Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Volume Four DVD Review:

To say that the shows which are featured on Adult Swim are not for children would be an extreme understatement, and this is definitely the case with the bizarre, crude, and often hilarious Aqua Teen Hunger Force. The show may not make a whole lot of sense, but it is funny anyways. What is even better is the fact that the DVD package is set up much in the same way that the show is. Nothing can be trusted and anything should be expected, and whatever you do don’t choose the play all option under episodes.

An order of fries, a shake, and a ball of meat live together in a crappy apartment in a bad neighborhood. Why they can talk and why the show is about them is a mystery to me. Perhaps an ardent fan might have the answers to that question, as well as the meaning behind the short space story about a rivalry between popular arcade game creatures at the beginning of each episode. In truth, it doesn’t matter. As soon as you stop trying to figure out what it means you will be more apt to appreciate the humor, which is often somewhat gruesome.

The first episode in the volume is a perfect example of the humor. The meat ball is playing an Ouija video game and the shake thinks it is stupid, so he decides to kill himself so that he can enter the game and scare his friend. He is then very upset by the fact that he can’t get out of the game. He wants to be undead, so an African witch doctor is brought in to bring him back to life. The absurdity of the humor is mostly why it works, but there is also a definite sense of shock value. Blood is shed as often as possible within these episodes merely to inflict pain upon the audience, and because it doesn’t really matter much anyways. They are cartoon characters and they are fast food items as well, so none of it should be taken even a little bit seriously.

There are thirteen episodes in volume four, which is not a small number but considering the fact that they are only about eleven minutes long it doesn’t end up being a lot. On the other hand, I don’t think that the material could handle episodes any longer than they are. Most of the episodes have a commentary track available as well. There are also a few other special features and bonus stuff on the DVDs, but not all of it is fun. The bonus features are as random as the show and that isn’t always a good thing. None of them are too long though, so many people may have fun playing around with it.

In some ways the DVD tries to be as annoying as the show, and you have to admire the humor of it even though it really is irritating. The option to watch all of the episodes, which is on a lot of DVDs, is somewhat different on these. They actually have all of the episodes on the disc playing at the same time in separate boxes on your TV screen. It is an annoying and load spectacle which is humorous until you realize that this means you actually have to watch each individually and keep going back to the menu to choose the next episode.



Ryan Izay