Futurama Movies?!?

The Onion A.V. Club has a great interview with Billy West, the voice actor behind Philip J. Fry, Prof. Hubert J. Farnsworth, Dr. Zoidberg and, of course, Zapp Brannigan on Futurama. I thought the Simpsons was great while I was in high school but when I started college, it just seemed to get derivative and boring. Just as I was finishing college, along came Futurama and it ended up being my favorite cartoon series ever. It was far superior to the Simpsons even though they had a few good seasons early on. Fox of course wanted a carbon copy of the Simpsons, but Matt Groening refused and so the show was systematically scheduled poorly so that it would not have a good audience following. Thankfully, Cartoon Network still shows Futurama reruns and I watch them constantly and enjoy them even after seeing them all so many times. Futurama had a lot of heart and there are several episodes that were both funny and touching. I'm not afraid to admit that there are four episodes that actually brought tears to my eyes! (They are all listed among other great moments here.)

Anyway, the interview is great and very critical of the fickle nature of the cartoon/voice-over business, but the most exciting part is the mention of not one but several possible Futurama movies! Now I don't expect them to be shown in theaters, but I would love to see Fry, Leela, Bender and the Professor all back together again for new witty and touching stories. Fox has learned that there is life after cancellation (see Family Guy) and apparently, Futurama DVD sales have been strong enough to warrant a new production. Hooray!