New Futurama Movie Coming in June

walterbyrd writes "Bender's Big Score is just getting set to air on Comedy Central, but already Fox has announced that the next straight-to-DVD Futurama film/series is coming in June. The title? 'The Beast with a Billion Backs.' 'In what Fox is calling the most tentacle-packed Futurama epic, space itself rips open, revealing a gateway to another universe. What lies beyond is a mix of horror and love as the Planet Express crew encounters a repulsive, planet-sized monster with romantic intentions. The second feature-length Futurama film will be followed by at least two more movies from series creators Matt Groening and David X. Cohen. The show's entire voice cast and most of its main writers have returned to help revive the series, which FOX cancelled in 2003.'"

Comments

Better in half-hour installments

[aapold]

Bender's Big Score had many awesome moments, but it made me realize Futurama is better in shorter installments, it begins to wear at the interest after awhile. BBS is best watched in pieces IMO. of course straight-to-dvd you're free to do that. But I'd take a series of tales over a single long one I think. I do hope for another episode of "Everyone loves Hypnotoad" on the extras though.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[Coraon]

we love the hypnotoad...

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[moderatorrater]

I agree. I wish they would release a dvd of four new episodes instead of a movie. The old series was as close to perfect as a show gets, IMHO.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[Sporkinum]

All hail the Hypnotoad!

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[Rutulian]

That's funny because I thought Bender's Big Score was terrible. My roommate and I loved the old Futurama episodes and have watched them all several times over. About 30 minutes into the movie, we were looking at each other and asking, "Is this Futurama?" I had to force myself to sit through the whole thing, hoping that it would get better, but all I got was a seemingly endless stream of jokes and gags repeated over in a bad way from the series. And the fart joke level of humor was pretty excessive. I always liked Futurama because it didn't have a lot of that, and instead had a lot of subtle humor that could really be appreciated by geeks.

I'm really hoping the second movie is better....

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[morari]

Agreed. A half season of new stand alone episodes would been much preferred.

Also, did anyone else notice that Bender's Big Score suffered from "jaggies" on many straight lines through the animation? I noticed a similar, though not as severe, effect on the Simpsons Movie once it was released to DVD as well.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[residieu]

I'd like to see more "Scary Door", though a full length episode of that would be missing the point.

About halfway through Bender's Big Score, I got the "aren't we done yet?" feeling. But I got into it again after that. I'm used to watching 5 episodes at a time, though. I'm still looking forward to the remaining movies, and anything that might come after that.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[explosivejared]

The thing about Bender's Big Score is that it wasn't made to be successful in the normal sense. It was much more an homage to the fans that have waited the series out. The plot is one essentially that would work really well as a half-hour episode, but instead it's intentionally stretched out to allow for a lot of in-jokes and nods to long time fans. They knew exactly what they were doing when they made BBS. I see the new one being a regular old movie with no ulterior motive other than to entertain. Now I know making a movie that is successful and able to stand on its own is hard, but I have faith that David X. Cohen and the rest of the lot can do it.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[Profane MuthaFucka]

Excessive fart humor? That's un-PPPPHHHHHFFFFFFFTTTTT-possible!

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[Dachannien]

Actually, the "Anthology of Interest" episodes (you watched it - you can't unwatch it!) were among my favorites from the original series, indicating that extremely short episodes really provided the structure that helped the writers to shine. I wouldn't mind seeing more Tales! Of! Interest! included as bonus features on the upcoming DVDs.

I liked Bender's Big Score a lot better than, say, That's Lobstertainment or The Honking, but they really had some great episodes during the original run that'll be hard to top.

On an unrelated note, I seriously hope they improve the media and packaging quality for the next DVD. My DVD player is barely able to play the BBS disc I got (no scratches or anything, just can't seem to stay focused on the disc, especially layer 2), and the packaging only manages tenuously, at best, to keep the disc from falling out and rolling across the floor.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[Oktober Sunset]

your wish shall be grant little one, as when they have made all 3 movies, they are going to chop them up into episodes like family guy did the Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story. Of course whether that will make it any better is to be seen.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[Joe the Lesser]

I noticed a similar issue with the Family Guy movie.

