Rating: 
Summary: As the Professor would say, "Good news, everyone!"
Review: I picked up the Futurama DVD today, and was glad to see that the set contains the entire first season which was PRODUCED, not broadcast. So in addition to the nine episodes that aired in "season one" (spring of 1999) on Fox, the first four episodes that aired in season two are included as well: A Flight to Remember, Mars University, When Aliens Attack, and Fry and the Slurm Factory. While the show has aired--sporadically--since spring of 1999, only four seasons (72 episodes) were produced. You can check out more specific information about what episodes should have "really" been in seasons 2, 3, and 4 on epguides.com/futuramaAs far as the show itself, if you've watched Futurama, you probably already know if you want the collection. While I haven't had time to go through all of the discs yet, the extras do seem a bit sparse. There are a few deleted scenes, a brief (5-minute) promo video found on disc 3, and a relatively skimpy design gallery (also on disc 3). It is interesting to see the progression of sketches for characters, and also to learn that Hermes was originally named Dexter (?!?). There is (according to the box; I haven't had time to check them all out yet) full commentary on each and every episode, which should make up for any shortcomings in other bonus materials. Picture quality is nice and clear, as well as sound (although it's only Dolby surround). One of the greatest advantages to having the series on DVD is to get a good, clear freeze-frame to take in every detail and hidden joke. In summary, if you like Futurama, you know you want it, so get the DVD. If not, you can bite Bender's shiny metal . . . well, you know.
Rating:
Summary: wow.
Review: Futurama is the best show ever. In a fair world, it would have gone on forever. 'Nuff said.
Rating:
Summary: Funniest Show Currently on TV - with a great first season
Review: Futurama has surpassed the Simpsons as the funniest show currently on television (even though it probably won't be on much longer thanks to FOX). What makes this show even more incredible is the fact that unlike other great shows (Seinfeld, Simpsons, MST 3K), this series had an absolutely hilarious first season. The Simpsons and MST3K didn't get good until their 3rd seasons, Seinfeld until its 2nd, but Futurama was a laugh riot right off the bat.
This 3-DVD set includes the first 13 episodes of the series (not just the first 9, as some other reviewers have mentioned). These thirteen were originally intended to be the complete first season, but because FOX is run by a bunch or evil jerks, they only ran 9 episodes in season one, ran the final 4 at the beginning of the second season, and have been shoving episodes forward ever since.
Here are the episodes in the this set:
1. Space Pilot 3000 - Philip Fry is cryogenically frozen and wakes up in the year 3000, where he joins the crew of a space traveling delivery service.
2. The Series has Landed - The crew takes a package to the Moon, where Fry, Leela and Bender have a run-in with Moon rancher and his three robot daughters.
3. I, Roommate - Fry gets booted out of the Planet Express HQ because he is a sloppy pig, so he moves in with Bender. Hilarity ensues a la "The Odd Couple."
4. Love's Labours Lost in Space - The crew has an encounter with famous space pilot Zapp Brannigan and his second-in-command Kif, and Leela finds a new friend in the pint-sized alien Nibbler.
5. Fear of a Bot Planet - THe crew fly to a planet run by militant, human-hating robots. Bender fits right in, but Fry and Leela are captures and Bender has to rescue them.
6. A Fishful of Dollars - Fry finds out that he is a billionaire because of the interest accrued in his bank account over 1000 years, and spends his money or old 20th century memorabilia and a tin of now extinct anchovies. But the ruthless head of a robot oil corporation, Mom, will go to great lengths to have those anchovies.
7. My Three Suns - Fry accidentally drinks the emperor of a planet whose inhabitants are composed entirely of water. He becomes their new king, but finds the constant assassination attempts too much to bear, and the rest of the crew try to help him "cry out" the emporer.
8. A Big Piece of Garbage - A huge piece of garbage sent away from earth hundreds of years ago is on its way back and headed right for New New York. THe Professor and the crew have to come up with a way to stop it.
9. Hell is Other Robots - Bender joins a robot religion and gives up drinking and hookers, but after he has a relapse, he is sent to Robot Hell, where Fry and Leela must rescue him.
10. A Flight to Remember - The Planet Express crew go on a vacation on the Titanic - a gigantic but doomed luxury space liner.
