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Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters

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Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMatt Maiellaro
Dave Willis
Written byMatt Maiellaro
Dave Willis
Produced byMatt Maiellaro
Dave Willis
StarringDana Snyder
Carey Means
Dave Willis
Andy Merrill
Bruce Campbell
Chris Kattan
Tina Fey
George Lowe
Neil Peart
Distributed byFirst Look
Williams Street
Cartoon Network
Adult Swim
Warner Bros. (DVD)
Release dates
April 13, 2007
Running time
86 min.
CountryUSA
LanguageEnglish
Budget$750,000
Box office$5,520,368

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters [1] is an animated film based on the Adult Swim animated series Aqua Teen Hunger Force. The film is written and directed by the show's creators, Matt Maiellaro and Dave Willis, and was released on April 13, 2007 by First Look Pictures. The film's poster was illustrated by Julie Bell and Boris Vallejo, and parodies the "King of the Mountain" design.[2]

The film has been rated R by the MPAA for "crude and sexual humor, violent images and language". It had its cable television premiere March 30, 2008 on Adult Swim, and it aired again twice on August 15, 2008 and August 16, 2008.

Plot

The movie begins with a song by The Soda Dog Refreshment Squad--consisting of a bag of popcorn, a hot dog, a chocolate Popsicle and a soda can--in a parody of the 1953 short film Let's All Go to the Lobby, only to be interrupted by heavy metal band Mastodon--animated as a gum drop, a pretzel, a box of Ice Caps, and a box of nachos--who warn the audience that bad movie etiquette will result in severe bodily harm or death to the viewer (some of which is caused by Satan), along with a warning that "babies don't watch this" and any children brought by their parents should be taken outside ("Take the seed outside."), left in the streets, and run over after the show.

The movie proper begins in Egypt, where Master Shake, Frylock and Meatwad, after they escape from the Sphinx, are attacked by an oversized poodle who kills Frylock before being killed by Shake. Shake and Meatwad drive off with Frylock's corpse, and meet Time Lincoln, who plans to revive Frylock; however, when government agents break into his house, the Aqua Teens flee in his wooden rocket ship, and Time Lincoln is shot, changing the timeline and effectively resulting in white people being enslaved by black people. This, however, is all revealed to be an elaborate story concocted by Shake to explain their origin to Meatwad and Frylock. An animated music video then follows.

Shake heads off to work out on his new exercise machine, the Insanoflex. Upon discovering that the machine is not assembled correctly (and the instructions are nowhere to be found), Frylock searches online for them. He finds a website written in a rare robot dialect with the only words in English warning never to assemble it...ever. The site then lists a number which Frylock calls.

The film cuts to outer space. On the Plutonians' ship, Emory and Oglethorpe discover the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future onboard with them. The Plutonians' phone starts ringing (because apparently it was their phone number Frylock called), but they decide to let the machine get it. The machine attempts to get it, but the phone just attacks and destroys the machine. Meanwhile, the Cybernetic Ghost begins explaining to the two aliens the story of the Insanoflex: the machine, when assembled, will exercise a man into a super-being, who will attract all the woman leading to massive inbreeding and the eventual extinction of mankind. To prevent this, the Ghost has traveled into the past and stolen a single screw that holds all the parts together. The Plutonians point out to him that to get it assembled, someone could just buy another screw or shove a pencil in the screw hole.

Back on Earth, Frylock finishes building the machine (somehow having obtained the instructions), having just shoved a pencil in the screw hole. Before Shake can work out however, they discover a missing M-shaped circuit board on the back panel. The trio visit Carl Brutananadilewski, whom Shake had stolen the machine from, to see if he has the missing piece. After he refuses to tell them, Meatwad finds the address in the Insanoflex's box. Meanwhile, a triangular slice of watermelon is flying about in a ship made from a hollowed-out watermelon, observing the events unfolding according to his plan - the slice is joined in the ship by Neil Peart from Rush, sitting at his drums.

Dr. Weird and his assistant Steve, whose abandoned insane asylum has been bought and is being turned into condominiums around them, are visited by Shake, Frylock, and Meatwad. After the Aqua Teens argue with Steve, they retrieve the missing piece and head home. Frylock installs the missing circuit board, but Carl insists that as the rightful owner he should be the first to test out the machine. The machine straps him in and elaborately transforms into a huge one-eyed robot. The robot plays dance/techno music and begins stomping around, crushing houses and heading toward downtown, all while Carl's strapped-in form is forced to exercise. Eventually, the robot begins laying large metallic eggs, which hatch into smaller versions of the machine. The Aqua Teens, aided by an instructional workout video, find a way to destroy the machine. Shake plays his original song "Nude Love" on acoustic guitar, forcing the machine to commit suicide because Shake's song is so bad. Carl (now bulging with so much muscle that he is rendered unable to move) finds an equally muscular woman, and they head back to her condo while the Aqua Teens try to figure out a way to stop the newly-hatched smaller robots from destroying the city.

