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This is the third volume of Futurama, which collects thirteen episodes from Season 3 and nine episodes from Season 4. The seasons of Futurama is very odd. Fox would always shuffle around episodes or it would be preempted due to its early Sunday timeslot. So episodes would be produced, then shown out of order. That’s why the episodes here aren’t in chronological order, but in the order they were made.
The Main Characters
Futurama has 7 main characters, broken up into 4 main characters, and three other minor main characters. The whole series 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 as 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 Plots
---Disc One---
1) Amazon Women in the Mood (22:34)
Originally Aired: 02/04/01
This collection starts off with a real gem. First the sidestory sees Zoidberg taking his shell off and you just see the sickest color of Zoidberg and it’s was both gross and funny. The main story shows Kif and Amy beginning their romance. Zap and Leela double date with the two and Zap completely kills the whole night. He does a Shatner singing impression (singing Lola, but he spells Leela) then flying the restaurant they were on into a planet full of Amazons. Bender and Fry show up when they look for Amy and Leela and all the men are captured. They joke about women (especially their basketball team) and get clobbered every time. They face trial and are sentanced to death by snu-snu, or as we call it, sex. This is just a hilarious next couple of minutes where Kif tells Amy he loves her and Bender goes to the female computer (voiced by Bea Arthur) to take it over. It turns out the computer is really a fembot and the two get it on, and the guys are saved. They return home and Zoidberg gets his shell back. This was a hilarious episode with tons of jokes, pop-culture stuff and really the entire 22 minutes was just great.
2) Parasites Lost (22:34)
Originally Aired: 01/21/00
Fry eats a egg salad sandwich from a truck stop and gets some visitors in his colon. It turns out a colony of worms have started an empire there and are actually making Fry smarter, stronger and better. He even starts a relationship with Leela. The others though try to get the worms out of Fry by flying minature versions of themselves on a mini-Planet Express into Fry and getting them out through the bowels. Leela stops them from doing that since she likes the new Fry and Fry, in his new smarter state, sees this and gets rid of the worms to see if Leela will still love him. Well, we know how that turns out. This was a pretty decent episode which highlights the idiocy of Fry.
3) A Tale of Two Santas (22:34)
Originally Aired: 12/23/01
Remember the killer Santa from last year? Yep, its that time of year again. The whole world locks themselves in except for Fry, Leela and Bender, who must send a stack of mail to Neptune, where Santa lives. The three of them decide to stop Santa and bring Xmas back to how it was in Fry’s time. They actually dispatch of Santa and Bender becomes the new Santa. He flies around but everyong is scared of him and beats on him. He sits on the corner and is arrested, and sentanced to death. Fry and Leela go to get the real Santa to show Bender is a fake. The Santa goes crazy and frees Bender and both robots wreak havoc on the world. Santa knocks Bender out and vows to kill him if he takes his job again. Fry later on realizes the true meaning of Xmas, sitting around in fear, together. Not your average Xmas, I mean Christmas special, but it was very entertaining and funny.
4) The Luck of the Fryrish (23:05)
Originally Aired: 03/11/01
Fry bemoans his bad luck, both at the race track and then losing his dollar and getting electrocuted. Fry remembers the past and his lucky seven-leaf clover. They go back and forth between the past and present, as Fry looks for his lucky clover and we see the events that led to the hiding of said clover (in a Breakfast Club album of all things). Fry finds something shocking, though. He found out his brother stole the seven leaf clover, then became the first person on Mars, and made a fortune and basically became very famous. Even worse, he stole Fry’s name! Fry goes to his grave to open it back up and Fry learns the truth, his brother Yancy did not steal his name or identity. He named his son Fry and gave him the lucky clover. Fry’s nephew was named after him. This was a very sweet episode. I loved the way it went back and forth between past and present and this could be one of the best written episodes of Futurama ever.
5) The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz (22:28)
Originally Aired: 03/04/01
Leela gets all environmentally conscious for some odd reason and doesn’t want to fly Planet Express on a new mission, exporting dark matter in the Juan Valdeez dangerously close to a penguin preserve. Leela joins the protestors so Bender becomes captain and flies with Fry. When Fry stops hanging out with Bender due to Bender’s bossiness, Bender starts drinking, and ends up spilling all the dark matter on the penguins on their preserve. Of course, due to the dark matter the penguins multiply at a rapid rate so the protestors now need to start killing all these penguins so they don’t die of starvation. So Leela can’t bring herself to do it and gets heartbroken when she shoots one. Of course, it ends up being Bender she shoots. Bender was hiding out with the penguins to escape his community service. Bender gets the penguins to attack the others and they become kill happy. The episode ends with Fry showing up to save Bender and Leela as the penguins get eaten by a whale. I wasn’t digging this episode at all. Especially after it followed the awesome Fryrish episode.
