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Futurama Season 2 Review
By admin | August 12, 2009
Futurama Season 2 video trailer
Futurama Season 2
Studio: 20TH CENTURY FOX
Genre: Animation
Aspect Ratio: Full-Frame 1.33:1
Screen Format: Standard
Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Exposure: Color
Running Time: 637 minutes
Rating: Not Rated
Release Year: 2000
COMMENTS
For four seasons on the Fox network, “Futurama” was treated like the proverbial redheaded stepchild. Slid around like the counters on an abacus, pre-empted more often than a CNN talk show and promoted with as much enthusiasm as a “Wings” reunion special, the show repeatedly suffered from the stigma of being that other offspring of “Simpsons” creator Matt Groening. Although the sci-fi cartoon fought valiantly, and often managed to pull in some decent ratings, Fox unceremoniously dropped the axe on production of new episodes about a year ago.
The DVD revolution has given second chances to many a forgotten film, and now “Futurama” seems poised to join cult faves like “Get a Life” and “Family Guy” as television shows whose existence on a shiny little disk did what the networks couldn’t - get people to give them some love. Season one was released last year to solid sales and now that the (superior) second season is coming to your local store, the time is right to look into the future. It may not be “The Simpsons”, but then again, what show is?
“Futurama” is at its best when skewering the modern-day world by giving viewers the benefit of hindsight. An episode about the futuristic government’s red tape problems, for instance, features a building whose inscription reads “Central Bureaucracy - Est. 2159 A.D., License Pending”. A subplot regarding Fry being sexually harassed by a female boss finds him exclaiming, “that’s right, she fraternized me!” When a character claims that he once “Caught a fish this big” and extends his arms as far as they can go, Bender extends his robotic limbs to a ridiculous length to show how big his fish was. One of the great features about cartoons has always been their ability to parody the real world by exaggerating things; “Futurama” takes a cue from Hanna-Barbera “The Jetsons” by being able to exaggerate and speculate at the same time.
The animation for Fry and Bender’s adventures may only be marginally better than the days of George and Astro. Besides the occasional 3-D shot, usually limited to chases and exteriors, the artistry of the show is fairly minimalist. The wit, however, is far more complicated and usually aimed for an adult audience. Zapp Branigan (again, Billy West) is a thinly veiled William Shatner caricature who apparently doesn’t wear pants; Bender announces that “in case of an emergency my ass can be used as a flotation device”; the elderly Professor Farnsworth seems to be based on Burgess Meredith, and has an affinity for suppositories. Like “The Simpsons”, most of this stuff will soar over the heads of any children watching along with you, but the show is never so high-minded that it won’t appeal to them as well.
“Futurama” does have its problems, most of which are inherent to the premise of the show. The fatal flaw for many viewers seemed to be that each character was so flawed that they were often hard to like. While Fry may be every bit as stupid as Homer Simpson, for instance, he wasn’t half as loveable. Bender’s short-temper and inconsiderate ways, meanwhile, resulted in some great punchlines, but made it awfully hard to care about the guy. When the “Futurama” scripts demanded empathy for Teela’s difficult upbringing, Bender’s desire to feel human emotions, or the lobster-looking Dr. Zoidberg’s desire to find a mate, it was bound to be an uphill battle.
Another nail that was banged into the coffin of “Futurama” from its inception is the sad fact that science-fiction turns a lot of people off. Sure, the Comic Con crowd eats up references to Star Trek and The Go-Bots - but the majority of the population still equates sci-fi with pale, geeky guys living in their parents’ basements. Unless you’re willing to put up with the plethora of genre references that “Futurama” throws around, you might want to steer clear.
Their loss, however, is our gain. The refusal of “Futurama” to pander to the broadest general crowd created a unique voice for the program, one filled with dark humor, flawed characters, and obscure references. Personally, my favorite jokes in the series involve a futuristic nightly news team with a pretty blond anchorwoman seated alongside a gruff green alien. While she recites the scripted banter that we’ve come to expect, he makes references to how his race will soon exterminate the humans. When she announces that a baseball player has an injured knee, the alien Morbo replies, “So, humans have easily injured knees. My race will find this information very useful indeed!” Then he laughs maniacally, and she returns the favor by doing that fake news anchor laugh we’ve all come to hate. If that kind of thing makes you smile, then by all means go ahead and check out “Futurama”. If not, then you can look affectionately at these DVDs as proof that you’ll never again have to sit through the show to get to “Malcolm in the Middle”.
SYNOPSIS
Here’s a quick primer for those unfamiliar with the show: Fry (the voice of Billy West) is a blissfully dense modern-day slacker who was accidentally frozen on New Year’s Eve, 1999. He awoke a thousand years later to a world filled with spaceships, bizarre aliens, and disembodied celebrity heads preserved in jars. Fry took a job with the Planet Express Corporation (think FedEx for a much larger area) and made friends with such eccentrics as the beautiful one-eyed female alien Leela (Katey Sagal), and Bender (John Di Maggio), a surly robot with a drinking problem. Together, they roam the universe having comedic and action-filled adventures.
There are nineteen episodes on this four disc DVD, capturing all of season 2. They are as follows: I Second that Emotion, Brannigan Begin Again, A Head in the Polls, Xmas Story, Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?, The Lesser of Two Evils, Put Your Head on My Shoulders, Raging Bender, A Bicyclops Built for Two, A Clone of My Own, How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back, The Deep South, Bender Gets Made, Mother’s Day, The Problem with Popplers, Anthology of Interest, War Is the H-Word, The Honking, and The Cryonic Woman.
IMAGE
No complaints here. Each show looks as good as it did when it was first broadcast. The colors are crisp and well-preserved.
SOUND
The sound is essentially bare bones, and certainly won’t give your system much of a workout. If you can get past that, you’ll find that things are on par with what you’d expect from a Dolby 2.0 mix.
FEATURES
Each episode has a commentary track featuring the various talents behind the show. They change from one episode to the next, but include Exec. Producers Matt Groening and David X. Cohen, Supervising Director Rich Moore, writers Patric M. Verrone and Eric Kaplan, editor Paul D. Calder and vocal talents Billy West and John DiMaggio. These are people who love telling their behind-the-scenes stories, have their own unique personalities, and revel in the minutiae that they have dropped throughout their artistry. That kind of mixture always makes for the best commentary tracks, and these are all breezy, informative and fun.
There are a total of fifteen deleted scenes between the four discs in this DVD set. Most are so funny that you’ll think it a shame they never make it into the show. A handful will leave you with a quizzical look on your face as you try to figure out why the animators would have even wasted their time.
Episode #205, entitled “Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?” has a rare treat in store for those who find their way over to the “Special Features” section. It’s an animatics presentation of much of the episode, essentially black and white early drawings without any but the most basic mouth movements. Those unfamiliar with the animation process will find this viewing of the rough draft to be quite interesting, and those who love “Futurama” will enjoy a different way of looking at the show.
You also get a trailer for the “Futurama” video game, a still gallery and conceptual art, and several easter eggs, including one on disc 2 (click down until you highlight Nibbler’s eye) that shows Matt Groening’s old yearbook photo. The menus are colorful, fun and simple to navigate.