Futurama Returns!

Random BedHead Ed writes "Good news everyone! After a five year vanishing act the sci-fi spoof Futurama returned this week with a direct-to-DVD feature. Wired has an article about its return, including the story of the show's origins, a behind the scenes gallery, interviews with creators Matt Groening and David X. Cohen, and some interesting trivia. For example, did you know the ship has an overbite like a Simpson's character? Or that the show's title is taken from an exhibition at the 1939 Worlds Fair?." We just talked about this a bit the other day, too, in reference to a great interview on TVSquad.

Forget the DVD!

I'll just pirate my own copy with blackjack and hookers! In fact, forget the pirated movie!

Re:Forget the DVD!

To take a slightly more serious note on piracy/copyright infringement. As soon as I heard the Futurama dvd was coming out this November I asked for it to be bought as a christmas present, however a few days ago I discovered it was coming out in November in the USA. I'm in the UK here, and it actually comes out on dvd sometime in 2008.
It doesn't take many guesses for what I did and no, it wasn't flown over my magic carpet...

We'll see if in 2008 I still have the impetus to buy it when it comes out, considering the nature of the internet and how it's stupidly easy to get this kind of stuff nowadays I wish companies would wake up and start doing their releases simultaneous or near simultaneously worldwide. (especially when they're in the same damn language with the only difference of one being NTSC format and the other PAL)

Re:Forget the DVD!

Couldn't agree more, with the way the internet works the world has changed, region coding is fucking stupid (especially for games consoles) and releasing TV shows and movies later (by a large degree) often just costs them sales.

1 week is fine but months or more? their loss.

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Also, how much does the format matter anymore?
I can play PAL or NTSC (never tried NTSC-J, but it should work, and SECAM doesn't work) on my TV and it doesn't give a shit, just plays (PAL forms a border on the top and bottom). I'm in the US and I assume this isn't the norm here, but in the UK with SCART, doesn't NTSC work, albeit with a touch of overscan?
-nB

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1 week is fine but months or more? their loss.

It's not a technical issue, it's not even a marketing issue, it's a political issue.

There is a strict and time consuming certification process that needs to take place before you can sell media in the UK and other parts of Europe... Region coding aside I'm sure most studios wouldn't mind doing a simultaneous or release or a staggered release separated by only a few days, but when big brother needs to taste test everything before they let you have it... wel

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actually, it's no loss for the makers of Futurama. They even aknowledge the fact it will be pirated - to be honest, without it being downloadable (pirated or not) Futurama would have nowhere near the fanbase.

I personally know of at least 10 people who would never have seen futurama if I haddn't given them copies or reccomended they download it. Because of Fox's retarded attitude towards Futurama when it was being aired for the first time, it seems that most people remembered it as "that show that the dude w

Re:Forget the DVD!

As a massive Futurama fan who greatly looked forward to buying each season on DVD on release date, I empathise completely. Not having even a confirmation that there will EVER be a Region 2 release boggles the mind (AFAIK, perhaps a R2 release has been confirmed recently?). The funny thing is that all 4 DVD seasons came out here in Europe before North America, apparently because the show had such a big European fanbase so it was a good testing ground.

Like you, I resorted to other means to watch this first movie, something I (almost) never do on principle. I believe that good work should be paid for, but I wasn't willing to wait possibly over a year to then find out I'd just need to import anyway. I'll definitely be buying the DVD if it's ever released in R2 though, not because I thought the film was amazingly good, but because the Futurama DVD commentaries were always fantastic and very very funny.

Re:Forget the DVD!

If the only difference in releases was the encoding, I would be a hapy customer.

But when I (a region 4 person) find out that most of the DVDs I have bought over the years come without all the many extras on USA (and Japanese) releases... well, then I'm a pissed off customer.

I just can't work out why extras on DVDs differ so much by region. It isn't a case of music release rights, because most of these extras just don't have music like that in it - I'm talking about things like behind-the-scenes documentaries, minidocs, commentaries etc.

