Futurama - Bender's Big Score
(dir. Dwayne Carey-Hill)
Comedy Central
In the words of Hubert Farnsworth, Planet Express Delivery's resident mad scientist, "Good news everyone..." Futurama is back. The much overlooked second project from The Simpson's Matt Groening and David X Cohen has been reactivated after those dummies at the fox network cancelled it in 2003 after just four seasons. Comedy Central (with Fox's blessing) is backing 4 feature length DVD release films which it intends to air broken into episodes with added material. For those of you with a region 1 DVD player, the first feature is available to buy now - together with bonus featurette "Everyone loves Hypnotoad". And the news is, indeed, good. Original voice cast, same look to the animation, same writers - and just like Planet Express, it really delivers.
Without giving too much away, the first feature serves up a generous helping of what the fanboys want. All the familiar faces are present - in addition to Fry and Leela, Prof Farnsworth, Zoidberg, Hermes, Amy, and the ubiquitous Bender "bending unit" Rodriguez, the much loved supporting cast are all present and correct, from Nibbler through to Morbo (and even pre-Simpsons Groening creation, Binky the one-eared Rabbit).
The gags come thick and fast - and the plot, well, that gets a little confusing. The 80 minute story arc may be hard to swallow for the uninitiated since it concerns time paradoxes and multiple copies of central characters. It might actually work better in the episodic format that Comedy Central intend to show it. Fans, however, will lap up the whole thing in one juicy helping.
So, perhaps this is where Matt Groening's creative talent has been concentrated. It's so much more snappy and adult than the Simpsons which (let's face it) is limping in the manner of an exhausted battle hero. Maybe time to give the yellow guys a few seasons off, eh? It hasn't hurt Futurama.
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