The fourth and final volume of the Futurama series has come
to DVD. Finally, viewers and fans of one of the greatest cartoons to ever get
the axe can relax, and breathe deep, knowing they now have all the episodes
at their fingertips. This four-disc set finishes off the series – showcasing
the remaining episodes from the fourth season, and the entire fifth season.
That’s probably the strangest thing about these Futurama
sets – the titles don’t reflect the content. For example, Futurama
had five seasons, but there are only four volumes of DVD sets. The result of
this is confusion really, because the episodes are not only completely out of
order, but also the seasons are spread all over the place. I suppose in the
end it doesn’t matter as long as they are all there. And indeed, here
there are in all their hysterical glory for everyone to enjoy. So here’s
Volume Four and it’s 18 episodes. Let’s review.
THE SHOW: Futurama was another creation from comical mind of Matt Groening
– the creator of The Simpsons. While it never got the
attention it deserved due to a less than stellar timeslot, and people who were
constantly comparing it to The Simpsons, Futurama
managed to carve itself out a fantastic cult following, and a spot in syndication
on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim lineup.
The premise of the show is this: Phillip J. Fry was a pizza delivery boy in
our time (the present…circa 1999), and on New Year’s Eve of 1999,
he is accidentally (or is it?) cryogenically frozen on a delivery run. He wakes
up 1000 years in the future, in New New York. No that wasn’t a typo either.
Finding a job at a delivery company known as Planet Express he joins his only
surviving relative Professor Hubert Farnsworth. Working along with him is a
plethora of hysterical characters. Captaining the delivery ship is a female
Cyclops named Leela. The rest of the crew includes a foul mouthed, drunken robot
named Bender, a Jamaican limbo champ and businessman, Hermes, rich and spoiled
Amy Wong, and then one of the funniest characters on the show – a walking
talking lobster Dr. Zoidberg. His knowledge of human anatomy alone will make
leave you in stitches. There are a number of fantastic supporting characters
such as Zap Brannigan, Captain of the Nimbus starship in the DOOP (think Star
Trek’s Federation), and Kiff his first mate. Zap is probably the best
character in the show actually. His blatant sexual drive and skimpy uniform
send women running in all directions, and will have you rolling on the floor
laughing. My person favorites are the regular aliens such as Morbo (a TV anchor…man?)
and Lur, the supreme commander of the planet Omicron Perseai 8. All in all,
it’s a magnificent lineup that makes the show utterly hysterical.
THE EPISODES:
Volume Four of Futurama includes 18 fantastic episodes that
I’m finally happy to have at my disposal. As I stated in my review of
the third volume, this series has a great mix of comedy and emotion. There are
a number of episodes that are touching, while the rest are all out fun. For
instance, probably the most tear-jerking episode of any animated series in history
is here, called “Jurassic Bark.” Fry discovers that among some fossils
discovered was his dog. Yes, his dog was fossilized. But that’s beside
the point. The end of the episode is enough to make even the manliest man break
down in tears. It’s hard to explain so you’ll just have to watch.
Another touching episode was actually the series’ final show; “The
Devil’s Hands Are Idle Plaything,” in which Fry tries his best to
finally show Leela how he really feels about her. But even with these few depressingly
fantastic episodes, there are a ton of franticly funny ones to get you back
to laughing it up. Some of my favorites include: “Love And Rocket,”
“The Why Of Fry,” “Obsoletely Fabulous,” “Three
Hundred Big Boys,” “The Farnsworth Parabox,” and “Kif
Gets Knocked Up A Notch.”
Two of my favorites however deserve a little more attention. The first is a
comedic look at the problem of global warming, called “Crimes Of The Hot.”
When it is determined global warming is caused by robot exhaust, the destruction
of all the robots of the world is ordered – a rash decision forced by
years and years of avoiding the issues and not taking care of the problem (sounds
familiar doesn’t it?) My good pal Morbo has a great newsreel scene in
the beginning. Be sure to catch this episode.
The second episode you should be sure to watch is “Where No Fan Has Gone
Before,” a wonderful Star Trek related episode. In fact, William Shatner,
Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, and Walter Koenig all came and
did special guest voicing for their characters on the episode. It’s a
show that Trekkies will truly appreciate, and the rest of you should have a
laugh too. Don’t miss it.
Together, the 18 episodes are more than enough to keep you busy for a long time,
and laughing all the way. It’s really a shame that a show of such caliber
was canned simply because of poor station management.
THE EXTRAS: Futurama Volume 4 is loaded with special features. There are
some good ones, and some that could have been expanded a lot more. Overall it’s
a fairly decent amount, but the quality is lacking slightly.
-Storyboards: View the beginnings of the episode “Kif Gets Knocked Up
A Notch.” Cool way to see how the idea for the episode is planned out,
but would be nicer if they did it for more than one episode.
-International Clip: Using your “audio” button on the remote, you
can view the selected clip of an episode in multiple languages. It’s kind
of funny. The voices are all whacked out and far from what you’re used
to.
-Deleted Scenes: There are too many too list. Viewers can watch whole scenes,
and parts of existing scenes that were just left behind. Some due to time constraints,
others because they simply just didn’t fit. These are always neat.
-Animatic: View the animatic for the episode “Obsoletely Fabulous.”
More interesting than the storyboards because it has voiceovers and some penciled
animation, some full animation. Again, wish they had done it for more than one
episode though.
-3-D Models: This is cool. Much like on previous DVD sets of Futurama, you can
see how some of the 3D objects are rendered in creation. For the graphics guru
this is really neat, and even for the casual viewer, you’d have to be
interested by this.
-Pencil Test Segments: This was…so-so. It shows how some of the scenes
were drawn in pencil in pre-production. It’s almost nauseating how fast
the scenes repeat – but interesting to see how everything is drawn. Maybe
cartoonists will really enjoy this.
-How To Draw Characters: Here you can see step by step how to draw the characters
of Bender and the Professor. This would have been good if it wasn’t simply
stills showing drawing directions. The best example of “how to draw”
was on the King Of The Hill DVD set, where the artist drew the characters for
you right there in real time. That was fantastic, this, is not.
-Full Length Audio Commentaries: I’m usually iffy on commentaries, but
once again these are top notch. Not only do commentaries accompany each of the
18 episodes, but also they are definitely worth listening to. I’ve said
before I enjoy commentaries that give you insight behind the show, as well offer
opinions from the people involved. These commentaries give you everything. Voicers
Billy West, John DiMaggio, Lauren Tom, Frank Welker, and producers Matt Groening
and David X. Cohen provide the viewer with a wonderful, and funny behind the
scenes look at all the episodes. If you like commentaries, you’ll love
these. I especially liked listening to the ones of my favorite episodes.
-Still Gallery: Why do they include this? It does nothing for me.
Overall, there are a bunch of things to watch, and most are pretty good, but
if there was just more expansion on some it could have been a lot better. Thankfully
there are lots of great episodes to watch anyway.
Futurama Volume Four is a fantastic set no matter how you
look at it, mostly because the show is simply so good. Even with fairly good
special features, the set is definitely worth picking up. Obviously if you already
have the first three sets then you’ll need this to complete your collection.
If you don’t have any of the others, picking up this one would do you
no harm. Futurama is a show you can just start watching at any time, and still
love it. Anyone can appreciate its humor and sentiment. There are plenty of
episodes to keep you busy here, and enough special features to occupy a few
hours. Overall it is a solid set, and I’m glad I have my copy. You should
go get yours. Morbo is pleased, but sticky.
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