FUTURAMA!! SNL!! OC!! Cartoons!! Xmas Unleashed!! Herc's Season-Box DVD Vault!!

I am – Hercules!!

Some readers got their copies of the first “Futurama” direct-to-DVD movie, “Bender's Big Score,” a little early, and sent in reviews. “Gilkuliehe” says:

Welcome to the world of tomorrow! Gilkuliehe here. Long time reader, blab bla. I just wanted to tell you about the new Futurama direct to DVD movie Bender’s Big Score. I got an early copy and thought you might like to know what’s in for you, spoiler-free. If you’re a Futurama fan you’re gonna love this. First of all you get the gorgeous 16x9 widescreen format and the excellent 5.1 surround sound, we never got before. It really gives the movie an epic and theatrical feel to it. This would look great on the big screen and it’s way, way better than your average babysitter who-gives-a-shit animated feature studios spit out every week. The first ten minutes are absolutely cheer-inducing. The way all the characters and familiar stuff are presented, from places to opening credits, is a true salute to fans. I saw it with a couple of friends and we were all very happy to see everyone coming back. We get a lot of “inside” jokes about the show getting cancelled, but it’s never distracting, and the minute you see the beginning of the opening credits, I’m pretty fucking sure you’ll be giddy as Harry as a school girl. I won’t spoil it, but you’re gonna love it. So, how about the plot? Loved it. It involves a new kind of aliens, Internet scams, time travel and most of all, “time travel paradoxes”. You get your usual dose of math and science in that insane Futurama style, but you also get the adventure and those very heart-warming, emotional moments. Like I said before, if you’re a fan, you’re gonna love this. There are plenty of references to classic episodes. The time travel thing gives a great excuse to take new peeks into the worlds we saw in tear-jerkers like Jurassic Bark and Luck of the Fryrish, and that alone is worth getting this, in my opinion. You’ll see a lot of familiar characters doing the usual, or simply showing up there, and although I want to name each and every one of them, I won’t, because I think the surprise is half the fun, if not the whole fun. You get a lot of jokes, of course, and very quotable lines, as usual. This is one very funny movie. What about the visuals? Freakin’ great. You can’t tell the difference between this and the best episodes. The designs are all great, and the matching of the 3-D elements with the 2-D is still top-notch. It has some very awesome elaborated shots (like the opening shot) and some very impressive sequences, specially a Star Wars inspired, well, stars war. Much like the one seen in the episode When Aliens Attack, only bigger and much more exciting, if only for all the characters involved, music, and staging. Great climax. Ok, I love the music in Futurama, how does that work here? Loved it. It’s still very “futuristic” and yet fun and emotional. Remember the use of Baby Love Child by Pizzicato Five in Leela’s Home World? They do have those kinds of moments here, with sweet songs being both nice and weird-future-sounding. (Ok I suck at describing music, sue me). There are also very nice variations to the Futurama Theme that you’ll love. There’s even a couple of music numbers that are pretty fun. How about the not so good stuff? I’d say the story does get a little too complex and they do go a little over the top with the time travel stuff. On the commentary track, executive producer/writer/developer/nerdlinger David X. Cohen states that usually there’s something that upsets people in time travel stories, something you just don’t accept, and well, this has some of that. Also this is clearly made for fans. I doubt they’ll wide up their audience with this movie. Some of the jokes will be completely lost to those who have missed an episode or two. But who cares, those guys are jerks anyway. At some points the story does feel a little messy, and the 89 minutes feel tonally like four episodes squeezed into one “feature-length epic” instead of just one big story. But all those feelings start to fade away the minute you finish the movie, because that’s when you want more. And you end up “accepting” all the time travel shenanigans. Who am I kidding, I loved this movie. You can tell all the people involved in this truly love the characters and the universe, and you can also tell they’re as happy as you to be back. What about the DVD special features? It has your usual and very welcome over-populated commentary track. If you’re a fan of the Futurama DVDs like me, you know the kind of fun to expect from the commentary track. You get a lot of nerdy facts, and cool info, and also a lot of laughs. DiMaggio (Bender) is there, Billy West (Fry, Zoidberg, Zapp, the Professor, etc), Groening and David X. Cohen. Also one of the writers, the director (series regular Dwayne Carey-Hill), some animation lady and who cares. It’s fun and you’ll dig it. There’s some deleted scenes in story-board form, 3D models, new characters and design sketches, the original script (“spot the differences, meatbag!”), that Inconvenient Truth trailer featuring Bender, and that Comic Con Promo they took down from YouTube. There’s also two very weird/funny features. One of them is a math lecture by some smart lady hosted by David X. Cohen, and the other is a whole episode of the year 3007 hit sitcom “Everybody Loves Hypnotoad”. I dare you to watch that whole damn thing. All great stuff. Okay folks, that’s it. As you can tell I had a blast with this, and I think this disc will have as much re-watch value on my DVD player as the rest of the show. I just want to say thank you to all involved, great work everybody, and I hope this make some serious cash so we never stop having our Futurama fix. Damn you Quint for not including this on your shopping guide. Fellow fans, let’s support this. I can’t wait for the other three movies! If you use this, some asshole is gonna call me a plant, so bite my shiny metal ass in advance. -Gilkuliehe.

