Customer Reviews

Aqua Teen Hunger Force - Volume Three

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Episodes:
*Broodwich
*Total Recarl
*Revenge of the Trees
*Frat Aliens
*Spirit Journey Formation Anniversary
*Kidney Car
*The Cubing
*The Shaving
*The Clowning
*The Dressing
*THE
*The Cloning
*The Last One


Special Features:

Script Pages
*Last One
*Frat Aliens
*The Dressing
*Spirit Journey Formation Anniversary

Promo Spots (11)
*Spirit Journey Formation Anniversary Home Karaoke (3 versions)
*On Loan From the Private Collection of Vishal Roney
*How to Score Big Making Money Writing for Television
*Put This on Your Phone for Instant Popularity


Deleted Scenes
*Broodwich
*Dr. Weird Ice Cream Social
*Dr. Weird Clowning Ending


Commentaries
*The Last One
*The Clowning
*The Shaving
*Spirit Journey Formation Anniversary

The new Volume Three box of ATHF is even more insane than the first three seasons of the show. For rabid fans of the show, and of the Adult Swim programming block on Cartoon Network in general, it's an obvious must-have.

For those out there who still wonder what the fuss is all about, I'll try to explain. While some of the other "adult" animation series make a pretense of pushing the envelope of taste, content, and creativity, the brilliant minds behind ATHF, like The Braak Show and Space Ghost before it (thank God for the Turner Animation group and the Williams Street Studio crew), just simply toss the envelope out the window. Focused stream-of-conciousness--with abandoned pop-culture and animation leftovers as a prop shop--this is the stage that ATHF occupies. As another reviewer remarked sometime back, imagine if Samuel Beckett wrote and produced a Saturday morning cartoon show for adults, using an assemblage of kiddie-tune cliches from the 60s to the 90s. What you get is absurdism that invents its own world and makes sense, all the while being outrageously funny. ATHF is THAT good. The writing is amazingly consistent, and continues to push itself farther and farther out.

In an odd way, it kind of reminds me of Paul Henning's old "Green Acres" sitcom from the 60s, which was dismissed at the time as being a stupid rural comedy. Think in terms of Henning's crew of writers being a couple of generations younger, with THAT much more cultural detritus to mold and destroy. As a stage and plot device, replace the former's country surrealism with the idea of lifesize milkshake--"Master Shake"--with delusions of grandeur, living with an equally large and scientifically brilliant box of french fries--"Frylock", as well as a mentally challenged wad of hamburger named Meatwad. Place these three in a run-down rental home in New Jersey, with a gnarly, sexually obsessed dirtball named Carl as a neighbor, and have the whole ensemble routinely terrorized by incompetent aliens and demons of various shapes, sizes, and origins. With that as your launching pad, just let it all rip.

More than a few people have remarked that the show is subversive. Thankfully, they're right. This show is absolutely unique.

This is a great show and is so freakin' hilarious. here are some of the specs.

AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE: VOLUME THREE

Episodes:
*Broodwich
*Total Recarl
*Revenge of the Trees
*Frat Aliens
*Spirit Journey Formation Anniversary
*Kidney Car
*The Cubing
*The Shaving
*The Clowning
*The Dressing
*THE
*The Cloning
*The Last One


Special Features:

Script Pages
*Last One
*Frat Aliens
*The Dressing
*Spirit Journey Formation Anniversary

Promo Spots (11)
*Spirit Journey Formation Anniversary Home Karaoke (3 versions)
*On Loan From the Private Collection of Vishal Roney
*How to Score Big Making Money Writing for Television
*Put This on Your Phone for Instant Popularity


Deleted Scenes
*Broodwich
*Dr. Weird Ice Cream Social
*Dr. Weird Clowning Ending


Commentaries
*The Last One
*The Clowning
*The Shaving
*Spirit Journey Formation Anniversary

Thats all.

This is a big improvement for the Aqua Teens. The first two volumes are great but this one is the best so far. In this one you're getting 13 episodes and a lot of special features. Like 5 times as much that was on the first volume. All together the episodes =146 minutes which is okay.

