Futurama

During the 90’s, The Simpsons creator, Matt Groening, envisioned a series that was truly visionary, Futurama. 

The plot is fairly simple. A young pizza delivery boy named Fry gets cryogenically frozen during New Year’s Eve of 1999 and wakes up in the year 2999 in what is now New New York. After realizing that everything and everyone he knew were now gone he sets himself to build a new life only to find that things are not how they used to be. The pilot then develops to introduce the other main characters, as soon as he gets out the cryo-chamber, Fry is submitted to a series of tests to determine which job is more appropriate for him only to find that he has to be a delivery boy (again) because “You gotta do what you gotta do” and those tests were performed by his future co-worker Leela who tries to implant him a career chip which everyone in the future has. Because Fry does not want to be a delivery boy again he manages to flee without getting the career chip and tries to find his only living relative, his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great nephew (if you do not want to count, it’s 30), Professor Farnsworth and the best way to find someone is, as in the Terminator movie, the phone book. In line in what he thinks to be a phone booth he meets Bender, a bending unit robot with an addiction for blackjack and hookers that uses alcohol as fuel and his future co-worker, but the phone booth turns out to be a suicide booth. Again, Fry manages to escape, with the help of Bender, to the underground ruins of Old New York. Leela finally manages to catch up with Fry and, after some talk, Leela sympathizes with Fry because she too hates her job and takes her career chip off. The three track down Professor Farnsworth, owner of the intergalactic delivery company Planet Express and with the help of the professor they escape the police in the company space ship at the moment the New Year’s fireworks start. Farnsworth then hires the three as the new crew for his company. Fry asks what his job his and finds that he will be the…delivery boy and the pilot ends with Fry cheering his new job. And with this "kick" the show started...

The series consists in episodic adventures that do not need much information from previous episodes to make sense and, despite that, Futurama is one of the best animated sitcoms ever if not even the best! It all depends on personal tastes. For me, it is the best because I really like Science Fiction and Futurama has all kind of references (from Dungeons and Dragons to Star Trek and Adventure Time, anything goes) during the episodes while being funny which most sitcoms nowadays aren’t. The most important part of the series are the characters, they alone would make the show worth it even if the plot didn’t make any sense but it does, apart from the constant plot holes and loops that, somehow, seem to be coherent. Episode after episode I kept craving for more and more. It has the perfect mix between the clever/more indirect content and the more silly and easy-going content.

The show aired in Fox from 1999 to 2003 for 4 seasons but due to the low ratings and constant changes in schedule the show was cancelled. Perhaps one of the problems for FOX was that they’ve expected a lot more audience from something that has Matt Groening’s name and the obvious collage to The Simpsons. The setting might have kept away a lot of people, because I know some who are like that. If they don’t like Sci-Fi, they don’t even give it a try. Back then The Simpsons had over 12 million viewers per episode while Futurama had less than 5 million.

In 2005, Comedy Central acquired the rights to the show and announced that four straight-to-DVD films would be produced. The last movie, Into the Wild Green Yonder, had something that could be called an ending. For those who saw it, the show was over...until 2009. Comedy Central announced that year that a new season of 26 episodes had been picked up for the show. When it aired in 2010, Comedy Central had its highest-rated night of the year. The unwanted Fox show was back and better than ever. Unfortunately it wouldn’t last long as the show would end again in September 2013. Even though it has been announced that an upcoming episode of The Simpsons will be a special crossover with Futurama, no more news about the continuation of the show has been issued.

Visually it’s much like The Simpsons but less yellow. The whole vision of the future is focused on a satirical version of the present with the main goal to be funny. It’s not groundbreaking but why change what it’s already good? They’ve changed what had to be changed and it looks very good, especially after season 5 because the production became high-definition and in widescreen format. I still prefer this style over the CGI and 3D modelling that every movie nowadays seems to use. It was nice in the beginning but that does not mean it has to be ALWAYS like that…I blame Pixar for that.

The voice acting is awesome. So good that it is difficult to imagine any character to be different since the first time they appear unlike Family Guy for instance that had one main character voice actor changed and no one minded. The casting was spot on because some characters really need that personality that the actor give them by their voices. If you’ve seen the show you will know that, for instance, Bender, Fry, Farnsworth and Nixon could not have been any other way. And there are many celebrities that appear as themselves on the show due to the use of jar-preserved heads on the show.

Plot - 4/5

The show itself does not have any main story but still there is something that’s bigger than just one episode like the background of the characters or the love story of Fry. And talking about Fry and his background, beware…when that happens you are bound to cry.

Visual - 4/5

Colorful and a lot of care over details. The show grabs your attention since the opening until the end with its New New York and unknown planets.

Sound - 4/5

The opening theme sticks in your head instantly. There are not many musics along the show but, from time to time, some “classics” appear like Katrina and the Waves’s “Walking on Sunshine” or even the Beastie Boys who’ve made a version of the opening theme.

Performances - 5/5

Futurama voice cast shines like no other over its brilliance and professionalism. As iconic as The Simpsons or South Park casts. 

Final Score - 17/20