“Molten Boron” says “everything comes together brilliantly”:

Hi Herc, I’ve sent things to AICN before but never had anything to send to the hallowed halls of coaxial. Hopefully that changed today after I got home from work, ripped open the package I hadn’t been expecting for at least another week and found my copy of Futurama: Bender’s Big Score inside. I’ve been a massive fan of Futurama for many years now, mainly thanks to catching up on the DVDs (the terrestrial showings of Futurama were all over the place in the UK so thank god we got the DVD sets about a year before the US). Out of all the DVDs I own they’ve definitely been spun more than any other, and I’m still noticing new jokes every time. So when it was announced last year that there were definitely going to be four direct-to-DVD films in 2008 I was both elated at the prospect of new Futurama, nervous about it not matching my already-stupid expectations and angry at 2008?! Never thought I’d thank Fox for their pure greed before but I’m grateful for them bringing this forward to catch the holiday market. So, does the first 89-minute movie earn the right to sit amongst its classic 22-minute brothers? Well, yes. Definitely. Although it’s not the greatest thing in the world as you might reasonably expect a Futurama movie to be (and I’ll get to the niggles soon) it is definitely NOT Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, an appalling mess of three episodes edited together with only one of the many subplots linking them. This is a whole story – the pacing feels a little off at first but only because it seems slow compared to the Futurama you’re used to. Once you get used to the fact this isn’t going to end for another 67 minute it’s fine. Subplots come and go – hell, even what appeared to be the main plot seems to take a backseat for a while – but everything comes together brilliantly by the movie’s end and you realise that this is the main difference between this and the Family Guy “movie” (and to some extent The Simpsons Movie) – this is a feature-length story. The main thrust of said story is this: whilst making a delivery on a nudist planet (including Amy and Leela) the Planet Express crew – and, seemingly, the whole of Earth – are targeted by (nudist) email scammers who sprunj (quiet sexual, apparently) everyone’s bank accounts, mother’s maiden names, etc, and implant a virus into Bender to work for them. Using a key to time located on Fry’s butt (a cheap joke that eventually makes sense) they plan on sending Bender through time to steal Earth’s treasures. Which leads to multiple Benders, multiple Fry’s, lots of cross-cutting through past and present storylines (similar to Luck of the Fryish and Jurassic Bark, both of which get big nods), a brilliant homage to The Terminator and a stupid amount of paradoxes that right themselves anyway they can. Also Leela seems to find love, Hermes gets his head cut off and see his woman leave him for Barbados Slim and everyone is reduced to Zoidberg’s level. And there’s a lot more than that but it’s a shame to ruin it. Story aside, is it any good? As in, it’s a comedy, is it actually funny? Absolutely. Whilst not as instantly quotable as some classic Futurama episodes the movie definitely keeps up the batting average. From the obvious jokes to the throw-away lines you don’t even notice (and every visual joke in-between), the writing standard hasn’t dropped in the four years since we last saw it. I’d reel off a list but that’s what the talkbacks will eventually be for. Besides, why ruin it for yourselves? There are special guest stars as usual, almost all playing characters from previous episodes (Sarah Silverman, Al Gore, Coolio in a short-but-brilliant appearance) and almost every major character – and most minor – turns up at some point (seems like only Mom and the Omicronians miss out). Although you have to wait ages for a taste of Zapp Brannigan and then it’s roughly two minutes. Still hard and fast – just like Brannigan’s Love. But all these random characters turning up is part of the main problem with the movie – it occasionally feels a bit too self-referential and congratulatory. Most of the “ha, we’re back!” stuff is dealt with in the first five minutes, probably the worst bit of the whole film. Once they move past it and get onto the story it’s fine. But sometimes, when yet another one-episode fan favourite turns up, you get a bit worried that the rewatch value of this is going to be lost if it spends its time just giving props to the fans. It’s a tiny problem, and most of the characters are worth turning up and Futurama fans will get a massive kick out of seeing them, but hopefully the patting on the back is all out of their system and the next three films won’t concentrate too hard on pleasing the fanboys. My only other gripe is that the budget seems a little bit lower than previously which doesn’t affect the enjoyment of the piece but the usually stunning 3D animation is saved until near the end – but it’s worth the wait, the final space battle is brilliant and could have done with being longer. Overall this is definitely a must-have for Futurama fans (don’t be put off by the trailer from a month or so ago, I didn’t find it sold the DVD for me, luckily it’s just a poorly-made trailer) and worth at least a look from the more casual viewers. It’s funny, the story’s worth telling (it can be divided up for the new season but it will feel like something bigger chopped into smaller pieces rather than the other way round as these things are usually done) and it has the usual great character work that made Futurama stand out from the other animated sitcoms in its time (the ending, whilst definitely not the emotional kicker of Fryish or Jurassic Bark – both of which make me feel like I’m being kicked in the gut every time – is still a more emotional and character-driven one than you’d expect from a cartoon, even if one plot point is signposted way before it’s revealed). In short, Futurama’s back and it’s been worth the weight. Next time more Brannigan though please. Give us a reason to break out the champag-un. If you use this call me Molten Boron – because nobody doesn’t like Molten Boron. P.S. The DVD features a full, 22-minute episode of Everybody Love Hypnotoad, which is both the greatest and most pointless DVD feature ever created. Whoever edited it must have had a blast, their timing is just perfect… Unless it is actual hypnosis to get you to buy the next three DVDs, but that’s not needed.

