Or indeed not. The title of this review is taken from the show’s opening credits. The phrase changes each time and there are some humorous ones that appear from time to time.
Continuing my fascination with the animated series here are my thoughts on the Season 2 DVD box-set of Futurama…
***THE BACKGROUND***
Futurama Season Two carries on the Adventures of the Planet Express crew and their various adventures around the universe. In case you didn’t catch my review of the Season One box-set the characters details are below:
Philip J. Fry, known simply as Fry to his friends was a drop-out in the year 1999 and, through an accident with a cryogenic freezer, is a drop-out in the year 3000. A pizza delivery boy with a lousy life in the 20th Century is given a fresh start as a delivery boy in the future. How lucky is that?
Professor Hubert J Farnsworth is Fry’s Great (x many) Nephew and his only living relative. The Professor is the creator of Planet Express and invents many different contraptions – some that work and others that are totally useless. He is over 150 years young and is slightly hard of hearing…
Bender is a robot programmed only to bend girders which was fine, until he discovered that the girders were being used to make Suicide Booths and then he could no longer live with himself. He is Fry’s closest friend in the future and is a chain-smoking, alcoholic thief. He is also a total layabout.
Leela Taronga was the Fate Assignment Officer at the cryogenic company but left after chasing Fry around New New York. She is appointed Captain of the Planet Express ship. She stuggles with depth-perception as she only has one eye.
Dr Zoidberg is the company’s resident doctor and prides himself for being an expert on the human species. He is a lobster like creature whose race is responsible for the extinction of the anchovy.
Hermes Conrad is the company’s bureaucrat and is incredibly efficient in his work. He was the Earth’s Limbo Champion until a little boy died trying to imitate him at the Olympics.
Amy Wong is the intern and comes from a very rich family from Mars. Bender repeatedly tries to rob her of the cash from her wallet. She is a little thick too and takes people at their word.
Captain Zapp Brannigan is a total loss as a military commander regularly sending thousands of troops to their death in various battles. He is seen as a great leader by all around him, although Leela seems to have very well figured out.
First Officer Kiff Kroker is Zapp’s poor long-suffering assistant. Much cleverer than Zapp but very much put in his place by various sharp put downs.
***THE DVD PACKAGE***
The Season Two box set consists of 19 episodes spread over four discs. As with the Season One bpx-set, each disc has its own plastic box and the three are housed in another box to keep them all together. The outside of the main box is decorated with various scenes from New New York.
For each disc I will give an overview of each episode, followed by what special features can be accessed from them.
***DISC ONE***
There are five episodes on Disc One:
1) I Second that Emotion.
Bender hates Leela’s pet, Nibbler rescued from the Planet Vergon 6 in Episode 4 of Season 1 (Love’s Labour Lost in Space) and when a visit to the vets results in the celebration of Nibblers’ 5th birthday, Bender gets incredibly jealous. He decides to make a cake that is so delicious and wonderful that the rest of the gang will have no choice but to love and worship him. However, Nibbler eats the cake before it even leaves the kitchen and in a mad rage Bender flushes him down the toilet.
Leela is incredibly upset at Nibbler’s loss, but Bender doesn’t care until the professor installs an empathy chip on Bender’s head and tunes it into Leela’s frequency.
With his new found emotion, ‘Uncle’ Bender flushes himself down the toilet to rescue Nibbler. Fry and Leela journey down into the sewers to locate them both, but they are soon found by mutants and are caught up in a life or death struggle against a hideous monster…
2) Brannigan, Begin Again.
The Planet Express crew are sent on an intergalactic peace mission with a delivery to the Democratic Order Of Plaent’s new HQ to delivery the ceremonial oversized ribbon cutting scissors. The new HQ is in the Neutral Zone – which arouses the wrath of Zapp Brannigan who accuses Leela of being part of a Neutral plot to kill the Yarn people of Nylar 4 with the scissors. He has the whole crew arrested and when he is supposed to be cutting the ribbon he is instead on board his own ship. He decides that it would be a good idea to cut the ribbon from his ship using the laser which, naturally, results in the destruction of the new HQ.
As a result Zapp is court marshalled and takes his First Officer Kiff down with him. After a time living it up as homeless hobos, they both end up working with Planet Express when Zapp manages to convince Fry and Bender to mutiny against Leela and install him as captain.
Zapp then launches an attack against the Neutral Planet and it isn’t long before Fry and Bender beg Leela to help them…
3) A Head in the Polls.
It’s election time and there are two candidates in the race to be President of the World – Jack Johnson and John Jackson, two clones whose DNA may well be identical but they differ on a number of key points.
Following an accident in a Titanium Mine which makes the price of the metal skyrocket, Bender – whose body is 40% titanium – decides to pawn his body for cash.
Following a visit to the Head Museum, a place where famous heads from history are kept alive in glass jars, ex-President Richard Nixon buys Bender’s body and launches his own campaign to be President of the World. But can he be stopped before his thirst for World Domination is quenched..?!
4) Xmas Story.
