The four-year wait finally ended this week and I say it was worth it. The downside was it ending on a cliff-hanger which I only figured out from the bonus DVD Best Buy threw in; it has a sneak preview of the next movie, The Beast with a Billion Backs.
Two years have passed for the characters and of course they’re oblivious to it until Professor Farnsworth fires them with the explanation of the Box Network canceling them a long time ago. Then he receives a phone call stating that Planet Express has been renewed so they can resume their adventures. Since this is a movie, Score takes the same approach as the recent Simpsons Movie, it’s several episodes stitched together over a longer period of time and with bigger results. The number of subplots may overwhelm the casual viewer but as a fan, I had little difficulty keeping track of them.
I don’t want to spoil it so I will only mention the core story-premise: scamming alien nudists con the Professor out of his business and take control of Bender to further their information-gathering operations. For them, information is intoxicating which explains their special gland called a sprunger. When they meet Fry, their sprungers go off the scale because of his recently discovered Bender tattoo. Fans who’ve followed all 72 episodes know why Fry is special already yet this expands upon it. Then there’s the lesser stories involving Hermes losing his body, Leela’s new boyfriend and another about Fry which I’ll leave out due its nature.
With this being the first movie, Cohen and Groening incorporated appearances of numerous minor characters from the show: Robot Santa, Morbo, Barbados Slim, Elzar, Hedonismbot, Leela’s parents, Zapp, Kif, the Robot Mafia, the Globetrotters and Tinny Tim. Recurring voice actors return: Kath Soucie (Cubert), Frank Welker (Nibbler), Dawnn Lewis (LaBarbara) and Tom Kenny (Yancy). They also scored several past guests: Al Gore (himself), Sarah Silverman (Michelle) and Coolio (Kwanzabot). Mark Hamill joins the fun as Chanukah Zombie.
Is it funny? Yes, even when the comedy bits are subtle geek jokes referencing math, computer science, physics or astronomy. With it being a DVD, the writers were able to get away with some riskier sexual jokes but they didn’t lower the bar on profanity. The majority of Futurama‘s fans will be pleased with this. Casual viewers will chuckle yet I think they’ll be confused over the need to know the back-story covered by the previous 72 shows.
The extra features are this DVD’s biggest strength. It included the table read from this year’s San Diego Comic Con of the characters explaining where they’ve been for four years. You see the accompanying illustrations, not the actors reading the script. There’s the Al Gore promo for An Inconvenient Truth with commentary; Gore, Cohen and Groening shown in the studio. The three deleted scenes only made it to the animatic stage. The commentary on the movie itself is hosted by Cohen with DiMaggio, West, Lamar, Groening, co-writer Keeler, producer Claudia Katz and director Carey-Hill. They’re amusing but anecdotes are always better after a few years have passed, not when the commentators are watching the near-finished production. By popular demand, the DVD has a full episode of Everyone Loves Hypnotoad. Seriously, it’s 22 minutes of the creature’s sitcom. The final and perhaps oddest addition is the recorded lecture of Dr. Sarah Greenwald on all the math references from the show over its run. I found it helpful on how she explains the significance of the in-joke 1729 or geometric designs. My skill with numbers isn’t too strong so I guess I don’t appreciate such nerd humor.
I think the reunited Futurama gang did a fantastic job with this first outing. So well, I cannot wait too long for the second chapter. This is a must have for the fans while the rest will probably be satisfied to see it piecemeal on Comedy Central next year.