Aqua Teen Hunger Force aired its series finale in the summer of 2015. For creators Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro, that could’ve meant the end of these iconic characters. But a phone call from WB early on in the COVID pandemic changed everything. Willis and Maiellaro serve as directors on the new feature-length Adult Swim movie Aqua Teen Forever: Plantasm. It’s available on blu-ray, digital and 4K this Tuesday November 8th. They join me for an entertaining chat about the timely and funny film. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)

Jackson Murphy: Dave, it’s been seven years since the series ended. Why do you think now was the time to bring back these characters with this film?

Dave Willis: Global pandemic… and we got a phone call. (laughs) We enjoyed doing the show. When the show went off the air we were… both burned out. It was maybe nice to put it in mothballs. But animated shows, man, they’re like zombies. They keep coming back. Matt and I just click. We get together and make each other laugh. It was a no-brainer. They called us and said, “Do you wanna make a movie?” And we were like, “Absolutely. Let’s do it!” And we did it.

JM: Wow. So you really didn’t have to think much about that, Matt.

Matt Maiellaro: Yeah, we were ready to do it. It had been asleep for so long. When they called we were really happy about that.

JM: Fans are really gonna enjoy it. And Matt, what were the differences this time around in making a movie vs. the 2007 film? I remember the anticipation and buzz of Aqua Teen going to theaters and how big of a deal it was.

MM: The real differences this time were that we actually had a structure to this and a story to tell. The first movie was kind of all over the map and fan-based. And there was something in there that was a story, but it went in so many different directions. We still really like that movie. But for this one, we wanted to tell a real story and pick one of these characters and give him a journey, Frylock, and base it around some big tech weirdness. That was fun. Dave and I worked really hard on putting this together and making it great. And we had more money too. We were able to actually animate a bunch of stuff and that was fun.

JM: You know what I really like about the film, guys? The rhythm of the comedy. How the comedy is presented to us, the way the dialogue is delivered, and the timing of it all, is different than every other animated adult comedy franchise out there. Dave, how do you feel out the rhythm of the comedy?

DW: We developed our own rhythm because even though it’s a big step up with the animation… Bento Box Atlanta did an awesome job of upping the look… so much of what we’ve done is very homemade. We dug it out of the dirt. We would sit with editors on Aqua Teen and even before that on Space Ghosts and would mess with it until we thought it was funny. Instead of having a writers’ room to pitch jokes, we’d sit there and say, “How can we mess with this?” Sometimes we’d do these crazy two-frame edits or we’d have everybody talking over each other or LONG beats where stationary characters look at each other. That rhythm came from a homemade place of being on a deserted island trying to make a cartoon when you don’t know what you’re doing.

JM: The plot of this movie has so many elements, involving corporations, unions, “Amazin'” (instead of Amazon) and the environment, housing and working conditions. Matt, did you just watch the news every day to get inspiration?

MM: I don’t watch any TV. Dave watches it all and then tells me what’s going on in the world. (laughs) We took some stuff currently happening and threw it into this movie.

JM: You guys have such a fun time making fun of specific movies and genres. The “Space Jam” spoof at the beginning is hilarious. Dave, how did that come to be?

DW: At the time when we were making the movie, they were promoting… or the LeBron version had just come out. It was funny for about three seconds, we were like, “What if we made this a Space Jam, like Aqua Teen’s going to space, and they play basketball?” But we were like, “Warner Bros. will never let Master Shake be next to Bugs Bunny in anything.” We’re deep in the back lot of the Warner Bros. animated family.

MM: We’re across the lot. We’re in the shed over there.

DW: And what would the straight to video version be like? Oh yeah, of course it would have Shawn Kemp beating the s*it out of aliens and the game getting cancelled and the movie lasts like two minutes.

JM: It’s very funny. And Matt, there’s also a great line involving “TENET”. You can [also] get away with your “TENET” jab in the Warner Bros. universe.

MM: Yeah, I don’t think they realize it. I don’t think they watched it and heard that in there.

JM: (laughs)

DW: I don’t think they’ve watched our movie yet.

MM: I don’t think they have. We don’t even know who they are, honestly. We just know “Warner Bros.” was funding it, but we don’t know who it is. They never called us.

JM: You have a great texting element. It’s really funny… you’re playing with the fact that people are watching this at home. It’s great you guys have that freedom to be able to do something like that.

DW: Well, you say freedom, but those texts cost money. Originally we were supposed to have hundreds and hundreds of texts. Your phone would be blowing up! But the marketing department said, “This is awesome. But we could only afford to do this for eight people.” So we dial it back.

JM: What’s the movie you would want Err to fast-forward through — or you wish you didn’t have to see the whole thing; you got the fast-forward treatment?

MM: “Nope”.

JM: Wow. I didn’t love it either.

MM: Dude, I walked out of it. Or “Yentl”. I would’ve rather watched “Yentl”.

DW: I’ve seen “Yentl”. It was a long time ago but I don’t remember it connecting with me as an eight year old.

MM: [For] Our next movie, we’re mixing “Yentl” with “Saw”. It’s a terrifying musical.

DW: With just a hint of “Red Dawn”.

JM: Wow. Paul Walter Hauser was incredible in “Richard Jewell” and so good on “Black Bird” recently. What he does with this character [Elmer] is wild and great. How was it working with him?

DW: He’s never done voiceover before. We recorded him on a homemade mic. Wasn’t it in a crawl space at his parents’ place in Michigan?

MM: I think so. I remember our first Zoom with him, he was having to walk back to some director’s house because he left his backpack there. (laughs)

DW: He was awesome! I remember him “Richard Jewell” and “I, Tonya”.

JM: Yes!

DW: We were kind of taking a leap because so much of him is visual in how he presents. And in voiceover sometimes it doesn’t work but it feels like a home run. We also had Peter Serafinowicz, Natasha Rothwell, Tim Robinson, Blair Socci, Robert Smigel and John Wilson.

MM: Dave turned me onto Paul and we both agreed he would be great for this part. Watching him perform, he was the character on the Zoom as well. He gave it his all and it really shines through in the movie. He’s so funny in this.

JM: At one point in the movie Shake says, “No one walks away from Aqua Teen.” I feel like that statement can really apply to the fan devotion to this and your work and involvement with the franchise. How do you interpret that line?

MM: Well you can’t walk away from it because we’re gonna hunt you down and keep putting in your face. We know where everybody lives.

DW: No one outgrows Aqua Teen! NO ONE!