The early 2000s were a strange time. There was lots of bizarre, bad music, bad movies, and a rapidly (d)evolving cesspool internet. So it’s fitting that one of the most irreverent television series came from the period,Aqua Teen Hunger Force. The cult phenomenon was churned out by Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, then a wee hours landing spot for the stuff they wanted to keep away from the children.
The story centers around three anthropomorphic South Jersey-dwelling fast-food items, Frylock, Master Shake, and Meatwad. Off doing God knows what next door and often banging on the Aqua Teens’ door in a rage is their tank top, sweatpants, and flip-flops-clad neighbor Carl. The trio gets into it with aliens,supernatural beings, and science, with Carl often getting dismembered, exploded, or otherwise horribly injured in the process.
The series ran from 2000 through 2015, with a weak movie mashed in the middle,Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters. With the series over, the creative team behindAqua Teen Hunger Forceis taking another crack at the big screen, well, big screen TVs anyway, withAqua Teen Forever: Plantasm.
Here’s everything we know about the movie.
Plantasm: The Plot
There’s very rarely a coherent plot when it comes toAqua Teen Hunger Force. It’s a stream-of-consciousness rant of a series, often improvised by the showrunners and voice actors. Episodes have seen the trio battle robot turkeys and chickens from the future who warred with Santa Ape and Martian elves, the Creditor (literally the Predatorrunning a shady loan service), and Frat Aliens who passed out drunk on their lawn.
The description of the plot from Warner Bros. is vague but hints at it being a standard Aqua Teen adventure:
“Aqua Teen Forever: Plantasmfeatures everyone’s favorite rascals, the Aqua Teens: the brainy Frylock, the mouthy Master Shake, the loveable Meatwad, and everyone’s favorite perverted neighbor, Carl, as they split up then get back together to fight everyone’s favorite corporate overlord, Amazin, led by everyone’s favorite tech mogul, Neil (voiced by everyone’s favorite Peter Serafinowicz) and his trusty scientist sidekick, Elmer (Paul Walter Hauser, who is everyone’s favorite).”
Not much to go on, butAqua Teenis more about the quips and gnarly visuals than the plot. The only other hint at the story came from a clip released by Warner Bros. in August. The impressivelyanimatedPlantasmsnippetstarts with a never-ending spaceship pulled straight fromSpaceballs’intro. It pits the Aqua Teens against Carl, who has somehow transformed into a writhing spider-legged abomination inspired by the Norris Creature and Spider Head from the John Carpenter classicThe Thing.
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The ensuingRick and Morty-inspired actionculminates with Thing Carl getting sucked into space by a pun-slinging Shake and the Aqua Teens exploding. Aqua Teen co-creator Dave Willis also made a statement via press release onPlantasmin the show’s trademark incoherent babble:
“Luxuriate your eyes in our updated animation! Revel in the mature themes and coherent storytelling! This is not your grandad’s Aqua Teen! Also, this movie has no superheroes in it. That is the Aqua Teen Hunger Force guarantee: no superheroes! No star war stuff either. If you’re looking for a star war or a yoda, this is probably not the movie for you. Do you doubt me? Watch the movie. And if you don’t like it, you have no taste and your “hot take” is not one to be trusted. I just trolled you, son. Now tweet @adultswim with your pointless rage. Bring the thunder!”
So space, grotesque aliens, and Master Shake popping off; sounds like typicalAqua Teen Hunger Forcefare to us.
Plantasm: The Cast
Aqua Teen Hunger Forcemanaged to keep its staple cast together for its entire 11-season, 15-year run, and all of those voice actors are back forPlantasm. It will feature Carey Means as Frylock, Dana Snyder as Master Shake, and Dave Willis as Meatwad. Willis also portrays Carl.
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Peter Serafinowicz and Paul Walter Hauser will voice the main antagonists, Neil and Elmer, respectively.Aqua Teenhas a sizeable recurring cast of additional characters, so hopefully, we’ll get regulars like the annoying Mooninites Err (Matt Maiellaro) and Ignignokt (Willis), the Plutonians Oglethorpe (Andy Merrill) and Emory (Mike Schatz) among many, many other strange creatures conjured up by the series creators.
Release Date
Aqua Teen Forever: Plantasmwill be released on Blu-ray and streamed on HBO Max and Movies Everywhere on July 25, 2025. Between the advance clip, press release statement from the co-creator, and the Warner Bros. synopsis, it’s pretty clear thatAqua Teen Forever: Plantasmwill likely follow the formula used byAqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters;basically, a 90-minute episode of the TV series vs. its usual 11-minute runtime.
Aqua Teen Forever: Plantasmwill be weird, quirky, and hopefully hilarious astheAqua Teenteamhas been in hibernation for seven years.