EPISODES
1. Frat Aliens- (11:25)-Frat Aliens visit Carls house. Once they talk to the Aqua Teens one leaves and leaves the other one at Aqua Teens house drunk. He then gets Shake drunk, as Meatwad tries to act more like a man.

2. Total Recarl- (11:17)- Frylock builds a Super Toilet and gets Carl to go to the bathroom on it. He gets sucked in and loses his whole body but his head. Frylock rebuilds him in different ways.

3. Kidney Car- (11:32)- Shake wins a destruction derby trophy after using Carl's car. Carl gives it to Meatwad and Meatwad tries to rebuild it with plastic tools.

4.Revenge of the Trees- (11:31)- Shake steals a cow to make for Labor Day. Him and Carl take the tub of oil that the cow was in, to the woods and dumps it. The trees kidnap Carl.

5. The Cloning- (11:24)- After Shake finds out that Frylock was cloning their TV; he uses it to clone his own stuff.

6. Broodwich- (11:31)- Shake looks for treasure where Frylock planted azalea bushes. He finds the broodwich. Every time he takes a bite he goes into time, and if he eats the whole thing something bad will happen to him.

7. The Dressing- (11:18)- Tukitron(Cybernetic ghost of the Christmas past from the future) visits the Aqua Teens again to save a dead chicken. He tells them more stories of how chickens will rule the earth and that tacos will be illegal.

8. THE- (11:14)- Shake destroys their house by blowing up wall and cementing in Frylock room. Frylock moves away and has a party where the Mooninites visit.

9. The Cubing- (11:31)- The Wisdom Cube visits the Aqua Teens and makes jokes about them, and does prank calls with Shake.

10. The Last One- (11:30)- All the robots, aliens, monsters from every ATHF episode have one big meeting on the moon to come up with a plan to destroy the Aqua Teens.

11. The Clowning- (11:23)- Carls keeps on getting new hairstyles from an evil wig holder and a clown. Carl gets a new girlfriend also.

12. Apirit Journey Formation Anniversary- (11:23)- Meatwad has a birthday party, where Shake gives him a present (music) for everyone to rock to. Zack Wylde comes to the Aqua Teens because he gets mad at Shake.

13. The Shaving- (11:31)- It's Halloween at the Aqua Teens. A spider comes down from there basement and Shake teaches him how to scare people.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
-Commentary for The Clowning
-Commentary for The Last One
-Commentary for The Shaving
-Commentary for Spirit Journey Formation Anniversary
-Making of the Cloning- (36:21)
-SJFA music videos from Atlanta and New York. (7:12)
-Schooly D music/art gallery- (7:35)
-Frat Aliens script page- (12:20)
-The Dressing script page- (12:46)
-The Last One script page- (13:45)
-The Shaving script page- (12:47)
-7 Answering machine messages- (: 10) each
-11 Promo Spots- (: 30) each
-Broodwich deleted scenes- (3:03)
-Dr Weird Ice Cream Social deleted scenes- (: 38)
-Clowing ending deleted scenes- (: 23)

One of my friends used the above quote to describe the experience of watching this show, and I wholeheartedly concur.

Sweet Jebus, I don't think a more Dadaist, random, absurd bit of programming exists on network TV. You've got man-sized talking fast food products living in a run-down surburbia--a self-aggrandizing and inept milkshake, a basket of fries with genius IQ, and an insanely cute and mildly retarded lump of hamburger meat. A trashy gold chain-wearing Jerseyite who just wants the above trio to leave him the hell alone. A pair of pixelated Atari game rejects with perpetual middle fingers, and assorted space aliens/monsters/robots of all shapes and sizes. And that is only the tip of the iceburg. It actually gets tons stranger from there. It's just... GAH.

There's seriously NOTHING in the Cartoon Network/Adult Swim roster that resembles this. Sealab 2021 and Space Ghost Coast To Coast occasionally approach this level of bent humor, but with more of a satirical angle. With its combo of absurd one-liners, pop-culture jokes, black humor, bathroom gags, bad taste tempered by pure loopiness, and plain all-out disturbing imagery, Aqua Teen stands alone.