The sort of bit comedy that the Simpsons started is hilarious, but hard to maintain plot lines over twenty minutes because most of the humor is helped my plot twists, and they can only twist so much.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[Boronx]

Ironically, the Simpsons movie wasn't half bad.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[LunaticTippy]

Maybe you are used to these shows on a SD feed, which would tend to blur this. Another possibility is your TV is higher res than the dvd and the upscaling artifacts are visible.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[CKW]

YES. That's exactly what I thought. They went out of their way to re-do gags they've done before and "show" every character ever in the series, no matter how irrelevant to the plot. Like you were watching a kitschy movie trying to remind you of how great it's past was - but DOING NOTHING NEW OR INTERESTING. HUGE disappointment.

Any two episodes from the series was better than the first movie. Any two. Many individual episodes from the series were better than the whole movie.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[Anonymous Coward]

That's strange. I actually liked the Family Guy movie. Being long, it was forced to have an actual storyline, and it was pretty good. It's even better if you remove all the "salmon helmets". If you do that to a regular episode, you find you're left with a few badly written minutes of television.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[daveywest]

I saw BBS like a week's worth of Dilbert cartoons by stringing a bunch of unrelated absurdities together under an odd theme. Personally, I felt like there were too many gratuitous naked spammer sceens.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[MightyMartian]

I dunno, I thought it worked pretty well. Not my favorite Futurama outing, but it certainly holds its own.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[dq5 studios]

On an unrelated note, I seriously hope they improve the media and packaging quality for the next DVD. My DVD player is barely able to play the BBS disc I got (no scratches or anything, just can't seem to stay focused on the disc, especially layer 2), and the packaging only manages tenuously, at best, to keep the disc from falling out and rolling across the floor. I'm told it's because they wanted the packaging to be carbon neutral or zero emissions or what ever the term is for what Al Gore's been talking about.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow. I'm shocked. Am I the only one who utterly loved it? It had a good involving storyline, it had real science fiction (the idea of time travel duplicates is something I have been wanting to see explored well in some story for a long time), and it even grips your heart at the end. Yes, short instalments are often quite funny (what if life were more like a video game?), but the ones I will remember the most were the ones with a good story. Also, you'll notice a lot of cool details during the second watching. That said, it was still pretty damn funny. I can't wait for more.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[Gatton]

That's Lobstertainment was one of my favorite episodes. But then I love Zoidberg :-).
I agree with what everyone else is saying about BBS not being as good as the episodes. I understand that they have (or will) planned to show the movie as four episodes with commercials. I wonder if it wouldn't come across better that way.

My oft repeated Futurama quote anytime I do something as a favor for a friend - Zoidberg: "Hooray I'm useful!"

I just wish I could do a stereotypical Jewish accent as well as Billy West or Hank Azaria.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[Moralpanic]

Yeah, i have to agree. Although the episode was good, it was far too long, and too complex. I don't mean the time paradox, but throwing Hermes problems, Leela and Art budding romance, the scammers, etc all into one LONG episode caused things to jump around too much. I think this would have worked better if they had released them in 4 longer episodes (maybe full 30mins, rather than 20mins episodes) on each CD... this way, if other networks like Comedy or the Toon network wanted to pick them up and air'd them, they could have.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[OrangeTide]

Bender's Big Score was too much Futurama at once, I kept looking at my watch to see when it was going to start wrapping things up. But I will admit that Bender's Big Score was one of the strangest mixed up episodes. Talk about taking time travel paradoxes to a confusing extreme :)

I think I would rather see a DVD released every 3-6 months with another 3-5 episodes on it. Hypnotoad is great to play at parties on a random TV. Just leave it on repeat (and low volume) and see if anyone tries watching it.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[DimmO]

http://www.r33b.net/ (not mine)

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[bigstrat2003]

I guess it's all a matter of opinion. I didn't think Bender's Big Score was on par with the series' best moments, but I would rate it as being in the better half of the Futurama material... there are a good few regular series episodes that were weaker than Bender's Big Score.

And as for the "fart joke" factor, I'm not sure what you even mean. Specific examples?

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[Progman3K]

You're not alone.

I also thought it was great.

To appreciate it you really have to concentrate. There are lots of subtle details that were put in the movie, time-travel stories like BBS require more from the viewer.

I believe this is the reason some fans didn't like it. It out-geeked its supposed geek audience.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[Anonymous Coward]

I noticed a similar issue with the Family Guy movie.

I didn't. The Family Guy movie was just as awful as a Family Guy TV episode, only longer.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[theheadlessrabbit]

that is strange.

i got my copy off of the pirate bay, and burnt it to DVD myself, and I have had no problems at all with playback.

another reason to steal rather than going legit?

