Futurama: Volume Two

Review by AlysaSalzberg
(AlysaSalzberg@TheCinemaSource.com)

Ah, what's better than a clever zinger? How 'bout a clever zinger delivered by an inebriated animated robot?

Futurama, created by Simpsons mastermind Matt Groening, brings us that and more. The series follows the adventures of a dull-witted pizza delivery boy named Fry (Billy West), who was accidentally cryogenically frozen in 1999, only to emerge a thousand years later, at the end of 2999. In the first season, we saw Fry adjust as best he could to life in New New York, find a job working as an intergalactic delivery boy, and make some interesting friends and enemies. Among these friends are Leela (Katy Sagal), a one-eyed, no-nonsense ship captain; Dr. Zoidberg, an unlucky and disliked alien medic; Professor Farnsworth, an old mad scientist who's actually Fry's many-times grandnephew (think about it), and, of course, Bender (John DiMaggio), the hard-drinking, frequently-stealing, foul-mouthed robot I promised.

The great thing about Futurama is that it allows its writers so much room for creativity, parody, and non sequiturs. From the fish-out-of water situation Fry finds himself in, to his relationships with the other characters on the show, there's a vast supply of laughs. Not gentle laughs, either, but biting, zany remarks, or double-take inducing bits of dialogue and sight gags. Here's just one of a universe of examples:Leela: "I'm having a poker game tonight with some friends from my old cryogenics job. You guys interested?"Bender: "I don't know. I only gamble with chumps."Fry: "I'll play."Bender: "I'm in!" It's like Will and Grace, The Simpsons, and George Cukor's 1939 film The Women all met and crashed together…in the future.

Another thing I love about this series is its artistic style. The colors in the show are rich and smoothly applied, and traditional animation and computer graphic techniques are neatly, and often seamlessly blended, to create a perfect, shiny vision of life a thousand years from now.

For the first time, all of the show's second season has been assembled on four discs enclosed in nifty packaging. If you're a fan, this would be enough to induce you to run out and buy it. But, if you're still here, I'll tell you a little more about what you'll find on each DVD. The world Futurama's creators present us with is detailed, and, remarkably, even a bit believable. Their attention to the minutest things can be seen from the show's opening credits (which also has one of the rockingest theme songs I've ever heard), and is carried over in the extras on the DVD's, as well as in the external packaging. The extras include some cool deleted scenes, storyboards, and commentary by directors, writers, and voice talents. The commentaries are interesting at times, full of little bits of show trivia, but they're too often pockmarked

by long stretches of silence, halted by the commentators chuckling at the show's gags. In the end, though, this might say more for Futurama than anything else: it's so hilarious, even the people who made it can't help but laugh. The DVD’s are packaged in a cool way, too. Each of the discs is in a thin case that looks not unlike an old sci-fi comic book (fun trick: lay the cases down side by side, and you'll see that their pictures are connected). The container for these cases is brightly decorated, and features the show's characters, as well as random objects referenced and used in the various episodes included in the set. Now, on to what you'll find on each disc.

Disc One is probably the funniest of the bunch, with episodes like "Brannigan, Begin Again", in which Leela once again encounters her ever-regretted one night stand, Captain Zap Brannigan, a marvellous parody of every ideal space captain, from Kirk to Han Solo. In this episode, when Zap's noble mission to fight the inhabitants of a neutral planet ("I hate these filthy neutrals!") ends badly, he becomes an employee of Planet Delivery. Episode 5, "Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?" highlights perpetual loser Dr. Zoidberg's efforts of find a mate on his home planet. Though Zoidberg can be grating as a character, here everyone is in fine form, in a tale that's Cyrano de Bergerac meets surf and turf. The image of Fry and the crab-like Doctor fighting in a stadium, Fry armed with a giant pair of claw crushers, is one of the funniest things you can set your retinas on. But the supreme, absolute coolest episode, maybe the best one of the entire season, is Episode 3, "A Head in the Polls". Why is it so great? Let me put it this way: Bender decides to hock his Titanium body for cash, keeping only his head. How does he get back home from the pawnshop, you're wondering? He asks a friendly pedestrian for help, and is kicked through Planet Delivery's window. As a wealthy bodiless head, Bender's happy enough, but he begins to long for other things. He asks his friends to take him to the Head Museum (in the future, the heads of celebrities and world leaders have been preserved in jars, and go on talking and thinking just as they used to), where he'll be among a crowd who, like him, appreciate the bigger things: "philosophy, poetry, hats." There, he meets the head of Richard Nixon. Soon, it turns out that Nixon has bought Bender's body, and is running for President of the World. Enough said. Disc Grade: A+

Disc Two seems to actually have "two" as a theme: over five

episodes, we see Fry and his friend Amy sharing a body, Bender facing off with an opponent in the robot ultimate fighting championships, Leela meeting what might possibly be the only other one-eyed humanoid in the universe (sadly, he turns out to be a big, sloppy creep "” isn't that always the way?), and Dr. Farnsworth cloning himself. But the best of all these doubles is found in Episode 6, "The Lesser of Two Evils", in which we meet Bender's double. Is he an Evil Bender, as Fry suspects? His kind words say no, but (in a reference to the old Star Trek) his metallic goatee says yes. Overall, these shows are less tightly-written than those on Disc One, but this is still Futurama, so the laughs keep coming. Disc Grade: A

Disc Three is a mixed bag, from the great (the epic Robot Mafia tale "Bender Gets Made") to the good ("The Problem with Popplers") to the borderline dull ("How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back", one of the weaker episodes of the series). Some notable highlights include Episode 12, "The Deep South", in which Fry and friends discover a lost, underwater utopia called…Atlanta, complete with mermaid Southern belles, one of whom catches Fry's fancy. This episode is especially fun if you've ever been to, or if you live around, Atlanta (or if, like me, you grew up there, then moved North to try to make it big in New York City): you'll be able to spot numerous ATL landmarks, and notice several of our city's historical figures (like the Magician). Disc Grade: A

Disc Four begins with a curiosity and ends with an explanation. The curiosity is Episode 16, "Anthology of Interest I", in which Bender, Leela, and Fry each use the Professor's "What-If" machine to ask a question. The imaginary sequences that ensue could have been some of the funniest, most creative work ever done on the show. Instead, the fantasies aren't very funny, and all seem to end in horrible, morbid ways (which can be delightful if handled properly, but they aren't here). Thus, this episode is a curiosity because it's one of the few times Futurama has fallen far short of its potential. Still, this failure is amended with Episode 17, "War is the H-Word", in which we get homoeroticism, life in boot camp, and Zap Brannigan "” wonderful!; and Episode 18 "The Honking" (another episode whose premise is humor in and of itself; to quote from the disc jacket: "When Bender inherits a spooky castle from his deceased uncle, he finds himself being pursued by a terrifying, driverless car."). The final show of the season is Episode 19, "The Cryonic Woman", in which we meet Fry's oft-referred to ex-girlfriend, and see him at his most oblivious. But he's a good guy,

and that's what's great "” no matter how acerbic things get, this show's got heart.Disc Grade: B+

I hope these comments and summaries have convinced you Futurama novices out there to hop in your spaceship (okay, car) and buy or rent this anthology. The show is creative, clever, and fun. At its worst, it'll still give you a few solid laughs. At its best, it will keep you giggling for hours.

Season 2 Overall Grade: A

DVD Grade: A
Overall Grade: A