“The Veritas” says:

Don't know if you guys are planning any reviews of the Futurama release, but I've just watched it and want to give you my thoughts. Going into the this I was assuming that the Futurama DVD release of Bender's Big Score would be similar to the Family guy movie. Well, in some ways it's very similar. That being they both dabble with time travel. However unlike the Family guy movie, the team behind Futurama have woven together a 1:28 minute film that ultimately feels just like that. A movie. It's a whose who of the entire series as well. All the regular cast are back in play and a constant stream of cameos appear, including Al Gore. However Zap and Kiff don't get a lot of screen time. Maybe the next one. I won't indulge the plotline, cause you can get that anywhere. All you really want to know is, was it funny? Absolutely. They have not lost their comic wit and timing in their several years of absence. The opening sequence pokes fun at their cancellation in a clever way which sets the tone for a good time. Strangely though, the next ten minutes felt relatively light on the laughs, but it's all about setting up for what's to come, and we are then treated with loads of laugh out loud moments and solid chuckles. Although there are some other slow moments, they don't last long and are forgivable in helping to shape this into a film. For fans of the series, you are going to be treated to numerous moments that will make you say "So that's how it happened." With the time travel element to the story, you can only imagine the crisscrossing that goes on with past storylines from the original series run. As for the animation and voices. Feels like they never left us. Everyone sounds and looks the same. And we're treated to a brilliant battle sequence that's a feast for the eyes, and bloody funny too. Despite the fact that this film will air as 23 minute episodes on the comedy channel, you'd expect it to be 4 shows slapped together, but as I watched it, I realised that chopping it up is going to be a nightmare. Perhaps they will be 2 two-part episiodes or something. No doubt there will be scenes altered and new ones added for that version. Even knowing that there is a clear element of joy just seeing them back again, it's still a solid return for a brilliant series that outstrips it's parent, "The Simpsons" in humour value. I'm looking forward to my second viewing and wholeheartedly welcome the return of Futurama.

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