It’s Xmas time and the gang treat Fry to an Xmas to remember, however, during the festivities Fry decides to much has changed and he no longer wants to bother with the festivities until he discovers that Leela, who was abandoned as an orphan, is as miserable as he is. To cheer her up he decides to buy her the best Xmas present ever and has to decide between a bunch of stink lizards or a parrot.
Unfortunately, in around 2801, Mom’s Friendly Robot Company made a robotic Santa Claus which malfunctioned and set it’s goodness levels so high that no-one can match what is expected of them. Therefore the streets are not a safe place to be on Xmas Eve as Santa goes on a murderous rampage around the town…And Fry hasn’t finished shopping…
5) Why Must I be a Crustacean in Love?
The gang decide to go the gym and Dr Zoidberg is feeling particularly frisky and manages to bench-press an amazing amount of weights, before going on a rampage around the gym creating having in the pre-natal swimmer-cise class.
The Professor manages to discover that Zoidberg is in fact full of male jelly and sends the crew to Zoidberg’s home planet for a frenzy of invertebrate sex! But can Zoidberg score or not..?!
^^^SPECIAL FEATURES^^^
oOo Why must I be a Crustacean in Love? animatic.
oOo Deleted scenes from all 5 episodes.
***DISC TWO***
Disc two contains five episodes.
1) The Lesser of Two Evils.
After a visit to Past-o-rama, an authentic recreation of the year 2000 complete with mammoth hunts and old cars a newcomer to the Planet Express crew is revealed as a robot called Flexo who was run over by Fry in Past-o-rama. Flexo is like Bender in every way, except for a small fashionable beard.
Fry takes an instant disliking to Flexo and decides that he cannot be trusted, especially as the next delivery for the crew is to take a valuable atom worth over $100,000 to the Miss Universe Pageant.
Planet Express would go bankrupt if it were to be stolen and Flexo is hired as extra security against Fry’s wishes, but will the tiara be delivered safely..?!
2) Put Your Head on My Shoulders.
Valentines Day turns into a nightmare for Fry when during a romance with Amy his head is attached to her body following an horrific car crash.
Unfortunately, Amy after being dumped by Fry has decided to find another date to take out on Valentines Day and Fry’s head has to tag along for the ride.
Meanwhile Bender has set himself up as a dating agency and has made a fortune from those desperate for a date, including Fry and Leela. But Bender’s suggestions aren’t all they are cracked up to be…
3) Raging Bender.
Following a brawl at the cinema where Bender knocks out wrestling champion ‘The Masked Unit’ he becomes the next ‘Ultimate Robot Fighter’. The fighting league is of course rigged and Bender becomes a huge star, until his merchandise begins to sell less and his popularity slips.
The league’s management decide that Bender will loose his next fight and change his persona to ‘The Gender Bender’ for which Bender is required to wear a tutu and curly wig.
Leela decides she is going to help Bender train to win the fight as his opponent is her old kung-fu master from the Orphanarium who embarrassed her years ago.
4) A Bicyclops built for Two.
After a jaunt around the internet, Leela is contacted by another of her species who invites her to discover her past on her home planet. The planet was wiped out by a missile, but only Leela and this strange man survived.
There she agrees to marry him, to prevent her speices from extinction, even though he is an extreme slob, has dubious friends and she is incredibly unhappy.
All isn’t what it seems and for once, it is up to Fry to prevent Leela from making the biggest mistake of her life.
5) A Clone of my Own.
On celebrating his 150th birthday the Professor is incredibly upset and feels that he has wasted his life. Knowing that his time is nearly up, he sets about choosing his successor. Each of the gang finds a reason as to why the professor would choose them, but he amazes them all by naming his clone, Cubert, as his successor.
The professor is upset that his clone will has dreams of his own and decides to face the truth. He has been lying about his age. He is really 160. So he calls the robots of the Sunset Squad to come and take him away to his retirement.
The crew set out to rescue the Professor and Cubert sets out on his own journey of discovery…
^^^SPECIAL FEATURES^^^
oOo A Bicyclops for Two storyboards.
oOo Deleted scenes from all five episodes.
***DISC THREE***
There are five episodes on this the third disc!
1) How Hermes Requisitioned his Groove Back.
Hermes is a Grade 36 bureaucrat and when a letter arrives from Central Bureaucracy telling him he is to be inspecting in the morning, he sets about making sure his office is in order.
Once he had done this he leaves and refuses an invitation to Leela’s poker game. However, Bender gets caught cheating and a fight breaks out in Hermes’ office wrecking his tidiness.
Morgan Proctor, bureaucrat grade 19, relives Hermes of his duties and takes over the running of Planet Express. Morgan, surrounded by tidiness and order everyday, is turned on by Fry’s slobbish behaviour and the two start a whirlwind romance until Bender discovers them in bed together.
Faced with being charged of fraternising with a member of staff, Morgan steals Bender’s Brain and sends it to Central Bureaucracy – only a master bureaucrat can trace Bender’s brain and save the day!
2) The Deep South.
When Hermes mistakenly receives a Mandatory Fishing Licence, the whole gang fly out to the exact centre of the Altlantic Ocean to spend the day fishing. Bender, using the unbreakable diamond tethering filament from the ship, manages to catch a huge fish which drags the ship to the ocean floor.