6) Bendless Love (22:33)
Originally Aired: 02/11/01
Someone has sabotaged the Planet Express! It’s a mystery! Who could’ve bent the steel L that shuttles need for interstellar travel? Bender demonstrates how the L was bent, multiple times, and Bender is accused! Bender says he didn’t do it but surveillance videos show he did it while sleep walking, or sleep bending. We see a Bender origin story, he was born in Tijuana, and he reveals he’s only four years old. He is thrown out of the Planet Express and works as a scab at a bending plant where others are striking. One of the scabs is Flexo, remember him, and a very attractive fem-bot. So they have a romance and when Bender goes out with the gang to celebrate, he sees Flexo and Anglelyne out to dinner. He finds out they are divorced and they just want to stay friends! So he impersonates Flexo to see where her true affections lie and of course, he is spotted by the mob who are anti-scab. So Bender finds out that she is really in love with Flexo and he goes to fight him. Of course, the mob wants to kill Flexo after Bender impersonated him so they drop an unbendable girder on him. Flexo and Anglelyne get back together after Bender bends the unbendable girder for one last show of love to her. A bittersweet episode, nothing too great but nothing that is too bad, either.
---Disc Two---
7) The Day The Earth Stood Stupid (22:33)
Originally Aired: 02/18/01
Leela brings Nibbler to a pet show (where Bender whips Zoidberg for their poor showing) and Nibbler wins dumbest pet in show. The winner, Hypno-Toad, a toad who can hypnotize, obviously. They go back to PE and Farnsworth has good news, the planet they were going to deliver to has exploded and since they paid in advance they get some free money! It seems there are a string of planets that are being destroyed and Earth is next in line! Nibbler senses something strange and runs off. Leela looks for him but is chased by flying brains. She spots Nibbler flying off in a spaceship but Nibbler returns to save Leela. The brain creatures start taking over, making everyone dumb and everyone is affected except Fry. Leela learns (after landing on Nibbler’s planet) that the brain spores are their sworn enemy and only Fry is able to save the universe. So Fry tries to stop the brain and they travel through many famous books in an epic battle. Fry breaks free and tries to shock the brain but he dies. This was all a ruse to show Fry writing a book that trapped the brain into the book! Fry wins! This was a pretty funny and interesting episode.
8) That’s Lobstertainment (22:33)
Originally Aired: 02/25/01
Zoidberg takes a stab at stand-up comedy and fails miserably. He bemoans the fact that he can’t be like his uncle, the famous Harold Zoid, and goes to him for help. Harold has long been out of work and is forgotten but he has a plan to get himself remembered. He asks his nephew for a million dollars to make another movie. Zoidberg doesn’t have the money but luckily Bender is now working for famous soap star robot Calculon and tells him he guarantees him an Oscar if he finances the film. Of course, the film bombs and Calculon gives the ultimatum, he gets the Oscar or Harry Zoid is dead! This episode had its fair share of chuckles, Zoidberg is the funniest character after all, and the laser disc Farnsworth watches was funny, too. Other than that this was just average.
9) The Cyber House Rules (22:34)
Originally Aired: 04/01/01
Leela gets invited to a ten-year reunion from the orphange she used to live. She remembers living at the orphanage and always being teased for having only one eye. She thinks it will change but even though all the orphans are losers, she’s still made fun of. Then the man she used to have a crush on offers her a solution, he is a doctor and can perform surgery to give her two eyes! She can be normal! Everyone is for it except for Fry and Leela goes through with the operation and finds her live is a lot better. Bender, meanwhile, adopts 12 kids since the government pays him $100 a month for having them. He finds out they are costing too much money and starts to sell them. Leela and her new man go to adopt one and Leela wants the one with a third ear. The guy says its not normal so he can perform surgery for it and Leela realizes that she doesn’t need two eyes to be normal, she is her own person. Bender gives the kids back to the orphanage and he really does miss them. This was a sweet episode.
10) Where The Buggalo Roam (22:33)
Originally Aired: 04/01/01
Amy and crew go to visit Amy’s parents on Mars. Amy’s parents are to meet Kif for the first time and when they meet him they are not impressed. They think he’s a weakling. When the Wong’s main source of income, the Buggalo’s, are stolen, Kif saves them! Unfortunately, Amy is kidnapped by the native Martians, a people who lost their land to the Wongs when they gave them a single bead. The Wongs don’t trust Kif and get Zap Brannigan to save their daughter. Kif eventually saves Amy but the parents still don’t like him. Oh well, Amy likes him and that’s all that matters. This was a fun social commentary look at how the Indians were treated back in the early days of the US.
