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The Main Characters
The nucleus of the show contains four main characters. First and foremost is Fry, a transport from the 20th century who now lives in the 31st century and has all the common sense of an idiot. He’s joined by Leela, a one-eyed mutant who is the captain of Planet Express, the delivery company they work for. She has quite the attitude as well. Rounding out the crew of the ship is Bender, a bending robot who likes alcohol and course language. The owner of Planet Express is Professor Farnsworth, a noted scientist well into his second century of life and as absent-minded as they come. The peripheral characters include Amy Wong (you female free spirit), Hermes Conrad (he is the government worker of the company), and Dr. Zoidberg, a crustacean doctor who knows nothing about being a doctor.
The Setting
New York City in the year 3000.
The Film (1:29:08)
This has a very groovy Sinatra-esque sounding Las Vegas-looking opening number. Hearing the opening song it almost sounds like Seth MacFarlane and an IMDB check confirms that. So Amy’s parents destroy Las Vegas to make a newer, bigger, Las Vegas. Some eco-women protest and Fry ends up with a femin-necklace stuck in his head, and he ends up being able to read everyone’s thoughts! He meets a kook who tells him to wear a foil hat (that keeps the thought out) and not to tell anyone or the dark ones will get him. Fry decides to use this skill to win a poker tournament as Bender starts having an affair with the Don-bot’s (the head of the mafia) wife. Bender wants to run off with her and needs to win the poker tourney, too. Bender ends up winning, only to get shot up by the mob as a warning. Meanwhile, Amy’s father wants to destroy a whole bunch of the universe to make a golf course, including a dwarf star. Leela is dead-set against this and protests, which ends with the death of Spiro Agnew’s body and now they are on the lam. They won’t go without a fight, sabotaging the project at every turn. Fry says goodbye to Leela and is then captured by a group of mind-readers and they tell him that the dwarf star that Leo Wong wants to destroy is important and Leo Wong must be stopped. So Fry starts working for him, and Leela is battling against him, both with the goal of stopping Leo. Turns out the star is actually an egg that is the key to all extinct beings revived and only Fry can stop the Dark Ones. Unfortunately, the girls are arrested and thrown in jail and it is all up to Fry to save the universe.
Movie Review
This was a really interesting movie for me. It’s the last movie we’ll be getting probably forever but just in case, the ending is a bit open-ended. So what do you make of it? It’s an interesting tale that I think was at times too large for the film and was sometimes self-indulgent. What I mean by that is that the writers are very smart people, all their degrees prove it, but I thought that while watching the film they were going pretty far out there in terms of science and astronomy to take things that they collectively would find funny that perhaps the normal Joe wouldn’t. Don’t get me wrong, there were some funny things and the story at least made sense, but it got a bit far out there at times. As a conclusion to Futurama I think it is fitting it ends this way, with the group going into the unknown. It was a good final showing, but not great, and of all the films they made, I think this would be the one that doesn’t translate well if they were to put it on TV as three episodes. Recommended to Futurama fans, mildly recommended to everyone else.
DVD Features
A) Extras
1) Audio Commentary
This commentary was recorded by Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, John DiMaggio, Maurice LaMarche, Patric M. Verrone, Michael Rowe, Lee Supercinski and Peter Avanzino. They talk about Seth singing the introduction. Matt compares it to Woody Woodpecker singing on Jonny Quest. Someone mentions the out and out Celine Dion bashing. DiMaggio says he does his own burping. They talk about politics and say this was recorded in October of 2008, a month before the election and mention something about a stock market crash? If they knew how bad it would get they wouldn’t laugh. Another solid commentary from the guys.
2) Storyboard Animatic (22:25)
This is the rough pencils for the first act of the movie. It features all the voice-over work of our actors. If you’ve seen one animatic storyboard you’ve seen them all, and I always find them entertaining.
3) Behind The Scenes (5:10)
This is brought to you by “DVD Features that no one bothers to watch Productions.” Lauren Tom (voice of Amy) says she’s the show’s only writer and once she’s finished, the acting is done and it seems that Lauren does all the parts, too. Then it’s drawn, again by Lauren, and the music is recorded by, you guessed it, Lauren. This was humorous.
4) Penn Jillette Mania (2:08)
Penn plays himself on Futurama, and he says how he can’t do any voices but his own. This wasn’t terribly exciting, unless you like to see Penn record his own lines.
5) Cutting Room Floor (2:52)
There are five scenes here; Dolemite Hill, Matcluck, Paint?!, Morbo Solo and Mind Reading. Dolemite Hill was in the animatic and is fully animated here. The rest are not. Matcluck features the return of the chicken lawyer, Paint deals with Scruffy seeing Zoidberg barf on the express, Zorbo solo is him doing the news by himself, and Mind Reading is more fun with Billy reading minds.
6) Matt & David in Space (4:24)
Matt and David discuss their experience flying on Zero-G, a plane that goes up into the upper atmosphere so the crew can experience weightlessness. David says this goes on a parabolic path, a term I love to hear as a math teacher. They look like they had fun. I am sure this is really expensive.
7) How to Draw (11:10)
This promises to show us how to draw the Futurama characters in “10 very difficult steps.” First up, we have the Professor. Next up is Nibbler, followed by Hypno-Toad and finally Fry. This is what it is. It’s a Futurama tradition so it had to be on here.
8) 3D Models (4:20)
Scott Vanzo (director of computer graphics) and Peter Avanzino (director of the episode) go over some of the 3D models used in the film.
9) Bender in the Theater (1:17)
This is fully animated. I don’t know if this was just for this DVD or if it was used previously. Basically, Bender breaks all the rules of the theater and is just a big jackass.
10) Zapp’s Love Guide (2:49)
This is Zapp’s guide to “Making Love at A Woman.” It’s pretty funny with clips of Zapp from previous episodes.
B) Audio/Video
This 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) Packaging / Liner Notes
This is not in the standard DVD case but in a shiny holofoil type slipcase that houses a fold-open DVD case where the DVD is slid into an opening and not snapped in. You get some cool postcards, too, including the naked volleyball one. Cool packaging.
D) Easter Eggs
1) Billy West Fun Stuff(2:42)
Go to the extras, highlight “Penn Jillete Mania,” highlight “Main Menu,” and press up to highlight Teller’s head and press enter. You are treated to a, “very obscure Futurama DVD Extra!” It’s basically the guys going outside during a power outage to see what had happened as David X. Cohen introduces us to Billy West, as Zapp Brannigan, rambling about the accident that caused the power outage.
2) Toilet Paper Animation (0:38)
To get this, go to Zapp’s Guide to Love on the extras and highlight it on the wheel. Press down to get a mystery spot on the wheel and press enter. Bill Morrison shows up some toilet paper animation. It’s cute.
Overall Review
It’s the end of Futurama, basically. It’s sad that it is ending, but everything must at some point. I don’t know if this is going to be the definitive ending of Futurama and I think it was left open-ended for a reason. If it is the last DVD it was a fitting one. All the extras we expect are there, including the (always great) commentary, the 3D Models, the animatic, a whole bunch of silly things with our characters. It’s always a full collection, throwing in about 4 hours of content onto the collections. You never feel like there’s something they left off a DVD so they could double-dip later on. The DVD’s the give you are always the best they have and always given their all and throughout the four solo DVD’s and the four volumes of cartoon DVD’s and I respect that. It wasn’t my favorite DVD of the four that came out (actually it’s my third favorite above of Beast With A Billion Backs), but it is enjoyable and is always a source of entertainment.
Overall Rating
8.0
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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