Whilst down there, Fry meets a mermaid and yet another romance beckons as the team discover the lost city of Atlanta.
Fry decides to say goodbye to his friends and start a new life with Umbriel the mermaid and all is going well until they hop into bed…
3) Bender Gets Made.
After Leela is injured on the set of a television show by TV chef Elzar, the whole crew are invited to his restaurant as an apology. Unfortunately, at the end of the meal, Elzar presents them with a bill that they cannot pay and has them arrested.
Bender volunteers to work at Elzar’s restaurant to cover the cost of the meal, and in doing so hooks up with the robot mafia.
He is enjoying his new life of crime, until the mafia decide to attack the Planet Express spaceship, steal its cargo and kill its crew…
4) Mother’s Day.
It’s Mother’s Day – a day when all the robots from Mom’s Old Fashioned Robot Company celebrate their love for their creator.
Mom, however, is not all she is cracked up to be – she is a wicked old woman with plans for World Domination. Each of her robots was made with an antenna, not to make them look more science-fictiony but so that she can control them all with a remote she keeps in her bra.
Mom has chosen Mother’s Day to launch her attack on the planet because she loathes it as it was on Mother’s Day many years earlier that her heart was broken by one Professor Farnsworth.
After the robots rebel at her command the future of life on earth relies on the Professor getting back together with Mom and making it to second base…
5) The Problem with Popplers.
On the way back from a delivery to the Planet of the Moochers, Fry, Leela and Bender discover a strange planet that contains ditches full of the tastiest food they have ever eaten.
After selling billions of the things through a fast-food outlet called Fishy Joe’s they discover that these ‘Popplers’ are living beings with feelings.
Perhaps even more frighteningly for the planet they discover that they have been eating the young of the aliens from the planet Omicron Persei 8 and the aliens turn up seeking revenge…
^^^SPECIAL FEATURES^^^ oOo Deleted scenes from the episodes ‘The Deep South’, ‘Bender Gets Made’ and ‘The Problem with Popplers.’
***DISC FOUR***
The final disc of this set contains four episodes.
1) Anthology of Interest, 1.
The Professor has invented the ‘what-if’ machine which simulates the wishes of those who ask it a ‘what-if’ question. The resulting simulations show what would happen if Bender was 500 feet tall, Leela was a little more impulsive and if Fry had never arrived in the future…
2) War is the H-Word.
Fry and Bender enrol in the army to take advantage of the 5% military discount card when shopping, but unfortunately war is declared just as they have signed their names on the dotted line. They are dispatched immediately to the planet Sphereon 1 to fight a race of bouncing balls.
Fortunately a mysterious private called Lee Lemon turns up to help out before Bender is sent on a diplomatic mission to the Ball Leaders, unaware that he is carrying a bomb that is primed to explode when he utters his most used word.
Plus, Zapp is alarmed at the confusing and disturbing feelings he is feeling toward Private Lemon, who isn’t as man as everyone thinks…
3) The Honking.
Bender inherits a spooky old castle from his Uncle, but he has to stay there for just one night in order to keep it. However, he is attacked by a terrifying driverless car, unaware that he has been run over by a fearsome were-car and infected with the virus so that at midnight, he will turn into a car and embark on a similar spree of carnage…
It is upto Leela and Fry to uncover the heart of an ancient myth at the heart of his infection…
4) The Cryogenic Woman.
After Fry, Leela and Bender are fired from the Planet Express team, they take up positions at the cryogenice company that Leela used to work with. During their time there Fry’s ex from the year 1999 unthaws and they decide to get back together and make a life of it in the future, but she finds it incredibly difficult to fit in…
@ Subtitles include English for the hard of hearing, French, Italian and Dutch.
***CONCLUSION***
Following on from the success of Season One, the Season Two episodes still retain a lot of freshness and life.
The one-liner jokes and visual gags come thick and fast throughout each episode, although the set is let down by some of the later episodes, especially ‘The Honking’ and ‘The Cryogenic Woman’.
Futurama is still as funny as it ever was and still, in my opinion, a much better all round show than The Simpsons ever was.
A must for any fan of animated series and a must for any self-respecting fan of Futurama itself – indispensable entertainment on four shiny discs.
Again, some of the extras – as with Season One – are a bit pointless. The Alien alphabet is the most pointless of the lot and the deleted scenes, although funny in places show just why they were deleted.
***PURCHASING INFO***
Available from all high street shops. Available from Amazon priced £28.99 Available from Play.com priced £29.99 Available from Blackstar.co.uk priced £35.99
www.fox.co.uk/futurama for more information!
Thanks once again for reading my ramblings. Take care and have fun!
C :)
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Futurama: Season 2
Matt Groening's second series of the 31st century sci-fi sitcom Futurama maintained the
... more
high scripting standards of the first as well bringing improved digital animation. Couch potato Fry now seems thoroughly reconciled to his new existence, transporte...
Futurama: Season 2
Matt Groening's second series of the 31st century sci-fi sitcomFuturamamaintained the high
... more
scripting standards of the first as well bringing improved digital animation. Couch potato Fry now seems thoroughly reconciled to his new existence, transported ...
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