11) Insane in the Mainframe (22:33)
Originally Aired: 04/08/01
Bender meets an old friend while at the bank and the robot holds up the bank! He gives Fry and Bender some money and the two of them are arrested! This leads to a hilarious trial where the Chicken “defends” Bender and Fry. The two plead insanity and they both go to robot prison. Fry doesn’t belong there but everyone thinks he’s just a crazy robot pretending to be human. He even has to share a cell with the robot who got them in prison in the first place! Fry is eventually released and he is acting like a robot now! So Fry acts like a robot and nothing the crew can do can show him he is a human. In the end, the robot who robbed the bank breaks out of the mental institute with Bender and tries to rob it again. He is caught but the two flee back to the Planet Express, where everyone is held hostage. Fry saves the day, thinking he is a warrior bot and dispatches of the crazy robot! He is cut during the fracas and realizes he is a human. This was a very funny episdoe.
12) The Route of All Evil (22:30)
Originally Aired: 12/08/02
Hermes’ son (Dwight) and Cubert were both suspended from school. They got into a fight with an alien after the alien disposed of their lunches in a black hole. Meanwhile, Fry, Leela and Bender brew their own beer at home and are stuck with being the legal guardians of Dwight and Cubert. The two of them cause lots of problems with the Planet Express So Hermes lays down the law, they must get jobs! So the kids start a rival company called Awesome Express. They start delivering papers and start doing better than Planet Express! It gets even worse when Fry, Leela and Bender start working for Awesome Express. Farnsworth and Hermes lose their jobs but the kids come crawling back when they get in over their heads and can’t deliver all the papers. So Hermes and Farnsworth help them, then get beat up by a blob, then get to drink some of Bender’s ale. The story fell apart pretty quickly at the end but it was a serviceable episode.
---Disc Three---
13) Bendin’ In The Wind (22:33)
Originally Aired: 04/22/01
Fry gets a new car after it is dug up from the ground. Fry brings it back home but learns there is no such thing as gas. Bender is asked to open a can of whale oil but Bender gets badly injured by a magnetic can opener and the injuries are severe, he can never walk again. While in the hospital he meets Beck and the two start traveling together as a band. Fry, Zoidberg, Amy and Leela follow along and listen to Beck and Bender perform wearing their dyed shirt. Beck and Bender have an idea to raise awareness for broken robots called Bend-Aid. Of course, right before the show Bender finds out he can move again and is no longer a broken robot. The others go there and sell beads coughed up by Zoidberg to finally get some money they had been lacking. They have the concert, featuring Cylon and Garfunkel, and Beck. Bender starts his song and gets into it and starts dancing! The crowd turns on him and Bender et al escape in Fry’s van.
14) Time Keeps on Slipping (22:33)
Originally Aired: 05/06/01
The feared Harlem Globetrotters come and challenge Earth to a game and if the Globetrotters win, the entire planet is shamed. Farnsworth creates a team of mutant players to challenge the Globetrotters. Farnsworth sends the crew to get some chronitons, a time-altering substance, to speed grow the team and it is causing havoc, time is jumping around and the universe is literally ripping itself apart. The Globetrotters, specifically Bubblegum Tate, unlatch a plan to move the chronitons from one place to another in the universe. They try it but it still doesn’t work. We fast forward and Fry and Bender both have to deal with losses, Bender realizes he can’t be a Globetrotter and Fry jumps ahead to see him married to Leela, but ultimately divorced. They have to destroy the nebula and as they are about to Fry sees what he did that made Leela fall in love with him, he moved the stars themselve to spell out a message to her. That message was destroyed and she didn’t see it. The episode ended on a downer but was well-written.
15) I Dated A Robot (22:53)
Originally Aired: 05/13/01
This would be the Season 3 finale. Fry is upset that the rest of the crew just sits on their asses all day. This is the distant future! He wants to do a whole bunch of fun things! He destroys a planet, he goes to the edge of the universe, rides a dinosaur then feeds him (where he loses his hand), then wants to date a celebrity. He downloads a celebrity into a robot so that the robot becomes that celebrity. They can download this from nappster.com, of course. They head to the internet where an alien buys the Milky Way, and Fry finds the perfect celebrity for him to date; Lucy Liu. They put a blank robot in the drive and they have a Lucy Liu, who actually provides the voice for the show! The rest of the crew warn Fry of the dangers of dating a robot through a PSA film. Leela, Bender and Zoidberg go to nappster and find it is actually short for kidnappster. They steal Lucy’s head which leads to an army of Lucy’s attacking humanity. It would be Fry’s Lucy that sacrificed her life to destroy the other Lucy’s. The head of Lucy warns of the dangers of downloading illegally. This was decent, nothing too great for a season finale but, decent.
