Aqua Teen Hunger Force Shorts Create A Worthy Model For Adult Swim

Adult Swim is known for breaking ground in a number of different ways, with surreal series such as Rick And Morty, Metalocalypse, Venture Bros, and countless others helping to propel the Cartoon Network programming block to new heights. While new full episodes of Aqua Teen Hunger Force aren’t airing right now, the series is taking the opportunity to explore a new way of pushing out its story, releasing new episodes that range from three to five minutes long, and it helps to set the way for other animated series in the programming block for revisiting some beloved characters.

What the hilariously titled Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Aqua Dunk Side Pieces are able to do is not only bring back Frylock, Master Shake, and Meatwad, it’s able to continue the stories of characters that have been introduced over the series’ history such as the Mooninites, Handbanana, MC P Pants, and many other weirdos that have appeared throughout the series. What makes this all the more remarkable is that Aqua Teen is able to tell a complete story in each three-minute short, opening up the possibility of other Adult Swim series to do the same if they don’t get full orders for new seasons. Certainly, jumping back into the worlds of Metalocalypse and other animated shows on the block would be welcome for many fans.

One of the latest examples of the success of these shorts is Aqua Teen Hunger Force releasing a short that features the return of Happy Time Harry, in a three-minute short that features Meatwad’s churlish toy making a comeback to the trio of food characters that helped build Adult Swim:

Our own Nick Valdez was able to talk with co-creator Dave Willis about the creation of these new shorts, with the creative mind spilling the beans on the approach to these segments:

“It’s sweet that you said that we reimagined the show because, really, all we did was just retitle it every year. [Aquadonk’s episodes], they’re focused on some of our favorite villains over the course of the run and they’re really short. They’re internet-made. They’re all less than three minutes and they’re just fun and surprising…They’re sort of a fun way to look at it just from the villain POV.”  

Luckily for fans of the bizarre trio, these shorts aren’t the only thing that fans of Adult Swim have to look forward to as Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Metalocalypse, and Ventures Bros all have feature-length films in the works, set to arrive on HBO Max in the future. Not every series in the Adult Swim library is going to be able to bring together its animators and voice actors to recreate their series, but if these three-minute shorts can be an option for bringing back some major series, then more power to them.

What do you think of the Aquadunk Shorts so far? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of Adult Swim.