New Futurama is AWESOME

[TVC15]

10 minutes in and so far this is soooooooo worth it!  It totally feels like they just took a few weeks off!

[TVC15]

HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bagofeyes]

I gots to see this shit

[demi]

you should blog about it

[TVC15]

If it retains this level of quality, I might!

[demi]

be sure to link it here

[bagofeyes]

lolz

[TVC15]

be sure to link it here

You won't like it.  It doesn't feature any insane clowns.

It does feature a shirtless obese man, though.

[Vizzys]

4000 seeders...

my kind of torrent

[Ecrofirt]

It's on joox, so why download the torrent?

[Howard Alan Treesong]

so I can watch it on my teevee instead of on my computer moniter

[drozmight]

My brother was at a bar Sunday where the guy who voices bender was. Apparently he was all drunk and talking as bender a lot.

[TVC15]

There WILL be a backlash on this, but don't believe the haters.  Haters are just people that expected the best episode ever, or people that don't understand that this was a series of 4 episodes edited together into one movie for the sake of marketing and television syndication. They feel like 4 episodes with segues that are more involved than usual.  I see someone at GAF said it felt "disjointed," but in comparison to, say, any 4 consecutive episodes of Futurama, it feels less "disjointed" than Futurama ever has.  I also already see people denigrating the style of humor, to which I say "have these people even watched Futurama before?"

Yes, it's fanservice, but it's as good as fanservice can possibly be, and gives me warm happies at the concept of more episodes.  The makers of the show clearly know the pratfalls of these sorts of endeavors, and they have deftly stepped around most, if not all of them.

Keep my warning in mind: there will be haters.  But they are idiots, as usual.  Maybe 1up should hire them.

[drozmight]

I just got done watching it and it is hilarious.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Al Gore's hybrid taxi service, and his "Dang that $100 could have bought me one GALLON of gas!" had me rollin for a min there.

[close]

[TVC15]

I just got done watching it and it is hilarious.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Al Gore's hybrid taxi service, and his "Dang that $100 could have bought me one GALLON of gas!" had me rollin for a min there.

[close]

I even got my

spoiler (click to show/hide)

naked Farnsworth!

[close]

[drozmight]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

and zoidberg without his exoskeleton

[close]

* drozmight touches himself.

[border]

I tend not to like the episodes that focus around Bender's plotlines.  This movie is named "Bender's Big Score".  I'm worried.

[TVC15]

I tend not to like the episodes that focus around Bender's plotlines.  This movie is named "Bender's Big Score".  I'm worried.

You see, the thing is, it's not really one plot.  It's very obviously 4 episodes strung together to make one big long movie, and the Bender-centric portion of that is really only the first two episodes, and even still, what with it being THE BIG RETURN and all, it's not even really that Bender-centric.

[border]

Cool to hear it's not that big on Bender -- while the character is great, I feel like the show kind of suffered when they overused him.  He's essentially the Futurama's Bart Simpson -- good enough for some great punchlines, but not enough to carry the show.  It's good to hear that Futurama isn't suffering from the post-revival slump that Family Guy did.

I checked BillyWest.com's forums and while I didn't see an answer from Billy, supposedly all the Futurama movies are finished and in the can (or at least in the post-writing stages).  So on the bright side, the remaining movies will not be affected by the writer's strike.

[TVC15]

Don't get me wrong, there's a good amount of Bender, but it's not like, say, the Bender floating in space episode or anything.

My biggest happy came from them not using the Jamaican diplomat guy too much.  He's the only character I don't like.

Also, Zoidberg is used well, they didn't go overboard with him, since he is the other small doses good character.

Did you play the simpsons game, border?  It's pretty mediocre, but if you enjoy the humor, you can't go wrong with it.  The gameplay is largely inoffensive and the game is short short.  Give it a rent. 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Bender and Zoidberg are in it and there is Billy West meta-humor!

[close]

[border]

Hermes is a Jamaican bureaucrat, not a diplomat!   

I haven't played The Simpsons Game yet......anytime something remotely mediocre involving The Simpsons comes out, people praise it to high heaven and I give it a look-see and it turns out that it sucks (see also: Simpsons Movie, random "good" episodes of New Simpsons from the last 6 years).  The franchise has sunk to such awfulness that performances that are merely subpar get overhyped, so I am pretty wary of The Simpsons Game.  It's like a 6-7 on most critics' scale, but take out The Simpsons and that probably sinks to a 5 or lower.