Meanwhile, Frylock begins to tell the origin story of the Aqua Teens: they were created by Dr. Weird, along with a chicken nugget who had gone by the name of Chicken Bittle. In the flashback, Dr. Weird proclaims that the Aqua Teens were created for one purpose, and one purpose only: to crash a jet into a brick wall. Realizing the pointlessness of this mission, Frylock simply diverted the jet (after a struggle with Bittle) and set a course to Africa, where they would try to use their intelligence to solve world hunger. While parachuting down to the earth, Bittle was attacked and eaten by a lion. The remaining three then tried to help a small village, but the natives feared them to be monsters and ran away. After realizing they couldn't be much help, they hopped back in the jet and rented out a house in New Jersey. Shake and Meatwad state that they cannot remember any of this, but Frylock explains it was because they were too busy playing their Game Boys and talking about Level 3 to pay any attention, and Shake says he at least clearly remembers Level 3.

Meanwhile, Carl and the muscular woman recline in her room, where she reveals herself to be Dr. Weird in disguise. He cuts off Carl's muscles with a hunting knife and grafts them onto his own body. Frylock and Dr. Weird do battle, and the struggle continues while they argue back and forth about who created whom. Dr. Weird claims that it was Frylock who created him, not the other way around. In the middle of the fight Steve asks Dr. Weird if he can go home. Dr. Weird tells him to punch out on a sinister looking clock which releases him, as well as disintegrating him. The fight then resumes. Dr. Weird then reveals that the blue diamond on Frylock's back hides a VCR, in which a video with false memories of Dr. Weird creating Frylock had been playing in Frylock's head. Frylock uses his eye beams to slice Dr. Weird in half, but they all still argue about who created whom. It is revealed that Frylock is a lesbian trapped in a man's body. Just then, the watermelon ship lands, and Meatwad mentions that he saw the ship earlier. Shake calls him a liar and shoots him with a shotgun. Shake gets concerned when Meatwad doesn't reform like always. Neil Peart plays a magic drum solo that brings Meatwad back to life. The slice identifies himself as Walter Melon. Melon explains he created the Aqua Teens, the Mooninites, and all the other characters so that they would eventually kill each other, after which Walter would inherit all their real estate in order to create the "Insano-Gym." The other characters inform Walter that they all rent and do not own any property. Disappointed in them, Walter storms off in his ship, threatening to tell their mother about their failures. Confused by this, Frylock asks who their mother is and turns around to see his alleged mother standing before him, revealed to be a 9-layer bean burrito with large breasts (Voice of Tina Fey). Meatwad hugs her, Shake jumps out a window and Frylock states "that's neat". The Soda Dog Refreshment comes onscreen once again and dismisses the audience, insulting them slightly

After the credits, there is a quick scene of the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future humping the television in the Aqua Teen's living room. The camera then pans left to Frylock who now has large breasts, primped hair, and is dressed in clothing characteristic of females, indicating that Frylock got a sex change. The female Frylock then tells the Ghost that it's time for bed.

Cast

Production

File:AthfMovieLogo1.PNG
The film's logo seen in the trailer

In an interview at the 2005 San Diego Comic-Con, Dana Snyder and Matt Maiellaro confirmed rumors that there would be a feature-length movie of Aqua Teen Hunger Force. More details were revealed at the 2005 Paley Television Festival, such as a possible cameo by 80s funk group Cameo, and Maiellaro described it as "an action piece that leads into an origin story that unfolds in a very 'Aqua Teen' way."