16) “A Leela of her Own” (22:47)
Originally Aired: 04/07/02
Fry and Leela happen upon a new pizza store in the neighborhood and head in for a try. They pizza was awful but Fry wants to help them out. He suggests a big screen TV to watch Blurnsball. The aliens are intrigues by the game and want to know more about it. They play the game and Leela pitches. Her lack of depth perception causes her to bean the aliens, and brings a crowd. The owner of the Mets, the leagues worst team, sees this and offers Leela a spot on the team so she can keep the fans. She starts pitching and becomes a marketing ploy for the team. Everyone loves her except for other women ball players, and one tells her about it. Leela says she’s not going to be the worst player ever and vows to be the second worst. She seeks out the worst player, Hank Aaron the 24th and he helps her. Leela gets an opportunity to prove herself in the last game and has to pitch to the woman who berated her before! She gets two strikes but the third pitch is not as successful, and Leela and the Mets lose the game. Leela goes down as the worst player in history but was an inspiration to all women to show that not all women suck that bad. Not really a great episode or anything, but the Mean Joe rip off was pretty funny. Bob Ueucker and Hank Aaron provide guest voices for the show.
17) “A Pharoah to Remember” (22:33)
Originally Aired: 03/10/02
Bender feels unwanted so the gang throws him a surprise funeral. Bender is unpleased still and leaves. The Crew then delivers a huge sand stone to a planet (an Egyptian planet) and are quickly made slaves to help building the tomb (pyramid) of Hermenthotip. Bender loves being a slave and praises Hermenthotip, even helping them build his tomb. He tells them to raise the nose before he arrives and, of course, the nose falls on him. His dying breath releases all the slaves but only Bender hears him. Of course, Bender is named the new pharoah and makes the slaves build a huge monument to him. Bender doesn’t like it and demands another one. Everyone else hates it and sends him and Leela and Fry into the depths of the tomb. They escape by using the beer he kept as an explosive and flee the planet. Not too memorable.
---Disc Four---
18) The Anthology of Interest II (22:43)
Originally Aired: 01/06/02
The first attempt at this worked well so why not try it again? These are basically short stories as told through Farnsworth’s What If machine. The first story is what if Bender is human. This leads to a hilarious bit with Bender finding out where his new antenna is. Fry tells him to stop shaking it or he’ll make God cry. Awesome. Bender loses all self-control and basically becomes a fat blob in one week and dies. Fry’s question for the machine is what if life was like a video game? Donkey Kong takes over the world, and the Italian representative (Mario) is aghast! Fry tries to defeat them but fails (All Your Base Are Belong to Us) and the enemies want quarters. Leela asks the machine what if she found her home planet. This leads to a Wizard of Oz parody (Leela is Dorothy, Fry, Bender and Zoidberg are the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion). It was pretty funny, especially Zoidberg.
19) Roswell that Ends Well (24:51)
Originally Aired: 12/09/01
This episode would start Futurama’s fourth season, and is generally considered the best episode in series history. The gang watches a supernova as Fry puts Iffypop in the microwave which causes the ship to be transported back in time! They end up crashing on Earth on July 7th, 1947 in Roswell New Mexico. Bender’s body was the debris shown in the famous newspaper and Zoidberg was the alien they captured. So the crew has 24 hours to fix the ship and fly through the spacehole they created to get back to their time. They also need a new microwave. Fry goes to the army base to get the rest of Bender’s body and Fry runs into his grandfather currently stationed there, Enos. Fry protecting his grandfather is hilarious, especially when it is implied he may be gay, and is then killed in a nuclear bomb test. So Fry ends up getting it on with his grandmother, becoming his own grandfather! They end up getting back to the future and really, this was an awesome episode. This won an Emmy award in 2002. The actual episode was about 22:43, and the rest is dead air and black screen, I guess because of the animatics.
20) Godfellas (22:33)
Originally Aired: 03/17/02
The crew gets attacked by some space pirates. Bender just wants to sleep and to get rid of the noise he hides in a torpedo hatch, which gets fired at the pirates. Planet Express is unable to catch up to Bender and Bender is stuck floating aimlessly through space for all eternity. He is bombarded by asteroids and one lands on him, and it contains a race of aliens! They build him a great brewery which is causing death and crime on the species. Bender tries to help his followers but causes a lot of destruction. A new community grows on his ass and they are unbelievers. A war starts between the two sides and all life is exterminated. Bender finds a galaxy who may or may not be God and they have a chat. Fry starts looking for Bender but can’t find him and gives up. Luckily, the galaxy hears Fry and sends Bender back to Earth! This had one cool, cosmic and somewhat divine, ending!
21) Future Stock (22:25)
Originally Aired: 03/31/02
The Planet Express crew is in financial disarray. Farnsworth is the CEO and the shareholders want a change. Fry brings in a stockbroker from the 80’s and he takes charge of the company, and taking on the biggest company in the future! Mom and her robot company! Of course, the new CEO sells out the company for a huge profit and all seems lost for Planet Express. Fry tries to save the day but eventually fails. Only a well-placed case of boneitis kills off the CEO and the company is back in the hands of Fry and his friends, who lose a fortune and hate him in the end. This was a decent episode, though it lacked a lot of the laughs of previous ones. The 80’s danger dance was funny, as was the MAC commercial rip-off.