Did you ever play the Futurama game?  I never finished it just because I got involved with other distractions, but I think the awful gameplay:funny dialogue ratio is enough not to make it a total waste.  That's pretty much what I'd hope for with The Simpsons Game.....but it's EA, so they can probably do worse.

[TVC15]

Hermes is a Jamaican bureaucrat, not a diplomat!  

I haven't played The Simpsons Game yet......anytime something remotely mediocre involving The Simpsons comes out, people praise it to high heaven and I give it a look-see and it turns out that it sucks (see also: Simpsons Movie, random "good" episodes of New Simpsons from the last 6 years).  The franchise has sunk to such awfulness that performances that are merely subpar get overhyped, so I am pretty wary of The Simpsons Game.  It's like a 6-7 on most critics' scale, but take out The Simpsons and that probably sinks to a 5 or lower.

It's the best funny Simpsons content since the show went tits up.  I'll confidently say that even after having watched the movie.  You can read my impressions on my blog about the movie.  Long story short:  I thought it was mostly entertaining, and as good as a Simpsons movie could possibly be in the year 2007.  I didn't think it was great, but there were some good bits in it.

The humor content in the Simpsons ia round the board pretty great, and sometimes even actually clever.  Again, this is the Simpsons, and it is the year 2007, so it's not perfect, but I don't doubt this will be the best we get before they finally bury the franchise.

The reviews?  I think they were a little harsh.  Keep in mind that most reviewers only played the first few levels, which are by a wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide margin the absolute worst, and least funny in the game.  Around level 4 (there are like 14-15 levels), it picks up and turns on and stays pretty decent, even from a gameplay perspective.  It's nothing groundbreaking or anything, but it's easy to play and really forgiving in difficulty (you always start right where you died, usually without a reload screen), so the few awful bits aren't awful for long.

But yeah, take out the Simpsons (including the humor) and the game is probably a 5.  But with the Simpsons, and that humor, it's at least worth a rental playthrough.  I guarantee the game will actually make you laugh at least once, which is more than I can say for like, any of the past 7 Simpsons seasons.

Did you ever play the Futurama game?  I never finished it just because I got involved with other distractions, but I think the awful gameplay:funny dialogue ratio is enough not to make it a total waste.  That's pretty much what I'd hope for with The Simpsons Game.....but it's EA, so they can probably do worse.

No, I never played the Futurama game.  I heard it was sort of similar in quality, except the play in it was worse.

But yeah, tldr: The first 4 levels suck.  Then it's mediocre-good but funny.

EDIT:

Also, Bender's Big Score > The Simpsons Game, mainly because Simpsons Game has a lil bit of suck involved (at the beginning) whereas Futurama is clean as long as you like, aren't allergic to fanservice.

[TVC15]

Also, a funny present to our Jewish brothers that don't celebrate thanksgiving:



I know I have said in the past that star wars references are overplayed, but I can't resist a good sight gag.

[thekavorka]

It was a pretty good movie. So much better than Simpsons or Family Guy. Nothing earth shattering but very entertaining.

One of the things I didn't like:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I didn't really like the whole Hermes thing. I realize they did it to show that duplicates were doomed, but I thought the whole "kid needs a father" thing was kind of lame.

[close]

[border]

I gotta say I am pretty disappointed with it.  It's one thing just to throw in characters like Santa Claus, HedonismBot, Hypnotoad, etc as fan service.....it's another thing to go around appending well-loved stories that should not have been touched.  At that point you've stepped over the line.  The stuff with Yancy and Fry's dog was totally unnecessary, and felt like it was just there to revisit (but cheapen) some of the best sentimental episodes in the show's original run.

This isn't the really problem with Bender's Big Score, though -- it's mostly just that the good jokes are few and far between and the plot itself wears thin about halfway through.  I wanted more of Fry being stupid, less of headless Hermes.

The dialogue with Doctor Goodnsexy, was classic though 

[lordmaji]

Futurama is the best!

I haven't seen this yet, but I will. I hope they start making new episodes. The show is great. BRING IT BACK!!!

[bagofeyes]

I wouldve just prefered 4 seperate episodes. That story realllly dragged on

[TVC15]

Wow. LOTS of fanservice. Dripping with it. Not necessarily bad, but I think I saw like every character and popular story arch mentioned.

Not a bad thing at all.  It's well done.  It's not like animu fanservice that seems totally contrived.  Not that there aren't a few totally contrived moments, but nobody bats 1000.

