Perhaps one of the oddest, craziest and most original
making of featurettes you'll ever see in your life. Included on the Volume Two
DVD release of the hit
Adult Swim show
Aqua Teen Hunger Force, "Future Wolf II: Never Cry Wolf: Origin of The Series" creates an
alternate reality in which the show was created, and tells you that story while still providing some rather fascinating
behind the scenes looks at how
Aqua Teen Hunger Force is made.
The featurette presents the following reality that leads the origin of Aqua Teen Hunger Force:
There was once a wolf who lived in outer space in his “believable hairship” (a rocket fish with buck-teeth) and has an idea that can save the earth, since apparently...the earth needs saving for some unknown reason.
His solution? An idea he has along with some sketches for something he calls AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE. Yet he is too late, and the Earth explodes. Yet!...he remembers he has a “time gate” that can take him back in time to before the Earth exploded (in the film it is simply a typical gate on a typical fence). He does just that and finds himself at the Turner Broadcasting System building on Williams Street.
Inside he pitches the idea to a board of three people. The board is not amused by Future Wolf's idea. Enraged, he kills two people via a laser blast and bites Cartoon Network vice president of production Khaki Jones (played by Susan Brengare), who escapes out a second story window, yet not before she turns into a werewolf as a result of the bite.
After this Cartoon Network brings in a new executive team that would be “more sympathetic to Future Wolf’s stale ideas.” Thus Ned Hastings (played by Arthur Dunhill) takes over Khaki Jones occupation as vice president of production at Cartoon Network. The network gives Future Wolf a budget for the show and he creates two android clones (played in the documentary by actual show creators Matt Maiellaro and Dave Willis) to turn his drawings into an animated series.
Cartoon Network then places the pilot episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force on at 5AM, in between five episodes of Scooby Doo, fifteen minutes of infomercials and then, more Scooby Doo (a nice jab at pre-Adult Swim Cartoon Network). The first episode of ATHF picks up a 0.2 rating, “virtually guaranteeing its cult status.”
Future Wolf then realized that what the show needed was sound. Thus using his Jammaster Keyboard, Future Wolf self composed the soundtrack for the program. Future Wolf then called up rapper Schooly D to record songs for the show and sends two white android clones to Philadelphia to “black it up” and hires “actual voices” to voice the characters to provide the show with a “realistic feel not found in silent movies.”
The show is a hit success and inspires a whole line of products ranging from plushies to can openers and...plushies. The film then asks "But what became of Future Wolf?" and cuts away to a Christmas party in 2003 in which Future Wolf is yet again, pitching another series to Cartoon Network.
THE END.
While the making of featurette doesn't seem informational in the slightest, it does provide some fascinating real behind the scenes footage. We see clips of the crew recording the sounds that Meatwad and Master Shake make as they move. Showing them recording a milkshake spilling and recording the squishing sounds of meat then showing how they used that effect on the show. We see a clip of rapper Schooly D recording the now famous theme song to Aqua Teen Hunger Force with some gang vocal help from Matt Maiellaro and Dave Willis. We also see a clip of voice actor and all round great guy Dana Synder recording a scene as Master Shake with Matt Maiellaro prompting him from outside the booth.
Listed below is the entire cast & crew of “Future Wolf II: Never Cry Wolf: Origin of The Series.” And since Adult Swim seems to be such an incredibly tight knit creative community, certain connections to other shows are listed as well.
NARRATOR:
Todd Hanson (voice of The www.yzzerdd.com on the Interfection episode)
FUTURE WOLF:
Dave Willis
Matt Maiellaro
John Brestan (edits ATHF and is a production assistant on The Brak Show)
Dana Synder
FUTURE WOLF HANDS:
Julia Merrill(wife of Andy Merrill, voice of Brak and the voice of Oglethorpe, one half of the Plutonians on ATHF)
NETWORK EXECUTIVES:
Chip Duffey ( (writer for Space Ghost Coast to Coast)
Jay Bastian (executive in charge of production for various non-Adult Swim cartoon network shows, such as Courage the Cowardly Dog and Justice League)
KHAKI JONES:
Susan Brengare
NED HASTINGS:
Arthur Dunhill
WHITE ANDROID CLONES:
Matt Maiellaro
Dave Willis
NICHOLAS INGKATANUWAT:
Mr. Marlbrook
SCHOOLY D:
Jesse Weaver, Jr.
CHRISTMAS PARTY:
Amanda Allen
Michael McDonald
Nicholas Ingkatanuwat (one of the first Adult Swim interns who also voiced a Tree in the Revenge of the Trees episode as well as the clerk in the Remooned episode)
Frank McElrath
Lisa Willis
Jay Edwards (produces and edits ATHF, appeared in Revenge of the Trees as a Tree and in the The The episode as himself. Also an award winning documentary filmmaker)
John Brestan (ATHF editor and a production assistant for The Brak Show)
PRODUCED BY:
Dave Willis
Matt Maiellaro
Jay Edwards
COMPOSITING:
Craig Hartin
AUDIO:
Roy Clements (Space Ghost, Coast to Coast sound designer)
FILMING LOCATIONS:
Turner Studios
Candler Park
Williams Street (Adult Swim Headquarters)
Nick’s Apartment
Club Ned, Marietta
SPECIAL THANKS:
Scott Johnson
Ken Brady