22) The 30% Iron Chef (22:25)
Originally Aired: 04/14/02
Bender makes food for the crew and they can’t stand it. They don’t want to tell him but he hears them complaining about it and leaves, dejected. He goes to Elzar to try to get him to teach him to cook but Elzar kicks him out. He is now homeless then runs into a bunch of hobos (becoming a robo, different from a romo). He goes with them and runs into a chef who fell out of fame. The chef trains him but Bender kills him with his food. He gives him a magic ingredient and Bender goes off to challenge Elzar in the Iron Chef competition. Bender’s food is terrible but he uses the special ingredient, and wins! He returns home and the ingredient was water, with LSD in it. This episode is hilarious for anyone who has seen the original Japanese Iron Chef (which I actually watched a lot back when it aired) but now it seems very dated.
Volume 3 Review
Volume 3 had some fantastic episodes, but also some clunkers as well. You know, it’s Futurama. The episodes are full of some hilarious sight gags and looking back on some things from our time through the eyes of people in the year 3000 is an easy way to get laughs. I think that when all the characters get a chance to shine and interact together is when the show is at its best. You know what humor to expect from this show and fans would love it, while those who don’t, well, won’t. I have to say this was probably the second best volume of episodes (Vol. 1 was the best) and I really can’t hate on it.
DVD Features
A) Extras
---Disc One---
1) Parasites Lost Storyboards
As with the last volume, this is a whole collection of storyboards for the above episode. They are basically like comic panels for everything happening in the episode. There are hundreds of pages here to go through.
2) Deleted Scenes
---A) Amazon Women in the Mood (1:28)
Amy complains about the men attracted to her. The joke is Amy dates a lot of guys. The Amazonians talk about their shower room. Zap hits on Leela and wants to make love to her. There’s a funny scene of some lesbian Amazonians and a joke that men can’t last long, and finally one of Zap telling Kif about the double date.
---B) Parasites Lost (1:53)
A clown does a joke and Fry talks about it in too much detail. Fry complains about a bad tip, the ship gets low on dark matter and has to refuel. Hermes gives a presentation and they show why he’s using a scoop when eating the popcorn. There’s one final scene of the dude hitting on Leela at the beginning of the episode.
---C) A Tale of Two Santas (0:38)
As Leela rips out Santa, he gives a joke which the Neptunians enjoy. The Chicken Lawyer eats Millet as he interrogates Bender.
---D) The Luck of the Fryish (0:26)
Leela says her wrist thing detects a whole lot of radon, then uses her laser to try and open the vault.
---E) The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz (1:56)
Bender complains about cleaning the birds, then we see him captaining the ship which he says will be remembered in a poem or a mini-series. Zoidberg says he loves peoplw who have power over him. Zoidberg loses in a game to Fry, Fry and Bender watch, “The Scary Door,” a Twilight Zone rip-off. Fry jokes about the 15-second TV shows we see on shows like this.
---F) Bendless Love (2:17)
Bender tells Flexo about his love to Anglelyne. Bender complains about being accused for bending everything. Bender gets thrown out by Professor. Leela uses Bondo to fix the ship. Professor wants Leela to clean the ceiling. Bender complains to Anglelyne about Flexo and their realtionship. There was 2 minutes worth here but nothing too great. That’s why they were deleted, right?
3) Audio Commentaries
---A) Amazon Women in the Mood
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Lewis Morton, Brian Sheesley, John DiMaggio, Billy West and Maurice LaMarche appear on this commentary together. Matt jokes that he was with the Futurama crew on Emmy night (where this episode lost) and The Simpsons one. He went down and was stopped by security! Maurice plays Kif and does the voice on the commentary. Maurice says it’s a combination of Jon Lovitz and Truman Capote if you can believe that. During the Shatner/Brannigan bit they joke a lot about Shatner and his record and outtakes and its hilarious. They say the women are influenced by R. Crumb.
---B) Parasites Lost
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Eric Kaplan, Peter Avanzino and Scott Vanzo appear on this commentary together. David says he remembers the opening song as being a rocking song when he was a kid but thinks of it a bit differently now. The commentary was pretty funny and enjoyable.
---C) A Tale of Two Santas
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Bill Odenkirk, Ron Hughart and Scott Vanzo appear on this commentary together. They say this was supposed to air in December 2000 but Fox wouldn’t let them do it due to the 1999 Christmas episode they aired. Fox got complaints on the episode and thus it wasn’t aired. They said they will show the episode when it is aired at a later time. Their 7:30pm timeslot was not appropriate for a show like that but they always said none of their shows are suited for 7:30pm. John Goodman did the original voice of Santa but he wasn’t available for this one, so John DiMaggio did that voice. They talk about the cartoons and hating all of them. Coolio did the voice of the Kwanzaa bot. They joke that after seeing this it shouldn’t have been aired either. Another fun and informative commentary.