The creators revealed much more information in an interview with Wizard Entertainment. While they dodged many questions, they confirmed that the movie would run 80 minutes, was filmed on a meager $750,000 budget, and features a plot detail about a "lost Aqua Teen", who is a large chicken nugget named "Chicken Bittle" (voiced by Bruce Campbell).[3] They also confirmed more cameos, with Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart, voice actor H. Jon Benjamin and his comedy partner Jon Glaser, and SNL's Fred Armisen to make appearances. Heavy metal band Mastodon stated in a Decibel article that they would be performing during the opening, and that the band would be animated as a bucket of popcorn, a soda, a hot dog, and a candy bar. They were actually animated as a pretzel, a pile of nachos, an "Icecaps" box, and a gumdrop.[4]

Regarding the film's rating, Maiellaro commented that "I think if [the movie is rated] R, it won't get the audience that watches it. But we don't know yet. We're still waiting to find out." Since then, the trailer released has advertised the film as rated R. The movie is mostly uncensored; the word "shit" is never censored, and while the word "fuck" is usually uncensored it is occasionally accompanied by a censoring beep that does not obscure the word, and is censored once during a flashback. As explained in the production feature, the inconsistency was an editing mistake, but left untouched for comic effect.

Soundtrack

Main article: Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters Colon the Soundtrack

The Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters Colon the Soundtrack, which features skits and sound bites from the movie as well as original recordings from other artists, was released on April 10, 2007. It contains music such as heavy metal, rock, hard rock, and rap.

Marketing

Boston ad campaign scare

Main article: 2007 Boston Mooninite Scare

On January 31, 2007, police in Boston, Massachusetts received reports of devices resembling bombs in various places around the city. The devices turned out to be electronic signs similar to a Lite-Brite that displayed images of the Mooninites Ignignokt and Err giving the finger, and were designed to promote the Aqua Teen Hunger Force television show as part of a guerrilla marketing campaign authorized by Cartoon Network, the cartoon's parent company. The boards were present in several cities for weeks before the ones in Boston were reported.[5]

The Boston City Government sought a reimbursement for the money spent responding to the incident. The amount quoted was $500,000 initially, and then was increased to $750,000.[6] On February 5 it was announced that Turner Broadcasting and the city of Boston have reached an agreement to pay $2 million to offset the cost of removing the devices: $1 million to cover the cost of the agencies involved and an additional $1 million in goodwill funding to homeland security. [7]

April Fools Day television "premiere"

Adult Swim began running ads on March 25, 2007 advertising the television premiere of the movie the following Sunday, April 1, 2007. Their only reasoning behind this stunt, as stated in the ad, was, "because we're fucking crazy". While Adult Swim's TV listings on their website stated the movie would be shown, other TV listings reported the same Sunday block. It was an April Fools prank: though the first few minutes of the movie were shown normally, the remainder was shown in an obnoxiously small picture-in-picture box in the bottom left-hand corner, with no sound over the normal programming and occasional giant pop-ups alerting viewers of its presence, as well as advertising the actual premiere. The advertising was shown again on one episode of the Family Guy marathon on July 6, 2007. The episode was Peter's Two Dads. Adult Swim has made similar pranks during its run, including placing fart sounds intercut with anime shows and using Engrish VHS fansubs for the first season of Perfect Hair Forever, and airing entire blocks of programming with mustaches drawn on all the major characters of the shows. The movie actually was shown on Sunday, March 30, 2008.

Fake endings

In yet another promotional stunt, the "ending" to the movie was posted in various places including YouTube, KingColon.com (in the Worst Game Ever game), and fansite Aqua Teen Central, all of which were completely different.

Eventually, adultswim.com let it be known that none of the "endings" were real and presented seven more clips throughout the weeks following the release of the movie (which turned out to also be fake.)

These endings, (now called the "fake.com endings") are available on the film's DVD. These endings are parodies of other movies. For example, one of the endings spoofs The Terminator, featuring Meatwad as "The Determinator".

Release

Reception

The film received a 48% Rotten rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the consensus being, "The non sequitur humor of Aqua Teen Hunger Force will surely appeal to its built-in fan base, but for the uninitiated, the premise wears thin."[8]

Of 28 reviews compiled, Metacritic reported that Movie Film for Theaters has received "mixed or average reviews" with an average rating of 54%.[9] Reviews ranged from Glenn Kenny at Premiere magazine who referred to the movie as "the most successful full-on surrealist film since Buñuel and Dalí's 1930 L'Âge d'or" to Ty Burr with the Boston Globe who called it "an act of terrorism against entertainment."

In response to such reviews, a commercial featuring the Mooninites began airing during the Adult Swim block. The two characters spend the entire commercial insulting a supposedly typical reviewer, "Lionel" of lionellovesmovies.com (the site merely leads back to the movie page). Other movie commercials recommend people see the movie two or three more times to push the box office numbers up. Adult Swim also mentioned in one of its commercial bumpers that the review situation highlights the generation gap, and that most negative reviews came from older critics.

The Aqua Teen Hunger Force fan base has been fairly positive about the film.