(p.s. I live in asia, getting legit copies of N.A. films is nearly impossible. I have supported the rest of the seeries by buying all the seasons on DVD)

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[illegalcortex]

Comedy is all about timing. The pacing in BBS was atrocious. They did NOT know exactly what they were doing. This was their first time to try to make Futurama work at that length and it showed. Plus they just made some completely boneheaded decisions like thinking the whole FOX Executive Powder joke was funny after the 500th time. And why did Zapp Brannigan have less screen time than BARBADOS SLIM, for Ja's sake?

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[bugg]

Nope, I loved it too.

I'm also a sucker for endings that pull on your heartstrings - and this movie ranked up there with Jurassic Bark for emotional response at the end.

I did apologize to those who watched it with me, however, as they weren't really futurama fans, and all of the in-jokes were a bit much for them. I found myself having to explain why santa was a robot who killed things, etc.

Does anyone know how strong the sales were? I'm trying to decide whether I should buy my own copy - I don't really ever buy DVDs, but I will to keep Futurama alive!

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[Anonymous Coward]

All FOUR movies, not three. They're making a whole new season, which consists of 16 episodes, not 12. I except your Futurama Fan Club parking tag and geek card in my mailbox by tomorrow, thank you.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[ufoolme]

This looks like ManBearPig central!

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[BenBenBen]

Strange, I would have said it was barely half good.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[bobobobo]

Yeah, that was my initial impression in watching it, that it didn't have many funny moments, if any at all. It was however a really great piece of sci-fi. I don't think a time travel story so convoluted was ever pulled off so well or tightly before.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[DaFallus]

They explain this right in the commentary. The first movie was for the dedicated fans and the rest will be less complex. I see a lot of people bitching about this here. Honestly I'm a little surprised by how many highly modded "it sucked because it wasn't exactly like the show" comments I've read. The movie does pretty much follow the same formula. I have this funny feeling though, like if they had made Bender's Big Score into something as complex as a regular episode stretched into an hour, you people would just be bitching about the lack of depth and how you didn't get to see some favorite character of yours. Heaven forbid they slightly alienate some of their fringe viewers in order to please the most devoted of their fans. Damned if you do I guess...

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[Skater]

You are not alone! I loved BBS too.

And the Simpsons movie. That's the only movie I've gone to see in the theaters more than one time.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[elrous0]

Hate to do a "me too" post, but I felt the same way--and I was a HUGE Futurama fan. "Benders Big Score" seemed diluted. About the only thing that I liked about it was that the dog from "Jurrassic Bark" at least finally got a happy ending.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[Oktober Sunset]

Futurama Fan Club parking tag and geek card?? No, sorry, never had either of those, it was a tricky choice, but I picked a life instead.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[SilentBob0727]

Comedy central *IS* picking up BBS and airing it, one episode at a time. That was part of the plan all along.

And his name was Lars, not Art.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[Gulthek]

I loved it tons, I even reviewed it (5/5).

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow. Fuck that. I bought BBS but I'm not going to pay $20 for an intentionally crappy product just to make Al Gore feel better. I'm pirating the next one.

Re:Better in half-hour installments

[Anonymous Coward]

I like "Roswell That Ends Well", for the same reason. "And Zoidberg picks up another piece, and the crowd goes wild! HHhhhhhh!"

Mmm, tentacle-packed epic...

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait, which Matt Groening series is this again?

Since it's not in TFS, obligatory:

[amliebsch]

Good news, everyone!

Re:Since it's not in TFS, obligatory:

[anti-human 1]

It was in the department line, sorry to burst your bubble.

Re:Since it's not in TFS, obligatory:

[MightyMartian]

That's not good news at all.

Futurama

[boyko.at.netqos]

It makes you wonder why TV shows don't skip the network alltogether and go straight to DVD in the first place.

Re:Futurama

[Scrameustache]

It makes you wonder why TV shows don't skip the network alltogether and go straight to DVD in the first place. Who's going to pay for the production?

Re:Futurama

[Higaran]

Because if you have never seen something like on the big screen or on tv, there is almost no chance of you going out any buying or renting it. Unless its christmas shopping time, and you grap like 10 dvds from the bargin bin at walmart for like $5.00 to give out as stocking stuffers. I welcome our new overload the beast with a billion backs.

Re:Futurama

[leoxx]

If Graham Linehan wrote it, I'd buy it no questions asked.