Compared to the minefield of trying to work out which DVD region offers the better purchase for a fan (even ignoring the multiple version release scam), a difference in release dates between countries seems minor :)

Re:Forget the DVD!

Just remember, it takes months and years to sign distribution deals in other countries. And there is a shortage of talented voice actors and translators who can translate American English to UK English. How many people do you know who understand the minute differences between pants and trousers? Between a truck and a lorrie? Don't even get me started on Canadian English. Adding all those "eh's" into the end of each characters lines requires digitally lengthening each episode by 5 minutes.

Okay, leaving tongue-in-cheek mode to make a technical point: Back in the VHS days, you had to translate media between PAL and NTSC. Today, there's no reason a DVD player can't handle both. The DVD players can already rescale the video, frame rate no longer has anything to do with "tracking" or "synching." So the PAL -vs- NTSC excuse doesn't hold water any more. Especially since that conversion can be done in real time on a midrange PC these days.

Re:Forget the DVD!

Okay, leaving tongue-in-cheek mode to make a technical point: Back in the VHS days, you had to translate media between PAL and NTSC. Today, there's no reason a DVD player can't handle both. The DVD players can already rescale the video, frame rate no longer has anything to do with "tracking" or "synching." So the PAL -vs- NTSC excuse doesn't hold water any more. Especially since that conversion can be done in real time on a midrange PC these days.

Most people will still have region locked players. Here in Ireland it's more expensive to buy a region locked player than an evil region free mpeg4 player (about 50 euro last I saw) but most made their purchase a couple years back when this wasn't the case.

So, 2008? They must be encoding the region 2 version on an Oric 1 from tape.

An aside, I bought a region 2 uncut Evil Dead box set some years back (on the cheap - I'm not really the boxed set sort but this was Evil Dead...) I was perplexed by the length of the three films... each was about 3-4 minutes short. "Hmmm... the pencil in the ankle scene is intact... there's the tree doing its thing... what's missing?". I got my clue when Bruce's "Groovy" in ED2 was a little higher pitch than I remember. The ~24 frames NTSC version was "accelerated" to 25 frames - when I refactored the framerate the movies matched the uncut lengths exactly. How common is it to just squish the movie rather than recoding it to the correct pitch/length?

Re:Forget the DVD!

Don't even get me started on Canadian English. Adding all those "eh's" into the end of each characters lines requires digitally lengthening each episode by 5 minutes.

Out of sheer frustration, many of us Canadians have learned American English. The missing "eh?" makes listening like reading messages in all-caps, but this is the price for an early release.

And may I be the first to say...

All Hail Hypnotoad! [wendellwit.com]

Everybody Loves Hypnotoad!

The DVD has the single most awesome DVD extra ever -- an entire half-hour episode of Everybody Loves Hypnotoad (with commercials). It's worth watching just to see the 30th century commercials...

I'm still waiting for the Season 1 DVD box set with all 365 episodes myself...

I hope

the dvd comes with "contents of space-wasp's stomach"

I downloaded it

I admit, I downloaded it, but I'm definitely buying it first chance I get simply because the sales of the movies are what could possibly bring back the series..

Re:I downloaded it

I downloaded it too, but I live in Australia. they dont even have a release date set here (region 4) yet. stupid media companies and they archaic "regions". if you dont want to sell it to me when it comes out, dont expect me to buy it a year later when you decide my region can finally have it.

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I'll buy it for you and ship it to you if you want. I'm in the US. And I'm not going to hose you. Just a huge Futurama fan.

Re:I downloaded it

thanks for the offer, but no thanks. I'm fully aware I could import it myself from umpteen different sites but it's an unnecessary hassle. companies who make their customers jump through hoops end up losing customers.

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Aussies who want it can always buy it from a site like www.dvdpacific.com :)
But yes, I do agree that its stupid that the studios dont make this stuff available to the people willing to pay perfectly good money for it.

