I still enjoy animated movies and cartoons. I got hooked on The Simpsons about ten years and have been the show ever since. In 1999, Futurama, another animated show created by Matt Groening, began to air. Unfortunately, this was one of the shows that FOX canceled too soon after bouncing it around the schedule for a few years. I was happy when the show was released on DVD and I started to pick up the DVD sets. I recently watched Futurama - Volume 3.
Futurama was set 1,000 years in the future in New New York. Philip J. Fry, a pizza delivery boy, accidentally was frozen in a cryogenic chamber on New Year’s Eve 1999. He was thawed out 1,000 years later and then had to adjust to living in a strange new world. His adjusting to the future was the main focus of the first season and that also played a part in the second season. Fry met Bender, a somewhat sarcastic robot, and the two ended up working at Planet Express, the delivery company that Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, one of Fry’s descendants, owned. Leela, a one-eyed alien was actually the first person that Fry saw when he was thawed out. She ended up getting a job at Planet Express as well as the pilot. Hermes Conrad, a government bureaucrat, Amy Wong, some sort of intern, and Dr. Zoidberg, an alien lobster, also worked for the Professor.
By the beginning of the third season, Fry had adjusted fairly well to living in the future. He did still encounter some new things, like a race of alien brains or dating a robot. Once again, several episodes featured the crew making some sort of delivery somewhere in the universe. They ended up going to some interesting planets, like the one that was just like ancient Egypt, complete with Pharaohs, pyramids, and other monuments built by slaves. Sometimes the deliveries were very important to the plots of the episodes and other times they were just a minor aspect of what was going on. I believe at least a little bit of every episode was set in New New York where Planet Express was based and the main characters lived. The show continued to have the interesting futuristic look that was established during the first season.
This season also had episodes that were focused in on a few of the different characters. Dr. Zoidberg started off mostly in the background and then received a little more attention during the second season. The episode That’s Lobstertainment! featured him and his uncle and did help to add more development to the character. During Where the Buggalo Roam was set on Mars at the ranch that Amy’s parents own. Leela was dealing with issues related to her childhood and only having one eye in The Cyber House Rules. She also played a bigger part in A Leela of Her Own. It was nice for some of the other characters to play bigger parts at times. Professor Farnsworth continued to be around, sometimes only long enough to send the crew off on a job. He did do more in a few of the episodes. I think most of the episodes were focused on Fry and Bender. That was also done in earlier seasons of the show. The episode The Luck of the Fryish shared some things from Fry’s past before he was frozen, which was interesting. I think that Bender probably ended up receiving even more attention than Fry did. Bender was always shown doing something even if he wasn’t connected to the main plot of the episode. The episodes that were more focused on Bender were very entertaining.
I thought that the episodes included in Futurama - Volume 3 continued to be very funny. The show had a more unique humor that some people may not appreciate. I think it made the show very entertaining. Fry continued to end up in some different or bizarre situations even though he had adjusted pretty well to living in the future. Those situations ended up being very funny, like when Fry was sent to a robot insane asylum. Some viewers might find the humor too silly at times but I think it worked very well for the show. All of the other characters also did things that I felt added to the humor. The show continued to poke fun at science fiction in general and at a few other movies or televisions shows in particular as well. One episode featured a segment that was like The Wizard of Oz and another had Bender competing on a cooking show much like The Iron Chef.
Bender especially did have a habit of saying some borderline sexually suggestive things that could offend some viewers. The episode Amazon Women in the Mood in particular did include several sexual situations. There were some other sexual situations in a few other episodes as well. Once again there were a few different relationships introduced throughout the season. Amy and Kif started dating while Zapp Brannigan continued to pursue Leela. After hinting at it a bit in the second season, it was made clear that Fry did love Leela in this season. He thought it was hopeless and ended up dating a robot at one point. Leela did get involved with someone briefly as well. For the most part, it seemed like Leela wasn’t interested in Fry, but there were a few moments when it looked like she was at least tempted.
The many different locations and characters came to life with the bright, vibrant colors used for the animation. The animation had the same look that had been established in the first two seasons. It did have a similar look to the animation created for The Simpsons. During the opening credits, two small things changed for every episode. At the beginning of the credits, a line of text would appear at the bottom of the screen. The text was different for every episode. At the end of the credits, there was a screen showing an image before the Planet Express ship would crash into it. The image on the screen was different for each episode.
All of the main characters returned in the third season. Fry, Bender, and Leela seemed to receive more attention than the others with Bender receiving the most. They were the most developed characters. I did like all of them, even the untrustworthy, sneaky Bender. The Professor tended to stay in the background for many episodes but he did play a bigger part in a few of them. Hermes and Dr. Zoidberg usually didn’t have much to do either. Zapp and Kif popped up in a few episodes and I tend to consider them to be semi-regular characters. A few other minor characters that had been introduced previously did return once or twice in small parts. There were some new characters introduced in a few episodes as well. Most of the regular cast provided voices for some additional characters as well as one, or sometimes more, of the main characters. Billy West provided voices for the most characters while Katey Sagal only did the voice for Leela.
Voice Talent
John Di Maggio - Bender/Additional Voices Maurice LaMarche - Kif/Morbo/Calculon/Additional Voices Phil LaMarr - Hermes Conrad/Additional Voices Tress MacNeille - Linda the Newsanchor/Mom Katey Sagal - Turanga Leela Lauren Tom - Amy Wong/Additional Voices Frank Welker - Nibbler/Animal Voices Billy West - Philip J. Fry/Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth/Dr. Zoidberg/Zapp Brannigan/Leo Wong/President Nixon’s Head
DVD Information
Futurama - Volume contains twenty-two episodes on four discs with each disc in its own slim plastic case. The back covers for the cases listed the episodes on the discs and provided short plot summaries. The inside cover had another list of the episodes along with the chapter breaks for each episode. If all four cases are laid out side by side, the covers go together to form one large picture. Every episode had a commentary and seventeen of them had deleted scenes. There were also animatics, 3-D models, storyboard, character art, and how to draw galleries for some episodes as well.
Every DVD had a different animated menu that listed the episodes on the disc. There was also the option to play all the episodes one after the other. When that option is picked, a message shows on the screen saying that the screen could stay black for up to three minutes between episodes. The episodes can also be chosen one at a time. Once a title is selected, it is necessary to select play or the special features connected to the episode. For each disc, different characters can be heard talking on the main menu and episode menu screens.
Episode List
Amazon Women in the Mood Parasites Lost A Tale of Two Santas The Luck of the Fryish The Birdbot of Ice-catraz Bendless Love The Day the Earth Stood Stupid That’s Lobstertainment! The Cyber House Rules Where the Buggalo Roam Insane in the Mainframe The Route of All Evil Bendin’ in the Wind Time Keeps on Slipping I Dated a Robot A Leela of Her Own A Pharaoh to Remember Anthology of Interest II Roswell That Ends Well Godfellas Future Stock The 30% Iron Chef
Futurama was a very entertaining, unique show that was cancelled much too soon just like Firefly. The show was airing on the Cartoon Network and as of January 2008, it is airing on Comedy Central. In November of 2007, the first of four straight to DVD movies, Futurama: Bender’s Big Score, was released. I think the second is due out in 2008 sometime. Futurama - Volume 3 is a great DVD set for fans of the show.
Fasten your space belts for another blast to the future with Volume Three of "Futurama," the irresistibly irreverent brainchild of "The Simpsons" crea...More at HotMovieSale.com
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