Re:Futurama

[Jerf]

We're getting there, incrementally. We can't jump to it all at once for the reasons cited by others.

If you want to see that world, be sure to support the Futurama movies, and pick up Stargate: The Ark of Truth, too. Right now, that's the most direct way to indicate interest in this.

Re:Futurama

[Anonymous Coward]

Indeed. They've been doing it in Japan for years!

Re:Futurama

[Anonymous Coward]

This happens in Japan where OVAs (original video animation) are released without a preceding TV series.

It's possible there as the fan base is established from (usually) manga and the OVA is a type of merchandising (much like figurines, posters, novels, computer games etc). It might later be spawned into a TV series if it becomes successful. In other cases it might be a video/computer game or a novel that develops the fan base. Generally, the franchising model for a property is developed differently. I can't see this happening in the US for instance, as the culture is quite different.

Re:Futurama

[NaugaHunter]

It makes you wonder why TV shows don't skip the network alltogether and go straight to DVD in the first place.

Because most of television is still about being a gimmick to get people to watch advertisements. They aren't called "soap operas" because everyone is clean; it's because the serials started as a way to sell soap. It makes me shake my head at people bitching about product placements when at one time all radio and television were were a series of product placements.

Yes, it is evolving and networks like HBO are creating more and more of their own content for its own sake. But as long as this is a capitalist society the majority of television will be an excuse to sell eyeballs to advertisers. And the rising costs of films and video games will push those even further towards product placements for block-buster type films and games.

Re:Futurama

[drydirt]

It makes you wonder why TV shows don't skip the network alltogether and go straight to DVD in the first place.


Problem is producting a quality show costs a hell of a lot of money. Animating Futurama ain't cheap and there's a lot of talent who wants to be paid what they're worth. If they would have bypassed fox and went straight to DVD who would have fronted them the production costs?

The networks are a bitch to deal with but they do give you money to work with, and lots of it, and if you're lucky enough to get on the air they will make sure millions of people will see it. The subscriber or direct to consumer system is a great ideal but without advertising and marketing how do you get the people interested? Especially if you're not already a big name?

Good News Everyone!

[Anonymous Coward]

We're going straight to dvd and Fox is helping us!

It's nice to have Futurama back, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's going to suck like the first movie :(

They cannot pull this long format, unfortunately, and should go back to 30 min episodes.

Re:It's nice to have Futurama back, but...

[AshtangiMan]

The mods are tripping again.

Movie good, but...

[Xelios]

I'd have been happier with new direct-to-DVD seasons rather than long movies. The last one seemed drawn out and the jokes were a bit sparse. It just doesn't translate well into feature length.

I hope this one will be better, but either way I'm glad they're not giving up on Futurama.

Re:Movie good, but...

[realmolo]

I have to agree.

Though, to me the major problem with "Bender's Big Score" is that they just threw everything but the kitchen sink into the plot. By the end of the movie, it's just a confusing mess of plots/subplots. The STRENGHT of "Futurama" has been that the plots are typically pretty tight. They ALWAYS had a good plot, and stuck with it.

Re:Movie good, but...

[moderatorrater]

My opinion is that they had to do some fan service for the first movie, and that these next ones should be able to get away from that.

Re:Movie good, but...

[kimvette]

They state this is exactly the case in the commentaries. The first one is for the long-time fans and the following three are less complex and lighter/easier to follow.

Re:Movie good, but...

[surgen]

It does seem that they threw a lot into the plot but that is because it is four times as long. If you break the movie into four 22 minute segments you can see that each part stands on its own very well. I enjoyed that the plot was driving the story forward, if hadn't have had such an active plot the story would have just felt like was drawn out and moving too slowly. I think a lot of the anger at the plot is sparked when people try to wrap their head around the time travel and which instance of a charecter is which.

Re:Movie good, but...

[Kjella]

Though, to me the major problem with "Bender's Big Score" is that they just threw everything but the kitchen sink into the plot. Name one complicated time travel story (i.e. beyond "everything is back the way it should be" or "the timeloop collapsed and nothing happened") that had a straight forward plot...

Re:Movie good, but...

[glwtta]

My opinion is that they had to do some fan service for the first movie, and that these next ones should be able to get away from that.

Wait, are you saying no more deliveries to the Nude Beach Planet?

That'd be very disappointing!

Re:Movie good, but...

[Chris Tucker]

Fan service all the way! And greatly appreciated, too!

I loved how they retconned a happy ending for "Jurassic Bark".

