Does well to extend the surreal weirdness to a full length film
16 November 2007
Mystery surrounds the roots of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force. However when Master Shake steals a piece of exercise equipment from neighbour Carl all this threatens to change with revelations galore. Despite online warnings that the exercise equipment must not be assembled ever, Frylock, Meatwad and Shake set out to do just that, which first involves recovering the missing part from the original owner but, unbeknownst to them they are not the only ones looking for it.

I have not seen a huge amount of Aqua Teen Hunger Force because adult swim is on Bravo in the UK and it just isn't a channel I spend much time on. Normally I only watch it and several other of the adult swim shows when I am in the US, although my interest in Master Shake etc was increased as a result of the MF Doom / Danger Mouse album heavily featuring them the other year. I do enjoy them more than many of the other shows I have seen but I did wonder how it would work in more than small doses. The answer was "pretty well" and the film is pretty true to the weird and wonderful world of ATHF and other adult swim characters and has enough laughs across the running time to make it work.

That the plot is nonsense is not really a surprise and isn't fair to criticise it for this because this is part of the appeal. I hate to use the word but the "craziness" is imaginative and funny throughout the film. The downside is that it is easy to tire of it because whenever you're not laughing for longer than a minute, you do start to wonder what the point of it all is. Fortunately there is enough surreal humour to hold the attention and the range of characters is a bonus. Master Shake, Meatwad, Frylock and Carl are all great but the Mooninites are my favourites. The voice work from Snyder, Means, Willis, Merrill and Maiellaro is all solid and the cameos from Bruce Campbell and Neil Peart were funny.

It isn't a brilliant film of course and if you don't like ATHF then you won't like this but for those that even like it in small doses there is enough here to just about fill the running time. An acquired taste perhaps but it is hard not to enjoy the sheer uncaring weirdness of it all.
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