Review of Futurama: Series 1

Introduction

When the rumors started to fly about the first season of Matt Groening`s Futurama series appearing on region 2 DVD before a USA release I took it with a pinch of the proverbial sodium chloride. Now it`s been officially announced by Fox and will be in the shops on January 29, 2002 which is great news for region 2 DVD as the series is still in syndication in the USA and Canada and will we probably not see a region 1 release until September. Of course they may try to out do us and bring out a bigger and better box set. But this, our very own season one set, will do very nicely, thank you Fox!

Now, there are various boats you can sit in with regards to this new animated offering from the creator of the Simpsons. Boat one is the obvious "it`s not as good as the Simpsons". Boat two is the "It`s total rubbish" and finally, and this is my boat, "It works very well on its own merits, is a novel concept, and is incredibly funny 99.9% of the time" (damn that is the same as the Simpsons)

On an animation standpoint this series just shows how far animated TV shows have come in such a short period of time. As computer technology becomes cheaper, more and more TV studios are jumping on the hi-tech bandwagon. Apart from the traditional original hand drawn rough animatics, the majority of the old style cell animation is now done direct to computer screen. The animators can then seamlessly integrate 3D cartoon rendered computer models, such as the team`s delivery spacecraft, into the mix. This is TV getting closer and closer to the movies, scary!

As I`ve mentioned in past reviews, I have a passion for animated features. With a background in animation and illustration, I love to see new techniques creamed from the latest technology. DVD is also a wonderful medium for animated features. Disney have used it almost to an exhaustive point to explain how their in house team put together animated masterpieces like Tarzan or The Emperor`s New Groove. The Futurama DVD shows some of the basics but doesn`t go too far to bore the average viewer.

OK, being the lucky reviewer of the first season of Futurama region 2 I`d better do it justice.
This is a three disc box set. Unfortunately as a reviewer disc this came as just three discs in jewel cases, no box, so I can`t comment too much on the packaging. I have trawled the net and seen a few images of the box-set artwork and from what I`ve seen it looks very similar in design to the Simpsons season one set, outer sleeve and a removable double gatefold inner, and rather nice! The Contents of the discs are as follows...

Disc One: Easter Eggs, Animatic for the pilot, Screenplay for the pilot, Audio Commentaries

Episodes 1-4:

Space Pilot 3000:
After an accidental cryogenic freezing, Fry awakens at the dawn of the year 3000. With the help of his two new friends, a degenerate robot named Bender and a beautiful one-eyed alien named Leela, Fry defies his life assignment as a delivery boy. He tracks down his great-great-great-etc. nephew, Professor Farnsworth, who hires the three to work for his intergalactic delivery service. It`s a brave new world and Fry is in for the ride of his life.

The Series Has Landed:
After delivering a package to an amusement park on the moon, Fry shows Leela how to appreciate the celestial body. Meanwhile Bender finds a little robot romance with a farmer`s daughters, which puts the whole crew in jeopardy.

I, Roommate:
Fry is such a slob that he is forced to move out of the Planet Express offices. But friendship makes for strange bedfellows when he moves in with Bender and discovers the nuts and bolts of living with a robot.

Love`s Labours Lost In Space:
While on a mission to save all the animals on a planet verging on collapse, Leela encounters Capt. Zapp Brannigan, a self-proclaimed ladies man looking to add Leela to his list of conquests.

Disc Two: Easter Eggs, Audio commentaries, Image Gallery

Episodes 5-9:

Fear of a Bot Planet:
While delivering a package to a planet inhabited by robots, where humans are killed instantly, Bender becomes intoxicated with the robot lifestyle and must choose between becoming a celebrity of sorts or saving his friends` lives.

A Fishful of Dollars:
Fry discovers he`s a billionaire because his savings have been accruing interest for 1,000 years. Caught up in the excitement of his riches, he squanders his fortune to buy an unopened can of anchovies -- extinct since the year 2200. What he doesn`t realize is that Mom, the head of a mega-conglomerate, will do anything -- even use Pamela Anderson`s head-in-a-jar -- to get her hands on those anchovies.

My Three Suns:
The crew visits a planet inhabited by liquid aliens. Fry, after delivering a package under the scorching heat of the planet`s three suns, finds a bottle of cool blue liquid to quench his thirst. But when that liquid turns out to be the civilization`s ruler, Fry finds he has become the new leader. Initially drunk with power, he soon discovers his life is in danger and must turn to his friends to help him dry out.

A Big Piece of Garbage:
While at a science symposium hosted by inventor extraordinaire Ron Popeil`s head-in-a-jar, the Professor creates a new invention -- the Smelloscope. Initially criticized, the Smelloscope is redeemed when it reveals that a putrid celestial body is on a collision course with Earth. To make matters worse, the approaching object is a huge mass of garbage launched into space at the end of the 20th century, after New York ran out of landfill sites. The trashteroid`s orbit has set it on a path of destruction and it just may take a rag-tag team of package delivery specialists to land on it and blow it up before it creates Armageddon on Earth.

Hell Is Other Robots:
After a Beastie Boys Heads concert at Madison Cube Garden, Bender goes on a bender and gets hooked on power surges. His life begins a downward spiral until he finds salvation at the Temple of Robotology. Having found religion, his polite behavior becomes so irritating to his friends that they begin to tempt him with his old vices. When he finally succumbs and returns to his old ways, he is banished to Robot Hell where, in a musical extravaganza, he faces the Robot Devil and endures tortures unimaginable to man.