11. Mars University - Fry returns to college and his roommate ends up being a super intelligent monkey.
12. When Aliens Attack - Aliens who are obsessed with the ancient Earth program "Single Female Lawyer" threaten to destroy the planet unless they can see the last unaired episode. The crew have to act out the episode to save the planet
13. Fry & the Slurm Factory - Fry wins a tour of the Slurm factory after winning a contest. Fry wanders off from the group and discovers the horrible secret of what makes Slurm so addictive. Each episode has a commentary track, and all three discs contain a least one deleted scene, a featurette, animatics and still photos. That makes this one of the greatest DVD collections of a Tv show that you can get, and at only $... (about $... an episode) this is an absolute steal. I recommend this highly.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent series, Excellent DVD
Review: I bought this in the UK early last year and then the second season in September, so I'm a little bemused as to why it's taken so long to come out in the US. However, I can thoroughly recommend this DVD; the picture quality is great (although not widscreen unfortunately) and the 5.1 sound is very clear. I actually much prefer Futurama to The Simpsons (although the early episodes of the Simpsons are great); it's far wittier and the humour is much more grown-up which, come to think of it, is probably why it bombed. So if you already like the Simpsons, but are not too keen on the later 'dumbed down' episodes (series 3 and beyond, then) and you're also into a bit of Sci-Fi (or if you think Sci-Fi is really stupid) then this is definitely for you!
Rating:
Summary: Humour at its best
Review: Like almost every teenager today, I grew up on the Simpsons. For about 5 years it was the only tv show I watched religiously. When the first episode of Futurama aired, I sat on the couch glued to the screen, and I guess I just stuck. This show was everything the Simpsons never quite was (although it still is one of the greatest comedy series ever.) This may sound like sacrilage, but I've always thought of Futurama as being more intelliegent and much funnier than the Simpsons. That is, of course, quite a compliment. The characters in Futurama are wonderfully developed, brilliantly acted, and absolutely hilarious. Fry, the crude delivery boy who accidently ended up in the year 3000, is basically a perfect portrayal of almost every man on the face of the planet. Along with his friends Leela and Bender (as well as Dr. Zoidberg, Hermes, the Professor, Amy, and others) he goes on many uproariously funny and touching adventers. This show truly has everything, and it's guaranteed to make you laugh until Slurm comes out your nose.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Series Given No Chance To Thrive By FOX
Review: First off thank God Cartoon Network managed to get the series and actually show it, unlike FOX who took every opportunity to stifle this funny and oftentimes smart show. It would pre-empt new episodes for every other show worste timeslots on Sunday nights (7PM). Because of this, I must have missed about half of the shows. All because Rupert Murdock thought I'd rather watch FOX Sports. Jerk. Having seen most of them now, I can only say my esteem for Matt Groening has increased threefold; once for having created something consistently funny like 'The Simpsons', twice for the more disturbing but funnier 'Life in Hell' strips (yes I read these first, but few probably know what these are), and thirdly for 'Futurama'. Every in-joke, every snide remark, every question you might have had about how the future might turn out if you were convinced it would be just as screwed-up as today...it's all here. Favorite character: latecomer Scruffy the Janitor. Favorite Episode: When Leela finds another Cyclops who turns out to be an imposter. Plus 'Married With Children' reference. Bonus! Now if only we could get them to bring back the series anew and show it back-to-back with 'Freakazoid' and 'Invader Zim'. What a lineup that would be...
Rating:
Summary: They no can dunk, but have good fundamentals....
Review: Let me just start out by saying this series is better than the Simpsons, in their last few seasons. Written with the same witty dialouge and social commentary as the Simpsons, but with a far future twist. It seems to me that Matt Groening spend more time and effort on Futurama than the Simpsons, which I hate to say is becoming kind of tiresome. Futurama was a fresh program with a completely different setting that for some reason never really caught on. Or at least not as well as Fox would have liked. Perhaps it was the time slot, which was continually interupted by Football, or just wasn't on in Canada. However I think the biggest reason was its scifi theme, and the I'm a black jogging pants wearing Star Trek loving virgin, stigmatize that goes along with all things scifi. Simply put, if you love the Simpsons - you'll love Futurama. If you loved married with children - you'll love futurama (or at least one episode from season 2). If you love scifi you'll love Futurama.
Rating:
Summary: "The Jetsons with leaky pipes"
Review: This is one of the greatest series ever on television, unfortunately it had too much going against it: 1. It was expected to be a huge hit. It took "The Simpsons" a couple of years to catch their stride and come up with consistently funny episodes. "Futurama" had to be either a tremendous hit or it would die... 2. Which leads to the second point - why oh why did Fox put it on Sundays at 7:00 PM and have delayed and postponed by NFL Football? For some reason in their programming, they always scheduled the games to end at 7:00 but very rarely did. This made seeing Futurama in the fall a tough proposition at best, making it impossible to get into the "habit". 3. Quite honestly, the show was just written for a select audience. This is not a show for everybody - if you didn't grow up in the '60s and '70s then many of the jokes and concepts will probably fall flat. Despite these hinderances, Futurama is a terrific show with some very unexpectedly funny things going on as well as some surprisingly sensitive shows. I would have liked more than three seasons, but what we got was pretty good. myke
Rating:
Summary: Worth Waiting For!
