MSRP: $29.98
RATED: Unrated
RUNNING TIME: 172 minutes
• Favorite Episode promos
• Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Responds to the Critics
• I Like Your Booty But I’m Not Gay Music Video
• ATHF Movie Premiere with Space Ghost
• Deleted Scenes
• Learn to Shred Like the Master
• Tera Patrick Eats a Hot Dog
• Granny Takes Her Top Off
• Space Ghost: Coast to Coast “Chambraigne”
• ATHF Zombie Ninja Pro-Am Trailer
• The Worst Game Ever
The Pitch
“Talking food entertains college stoners around the world.”
The Humans
Dave Willis, Dana Snyder, Carey Means, C. Martin Croker, Tera Patrick, Matt Maiellaro, George Lowe, Bart Oates and Patton Oswalt
The face of Youth Culture.
The Nutshell
Frylock, Master Shake and Meatwad originally wanted to solve crimes in their native New Jersey. But, that premise was left behind several years back for the weird hi-jinks that befell them in the following episodes and feature-length hit film. This season brings such pleasantries as a Dick shaped alien, Hand Banana the Raping Dog, Master Shake’s bastard child and Tera Patrick eating a hot dog. A lot of the later episodes feature more of the same, as the creators seemed to be spinning their wheels while waiting for the film’s completion. But, there’s still some entertainment to be found here.
The Lowdown
Aqua Teen Hunger Force – Volume 5 is another season-length release from the good people at Adult Swim. You get episodes ranging from Master Shake’s dirty dealings with Dirtfoot to the clip show retrospective of clips that didn’t make it into the Aqua Teen Hunger Force film. It’s kind of hard to treat the show as something with a long legacy that has fans that can recite episodes at the drop of a hat. Most of the fans I meet either have bongs shaped like Master Shake or they have deep philosophical debates on whether Frylock is a man or a woman. Those are some deep thoughts from deep people.
Tampax presents THE SARLAAC PIT as AUNT FLO
The fifth season had several memorable moments. There’s Master Shake’s deal with Boost Mobile to keep it real and get everyone to know where it’s at. Tera Patrick shows up to entice Carl into buying gutters from the Grim Reaper. The show lives and dies by stringing odd setups together into a thin storyline that expires upon that 12-15 minute marker that dominates the show. Naturally, when this setup was stretched to feature length we began to see the cracks in the face. There are only so many times you can look at star-wipe jokes and hear the bass line to In the Air Tonight.
Hand Banana makes Rape Bear look like Smurf Balls.
The cameos work well for such a bizarre show. You can never tell how someone such as former New York Giants player Bart Oates will play into a story. When you tie in the Dickens by way of James Cameron plotting, it’s enough to make you wonder how high you’ve got to be to truly enjoy this show. Once you start to look past the odd premise, the show begins to falter 4/5ths of the way through the season. You start to see repeated ideas and the return to staple characters to squeeze out the season’s completion order. It’s nowhere near as bad as the fourth season, but by the time that the Mooninites show up this season it’s time to end the show for a year or so.
This is what would happen if I bought Chuck E. Cheese.
There’s something to the show that doesn’t work for everyone. I tried talking with some fans of the show and people who absolutely hate it. But, it’s hard to get a fix on what they find entertaining or disgusting. So, I turned to Devin Faraci’s review of the Aqua Teen film. His comments about the show while negative were ultimately a fair representation of the Aqua Teens. The show is odd and it does tend to get stuck in its bizarre aesthetic instead of trying to develop a plot. If you can’t handle weird for the sake of being weird, then the show is dismissible and not worth your time.
That’s right. They are Gnats. Gnats that escaped the clutches of Saint Brady. It wasn’t Saint Brady’s fault…it was the humidity. Humidity that fucked up his foot. I…I…I just can’t explain it. It’s been a few weeks and it hurts every time I think about it. It hurts worse than anything. Eli Manning’s got a ring. I want to vomit.
After finishing the release, I was impressed. The show is in the middle of its sixth season and shows no sign of stopping. It’s one of the first Adult Swim that helped launch the sub-network out of the shadow of Cartoon Network. Whereas Sealab 2021 and Space Ghost: Coast to Coast threw in the towel, the Aqua Teens carry on. There’s got to be something to be said about that. When you can figure it out, let me know.
Fiction
Reality
The Package
Aqua Teen Hunger Force – Volume 5 comes to DVD packed to the brim. You get a ton of deleted scenes, several featurettes and a look at the promotion of Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters. The special features are fun and work more as an extension of the show than actually explaining anything. The other supplemental material is dedicated to the debut of the movie and side-items featured within the film. It’s often hard to decipher whether you’re getting the television show with this set or a promo package for the film.
The A/V Quality is amazing for a basic cable animated series. The color scheme is nice and the level of detail is surprising. The Dolby Digital 2.0 track works well and keeps the front speakers busy during each episode. There’s no dropout and I couldn’t find a single bit of digital noise on the transfer. I wish that all TV on DVD releases could look this good.
Making the Boston Police Department shit themselves with fear since January 31st, 2007.