---D) The Luck of the Fryish
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Ron Weiner, John DiMaggio and Billy West appear on this commentary. They say this was one of the toughest episodes to write due to it being in the past and future at the same time. David mentions the electron microscope joke, possibly the only one in history. They mention the PJ’s manhole cover and the PJ’s reciprocated with a picture of Fry on a milk carton box. David reads some comments from the website praising this awesome episode.
---E) The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Dan Vebber, John DiMaggio and Billy West appear on this commentary. Billy introduces himself as Billy West as voiced by Zoidberg. They mention Farnsworth’s finglonger showed up again. Billy keeps up with the voice of Zoidberg the whole commentary and made the commentary ten times better and funnier than the actual episode. I laughed every time he did it. This commentary was great when Billy did the Zoidberg voice.
---F) Bendless Love
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Eric Horsted, Swinton O. Scott III, John DiMaggio and Billy West appear on this commentary. They are quiet for a while and David says they haven’t done a commentary in a few weeks. John D. says he won the Ani award for this, an animation award for best voiceover work.
---Disc Two---
1) Deleted Scenes
---A) The Day The Earth Stood Stupid (0:40)
This scene shows Leela picking up a ham to find Nibbler with. The ham man doesn’t like Nibbler. There’s another scene with Gorbo and the woman telling him how a T sounds. He does some news off the teleprompter.
---B) That’s Lobstertainment (0:34)
Zoidberg stresses about what Calculon will do to them. Harry Zoid finds out Calculon funded the movie.
---C) The Cyber House Rules (1:34)
There’s a car accident involving two flying cars, which was pretty funny. Leela and Adelay discuss having kids when Zoidberg comes and sprays ink on Leela. Leela asks why the orphans were in jail. Bender ratted them out, that slime. Bender donates the orphans back into the orphanage since the orphanage director laments that he has no orphans and no business. Farnsworth asks if Adelay’s motives are evil.
---D) Where the Buggalo Roam (0:21)
The crew eats some food Bender made at the campsite. Just a throwaway scene.
---E) Insane in the Mainframe (1:15)
Fry finds he has 100 in his retirement fun and they show Fry buying lotto tickets and the 7-11 attendant offering liqour to Bender. Farnsworth has a crazy idea to hypnotize Fry. We see the alternate ending. Bender doesn’t have the heart of a human but a banjo. He sings, half of it is done by John and the other half by David.
2) Audio Commentaries
---A) The Day The Earth Stood Stupid
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Jeff Westbrook, Brian Sheesley, John DiMaggio, Billy West and Tress MacNeille appear on this commentary. They reveal that Hypno Toad is Matt’s favorite character in all of Futurama. They joke about the origins of the word tweenis and, yeah, you don’t want to know. They talk about internet stock and mention this commentary was recorded on August 13th, 2002. The first code was just a simple replacement but the second code was a modulation type, which a Computer Science major working for the show created. Good commentary.
---B) That’s Lobstertainment!
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Patric M. Verrone, Bret Haaland and John DiMaggio appear on this commentary. Patric talks about why his name has no k on the end of it, and its pretty interesting. Hank Azaria does the voice of Harold Zoid. Hank says he always wanted to do the voice of a relative to Zoidberg since he loved the Zoidberg voice. There are some long periods of silence in this episode. They count the number of people who were in the Simpsons and Futurama (Hank, Tress, Frank and Nancy Cartwright). Patric talks about seeing an internet poster hating this episode and bashing it every chance he got until Patric e-mailed him. Then he said the episode was alright. Like I said, there are long periods of silence here, which kills the commentary.
---C) The Cyber House Rules
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Lewis Morton, Susan Dietter, John DiMaggio, Billy West and Maurice LeMarche appear on this commentary. Really, there was nothing going on during this commentary.
---D) Where The Buggalo Roam
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, J. Stewart Burns, Paty Shinagawa, John DiMaggio and Billy West appear on this commentary. David says that the censor’s didn’t like the camel smoking character. They talk about the smoking, the deep noises they made for the Buggalo and it is highlighted by a great Billy West Popeye impression.
---E) Insane in the Mainframe
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Bill Odenkirk and Peter Avanzino appear on this commentary. They joke about how we clicked on the commentary button by mistake and are desperately trying to go back. Fry’s method of fighting resembled how David fought with his sister.
---F) The Route of All Evil
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Dan Vebber, Brian Sheesley, John DiMaggio, Billy West and Maurice LeMarche appear on this commentary. David mentions they are doing this commentary before the show actually aired in America. This may be do because the person who voiced Dwight went away for 10 months to China and they couldn’t change any lines until he returned. On the commentary they have a contest to guess the real Zoidberg. The three voice over actors do their Zoidberg impressions and they all do an admirable job. Billy was the second voice and did a terrible job of it. Maurice did the alien voices on the commentary, too. Pretty good one.