Review: At long last, the first season of Matt Groening's masterpiece, Futurama, is available in Region 1. If you're a fan of science fiction, you'll love it, and even if you're not, you'll still love it! Drawing on my experience with the European version which was released over a year ago, this box set has it all: deleted scenes, cast and crew interviews, alternate scenes...in other words, everything you'd expect of a top-notch DVD. Unlike The Simpsons, it didn't go through a breaking-in period. The first episode is as smooth and polished as the latest. One word of warning: "Tiny Toons" it ain't! If you're not comfortable with a thieving, foul-mouthed, cigar-smoking robot who runs on alcohol, or numerous sexual references, then you should think twice about getting this for your five-year-old. Otherwise, it's a complete joy being able to watch the adventures of Fry, Leela, Bender, and the rest uncut, uncensored, and commercial-free.
Rating:
Summary: Get to know "Futurama"
Review: How did this show survive for five seasons? Fox criminally mistreated it, giving it the often pre-empted post-football time spot and rarely providing the promotion it deserved. Yet, somehow, someway, it found an audience...just not enough of one to prevent its cancellation. Alas, after 2003, "Futurama" is no more...but fans like myself can now enjoy it over and over again thanks to the magic of DVD. This has been available in Europe for some time, where it has sold well...another sign of its potential popularity. The ultimate question remains, "Was the cancellation merited? Is this show just a "Simpsons" wannabe?" Absolutely not! "Futurama" may have come from the mind of "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening, but that's where the similarities end. The humor here is more idiosyncratic, part character-based, part social commentary, largely adult and mature, but able to stoop to the occasional gross-out gag (sonic diarrhea, anyone?) or sexual reference without losing perspective. Ultimately, it is a commentary on our times using the future as a touchpoint--or more accurately, a comedic year-2000-or-so concept of the future that also borrows from previous visions of the far future: the optimism of the space age era and the pessimism of 80s cyberpunk, the former embodied in the wacky retro-animation design of flying cars, buildings with rings, and easy space travel, the latter personified in the cheerful nihilism of suicide booths and dominating, ruthless multinational (and multiplanetary) corporations (I.e., MomCorp). Relevance is maintained through clever use of guest stars (still alive in Y3K as heads in jars) and frequent digs at 20th and 21st century culture. Another asset: The innovative use of computer-assisted animation (mostly on the Planet Express ship) gives the animation a smooth and even feel. Season One features some of the best episodes of the show's run: Fry becomes emperor of a planet of water people in "My Three Suns," and when his stupidity and stubbornness gets him into trouble, his friends find a unique...and appropriate...solution. In "Love's Labors Lost in Space," Leela has the misfortune of meeting Zapp Brannigan (think Kirk, Riker, and Dr. Smith all rolled into one), and the greater misfortune of sleeping with him. The second episode, "The Series Has Landed" features a trip to the moon, something Fry has always wanted...and something the others have done so often, they take it for granted. We see the original moon lander (replaced by nit-pickers, a sign says) and Bender falls prey to the charms of a moon farmer's daughter (a huge robot called "the Crushinator"...ah, l'amour). Here we also learn of Bender's little secret: magnetic fields screw up his inhibition unit and reveal his secret desire to be a folk singer (later realized in Season Three with "Bendin' in the Wind")."Fear of a Bot Planet" (a reference to a Public Enemy CD) finds Fry and Leela disagreeing with Bender on how humans treat robots, only to find themselves on a planet where robots rule, and humans are killed on sight. (Clever references in this episode: The robot planet is called Capek, which is a reference to playwright Karel Capek, who wrote an extraordinary play about robots ("R.U.R".), and two robots on the planet sound an alert using voices from the old video game "Berzerk."). And Bender finds religion in "Hell is Other Robots," featuring Dan Castellaneta, the Beastie Boys, and a very funny musical number (plus a great reference to an old Charlie Daniels song). Ultimately, what this DVD set will prove is that Futurama had limitless potential for a long and fruitful run, had it only been treated with some measure of respect. I suspect, though, that this DVD (and future DVDs), coupled with reruns on cable, will allow people to see how funny and innovative this series really was. Now, if only the powers that be could have seen it that way... (One question, though: If aliens destroyed all the buildings in Old New York (as seen through the window during the time progression in the first episode), why was the cryogenics building not destroyed? Well then, we wouldn't have a show, would we? Just a thought.)
|
