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I am a little late in reviewing this (it did come out in June) but better late than never. It did only take me about two years after the DVD sets that came out so a few months isn’t too bad. The next one is out in November, and I will probably buy as it comes out so it should be more timely.
The Main Characters
Futurama has 7 main characters, broken up into 4 main characters, and three other minor main characters. The whole shebang is based on Fry, the slacker Gen X-er from 1999 who wakes up a millennium later and doesn’t know what to do in the new world. He ends up working with a strange bunch of ‘toons. There’s Professor Farnsworth, the crazed, senile scientist and also Fry’s great, great great (great……………) nephew. Leela, a one eyed-purple haired woman/alien with an attitude, joins them. Also there is Bender, a foul-mouthed, beer-swigging robot. To round out the strange cast of misfits is Zoidberg, an octopus like alien who is a physician, Hermes Conrad a Rastafarian man who works is a bureaucrat, and Amy Wong, Farnsworth’s intern who is also from a very rich family.
The Setting
New York City in the year 3000.
The Film (1:28:46)
The opening is pretty funny, as we actually peek into a black and white cartoon featuring the Futurama characters a la the Steamboat Mickey cartoon. So, the last time we saw the Futurama guys, space had ripped open. Well, we start here and space has been ripped open for 31 days now. The seeming onset of this impending death leads to budding romances. Fry has a new woman named Colleen (voiced by Brittany Murphy) and Kif marrying Amy. Of course, things don’t always go too well. Farnsworth ends up getting arrested, Kif dies, Fry’s girlfriend is a polygamist. Bender joins a crazy robot cult, and a strange beast (with a billion backs!) starts clawing through the rip in the universe. The tentacled beast starts speaking through its mouthpiece (a captured Fry) and starts grabbing all the humans under its control. Soon it has all the humans except for Amy and Leela. Of course, when Amy sleeps with Branigan, Leela is the only one left that hasn’t been captured. Leela soon realizes that the beast is actually trying to mate with them! Ewww!! The beast feels bad about using them, and brings Kif back to life, where he learns Amy slept with Brannigan. So the universe goes on a date with the beast, whose name is Yivo, and they decide to dump the beast. Of course, when Yivo proposes, the Universe accepts and moves in with Yivo at its place. This pisses off Bender, who was about to take over the world. They move in and it is almost heavenly. Bender has had enough of this bliss, especially when he receives a letter from Fry, and he and the robots attack Yivo, pulling him into our Universe so they can board it and destroy it. He uses the anti-matter from Fry’s letter causes Yivo to break up with our Universe.
Movie Review
I wasn’t as into this one as I was with the previous one. I didn’t think the jokes were as tight, and the writing wasn’t as witty as it has been in the past. It took a very long time for the actual Beast to show up, and the whole 90 minutes seemed to drag a bit. Bender’s Big Score was just hysterical, but this was a lot slower and had more unusual drama (the Kif-Amy-Branigan love triangle, Fry’s girlfriend, the Farnsworth prison segment). There were redeeming moments (Kif punching Branigan at the end) and some bathroom humor stemming from Yivo but in the end, coming off the highs of Bender’s Big Score and being continued from it, this just came off as a rather boring movie. The end-credits were cool since they showed the different characters all the voice actors voiced.
DVD Features
A) Extras
1) Audio Commentary
This was recorded by a whole mess of people: Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Billy West, John DiMaggio, Maurice LaMarche, Michael Rowe, Claudia Katz, Peter Avanzino and Lee Supercinski. I always like listening to Cohen on these, and West and DiMaggio are always fun. It wasn’t one of their better commentaries, though, and included a lot of teases to the third DVD that’s coming out in November.
2) Futurama: The Lost Adventure (30:12)
This claims it is a, “long-lost, full-length adventure produced for the Futurama video game… in 3D, sort of!” I wonder what that mean? There’s also a commentary for this, recorded by Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Billy West, John DiMaggio, Maurice LaMarche, Michael Rowe, J. Stewart Burns and Lee Supercinski. It starts with the regular opening, but everything else is 3D video-game style. The characters are voiced by the regulars, too. Basically, Mom takes over the world by buying Planet Express. See, she owns 50% of Earth and is now its ruler. The crew wants to escape, but the ship is busted and it needs to be fixed. We see the different missions Fry and the others have to go on (in the video game, of course) and an actual reason why they gets revived when they die in the video game thanks to an invention by the Professor. It is actually a good story. The commentary is interesting, as they discuss the game and its positives and negatives (a bit slow to start) and how the video stuff was edited to make the “episode” move more smoothly. Adoy is Yoda backwards, and the planet is one of the Star Wars planets names backwards, too.