On November 8, 2007, it was announced to be on the short list for the Best Animated Feature category in the 80th Academy Awards.

Box office and theaters

The film was very profitable relative to its budget. Boxofficemojo.com listed that 877 theaters carried the movie on opening day.[10] The movie made $3 million outside the top 10 at No. 13 on its opening weekend, The movie made $854,198 on its second weekend, $265,716 on its third, and $37,575 on its fourth. The movie was closed on June 14, 2007, grossing $5,520,368 according to BoxOfficeMojo.com and turning over its budget seven times.

Inside jokes, self-references, and trivia

  • In the very beginning of the movie the heavy metal band Mastodon sings a song that makes fun of movie clichés
  • After gaining information about the Insanoflex online, the tilt-up to the Plutonian ship includes a very fast glimpse of Balloonenstein (featured in the episode of the same name) floating in the air.
  • After the Insanoflex is fully constructed and leaves the house, with Carl attached, the attic dwelling onion monster, Willie Nelson is seen.
  • On the Insanoflex exercise video, as the obese man is running from the Insanoflexes lasers, Dirtfoot (a Bigfoot parody, in the episode of the same name) can be seen in front of a tree, blending in.
  • The attendees at the Steel Python roller coaster are animated versions of the cast and crew.
  • As the matured Insanoflexes first appear on-screen, to the left you can see a dancing Rabbot.
  • When Meatwad transforms into an office building, BillyWitchDoctor.com can be seen in the Steel Python entrance.
  • Throughout the movie, the song "In the Air Tonight" is mentioned and in some scenes the beginning of the song was playing in the background.
  • After Meatwad drags the Danger Cart up the mountain the second time, Romulox can be seen on the right when the entire castle is shown.
  • When Meatwad launches the missiles at Space Ghost, The show on his TV is the Adult Swim show 12 Oz. Mouse.
  • When the Aqua Teens are jumping out of the plane, Meatwad's parachute has pictures of The Powerpuff Girls on it. The Powerpuff Girls Movie was Cartoon Network's (owner of Adult Swim) previous feature film adaptation.
  • A picture of Dr. Weird's roommate Randy, whose DNA was spliced with a pork chop in season 2, hangs in Dr. Weird's apartment.
  • A picture of Steve busting out of Dr. Weird's chest hangs in Linda's bedroom over the bed.
  • The whole opening scene with Time Lincoln is a reference to the ending credits of every Aqua Teen episode.

DVD release

Warner Home Video released Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters for two-disc DVD on August 14, 2007. For the DVD release, the studio changed the title of the eighty-seven minute full length movie to Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theatres for DVD, just like the film soundtrack's title. The DVD's features include the 10 fake endings as shown on the internet, a "making of" featurette, promos, the "Deleted Scenes" episode, a music video,and an entirely new eighty minute movie made out of the deleted scenes from the film and scenes from the "Deleted Scenes" episode as well as a commentary. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Patti Smith is featured on the DVD Commentary. The scene after the credits was removed in the UK DVD release.

"Deleted Scenes"

Deleted Scenes (also known as "Star-Studded Xmas Spectacular"), the first 22-minute episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, is a collection of deleted scenes from the film. It premiered on December 18, 2005. It was also included in full on the DVD itself. Additionally, early versions of the scenes used in the special can be found in the Deleted Movie on Disc 2.

References

  1. ^ Other names include Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters for DVD for the DVD release, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters Television for the April Fools Day television premiere, or simply Colon, "Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie for Theaters and Television" for the premiere on Adult Swim March 30, 2008, and abbreviated as ATHFCMFFT or ATHF:MFFT
  2. ^ "Posterwire.com: King of the Mountain".
  3. ^ "Bruce Campbell As A Chicken Nugget "Fucks!", "Shits!", And "Bleeps" Ahoy!! It's AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE: THE MOVIE!!". Ain't It Cool News.
  4. ^ Decibel Magazine
  5. ^ "Two held after ad campaign triggers Boston bomb scare". CNN. 2007-01-31. Retrieved 2007-03-02.
  6. ^ "Pair plead not guilty in Turner advertising fiasco" (Registration required). Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 2007-02-01. Retrieved 2007-03-02.
  7. ^ "Turner, contractor to pay $2M in Boston bomb scare". CNN. 2007-02-05. Retrieved 2007-03-02.
  8. ^ Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters overall consensus on Rotten Tomatoes
  9. ^ Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters on Metacritic
  10. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/schedule, retrieved on April 8, 2007.
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