Good News For Futurama

Only a few hours after my last post comes news that the entire original cast has signed to star in all 26 of the new episodes of Futurama. One of these stories is not accurate so for the sake of Futurama fans, let's hope it is the previous one and not this one.

Futurama: What's the Point?

Comic Con provided no new information about the employment of the original voice actors for the new episodes of Futurama, but unsurprising news today is that the series will be produced with an all new cast. I already didn't like the idea of new episodes, but I thought that some Futurama might be better than none at all. As of now, I no longer hold that opinion. The idea of new voice actors on Futurama is about as smart as replacing the whole cast of Seinfeld with different actors and making new episodes. What's the point? I don't care how funny the scripts might turn out to be, it will just not be the same. They might even be able to find voice actors that can come fairly close to sounding like the original actors, but I doubt it. Maybe new viewers won't notice a difference, but fans will and shouldn't that count for something?

Trouble for Futurama Fans

I was already apprehensive about the new episodes of Futurama coming in 2010, but today brings news that casting calls are out for new actors to voice just about all the main characters! I certainly hope this turns out to be a nasty Internet rumor, but it doesn't make me feel any better about a great show that may be in the process of being besmirched.

Futurama Lives See A New Day (26 New Days To Be Exact)

The rumors of Futurama's episodic return have been circulating for about a week but they have now been confirmed. Comedy Central has ordered 26 new episodes of the show which was most recently revived by four direct-to-DVD movies.

I am not alone in my opinion that Futurama is far superior to Matt Groening's more successful franchise, The Simpsons, the principle reason being that Futurama had a short but high quality run on Fox before being unceremoniously canceled. Meanwhile, The Simpsons is a painfully unfunny shell of the groundbreaking series that it was twenty years ago. There is certainly something to be said for quality over quantity. Before Futurama, there was never a television cartoon that delivered poignant enough stories to actually make me shed a tear. Futurama has several such episodes. I challenge anyone to watch "The Luck of the Fryish" or "Jurassic Bark" and not be compelled to cry like a baby. That all being said, I'm not exactly thrilled about the news of new episodes of Futurama.

I was very excited several years ago when news broke that Futurama would return with a direct-to-DVD movie followed by up to three others if the first was sucessful. With the measure of success being the number of copies sold, "Bender's Big Score" was a hit. However, it was also not a very good representation of the Futurama franchise. The jokes seemed very dated and many minor but popular characters were awkwardly shoehorned into the plot just to give them an appearance in the movie. In short, it didn't work for me. The following three movies continued the trend of mediocrity so much so that when I finished watching "Into the Wild Green Yonder" earlier this year, I was content that Futurama had closure and was finished.

I don't blame the producers for taking this opportunity to create new episodes of Futurama for Comedy Central, but I think that the best days of the show are long past. It started with the movies and now I fear that Futurama runs the risk of heading rapidly into Simpsons territory of substandard stories made simply to keep the franchise alive. It was nostalgia that made me look forward to the direct-to-DVD movies a few years ago but it is now that same nostalgia that makes me reticent about the new epsiodes coming next year. I will give them a chance, but I don't have confidence that they can match the high quality of shows that they were producing seven or eight years ago.

Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs

The second of four direct-to-DVD Futurama movies was released yesterday and I'm starting to feel like they shouldn't have embarked on this project. Don't get me wrong, the movies are okay, but the TV series was far superior in quality. "The Beast with a Billion Backs" picked up where "Bender's Big Score" left off but seemed to ignore most of the character development from the first movie. It was actually pretty baffling. I did set my expectation considerably lower for this movie and found myself enjoying this effort more than the last but at the same time felt that it still lacked that certain something that made me love Futurama when it was still on television. Maybe it's nostalgia but Futurama just seemed like it was consistently better than this. There are two more movies in the works and I will give them a chance, but I'm really starting to think that Futurama just isn't fit for the feature-length treatment. The grass really is always greener I guess. Back in the days when it was on TV, I always wanted more Futurama. Now I find that the two movies are mediocre at best. Time will tell, but I don't have my hopes set too high for.

Notable extras on this DVD include the usual commentary with several of the producers and voice actors as well as the "Lost Episode" of Futurama created for the 2003 video game.

"Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs" Trailer

The trailer for the next direct-to-DVD Futurama movie was released this week.



It looks about as funny as the trailer for "Bender's Big Score" which is to say, not very. I was a bit disappointed down by "Bender's Big Score" and so have set the bar a little lower for "The Beast with a Billion Backs." This trailer does nothing to improve my expectations. "The Beast with a Billion Backs" will be released on DVD on June 24.

Good News Everyone!

Fox has announced the release date of the second of four direct-to-DVD Futurama movies. "The Beast with a Billion Backs" will be released on June 24. It will pick up where "Bender's Big Score" left off. Some may recall that I was a little underwhelmed by "Bender's Big Score," but like I said then, "good new Futurama is better than none at all." In other news, a television version of "Bender's Big Score" will premiere on Comedy Central on March 23.

Futurama: Bender's Big Score

Futurama returned yesterday after a two-year hiatus in the form of a straight-to-DVD movie, Bender's Big Score. Roxanne and I watched it last night and I was pleased, although not blown away. The movie got off to a pretty slow start but I did enjoy the extended opening title sequence. After a long set up, the movie got into the meat of the story in the way that only Futurama could pull off. Without spoiling too much, just imagine lots of time travel and potential space-time paradoxes. It was interesting, but they seemed to shoehorn in a few too many of the favorite characters from the series just for the sake of putting them in the movie. They also interwove too many call backs to the series, again for the sake of putting them in the movie. It had some very funny moments in the middle but began to sag a little towards the end. There is a cliff hanger ending which I can live with knowing that another such direct-to-DVD movie will be coming soon to resolve it. Because the plan is to split this and the next three movies into twenty-two minute episodes for TV, I think it sort of damaged the continuity of the story. Rather than one long story, it had more of a mutli-part episode feel. All in all, Bender's Big Score is good, but not great. I'm sure it will grow on me as the rest of the series has and I won't complain too much because good new Futurama is better than none at all.

Notable extras on the disc are a feature length commentary by Matt Groenig, David X. Cohen, Billy West, John DiMaggio, etc. as well as a full length episode of "Everybody Loves Hypnotoad." I fast forwarded through the episode of Hypnotoad and let's just say it was funny at that speed. I haven't listened to the commentary track yet but those of the series episodes were very entertaining and insightful as I'm sure these will be.

Futurama Returns!

As I've written about many times, I love Futurama and am ecstatic that it is returning to TV next year. This article mentions that the return will actually be four direct-to-DVD movies that will be broken up into sixteen episodes that will air on Comedy Central. Hopefully there will be logical breaks in the movies to make the individual episodes coherent. In any event, Speedbump Studios has created this live action/computer generated trailer for the upcoming return: