athf

This time we've got five copies of Aqua Teen Hunger Force volume five on DVD for five lucky, random commenters. The set is available in stores tomorrow.

To enter, simply leave a comment below before 5:00PM Eastern, Friday, February 1, simply telling us what your favorite moment of ATHF is. As always, we'll randomly choose five winners amongst the eligible entries. Some other details:
Click here for complete Official Rules.

(S05E01) "Hey, you got kids? If I were married to her... we'd be pumping 'em out!" - Carl

The return of everyone's favorite talking fast-food crime fighters. Except... they weren't in the episode at all, save for a brief phone conversation Carl had with Frylock. Many may have already seen this episode. It was a special feature on the recently released "Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am" video game. I never bought it, so it was new to me. Here's where it gets confusing though. In the grand scheme of ATHF, this is the 69th episode. However, if you reference the most recent Adult Swim TV schedule, the 70th episode was supposed to air tonight and this episode wasn't scheduled to have a TV premiere until March 23rd. Not like it's that much of a surprise. Adult Swim is known for just airing stuff whenever they feel like it. Remember last season's finale? Carl Wash? That one ended up airing almost a week early on a Friday night at around 3:00AM and it was never announced.

If you weren't watching Adult Swim last night at 10:00 p.m., then you really missed out. I didn't believe it when Adult Swim said they'd be premiering Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters on television, but there it was, right on my TV screen. Anyway, here's my review for those of you who missed it:

I never imagined that an eleven-minute cartoon could be stretched out into a four-hour movie, but that's exactly what they did, and I think most of the credit should go to screenwriters Charlie Kaufman and Paul Schrader, who actually worked pro bono. As Schrader told Variety:

April 13 can't arrive fast enough. I'm so thrilled about the upcoming Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters the first thing I did after seeing the new trailer was call my mother to tell her the good news:

Adam: Mom! Did you see it?

Mom: Adam, it's 3:00 a.m.

Adam: I know, isn't it awesome? I just wonder how they're going to stretch an eleven minute TV show into a full feature.

Mom: I have to get up for work in three hours.

We were so ready to greet Master Shake, Frylock and Meatwad on the big screen come March 23, but now we have to wait until April 13.

However, that's not such a terrible thing, because Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters is also getting a much wider release, opening in almost 2,000 theaters. Rumors have it that the new wide release is to cash in on increased awareness of the oddball series brought on by the recent marketing misfire in Boston. So yeah, it sucks that we have to wait, but at least now more people will have a chance to see it. I'm lucky enough to live in a major city, so I was pretty much guaranteed to see it anyway, but I feel for those who live places where limited release movies are harder to come by. I think the small town where I grew up just recently got the first Beethoven movie. Sad, really.

I posted it before, but here's the trailer again. It's hysterical. Enjoy:

Well, this is bizarre. If you've been watching Boston news all day today (and the cable networks), you've heard about the hoax bombs that have been planted around the city. Now WBZ Channel 4 in the city is reporting that the devices have a connection to Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

Take a look at one of the devices in the pic at right. Looks like one of the mooninites from the show. Turner has just released a statement apologizing, that it was a marketing campaign. It was a campaign with magnetic electronic lights for Adult Swim and the show! The devices have been up for a few weeks but people didn't notice them until today (or at least they didn't report them as being something serious).

I did notice that ATHF has an episode at midnight tonight, and the movie opens on March 23. Wow. This is going to bring viral marketing to the mainstream, eh?

(S04E13) Well this was a long time coming. I had been paying close attention to online schedules (for a while now), waiting for this episode to air. As far as I knew, it was supposed to play this past Sunday. Instead, it was a repeat airing of "Dickesode." Well guess what? "Carl Wash" already aired! Way back on December 22 in the 3:30AM time-slot no less. At least that's what the ATHF wikipedia page says. Can you believe that? I didn't think Adult Swim did stealth premieres anymore. Especially for one of their most popular shows. Wouldn't that kill any chance for ratings? Oh well.

Anyway, I feel like I'm last in on the joke though because after just a few minutes of searching, I found numerous discussion boards talking about the episode and then I found a site that was actually streaming it. Better late that never. It's a good one.

(S04E12) The thing with Aqua Teen Hunger Force is that it used to be probably the funniest show that Adult Swim aired. That was a few years ago though and now it's really just part of a line-up of shows that are equally funny. The problem with this is that the great episodes of ATHF don't stand out as much as they used to and the really bad ones? Well, they stick out like a grandpa who took too much Viagra.

This was one of those episodes.

(S04E11) Man, I love this show. Even more, I love how incestuous the entire Adult Swim family is. How funny was the cameo from George "Space Ghost" Lowe? He's been on the show a few times before, but never playing himself. It was a riot. Favorite part? When he tried to charge Meatwad forty bucks for an autographed picture. Meatwad said for that price, it better come with a hand-job. George's response? "Oh... it does!" Even funnier was when we found out that Meatwad had no idea what an HJ was.

This show could honestly go on forever. Anything could become a topic. ATHF is like the Seinfeld of animated shows. It really is about nothing and I love it.

(S04E10) This isn't exactly the type of show you expect to see guest stars on. There have been plenty of folk that have lent their voice talent. For instance, Scott Thompson of Kids in the Hall fame voiced Dusty Gozongas last season. But this season, we've now had two people actually play themselves. First, pornstar Tera Patrick stopped by and now football great Bart Oates. How do they find these people?

(S04E09) Outstanding! I was hoping we'd get a new Mooninites episode this season. Now if only we could get some Plutonians too. Regardless, this was a good one. One of the best of the season. What was up with Err's voice though? It sounded way off. Maybe it's from all the moonajuana he's been smoking.

(S04E08) This episode wasn't so hot. In fact, it was kind of a cop-out if you ask me. It just doesn't seem right that a show that's only about eleven minutes long to begin with should spend any amount of time by showing scenes from a previous episode.

Don't get me wrong. The montage showing all the clips of Frylock saving Meatwad and Shake from episodes past was funny, but it's the sort of thing I would expect as an Easter Egg on a DVD set -- not as an actual episode. It just seems like a lazy thing to do.

(S04E07) Great episode! Shake is at it again, destroying the world and I loved every second of it. He and Meatwad decided they wanted to make a Mucus Man, which is essentially what it sounds like. A little guy made entirely out of snot. His mouth is a strip of bacon though. But once he's made, they have to harden him. Apparently that's what you do with a Mucus Man -- harden him. With what you ask? A grill. Duh.

(S04E06) (This is an early review courtesy of the Adult Swim Fix) What a crazy episode! It was all over the place and I loved ever second of it. This is the Aqua Teen Hunger Force that I remember -- smart, topical. As much as I liked "Dickesode," it was just potty humor and this was a by far superior episode. You know something I just noticed though? Why is there no short to the open the episode? At least when they got rid of Dr. Weird, we transitioned to Spacecataz. Now there's nothing and that sucks. Oh well, moving on.

The Fall season is already upon us (thanks to FOX and it's itchy trigger finger), and I'm sure there are hundreds of you dozens of you two guys in Idaho who can't wait to find out what I'll be watching once everything else starts up. Keith already posted a list of all the shows that TV Squad will be reviewing this Fall, but here are the ones that I'll personally be watching.

Sunday: Sundays are going to be one of my lighter nights. The only show I really plan on watching is The Wire at 10PM on HBO. Although, that probably won't even happen since HBO is putting up each new episode a week in advance of it's airdate on HBO OnDemand. That leaves Aqua Teen Hunger Force at 10:30PM, which doesn't come back until October. Looks like Sunday just became my new drinking night... wait, work on Monday. OK, maybe not.