And they wonder why people download this stuff from p2p or buy from import shops like DVDPacific.

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Stop whining about how they're forcing you into piracy, and just buy it over the internet like a normal person.

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No, you can still get multi region players. When the Consumer magazine Choice tested DVD players recently, they marked down the ones that weren't multi-region

In a lot of cases though they'll play every region except 1, possibly because of that Free Trade shafting.

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Not to discourage you from buying it, and thus proving there is interest, but aren't new episodes already purchased by either Viacom (for Comedy Central) or Time-Warner (for Cartoon Network)?

oblig.

And Zoidberg!

Great show, decent movie

One thing I've realized about Futurama is that, unlike most "adult cartoons," it actually has a lot of heart. The episodes about Fry's brother, his dog, Lela's parents, and of course the whole Lela and Fry subplot are quite sweet, and you it actually give a crap about the loserish characters.

As for the movie, the story wasn't amazing, but there was a huge amount of fan service in it. To the point where only an avid fan could really appreciate it. I was so overjoyed to see new content that it was pretty easy to overlook the flaws.

Re:Great show, decent movie

Lela and Fry subplot are quite sweet

I say this with all seriousness! It is one of the greatest "romances" I can remember in any show, movie, what have you. The show actually made me care about a love subplot, and that never happens. It was so painful for the both of them, and as a typical nerd, I related to it so much. It was such a funny yet touching ride. I know this offtopic as opposed to the random show references (I'm guilty of doing that with the first post already), but I am completely serious. One of the best fictional "romances" ever! Period.

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One thing I've realized about Futurama is that, unlike most "adult cartoons," it actually has a lot of heart. The episodes about Fry's brother, his dog, Lela's parents, and of course the whole Lela and Fry subplot are quite sweet, and you it actually give a crap about the loserish characters.

In the end I think that's what makes Futurama past the Simpsons in terms of quality.

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I love lamp!

Re:Great show, decent movie

The episodes about Fry's brother, his dog,...

I have all the DVDs, and I still watch the repeats on Adult Swim once in a while, but I'll never watch "Jurassic Bark" again. Saddest. Ending. EVER.

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I'll never watch "Jurassic Bark" again. Saddest. Ending. EVER.

Eh, spoiler, but the movie makes it a lot less sad. Perhaps it's for people that couldn't watch the episode without crying.

CUNT! DAMN SPOILER!

DAMN YOU! YOU CUNT!
I mean that from the bottom of my heart!
I'm so fucking mad that I put on caps lock!

SPOILER WARNING GOES IN THE SUBJECT LINE.

captcha text was "incurred"
YOU HAVE INCURRED MY WRATH!!!

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Parent should have been modded +1 Informative, not Flamebait.

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The plot for that episode was taken from the tale of "Hachiko."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachiko [wikipedia.org]

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I'll never watch "Jurassic Bark" again. Saddest. Ending. EVER.

Strange -- that's precisely the reason why I watch such things *more* often. Entertainment for me is that which inspires strong emotion.

When's the next one come out?

I believe there were 16 episodes that were made (and Bender's Big Score covers 1-4 - the production numbers mark it as season 5).

However, I can't seem to find any details on the next one in the series... I'd love to mark it in my calendar so I don't forget.

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Yeah, I read elsewhere that the movie was created in the first place to be easily edited down into 4 episodes (but they tried not to be too obvious) because it will actually air on Comedy Central as the first 4 episodes in a new season. They'll have enough new episodes to fill out the rest of the season, and if its viewership is good, it could be picked up as a normal show again (by Comedy Central this time).

Hard to Find

Is anyone else having a helluva time getting a copy? I went to three stores in Boulder, CO on Wednesday. All had carried it, but were sold out (and I heard that a fourth was in the same boat). Is this a local phenomenon or is this just selling that well? If so, excellent... except the part where I can't get a copy.