---Disc Three---
1) Deleted Scenes
---A) Time Keeps On Slipping (0:42)
The first scene shows Hermes heckling from the sidelines. Fry wonders what he did to romance Leela. Leela tells Zoidberg that she doesn’t love Fry, or him, which prompts him to turn on the TV.
---B) “A Leela of Her Own” (0:12)
The coach says the owner can make him put Leela in the game but not from chewing tobacco and mumbling. It took me longer to type this than to watch the scene.
---C) “A Pharoah to Remember” (0:16)
The janitor has a line about plates spinning then breaks it. Worthless scene, really.
2) Audio Commentaries
---A) Bendin’ In The Wind
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Eric Horsted, John DiMaggio and Billy West appear on this commentary together. There is a lot of silence on this one, and they didn’t mention too many interesting things here.
---B) Time Keeps On Slipping
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Ken Keeler, Susan Dietter, John DiMaggio and Billy West appear on this commentary. They mention there is a Globetrotter’s in space cartoon episode that they didn’t know existed. David mentions that the censors wanted Leela’s arm raised to provide more coverage during the naked congo sequence, but they didn’t have a problem with the bare asses. One interesting thing on this commentary is John complaining about the comedien they used as the voice of Marv Albert. He does a Marv impression and does it better.
---C) I Dated a Robot
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Eric Kaplan, Peter Avanzino and Scott Vanzo appear on this commentary together. They talk a lot about Lucy being on the show and recording things and revealing that the Liu head in Bender’s body will be paid off a few episodes down the road. They talk about the robot having the square pupils, as all robots do. David reminds people of what Napster is and the whole idea behind it and how it was important in their time. It’s funny how time changes thing, in a few years Napster will probably be forgotten.
---D) “A Leela of Her Own”
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Patric M. Verrone, Swinton O. Scott III and John DiMaggio appear on this commentary. Patric talks about winning a bet that the Mets would play the Yankees in that year’s World Series. He talks about another bet he won as someone yawns in boredom. They asked Aaron to be in the episode but he turned them down flatly. The got Ueucker to sign on and Patric remembers that Uecker and Aaron were teammates so they called Aaron back and said Ueucker had signed on so Aaron said he’d do it. They mention that the new Braves cap worn in the episode refers to the fact that Atlanta is now under water. David never notices it and congratulates them. They joke about the Mean Joe Green commercial a bit, too. They end the commentary by asking John if he’s related to Joe and he says he isn’t. John cracks them up as the screen goes to black.
---E) “A Pharoah to Remember”
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Ron Weiner, John DiMaggio and Billy West appear on this commentary. Billy West realizes that this episode is not too great so he does the commentary as Fry, and John does the commentary as Bender. West also does the voice of the Professor during this as well. They don’t use the voices too much but them trying to put words to the theme song at the end was cute. Much like the episode, it was forgettable.
---Disc Four---
1) 3D Models from Rough Draft
All of these are narrated by I assume the special effects people. They talk a bit about whatever 3-D models are presented. There’s nothing too special unless noted.
---A) Mom Corp. Ship (0:35)
---B) Robot Arms Neighborhood Backlot (0:20)
---C) Robot Santa and Sleigh: Turnaround (0:21)
---D) Titanic Spaceliner (0:30)
---E) Hover Convertible (0:26)
This was a shot that never existed in any episode, actually.
---F) Buggalo Walk Test (0:15)
Another shot that didn’t exist. It was used as framework for other models used.
---G) Tornado: Wireframe to Final Color (0:17)
---H) Nibbler’s Ship: Turnaround (0:07)
---I) VW Van: Wireframe to Final Color (0:34)
2) Anthology of Interest II Animatic (23:44)
As with Volume 2, the DVD makers have included a whole episode in animatic form. Basically, animatics are the framework for what the cartoonists use. Think of it as a moving comic book that is not fully animated. This is the complete animatics for Anthology of Interest II, in all three of its parts, with full voice overs where recorded. It is missing most of the background music and it seems that only Billy West and Joe DiMaggio’s voices are on here. There were some scenes that weren’t in the final but nothing to really shout home about. They go through all the stories (though Leela is voiced by dudes which is weird).
3) International Clips (1:48)
This is a scene from Amazon Women In The Mood in French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. You can only listen to the different language by using the audio button on your remote. I was watching this on Windows Media Player so I had change it via tools and all but it was alright. I mean, I didn’t understand it no matter what language it was!
4) How To Draw Characters
I thought this would be someone showing how to actually draw the characters presented (Fry and Leela) but it was only a bunch of stills with different designs. The backgrounds (the bathroom where Fry bought the egg sandwich, and a museum with paintings) were very well-done.
5) Still Gallery/New Character Artwork
There are about 60 stills here, featuring sketches of all the new characters that appeared this season.
6) Deleted Scenes
---A) Roswell That Ends Well (0:18)
The deleted scene is Fry calling Bender’s head a Commie detector and using it against one of the guards who questioned him about it. It was pretty funny, actually.
