Wanna go on an updated Bender?
So Family Guy goes off the air, is gone for years but gets amazing backing online and soon sees a revival to the franchise thanks, in large part, to Adult Swim. Now Family Guy along with American Dad and The Cleveland Show, are mainstays on Fox. Another show began to forge a similar path, first on Adult Swim but now on Comedy Central and that show is Futurama. Now on season 8, the franchise has indeed found new life but being on Comedy Central at a later (10 PM) time slot it’s not quite received the same success as Family Guy but none the less, it should not be ignored by anime and comedy fans. So what’s to love about these past three, new, seasons? Let’s take a look at the revival that was volume 5 (the first collection of Season 6, work with me folks).
The Story – The crew returns and must be re-born via the professors birth machine and some robot adventures wrap in the crew being back and ready to resume the franchise with all new, updated pop cultural references. Leela is trapped with Zapp in a Garden of Eden, the iPhone/App fad is taken on with eyePhone’s and then Bender and Amy do their thing (who has Amy not been with?). Some catching up is also done on the topic of robosexuals, the secret history of Leonardo da Vinci and, who guessed, an alien invasion, cats folks, an invasion of cats. Futurama gets going without missing a beat in all the years of direct to DVD movies.
These are just the first few episodes, 13 total in this volume and while we can talk about each that’s not really the purpose here. Fact is the older Futurama episodes aged better than Family Guy and these new episodes feel natural and flow very well. It’s not as popular as The Simpsons from whose creators brain it sprang, and it’s not approached Family Guy either but it’s still a solid animated show with fun story points, good characters and plenty of cultural references to chuckle at.
The Animation and Voice Work – The animation is sharper, a bit brighter and solid in HD but overall it’s the same. The series looks better but the same and the voice work, excellent as always. There is a strange continuation with Futurama that is refreshing and nice, it’s all so familiar and good … mmmmm, tasty.
The Humor – Robosexuals, eyePhones … yeah, the humor is on target and now that it’s on Comedy Central the vulgarity gets a bit of a ramp up which a series such as Futurama needs. If viewers were a fan of the original seasons there is nothing new that will turn them off but on the flip side there is nothing to attract folks who did not dig the original.
Overall Futurama is and has been back stronger than before. Thanks to a series of direct to DVD movies the gap for the new Futurama was not as large as that faced by Family Guy and there was more story to consider but it works. The only downside is the channel and timing placement but that’s a nitpick for someone who want things nice, easy and early.