Words cannot do this sort of thing justice. Definitely an acquired taste. If your tastes are "normal" in any way, shape, or form, you WILL run away screaming on first viewing. Only a truly warped mind will get mileage out of this postmodern insanity. By far the best and most consistent Season, #3 features the most brilliant installments ever--"The Broodwich," "The Cloning," "Spirit Journey Formation Anniversary," and ESPECIALLY "The Shaving." Hilariously disturbing, or disturbingly hilarious? You decide. Keep a sponge nearby while watching this show--it'll be useful for cleaning the gray matter off your walls.

This time around, our heroes couldn't possibly do less! Watch as Carl and Meatwad are turned into clowns by a freak bacteria strain while our heroes do absolutely nothing... for decades! Yes, Master Shake, Frylock, and Meatwad redefine lazy in this volume of Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
Out of all the volumes, I'd say that this one has the fewest truly great episodes, but I also think that the good ones on here are some of the funniest that I've ever seen. Total ReCarl is one of my favorites. It involves Carl being decapitated by a super toilet built by Frylock. The Aqua Teens decide to rebuild him, with some hilarious results. We also meet Willy Nelson this year. Not the singer, but a spider/onion monster that lives in the attic of the Aqua Teens, who, according to Shake, is the gayest monster to ever be gay. In another hilarious episode, Shake finds a demonic sandwich known as the broodwich (the Blair Witch!?). It is the tastiest sandwich ever created, but a cruel fate is in store for anyone who eats it. Also, the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past fromt the Future returns in a new form. At Thanksgiving, he shows up sporting his new, sleek turkey body, and attempts to save the life of the turkey that the Aqua Teens are about to eat for dinner. In The Cloning, we learn that Frylock has been cloning TVs, and after cloning the same one so many times, weird things start to occur. Then there's The Clowning, with Carl and Meatwad turning into clowns, and Revenge of the Trees, which has Shake and Carl being put on trial by some trees for dumping cooking oil in the forest. Finally, there's The Last One (which isn't the last episode of the series), in which most of the series' villains return to attend a conference held by the Mooninites Inignokt and Err.
This is a very funny collection of episodes that Aqua Teen fans will love.

This is the third of the Aqua Teen DVD sets, and while not quite up the extremely high standards of volume one, is better than volume two with the presence of some great episodes and extras. I particularly like "The Clowning" (there is nothing as funny as Carl with a sweet mullet), "Spirit Journey Formation Anniversary" (with hilarious musical guest Zakk Wylde playing metal bluegrass with robotic scorpions), and "The Last One," which features almost all villains encountered in the show to date (except the Mummy.)

The episodes are great, as are the extras on this set. There are commentaries for several shows, a couple of great deleted scenes (I like the "Broodwich" outtake especially), an interesting (but too long) short film on the making of "The Cloning," several script page features, and assorted other bonuses. The commentaries are more rambling dialogue and less about the show than I would have liked, but they are still interesting to hear.

This is a great set of episodes from one of the most original television shows to come along in years, and I recommend it highly.

This day in age, few things strike me as truly brilliant. Like, Holy FU*)@NG SH*% that is utter GENIUS. Aqua Teen Hunger Force is, without any question in my mind, body, or soul, the most brilliant show on television right now. In fact, I don't think there's a piece of television programming within the past decade that can match the audacity of the show; the only thing that can run along side it (and beat it, really) is 'The Simpsons' in its prime -- you know, I'm talking like, seasons 4-8, or somewhere around there. That level of excellence, I think, shall never be reached again, but if anything comes close, it's Aqua Teen Hunger Force in its later seasons -- namely three and four. This just so happens to be three, you lucky dog.

Sure, there's Family Guy. Hoopdy damn do. Hoopdy damn doodoo. Your moment. His movement. Yeah. Family Guy, which I was once a rabid fan of, is a good show. Used to be great, I think, but now is merely good. Macfarlene is a genius but the show got lazy. American Dad, sucker that it was, got in the way. Futurama was good, and got quite awesome, but its ambition sidetracked it a bit. Oh yeah, The Critic... That show, had it lasted, would have been downright mindboggling, but you know, the greatest are often stoned too early.