I am surprised that so many Futurama fans are disappointed.  That guy on GAF that went off about the scientific accuracy of the show really opened my eyes.  It reminded me that, yes, the Simpsons is shitty, but Simpsons fans are even shittier.  He probably hasn't seen Futurama recently, and in his head, his expectations slowly got out of control.  He rememvered the math and sciencey content of the show, but he somehow thought the show was basically a conceptual, accurate science show.

Similarly, people disappointed with the fanservice?  What the fuck did they expect?  This was the first time in like 4 years that they got to do a show, and when they did this one, first of four, they probably didn't even know if they would get to do the other 3, what with how they've been raped in the past.  It logically follows that the crew, who loves the show so much that they ALL managed to get back together years later, a total rarity in TV, wanted to cram all their characters and references in.  What's important is that they did it well.  Really god damned well.

People expecting perfection, or even close to it, are just distinguished mentally-challenged.

[Vizzys]

I thought it was great.

[border]

Similarly, people disappointed with the fanservice?  What the fuck did they expect?  This was the first time in like 4 years that they got to do a show, and when they did this one, first of four, they probably didn't even know if they would get to do the other 3, what with how they've been raped in the past.  It logically follows that the crew, who loves the show so much that they ALL managed to get back together years later, a total rarity in TV, wanted to cram all their characters and references in.  What's important is that they did it well.  Really god damned well.

Like I said, I didn't really mind all the tertiary stuff.....but messing with Luck of the Fryish and Jurassic Bark is just not kosher.  It's like Shakespeare going back and writing Romeo and Juliet 2: Electric Boogaloo, where it turns out the star-crossed lovers didn't actually die, but went on to have 2 kids and a wacky neighbor.  That's a shitty analogy, but you get my point (I know bringing up Shakespeare is the exclusive dominion of pathetic Squaresoft defenders).  Those episodes were tragedies in their own little way, but they've been turned into comedies for the sake of temporarily amusing a fanbase that adores them.

While I don't mind the logic-bending, it does indeed bother me that nobody cared much about Nibbler's revelation.  It wasn't really necessary to the plot (Prof. Farnsworth could have easily explained the same dilemma) and the problems it introduces are not worth what it does add to the plot (which is little more than an unfunny Nibblonian dogfight scene).

I'll still buy the DVD tomorrow though, just because I know the commentaries will be even funnier than the movie itself....

[TVC15]

The nibbler thing is really the only thing that bugged me.  The Luck of the Fryish and Jurassic Bark stuff basically happens in a montage.  It's not like it actually plays a role in the plot.  That's probably why it didn't really have an effect on my enjoyment of the episodes.

The Nibbler thing is dumb.  It just happens and is never mentioned again, and they never even make a vague, even half-assed attempt to explain it.  But still, that is one minor thing in 90 minutes of goodness.

[Vizzys]

but now we know how seymour became a rock of dolomite

which was hilarious imo

but then again It does conflict with the ending of that Jurassic bark episode if I remember correctly

TIME TRAVEL

[border]

It's not like it actually plays a role in the plot.

But isn't that the problem?  Very moving and poignant parts of the show's mythology are being rewritten just for the sake of making a reference.  These changes are not even relevant to what they needed to do with the plotline.  Call me a dramatic sadist, but I want Yancy to die without Fry ever knowing that his little brother sincerely admired him....it makes a very sad, thoughtful comment on how we can misinterpret relationships involving even those that are closest to us.  I want Seymour to die after years of waiting for Fry's return because that makes Jurassic Bark a testament to the steadfast faithfulness of beloved pets.  If he's just sitting outside Panucci's because that's where Fry comes after work, it certainly diminishes the original story's impact.

[TVC15]

I hate to do it, but I have to pull the It's Just a Cartoon defense.  Luck of the Fryish and Jurassic Park weren't ever anything more than particularly good episodes to me, and I know better than to put too much faith in the continuity of a cartoon.  In cartoons where EVERYTHING happens, you basically selectively pick what continuity is important to you anyway.  Why do you care about Fryish and Bark, but not the continuity from the last episode that has been skipped in the new episodes?  It's a cartoon.  They're wildly inconsistent.  If you don't like the continuity presented in the new movie, feel free to ignore it.

[Vizzys]

ITS DOLOMITE BABY

I agree with the whiteman here, just think timetravel/alternate universe and write it off