Disc Three: Easter Eggs, Audio Commentaries, Trailer, Deleted Scenes

Episodes 10 -13

A Flight To Remember:
Professor Farnsworth books the crew of Planet Express on the maiden voyage of the largest, most luxurious space cruise ship ever ... the Titanic. This expedition turns into a "Love Boat" as Bender falls for a wealthy Countess robot and Fry swims with the sharks. When Zapp Brannigan takes a shortcut in space, however, it becomes a night to remember as the Titanic approaches a black hole.

Mars University:
When Fry returns to college to prove he can be just as good a dropout as he was in the Twentieth Century, Professor Farnsworth surprises him with a dorm roommate, a super-intelligent monkey. Meanwhile Bender, a legend of the robot fraternity Epsilon Rho Rho "ERR" leads a revenge of the robot nerds.

When Aliens Attack:
The Omicronians threaten to destroy the earth if they can`t see the last episode of a lost 20th Century television series "Single Female Lawyer" starring an unmarried human female, who wears very short miniskirts, struggling to succeed in human man`s world. Because the last episode was destroyed by someone spilling beer on the transmitter (think Fry), the crew from Planet Express must deliver their version of "Single Female Lawyer."

Fry & the Slurm Factory:
Fry opens a "Slurm" beverage container bearing the golden bottle cap and wins a tour of the "Slurm" Factory (a la "Willy Wonka") to see how the world`s most deliciously addictive soft drink is made. Wandering off from the tour, Fry is horrified when he accidentally discovers the top-secret ingredient that makes "Slurm" so impossible to resist.

So that`s what you get for your hard earned cash, Now how does the disc perform...

Video

As mentioned above the way the animation is produced bares on the quality of the DVD image. Futurama is produced almost totally digitally, on computer, and therefore transfers digitally to DVD. This results in a top notch transfer, very crisp, clean and vivid. There`s no edge enhancement or halos from bright whites. If you`ve seen Futurama on digital TV then that`s more or less what you`re getting on these DVDs. I have noticed at time to time some macro blocking artifacts on digital TV transmissions of Futurama but you`ve none of that on these shiny platters, just excellent picture throughout!

All 13 episodes presented in their original 4:3 aspect ratio, It would be nice to see studios switching to widescreen but I`m not going to complain about this minor gripe too much!

Menu screens are static with some musical scoring. The Simpsons discs are similar and could do with a little more imagination from the authors, we know you have it in you guys!

Audio

Dolby Digital Pro Logic (Surround) is all you get for each episode. The only time full DD 5.1 kicks in is for a 20th Century Fox intro logo. This is a shame but probably cost effective on the production side. That said, I`ve heard recently that Sky are broadcasting movies in Dolby Digital 5.1 on Sky+ so this may all change. The DD Pro Logic is still very effective, with good use of surrounds for ambient effects. The bass, although obviously not dedicated, is there and packs a good punch at times.

Features

The extras are neat and concise and don`t go into too much technical detail. I tend to find discs from the likes of Disney go over the same ground on all their discs and unless some new technological breakthrough comes along, like the Deep Paint© techniques used in Tarzan, there`s little point rehashing the same old, same o!

With Futurama, Fox have given us the bare but interesting bones. Most of us know, or should by now, how animations are produced. That given, disc one has an entire animatic, with dialogue, of the pilot episode. An animatic is the basic rough pencil line art with very little animation. This is used to give the top bods at the studio a basic insight into the look and feel of the finished article. It`s great to watch and I haven`t seen anything like this since Disney brought out a similar work in progress laserdisc of Beauty and the Beast many moons ago.

You also get full storyboards for the pilot, which are a little bit small to read even on my big TV plus a collection of stills. There`s a batch of deleted scenes that run to about 4 minutes in total. These are interesting but are nothing to write home about and I must admit I do find deleted scenes a strange concept in animation, but hey that`s just me!

On all the 13 episodes you get an audio commentary from the writers and producers. I do like DVD`s ability to give multiple soundtracks with audio commentaries. For me these are the great bonus features and give us a superb insight into how the shows are put together. You get great details on insider jokes, anecdotes and some of the detailed blink-and-you`ll-miss-em background jokes in the form of posters, street names, and characters (how many times can you spot a Simpsons character).

Disc two contains a trailer for season one and more deleted scenes and Disc three has a 5 minute featurette that is short but offers a quick chat with Matt Groening and an even quicker tour of the production studio. You finally get the token image gallery, that is, well, just stills from the show you`ve just watched and let`s face it who wants to watch stills when you`ve got 13 full episodes to get through.

Conclusion

I love it, with a passion. It`s top quality TV animation with a wry and wacky sense of humor, OK it`s very similar to the Simpsons. The discs deliver this much anticipated show in pristine condition with sound to match, even if it is in stone age Pro Logic. Extras are a bit basic but what more could you ask for. They don`t patronise the viewer with endless repetitive "this is how we did this" jabbering and it gives just the right amount of light hearted insight into the ins and outs of my second favorite animated TV series, no prizes for guessing my first!

My only quibble, which is future based, is disc cost. I`ve seen this advertised for £30 - £40 for three discs with 13 episodes. When the second season is released I do believe it will have 19 episodes and season 4 is well underway. This is going to be very pricey for the average Joe to collect every box set, and don`t even get me started on the Simpsons seasons!

But all in all a must for all fans of Fry, Leela, Bender and the rest of the gang!