3) Storyboard Animatic (21:45)
This is the animatic storyboards for Act I. It is interesting how they show the opening sequence with the Steamboat Willie part. This was cool, and I always like these showing up on animated discs.
4) Deleted Scenes (3:23)
---A) Original Opening
This is the storyboard for the original opening. Basically, Bender interrupts the opening and complains about the missing plot points we didn’t see from the first movie. This was funny and I don’t know why it was axed?
---B) Fry and Colleen Meeting
This is in color, and happens when Colleen and Fry first meet again, after making love.
---C) St. Asimov Parade
This is storyboarded and is a silly scene of a guy kicking an old lady. A good cut.
---D) Zapp and Scientiests
Zapp says understanding is for sissies leading to Farnsworth complaining. Not a terribly funny scene and another good cut.
---E) Amy, Fry and Leela
This is rough storyboards. Amy tries to console Fry about losing Colleen.
---F) Scruffy, The Janitor
This is a storyboard of Scruffy, showing up when the Beast first shows up and Scruffy is taken hostage. Leela kills him. Bye Scruffy!
5) David Cross Featurette (2:03)
David Cross is the guy who voices Yivo. He talks about voice acting. This wasn’t all that interesting.
6) Blooperama (2:12)
This is scenes of the guys in the recording booth acting funny and messing up their lines and all. It’s mildly amusing.
7) 3D Models with Animator Discussion (4:11)
This was basically the animator’s talking about 3D models used in the film.
8) A Brief History of Deathball (2:02)
Peter Avanzino talks about Deathball, the game played in the main feature. They show sketches of the costumes they use, as well as of the Deathball Arena, and the interior of the Arena.
9) Bender’s Game (2:01)
Bender sees a bunch of kids playing Dungeons and Dragons and has to leave. This leads to a Bender version of the game, which is pretty weird. This is the next movie coming out in December. It looks like a lot of fun.
B) Audio/Video
This is is in Widescreen 1.78:1 and I have never seen the show look better. The colors are bright, vibrant, and the animation is just perfect. The audio is in 5.1 Dolby Surround and it is what you’d expect from the original TV series.
C) Liner Notes / Packaging
This is not in the standard DVD case but in a slipcase that houses a fold-open DVD case where the DVD is slid into an opening and not snapped in. There are some leaflets as well; a postcard and an ad for Futurama comics. Cool packaging.
D) Easter Eggs
1) Still Image
Go to the second page of extras and highlight “Back!” Press left once to highlight “Grope-O-Scope.” Press enter to see the cover to Old Farmer’s Wikipedia.
Overall Review
You know what, it may be that I was really bogged down with work the week I was working on this, but I wasn’t as impressed with this as I was with the first movie. Maybe it was my mood but in retrospect, and working with no stress, I don’t think it’s me. This was based on one main plot point, Yivo, with the rest being written around it. The first film featured more of the characters we liked while this one was basically the big three of Bender, Leela, and Fry. Hermes was nowhere to be found and Zoidberg was under-utilized here, and Amy had a pretty bad sub-plot. I just didn’t like the hour build-up to Yivo showing up and then being gone twenty minutes later. I didn’t think the writing was as witty as it has been in the past and coming off the highs of Bender’s Big Score, this was just a disappointment. It wasn’t terrible by any means, still delivering some funny lines, but not up to par with previous episodes. The best thing is the clip of the next movie, which looks really fun. The extras are nothing you haven’t seen before. The commentary was decent, the storyboard was fun, and everything else is exactly what you would expect. As far as entries in the Futurama library, this is a little of a low-point, and I can’t go higher than mildly recommended for this collection.
Overall Rating
7.0
10.0 Perfect
9.0-9.5 Near Perfect, Highly Recommended
8.0-8.5 Really good disc, Recommended
7.0-7.5 Good DVD, Mildly recommended
6.0-6.5 Above Average DVD. Mildest of mild recommendations
5.0-5.5 Decent all around disc, but catch it on TV
4.0-4.5 Great Movie but horrible DVD
3.0-3.5 Horrible movie but great DVD
2.0-2.5 There’s at least some merit to this DVD, but not much.
1.0-1.5 Horrible DVD, don’t even bother
0.0-0.5 Worst DVD ever
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