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With the news of more episodes being planned and even TV movies being made, it's time for a Futurama revival. And I personally feel that The Simpsons getting all the credit is unfair. This is also a terrific TV series with a tremendous following and it's those hardcore fans we all owe the resurrection of this show to.

Meanwhile, go visit the official fansite with all the up to date news on all things Futurama and read some reviews for those DVD seasoned sets.

Essential stuff, I agree, but why does Fox put so little care in making decent transfers of these (and The Simpsons)? For one, they all have noticeable combing from non-progressive encoding.

Futurama has become a favorite in my English school, since many Japanese dont exactly 'get' The Simpsons, but are completely intrigued by the parody-homage made by Futurama. (Strange its never been released in Japan at all)

Sucks that seasons 1 and 2 dont have a Play-All function, as I can't leave it running for students in the lounge while I teach. I should teach them how to use the remote control...

If you ever wondered what were those old cartoons that appeared during the opening credits for each episode, this site over here has gone to the trouble of listing them all. Pretty neat, huh? And if you go to You Tube, you might even find them in their complete format since all of them are Public Domain (or most, anyway).

The trailer is up for the new Futurama DVD.

Good news for everyone who loved the Killer of Sheep packaging-- Bender's Big Score also features one of those stupid envelope disc-holders. #-o

However, Bender's Big Score is certified as carbon-neutral, so I'm willing to overlook the packaging a little.

I almost picked it up today while getting my Hot Fuzz CE but I held off since Fox always does insane price cuts/sales on their TV DVDs. It'll probably be $7.99 in three months. For what it's worth, the Best Buy edition comes with a bonus preview disc for the next Futurama movie.

I'm a pretty big fan of the series but the movie was just alright. Plenty of big laughs but there's way, way too many characters from previous episodes paraded in for the fans. I think this will correct itself in the next couple movies as the producers have hopefully gotten that out of their system. Still, the first 20 minutes or so are like a graveyard where jokes go to die. The film has some good heart and it ends with an insane To Be Continued moment, so I guess all four movies are going to be interconnected?

I remember reading that the "new episodes" that Comedy Central is going to be showing are just going to be the movies broken up into chunks, is it obvious that the movie is just 3 or 4 episodes strung together or does it actually feel like a movie (unlike the Family Guy direct-to-DVD "movie," which I'm ashamed to have even watched)?

The FUTURAMA boxsets are included in a current DVDPlanet B1G1 sale -- $27.98 for two seasons sounds like a fair deal.

patrick wrote:I remember reading that the "new episodes" that Comedy Central is going to be showing are just going to be the movies broken up into chunks, is it obvious that the movie is just 3 or 4 episodes strung together or does it actually feel like a movie (unlike the Family Guy direct-to-DVD "movie," which I'm ashamed to have even watched)?

I was worried about that too, but really the film just presents acts, they're not really stand alone and not noticeable divisions-- they obviously planned this as a film first and then wrote it so it could be divided. It still seems pretty stupid to even consider watching this in four parts though.

patrick wrote:I remember reading that the "new episodes" that Comedy Central is going to be showing are just going to be the movies broken up into chunks, is it obvious that the movie is just 3 or 4 episodes strung together or does it actually feel like a movie (unlike the Family Guy direct-to-DVD "movie," which I'm ashamed to have even watched)?

Judging by the preview for the next movie, every single episode is just part of a larger story that is broken up into smaller plots. The cliffhanger for Bender's Big Score leads directly into The Beast with a Thousand Backs.

Man, the Futurama movie DVD looks terrible on my TV - tons of strobing and jaggies and other assorted annoyances. Since I haven't read about this anywhere else I'm assuming that it's just my crappy old TV.

patrick wrote:Man, the Futurama movie DVD looks terrible on my TV - tons of strobing and jaggies and other assorted annoyances. Since I haven't read about this anywhere else I'm assuming that it's just my crappy old TV.

Is the movie itself good? I'm anxiously awaiting my copy, to be shipped with my Simpsons Movie Blu-ray.

I enjoyed it, like Domino Harvey said it's a little creaky at first but I'm assuming that's just the writers reintroducing the characters and getting back into the swing of things. It's definitely worth watching if you like the series, there are some great jokes and some touching moments.

I liked it, too. If you're going to watch it, rent/buy the dvd. The plot is just convoluted enough that it'd be irritating as hell to watch it in four parts. Definitely works better as a one-piece.

the Beast With a Billion Backs will be released June 24

Details from Twitch on the second Futurama film (hopefully not provided in such flimsy packaging this time - I missed half of the last one due to skipping!) – there’s also a black and white preview in the link in the comments section.

So, I'm guessing I wasn't the only one disappointed by the second movie. Maybe my hopes were up due to the surprisingly excellent first movie.

I was underwhelmed with the first movie, and underwhelmed with the second. And judging by the trailer for the third (really, a Lord of the Rings parody for 90 minutes? Really?) I'm not holding out all that much hope for this whole Futurama movie franchise going forward.

I haven't seen the second movie yet but I couldn't help but notice that they only brought back a couple of the original writers to write all four movies-- big mistake, as shows like this and the Simpsons are room-written and require more than just one person at a time to achieve the right level. Well, it's like they say, you can't go home again...

At least these aren't as bad as the last, oh... ten years of the Simpsons have been. Those are room-written by increasingly abysmal writers.

I stopped watching the Simpsons regularly several years ago but I caught a newer episode last week in syndication and I was surprised at how funny it was. The plot itself was beyond terrible (One of Marge's sisters dates Grandpa) but once I got past caring, I had to admit that there were a lot of big laughs in the episode. It's too bad that they don't care too much for the show's legacy but it was funny enough to make me wonder if I shouldn't start watching regularly again.

I like the newer seasons, still some of the best comedy on television even if the increasingly ridiculous plots make them seem like they should be a separate canon. Tivo effed up and refused to record this previous season, so I've missed some of the craziness... it's also pretty clear that once Season 10 came out on DVD, they've thrown on the brakes for releasing the later seasons; prior to that they had been coming every few months at a steady clip.

Anyway.....

domino harvey wrote:The plot itself was beyond terrible (One of Marge's sisters dates Grandpa) but once I got past caring, I had to admit that there were a lot of big laughs in the episode.

Alright, I'm looking for this episode and watching it. Because if a recent episode that has that awful plot can actually have a lot of big laughs, let alone one, I'm writing-in Al Jean's name in November.