---B) Future Stock (0:28)
Hermes tells everyone that their shares were worthless and the crew doesn’t like that. Mom slaps her boys then wipes her face with one of their shirts. Eh.
---C) The 30% Iron Chef (1:55)
Zoidberg walks out with the overcoat and explains why the clock is on his shirt. Elzar throws Bender out, this time telling him he can’t cook. There is a scene of Farnsworth showing many clues as to why Fry is the culprit. It is actually pretty funny. The crew tries to eat Bender’s food and when he walks in they throw it away. Bender is not impressed by Elzar’s cake with a gondola. Zorbo tastes the food. A lot of scenes, but not much substance behind them.
7) Audio Commentaries
---A) Anthology of Interest II
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Lewis Morton, Bret Haaland, John DiMaggio, Billy West and Maurice LaMarche appear on this commentary together. They talk about things that had to get cut for the Bender story (including Bender masturbating) and John shows how he did the fat Bender voice. This was pretty good, even though I didn’t write much about it!
---B) Roswell That Ends Well
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, J. Stewart Burns, Susan Dietter, John DiMaggio and Billy West appear on this commentary. They said they wanted to save time travel until Season 5 but joke they ran out of ideas. Honestly, the commentary wasn’t all that great.
---C) Godfellas
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Ken Keeler, Susan Dietter, John DiMaggio and Billy West appear on this commentary. David talks about the good logic behind the ship not catching up to Bender. They talk about a deleted scene where Bender had a dream where he was a rock star but it was cut out of this episode, the second time the scene was cut! Not too much going on with this commentary.
---D) Future Stock
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Jeff Westbrook, Brian Sheesley, John DiMaggio, Billy West and Tress MacNeille appear on this commentary. They say this is Tress’ first DVD commentary, though not the first to be heard by me, which David X. Cohen actually mentions, saying they were recorded out of order. Tress does the Mom voice on the commentary and it is pretty funny. John DiMaggio pitches a funnier idea for a line (chair gas instead of chair fuel) and Matt calls David and they talk on their cell phones.
---E) The 30% Iron Chef
Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Rich Moore, Jeff Westbrook, Brian Sheesley, John DiMaggio, Billy West and Tress MacNeille appear on this commentary. Tress does the intro (calling this the season finale of season 3), though it was aired in season 4. Someone is eating chips on the commentary, as well. They mention at the end of the commentary that Billy plays guitar very well. Decent commentary.
B) Audio/Video
The audio is presented in Dolby Surround and works well based on what we’re given. There aren’t too many cartoons that sound this well. The video is fullscreen and works well. The colors are very vivid, there are no compression lines that some cartoons have, and the CGI looks amazing.
C) Liner Notes / Packaging
The packaging on this set is awesome. There is a slipcase with Fry and Amy on the front and Leela on the back with a see-through panel on both sides. Sliding out of that is another case that is like the average background with a bunch of stuff going on. There are four slim DVD cases with covers that when combined make one picture. There was also a page stuck on the back with the basic info and each clear case has liner notes on the back, and episode/chapter listings on the inside case opposite the CD.
D) Easter Eggs
---Disc One---
1) Unused Captions
From the main menu for to “Amazon Women in the Mood.” Highlight “Play Episode” and hit right to highlight the TV Frame. Hit enter to get a huge amount (about 85) of unused captions.
2) Table Read for “A Tale of Two Santas” (35:09)
From the main menu for to “A Tale of Two Santas.” Highlight “Play Episode” and hit right to highlight the TV Frame. Hit enter to hear the table read for this episode. It doesn’t say how long it is but I used a stopwatch and that’s how long it was. It was really fun to hear them table read, especially the song they did after they dispatched of Santa and the Neptunians got back to work. It was a lot longer than what was on the TV show. Not too much was changed from the table read to the final version on TV.
3) An Xmas Messgae from David. X Cohen (5:07)
From the main menu for to “A Tale of Two Santas.” Highlight “Play Episode” and hit right to highlight the TV Frame. Hit up to highlight a Santa hat. Hit enter to see David giving an introduction to what would have been the Christmas episode until Fox calls saying its not suitable. This was a big stab at Fox for not allowing the original Christmas episode to air. This was actually pretty long and pointless. There is a running theme of David drinking a lot, and drinking while driving. Nice message there!
Overall Review
Remember how I always complained that previous collections didn’t have a Play All feature? Well, this one did. Not only that, but all the menus have some great Bender quips, either talking about the episode or cracking jokes. The extras are what you would expect from Futurama. There’s nothing different from what you got in Volume 2, the episodes were comparable, and there were some cool Easter Eggs. That said, it isn’t perfect, but it isn’t far from it. Great episodes, come good commentaries and extras galore make it an easy recommendation.
Overall Rating
9.5
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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