It was great seeing Seymour again. And seeing him happy and with Fry.

Re:Movie good, but...

[illegalcortex]

To me, a fan who has bought all the seasons and this movie, the best service they could have done was to make a funny movie. They took their eye off the ball with BBS. Hopefully the next one is better. I agree with the other poster who said they should do direct to dvd seasons (or mini-seasons).

Re:Movie good, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

I dunno what people are complaining about. I loved BBS. It had an interesting enough plot and the jokes were funny - even more so because of the throwbacks. But I guess it's just cause I'm a fan (no pun intended for those who've seen BBS) and have seen all the episodes several times (but I think the Roswell episode is still among those left to beat).

Re:Movie good, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd have been happier with new direct-to-DVD seasons rather than long movies.

But the creators wouldn't be:

Futurama Vol. 4: $27.99 / 414 minutes = $0.07 per minute
Bender's Big Score: $19.99 / 88 minutes = $0.22 per minute

I suspect that while many people would have been happier with direct-to-DVD seasons, they would not be willing to pay the same price for the Futurama movie as they would have for a disc with four TV episodes on it. Culturally, we've been trained to think of movies as more valuable than TV shows -- even in the case of Futurama, where the cost per minute is practically the same. Part of the reason we think of TV shows as cheaper is that TV show DVDs are typically much cheaper per minute, because the shows have already made their money when they were first broadcast. That would not be the case for a direct-to-DVD TV show, which may have been a factor in Futurama's decision not to go that route.

Re:Movie good, but...

[jZnat]

Considering the only human or human-like beings on that planet were the Planet Express crew themselves, I say good riddance to that planet. I especially don't want to see any more Nudar-like people.

Welp,

[Jailbrekr]

we're boned.

Re:Welp,

[Joe the Lesser]

Ask not for whom the bone bones, the bone bones for thee.

Re:Welp,

[Anonymous Coward]

We're doomed! DOOOOOOMED!

Since it's on DVD and not TV.

[iknownuttin]

Do you think they'll have some gratuitous nudity - like Lella? I really want to see her naked!

Re:Since it's on DVD and not TV.

[antifoidulus]

screw Leela, some hot Amy on Kiff action FTW!

Re:Since it's on DVD and not TV.

[Dachannien]

They didn't show any naughty bits on Bender's Big Score, but there was an unprecedented amount of animated ass crack on-screen (some good, some... not so good).

Re:Since it's on DVD and not TV.

[Jello B.]

I've been poking my monitor for five minutes waiting for your UID to roll over.

Re:Since it's on DVD and not TV.

[The Queen]

Based on the tone of his comment, I wouldn't get too close to his monitor if I were you.

Re:Since it's on DVD and not TV.

[isorox]

screw Leela Well, if you insist...

Finally!

[ZJVavrek]

Tentacle romance comes to Western Animation! And on a planet-sized scale, too.

Re:Finally!

[Sabz5150]

You missed that whole "Fan Fiction" thing, didn't you?

Redundant...

[Deja]

To FOX,
Bite my shiny metal ass

Love
-The Cast/crew

Best Day Ever

[putzin]

This is all I can say about more Futurama being anounced.

And the winner ...

[Random BedHead Ed]

And the winner of the best animated series to return to us via DVD is ...

...

... THE HYPNOTOAD. ... ALL HAIL ... THE HYPNOTOAD.

Re:And the winner ...

[Graff]

Random BedHead Ed had this to say:

... THE HYPNOTOAD. ... ALL HAIL ... THE HYPNOTOAD. I think the funniest part of that web page is the source code. Not only does it have an ASCII-art hypnotoad comment but it also uses the special iPhone icon setting.

What's funny about that last part? Well, pretty much all the content on the web page is in a Flash movie and the iPhone can't view it because the iPhone doesn't support Flash!

Kinda ironic that your iPhone bookmark will have a pretty icon for content it can't view...

Re:And the winner ...

[MightyMartian]

Well, after all, Apple is the Hypnotoad of the 21st century.

Re:And the winner ...

[dargndorp]

And for Extra-Fun-Filled-Party-Action, put your browser in kiosk mode and just see the flash animation http://r33b.net/flash/r33bit.swf

Re:And the winner ...

[Juan|Corral]

:D

Just getting ready for the future. I added the iTouch/iPhone icon stuff back in late January (IIRC) after firmware 1.1.3 was out and was testing the bookmark feature on my phone.