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It's at the top of my Netflix queue, but is listed as "Very Long Wait". Looks like you're not the only one having trouble getting it!

To watch and to buy

There is a review here [theage.com.au] of the new DVD. The general gist is that it's good - like an extended episode - but doesn't come across as a feature length movie. Needless to say, most of /. will probably download it and make their own minds up, but agreeing with posts above - if you like it, spend the handful of dollars and ensure that more gets made. It's worked before [wikipedia.org].

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I've already torrented it and am waiting for the UK release of it to purchase a copy, but there's just no mention of it even coming our way. I'm sure it will but it would've been great to have got it coming before Xmas.

More owls and underpants.

Actually good news, everyone!

The Secret to Futurama's success

From TFA Groening says:

"The operating principle of Futurama was that you can do a joke that 1percent of the audience gets, as long as it doesn't derail the enjoyment of the mass audience," Cohen says. "And that 1 percent becomes a fan for life."

You also see the same formula in Dennis Miller's material. You only get 1/5 of the jokes, but that one make you feel so smart that you become a fan.

I didn't care much for Futurama until one night, I was watching an episode where Bender jumped off a "See where the stars live" tour bus and kept knocking on Calculon's door. Finally, after the third or forth time, Calculon asked him, "Do you have an extra goto ten line?"

I've been a fan ever since.

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My all time favorite example of this is in the were-car episode.

One of the portraits is of a robot with a decidedly 19th Century British naval officer look to it.

The nameplaque on the portrait is:

Commodore LXIV

Truly, I all but fell out of the chair when I saw that.

If by some chance, the writer who came up with that sees this, THANK YOU for the compliment, that people watching FUTURAMA would be intelligent enough to get something as subtle as that, and would appreciate it.

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You also see the same formula in Dennis Miller's material. You only get 1/5 of the jokes, but that one make you feel so smart that you become a fan.

Not really. The other 4/5 makes you disgusted at yourself for ever listening to a right-wingnut idiot like him. So you don't.

binary (possible spoiler-warning)

A previous episode of futurama has had a binary-joke. Benders room number is $ in binary ascii.
So when I saw the binary code here I instantly tried to figure out what it said. It turned out
the message was really IN the binary this time.

001100
010010
011110
100001
101101
110011

s/0/_/g
__11__
_1__1_
_1111_
1____1
1_11_1
11__11

It's the spaceship, from above! Fixed font would be recommended :/

I bought the dvd the day it came out

I was rather disappointed with it. It had some funny moments, for sure, but for the most part, we were bored. Maybe we had too-high expectations (Godfellas is my favourite episode, and we'd just watched it on Cartoon Network), but it was just... enh. Not really bad, but not particularly good. Not something that would make me want to bring the series back from the dead.

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I just bought it this week, and I would have to agree with you. It was mildly amusing, but it wasn't real funny. I was disappointed.

Re:I bought the dvd the day it came out

Attention, Groening. We are reasonably satisfied with the events we have seen. Overall I would rate it a C+. OK, not great. As a result, we will not destroy your planet, but neither will we provide you with our recipe for immortality.

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"I was rather disappointed with it. It had some funny moments, for sure, but for the most part, we were bored."

I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt that way. It seems like they were trying to hard with the writing, and adding too many subplots to a movie that already has some complicated time-travel stuff going on seemed like a mistake.

I would imagine the fact that they plan to cut each movie up into four discrete episodes [tvsquad.com] in order to air them on Comedy Central is responsible for some of these i

World's Fair

...the show's title is taken from an exhibition at the 1939 Worlds Fair?.

Beside the point. How could you make a show like this and not have a "...rama" title? Otherwise, Homer Simpson might not watch it!

Basis of theme music

Came across the link below on here, or possibly digg:
Psyché Rock [youtube.com]

It's the song "Psyché Rock" by Pierre Henry which has such a strong similarity to the main Futurama theme music, I'd find it hard to believe that it didn't inspire the theme.