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Life & Arts

Aqua Teen absurdity shines on big screen

Adult Swim's cartoon heroes make movie debut 
in way only fans would appreciate 

by CHRISTIAN PALMER
The Daily Cougar

Because Aqua Teen creators Matt Maiellaro and Dave Willis were not limited to the small screen, they were able to take the zany antics of Master Shake, Frylock and Meatwad to a completely unprecedented level of absurdity in Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters. The language is more vulgar, their actions (especially those of Shake) are more obscene and, somehow, all of it is more entertaining than ever imaginable. 

The first thing fans will notice is the totally revamped opening sequence, which sets the tone for the rest of the movie. It is loud, colorful, a little obnoxious and epic.

Because the actual plot (and that term being used loosely) of Movie Film is at least a hundred times more bizarre than anything the crew has ever done on TV, a brief synopsis here could not even begin to do the film justice. Luckily, enjoyment is not necessarily contingent on understanding what's going on because there are so many plain and simple laugh-out-loud momenats. It's always been the utter randomness of the show that has kept viewers coming back for more.

For those who have wondered about the origin of these appetizing heroes, you are not alone, as they themselves are just as clueless. Though the film does attempt to provide some insight, the story is as completely ridiculous and fantastic as their other adventures and may not even be entirely true. Someone may be someone else's father, someone could be a woman -- and a lesbian at that -- and someone else is a nine-layer burrito. No one but the Adult Swim folks over at Williams Street could make up this kind of stuff. 

Fans will be delighted to see many of their favorite characters from the show find their way into the outrageous "plot," including Dr. Weird and Steve, the Plutonians, the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past, and the Mooninites, fresh from their recent ad campaign that caused a bomb scare in Boston and shut the city down for a day. The film pushes 90 minutes, and these characters, who usually see limited screen time on the show, come to life on the silver screen.

It's too bad the rest of the movie-going public didn't feel the need to dive in behind the fans. Or maybe it's not -- the average non-fan probably wouldn't understand Movie Film. But for those who want to get acquainted with the show, Aqua Teen is a fixture on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim and DVDs of past seasons are available.

Lately, it seems every television show that was ever popular is getting reworked for theaters, and more often than not, these films disappoint. But for Movie Film, the producers didn't have to bring in some cheeseball actors to do a bad job of replicating the greatness of the scrumptious superheroes. And unlike the Family Guy feature, it is not merely a hodgepodge of episodes tossed together. It is original and indissoluble, true and great.

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