There's also a Chappelle's Show easter egg if you click the Hypnotoad's collar tag, but you need to have pop-ups enabled.

Re:And the winner ...

[Graff]

Juan|Corral had this to say:

There's also a Chappelle's Show easter egg if you click the Hypnotoad's collar tag, but you need to have pop-ups enabled. The easter egg is cool and all but I'm curious why you didn't just do the hypnotoad as an animated image or something similar? It seems like a bit of overkill to be using Flash for something so simple. You could have even used an image map in order to still have your Easter egg.

If it was done like this then your page would be a lot more lightweight and portable, working on just about every browser configuration out there, including the iPhone/iTouch.

Re:And the winner ...

[Graff]

Oh, I forgot to add that you are missing the opening html tag. Most browsers will work around the bug but you probably should still put it in there, especially since you have the closing html tag in there.

agreed

[WiseWeasel]

I agree completely. I'm a big Futurama fan, and I've watched every episode, and I thought the movie Bender's Big Score sucked ass. They must have changed their writing staff or rushed production, because the humor was just lame. The next one had better not be this bad, or I'll have to write Futurama off as a total loss.

Re:agreed

[onemorechip]

I agree too. But my hope is that they will have learned a few lessons about working in larger forms. For one, you can't make a good story better by adding a lot of pointless filler (and there was a good story underlying Bender's Big Score; maybe a shorter cut of the movie, around 45 minutes, focusing on that story, would have worked).

Re:agreed

[craagz]

I agree completely. I'm a big Futurama fan, and I've watched every episode, and I thought the movie Bender's Big Score sucked bender's shiny metal ass. They must have changed their writing staff or rushed production, because the humor was just lame. The next one had better not be this bad, or I'll have to write Futurama off as a total loss.

Re:Predictable naysayers

[harrkev]

The way they are making these movies is to make 4 episodes, take out the themes, and widescreen it. These ARE episodes.

Yes, but they packed all of the fun and laughs of a 20-minute episode into an hour-and-a-half movie. I loved Futurama (the series), but Futurama (the movie) was not nearly as entertaining.

Subscription Model (Japanese OVA)

[StCredZero]

I agree. I wish they would release a dvd of four new episodes instead of a movie. The old series was as close to perfect as a show gets, IMHO. Lots of great animation went straight to video in Japan. (OVA = Original Video Animation) This was a way that new, innovative, and quirky shows could get produced even when no network execs had the courage or foresight to touch them. It's time we had more of that in North America! The technology is certainly there on the production side, with good software and commoditized hardware like scanners and digital cameras to support independent production. Someone should do a combination of Machinima + live action greenscreen.

If you want to see what amateurs can do with greenscreen, take a look at Star Wreck. Amazing what you can do with attention to detail, home made costumes and greenscreens, and a render-farm of 3 PCs in your living room. Oh, and it helps to have a hot girlfriend and goofy actor friends to play parts!

I hope the second movie is better

[llZENll]

I LOVE Futurama! I bought the DVD, and will buy the next one. But BBS was a huge letdown for me, I don't know if it was because it was long or what, but it didn't live up to my expectations at all, I hope the second one is better...

Here's a better pic (Re:Subscription Model)

[StCredZero]

Here's a better pic

http://bp0.blogger.com/_5CLZC5IiEQw/Ra0X-t7_P1I/AAAAAAAAAKk/Ifc40dkudSQ/s1600-h/tiinaseisoo.jpg

My review of Bender's Big Score

[Nova Express]

Can be found here. For those interested in such things

ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD!

Re:Predictable naysayers

[ClioCJS]

No.. They packed all the fun of 4 20-minute episodes into this 4-episode 'movie'. And it tied together a LOT of the series. They weren't just 4 one-off adventures. Meh.. You probably hated the Simpsons, South Park, and Aqua Teen movies too.

A minor correction:

[The_REAL_DZA]

"...The show's entire voice cast and most of its main writers have returned to help revive the series, which FOX cancelled in 2003.'"

Should have been "...The show's entire voice cast and most of its main writers have returned to help revive the series, which FOX stupidly cancelled in 2003.'" There, I fixed it for you.

Re:A minor correction:

[ShadowsHawk]

That's fairly redundant. Fox's MO has always been:

1. Get a great show.
2. Put it on long enough to generate a loyal following.
3. Kill it for no apparent reason.
4. ???
5. Profit from stupid reality shows. (Guess I found the ???)

