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Joe Blevins 
"Don't I look handsome?"
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 Posted - 04/21/2007 : 18:37:14
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Hello, all.
I don't know how popular or well known the TV show Aqua Teen Hunger Force is outside the US, so I'm not sure if the Aqua Teen movie will have much of an audience in foreign markets. But I think it's been one of the funniest things on US television in the last few years -- it reminds me somewhat of The Young Ones, another anarchic TV comedy about mismatched roommates living in squalor -- so I was highly anticipating the film version.
I saw it on opening day last Friday, and I still don't know quite what to make of it. The series' creators, Matt Malleiro and Dave Willis, seem to think that the movie stands on its own even for those who haven't seen the series. I think, however, that anyone not already familiar with the show and its ever-growing cast of characters will be totally adrift during this movie. ("Who *are* these characters and why should we care about them?")
Everyone knows that in Aqua Teen, the plot doesn't really matter. And, true to form, the plot of this movie makes no sense and contradicts itself many times. The problem, at least for me, was that the script spent so MUCH time introducing various meaningless plot elements and peripheral characters that there wasn't time to showcase what makes the TV show so funny: the interactions and conflicts between the four main characters (the 3 Aqua Teens and Carl). Like The Beatles in Help!, the Aqua Teens and Carl are extras in their own movie, which is overstuffed with antagonists, flashbacks, frantic action, and celebrity cameos. The focus of the movie should have been on the Aqua Teens and the conflicts within the group. On the TV show, the intrusions of various colorful aliens and monsters tend to exacerbate the already-existing problems within the group. You barely get a sense of that from the movie. Especially disserved by the script is Master Shake (Dana Snyder), normally one of the funniest characters on TV. The movie should have given Shake more opportunities to show off his worst personality traits: greed, selfishness, egomania, recklessness, delusions of grandeur, etc.
That being said, this is still Aqua Teen and still relatively funny. Even critics who hated the movie have acknowledged that the best part is the beginning, which is an elaborate parody of the old "Let's Go Out To The Lobby" cartoon. It's the funniest scene in the movie, and it comes within the first five minutes. Those concession stand characters make a welcome return at the end of the movie and provide its SECOND funniest moment. So at least the movie begins and ends with laughs. |
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MisterBadIdea 
"PLZ GET MILK, KTHXBYE"
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Posted - 04/23/2007 : 07:10:13
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As a matter of fact, I have seen it.
I find it weird that I don't remember much of it. I thought it was the funniest damn thing I'd seen ever when I was watching it.
I think that's a good analysis of what makes Aqua Teen work so well. The well-defined characters and their interactions are definitely the key to the show. |
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Joe Blevins
"Don't I look handsome?"
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Posted - 05/01/2007 : 17:17:49
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It can be a tricky job translating weird/cult TV shows into feature length films. I'd say the gold standard for this kind of thing is South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, which manages to stand on its own as a movie but still give its characters nice showcase scenes which demonstrate why they're funny. (Example: guidance counselor Mr. Mackey, who gets a great musical number.) The movie satisfies South Park fans but doesn't shut out people who are only marginally familiar with the show. Beavis & Butt-head Do America also did a good job of showcasing its characters in a movie which stands on its own apart from the TV show. We'll have to wait and see how smoothly The Simpsons Movie handles this.
The Aqua Teen movie reminded me a great deal of an episode of the ATHF TV series entitled "The Last One," in which all the Aqua Teen foes -- a collection of aliens, robots, and monsters --join forces for "the bruising of the Aqua Teens' asses." The joke of the 11-minute episode is that it's all set-up and no payoff. The villains spend the whole time squabbling amongst themselves, and the episode ends before it really even begins, with the Aqua Teens only making a brief cameo at the end. Even the show's creators admit that the episode was for hardcore fans who have their "Ph.D in Aqua Teen-ology."
One comment -- unfair, I felt -- on the Ebert & Roeper show when they were reviewing Aqua Teen Hunger Force was that "there's not a movie here" and that it only works as short cartoons. I disagree. I would say that there have been good -- and great -- comedies made with characters as seemingly "narrow" as these. Examples: the animated movies I named above, plus the more successful SNL/SCTV spinoffs like Wayne's World, The Blues Brothers, and Strange Brew. |
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"Aqua Teen Hunger Force": Anyone see it?
