of the show is good, however there's still 2% that falls flat. Most of the episodes, though, are really funny, wether they be satire, a reference, or even just pure surrealism, it always gets a laugh out of me.
When a joke falls, it doesn't fall TOO hard. The jokes that don't work are usually just overly raunchy ones, which occur very, VERY infrequently.
The dud episodes are usually just because they're a tad too slow, and don't have many attempts at humor. The other ones are perfectly paced, and fit jokes in at just the right times.
tl;dr: Overall, I give it a 9.8/10.