Re:A minor correction:

[SilentBob0727]

That's their FIRST MO. Their other MO continues off 1 and 2:

3. Keep it on the air LONG after most of the original writers and/or actors have left the show or died and it stops being a quality show and becomes exhaustingly self-referential and formulaic.
4. Profit as long as the die-hard fans from #2 keep tuning in and telling themselves that it's still a good show.

Re:A minor correction:

[ShadowsHawk]

I see you've been watching the Simpsons again. I deleted the Simpsons entry from my DVR a couple of months ago because I simply couldn't take it any more.

Re:A minor correction:

[The-Bus]

Yes, but their executive powder at least really soothes the burn.

Blasphemous I know, but....

[otis wildflower]

.... The new stuff isn't as good as the original stuff.

There. I said it.

I bought BBS, and it was OK, but to compare it to episodes I'd say I laughed about 1.5x as much as I'd laugh at an episode, which is not what I'd expect given that it's about 4x the length.

It reminds me of the other fan revivals, _Family Guy_ and _Jericho_.

Still, relatively, I'd rather watch BBS than almost anything else on TV. In the Futurama Pantheon, I'd rate it 5 out of 10.

Re:Blasphemous I know, but....

[SilentBob0727]

Three guesses as to where this pearl of wisdom is from:

"No one, after having tasted old wine, wishes for new, for he says the old is better."

This Sunday!

[computerman413]

FYI, Bender's Big Score will air this Sunday (3/23) at 8:00PM EDT on Comedy Central.

They're called OVAs/OAVs in Japan

[ZombieRoboNinja]

And they've been around for decades there.

One advantage the Japanese have is that often, OVAs (Original Video Animation, sometimes Original Animated Video) are based on comics or video games that already have a large fan base.

There are also plenty of direct-to-DVD movies here in the states, but they have a (largely deserved) reputation for sucking.

I'm actually betting that we never see a big direct-to-DVD-series market in the US because I bet technology will beat out the marketing shift, so that people can just order all their movies on-demand. At that point, there won't even be a difference between "cable broadcast" and "direct-to-DVD" material, except how many buttons you press on your remote to see it.

Oh Joy!

[Viceroy Potatohead]

In what Fox is calling the most tentacle-packed Futurama epic, space itself rips open, revealing a gateway to another universe. What lies beyond is a mix of horror and love Ha! And they called me a fool for getting a giant "I [heart] Cthulu" tattoo on my torso. What started out as Pascal's Wager with the Old Ones, has turned into cartoon-pop-culture-indirect-reference coup d'etat! I can already feel myself becoming cooler.

I only need two more developments to vindicate my tattoo choices: a massive, popular uprising of Schmoo fanatics, and technology capable of generating the Care-bear Stare with skin grafts.

ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD

[Rick Genter]

ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD

(and now some random text to get around the stupid filter that Slashdot employs to prevent postings with too high a percentage of capital letters)

Word

[socz]

I'm just glad that they are putting more product out! I signed one of the crazy petitions to bring them back and am very happy to see this happen. I hope it works out for the fans like family guy who made a comeback.

I would so mod this comment to 6

[filthpickle]

"why don't you just make 5 the highest that you could be modded?"

"well, this comment goes to 6"

Bender's Big Score has its ups and downs

[LoveMe2Times]

A number of people have commented about having lukewarm feelings for Bender's Big Score, but haven't given much of an explanation, so I'm going to take a crack at it. WARNING: Potential Spoilers! For starters, yes, there is some fan service, for about the first five minutes or so, and yes, it's only kinda funny, and annoying on repeat viewings. However, there are some really great parts to this movie, and some parts that suck really bad, and the fan service is neither. The number one problem (and IMHO only problem) with this movie is that its setup is completely, utterly moronic and very pretentious. Everything relating to SPAM should have been axed completely, or at least made very VERY minor, and a different framing device used. The visual appearance of the alien villains could have been kept, and they could even continue to be annoying, but the way that SPAM infects this plot is just LAME. And letting your framing device drag down an otherwise good movie is a massive screw-up.