What's my point? There is no point. This is divine stuff. Why? Everything comes together. Chaos transforms to order and as we witness this we are perplexed. By this season, the masters go deeper into their psyches and contemplate what is truly funny, and how in the world they could make the show better. Basically, we finally get a fine tuned program, which season two hinted at but never quite manged. Every single damn episode here is consistent. The animation, voice acting, editing, sound effects, timing... they're all spot on. It's not as quickly paced as the following season, but it's more coherent because of that.

The voice acting here cannot go unseen. Dave Willis, co-creator and vocalizer of main characters Meatwad and Carl, as well as a slew of the show's other guest characters, is a downright king among men. He's like Castellaneta at his peak with Homer Simpson, or MacFarlane in the most glorious moments of Stewie Griffin. Meatwad I believe is the show's most immediate force and attraction, and Carl ultimately becomes most fans' (that I know of) favorite. I can't get into technicality -- I'm not a voice coach -- but instinct doesn't lie to me... This guy is a bonafied prodigy. Same goes for Snyder as (Master) Shake. The guy has mastered his craft by this point. It's obvious he improvs a great deal of the time, and within each episode he simply comes more and more into his sphere of the Shake. Carey Means as Frylock showcases himself well too, and though his character isn't as pivitol regarding hysteria as the other three, he is indispensable and can still make you laugh until you s@#% yourself.

That's just the voice acting. The animation is to the common eye mediocre. To one of the higher intellect, however, it reveals its true colors. Minimilistic in the most wonderful sense. Case in point -- you often see nothing but Shake, unanimated, for seconds at a time, usually while another character verbally condemns him. Nothing more. And yet, I want to cry because it's so unbelievably funny. I don't always know exactly WHAT the reasoning behind this is -- though I know there is in fact logic to it which I can usually identify to a point -- but it doesn't matter. It makes me hurt from laughter. Yet another case in point -- normal, absurdist dialogue by Shake and Meatwad ensues, and Meatwad merely sits in the middle with his eyes going from one character to another. Like, three snippets of animation, over thirty seconds. Yet therein lie comedic gold. And this I know -- without getting into the psycho-specifics -- many of these moments cause such uproarious joy because of one thing -------- they hint at the core of the infinite ABSURDITY THAT THE WHOLE SHOW IS. It is surreal and the most whack thing you've ever seen, if you really tap into it, and within that beast of chaos is outrageous, stunning comedy.

I shouldn't write too much, as surely many fans of the show aren't looking for reviews of this nature, but I like to at least present a somewhat articulate response to the show. I actually forgot to name another show that comes close to this level of merit -- Upright Citizens Brigade. Like Aqua Teen, the show showcased absurdist humor like little else. The type of show that puts every other program on television to utter f*%@ng shame. It might be shallow, but when someone says one of their favorite shows is Friends, I immediately dismiss their entire character, because it is completely idiotic and Lifeless in the face of something so rigorously refined and crafted.

I don't like rating anything five stars. I just don't. I do it, but I usually think, "meh -- does that really deserve it?". Absolutely not an inch of doubt here with this DVD. Not an inch. I pirate things, occasionally. Download music a good amount. Never would I dare take a free copy of this DVD -- I've bought backup copies to lend to friends. This show can bring a lot of joy to someone's Life, and remind them of the most intimitely funny selves within them.

I owe these guys so much.

So pop this into your DVD player and forget about it for awhile. You will laugh. You hear? You WILL laugh. There are some one-liners in here that will dazzle you. Mostly said by Masta Shake.

Stop frowning and start howling.

This is the best ATHF volume yet. The episodes are just the best for some reason (except for The Last One, which I didn't laugh once at). Volume 2 just didn't have many great episodes on it. They were still good and everything, but not anything like the rest. Volume 1 was really good, but they tried too hard to stick to a plot and it have very little special features.

Well, Volume 3 is loaded with special features, including a sneak peak at how they wrote "The Cloning." Very interesting stuff. It also includes my favorite episode "The Broodwich," and a very long, yet funny, deleted scene from it (It's good that it was deleted though).

Well, 25 bucks is a lot for a dvd, especially if you're not the wealthiest guy on the block. But, this one is definately worth forking the cash.