Gone but not Forgotten (Futurama)

Member Name: mrcordel

Product:	Futurama
Date:	01/05/02 (21 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny, Excellent animation, Sci fi cool

Disadvantages: Not always funny, Its been cancelled!

In 1999 Matt Groening, creator of the Simpsons revealed his eagerly awaited new project: Futurama. A parody of science fiction and pulp stories, it revolves around the life of loser delivery boy Fry when he accidentally becomes trapped in a cryogenics chamber for 1000 years, emerging in a bizarre future.

Unfortunately after only 4 seasons (series to us Brits) Twentieth century Fox decided not to order any more episodes. The team for Futurama have dispersed, leaving this innovative and extremely watchable cartoon lost in space forever.

Matt Groening said that while the Simpsons is fiction, Futurama is real. Fry in particular represents the slacker generation effectively well, and the show revolves around single people falling in and out of love, contrasted against the Simpsons often more moralistic, family oriented tales. Indeed, the future has never seemed more real, people aren't necessarily happy or perfect in the future, what with suicide booths, vending machines selling crack, thousands of TV channels, space age junk food and other parodies of popular culture.

Perhaps I'm looking into all of this through sentimental nerd specs, Futurama also has bizarre aliens, space battles and ray guns, monsters and mutants. Personally I always found Futurama more compelling than the Simpsons, the stories are edgier and draw you into the plot more than the adventures of Bart and co. The animation is particularly spectacular, with computer techniques and 3D merging well with the cel drawings. There are loads of references to sci-fi, but the show is really about our current society (with modern celebrities making regular appearances as disembodied heads in jars).

If you want to get into Futurama, season 1 (the best in my opinion) is available on VHS or DVD. I bought the VHS box set, while the packaging is great (with a sort of animation cell shroud) the extras are poor, including eight deleted scenes, and a very short featurette,
which lasts a measly five minutes.

There is currently a campaign to save Futurama here (with on-line petition): http://www.gotfuturama.com

The official (but limited) site is here: http://www.fox.com/futurama

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