That said, if you can get past your gag-reflex during the setup, the rest of the movie's pretty good. The core plot of time travel, Fry, Leela, Leelu, and Lars is a solid one. I think it would have been better if Lars hadn't lived Fry's old life, as that breaks continuity with the series, and was unnecessary for the Leelu plotline. The bits on Neptune and the Death Star sequences were great, with some amazing animation. The Hermes subplot is ok, but not great, and it displaced the far more important Amy/Kiff developments. I think that not even mentioning Amy and Kiff's relationship is a significant oversight, and I hope that is developed more in the forthcoming movies. Finally, I think having a plotline that revolves around time travel but doesn't even mention chronotons or Fry "doing the nasty in the pasty" is a big mistake. Fry being his own grandfather is one of the most important long-term plotlines from the series, and seeing as how the movie has Niblonians in it anyway, the omission is odd.

I think that Bender's Big Score was a poor choice to be the first movie to put out, given that the end of the series was so powerful, I feel that it needed to be addressed much more directly. But aside from the SPAM bits, none of my other complaints really matter that much, but since the SPAM bits kinda drag the movie down, it makes all the other flaws more noticeable.

But everybody should go out and get a copy (Today!) to ensure that we get more Futurama.

Re:Bender's Big Score has its ups and downs

[bugg]

Anyone who says that Lars living Fry's old life breaks continuity does not understand paradox-free time travel.

To resolve common time travel paradoxes, you simply allow for any backward travel to essentially fork() the universe, and then both universes continue on accordingly. It was suggested in the movie that the two possible outcomes of this are destroying the universe (running out of system resources, fork() never returning) and also, a 'doom' factor causing the two universe processes to re-converge at a point.

I'm pretty comfortable with the fact that Seymour waited there until his death and never saw Fry again, AND that Seymor saw Fry again the next day. They both are equally valid, even though they appear to contradict.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfather_paradox

Re:Bender's Big Score has its ups and downs

[Sethus]

Well spoken. Those aliens really were overly distracting for me as they were dragged out far too long. But the rest of the story, the core bit, was very touching and well written. Never thought I'd care a whit for the whales and yet that whole part of the story wrenched my heart around.

Re:Bender's Big Score has its ups and downs

[LoveMe2Times]

I understand that if you're going to do a time travel plot, that you can make up the rules pretty much however you like. And yes, the code on Fry's ass is supposedly "paradox free!" and that's fine; I don't mind having multiple copies of the same character running around until the time-clones are destroyed by the doom factor. Just for me, subjectively speaking on the effectiveness of the movie and plotline, I would have preferred that they had left Fry's old life alone. Where exactly Fry was situated in the past and who he interacted with weren't particularly important to the rest of the plot (excepting of course Leelu). For the average viewer not interested in the technicalities, it's just inconsistent, and explaining it won't make them like it any better (IMHO).

YES, jaggies

[illegalcortex]

I also noticed this in a big way, but I think we're in the minority. I have a Toshiba dvd player with a Faroudja scaler (basically one of the last good mass market priced DVD players made) and I saw jaggies through the whole thing. That was when it was hooked up to an SD television (Sony Trinitron). After I replaced the TV with a 720p plasma, I did not see the jaggies (either with the DVD player set to interlaced or progressive). Still not sure what caused it but it was there and VERY distracting.

And for reference, I also own all the Futurama season discs. They look stunning and there was never a jaggy to be seen - on the SDTV or the HDTV.

I'm a huge Futurama fan but,...

[AbRASiON]

I really do hope that this next one is better than Benders Big Score :/ - honestly, it was ok I spose but considering how long they've had to think about a script, it just seemed well pretty bad, more like a video game than a Futurama movie.

Not Another Flop

[realsilly]

I am a huge fan of Futurama, but Bender's Big Score did not live up the series at all. It was so un-funny, that the hubby and I stopped watching mid-way through and returned it to the video store shortly after.

I really hope for the sake of the series, the next movie is a vast improvement

The D & David X. Cohen have a similar problem.

[Suitmonster]

Bender's Big Score was fun. Was it as hilarious as the first time we all saw Morbo moved to tears by migrating turtles moving into Holland? No. WINDMILLS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY! GOOD NIGHT! Just like Tenacious D with The Pick of Destiny (which I personally enjoyed), Bender's Big Score plays like a high-five to the long-time fans; trying too hard to fit Al Gore's head in for another gag without giving him any good material. Don't get me wrong, I liked it and will watch the next one. There just was not enough of the sharp & irreverent humor that made the original run worth watching every night, even if it was a repeat, for nearly a decade.

Yes, Good News, Check IMDB more often

[ackthpt]

Must be a slow news day, so anything is good news. This has only been up on IMDB for months.

sigh

[Some_Llama]

you only had to tell me there was a new futurama movie coming out, i didn't need any details (spoliers)