So, I just finished watching the Futurama movie for the second time in two days (for the commentary, obviously), and I have to say, I’m still unsure about this whole thing.
As a guy with huge nerd boners for sci-fi, fast-paced comedy AND David X. Coen, this was set to be the triple-boner event of the season as far as I was concerned, and maybe all that build-up made some disappointment inevitable. Honestly, I don’t think I would have been fully satisfied unless the movie ended with Bender looking directly to camera and saying “Hey you, Michael Swaim; come have adventures with me in space! I’ll bring the Slurm!”
I’ll list the awesome stuff first, which on the surface is the vast majority of the product, which you should totally buy. Bender’s Big Score had:
All told, I really enjoyed it, although the two songs they put in sucked (I’m not sure what the deal was with those).
So what the hell is my problem? Couldn’t tell you really, except that through the whole thing, I never seemed to laugh. And that’s saying something, since during the run of the series I lost a number of friends to my inability to go thirty seconds without spewing a quote from the show. Yes, I’m one of those people. And no, I don’t regret driving my girlfriend to suicide; thank you very much for bringing it up.
Maybe it’s been so long I’m just not immersed in the world anymore. Maybe I was so excited my mind shut down with pleasure and refused to absorb the humor. Maybe it’s just plain not as funny as it once was. Maybe I’m overthinking this by a significant margin.
In any case, I turn to you, Cracked Blog readership: Did I like the Futurama movie?
Also, does anything in this post make me sound racist? Because if so, I just fucking give up.
Last 5 posts by Michael Swaim
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November 30th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Ah Futurama;
Somehow,Fox Seems To Kick The Gifted and Talented Kids(Futurama,King of the Hill)Out Of The Nest Without Even a”Write If You Get work!!”While Somehow Heaping Praise For The Good For Nothing Lazy Kid(Family Dad,American Dad)!!!
I Truly Enjoyed Futurama For It’s Brief Run and I Loved Bender!!
Hell,Bender Was The Man!!
“Of All The Friends I Ever Had,Your’e The First!!”.
August 2nd, 2008 at 10:56 am
I agree with several of the comments - the movie was not as good as the series, but in a way that is difficult to explain. The first thing that annoyed me was the bashing of all the studio execs, it just seemed kinda cheap, petty and a little immature… I wanna see the characters on their adventures, not crossing the fourth wall - it kinda ruins the show for me.
Oh - they totally ruined one of my fave episodes - Jurasic Bark..
So much potential..
July 29th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
It was quality, but just not that funny. Nothing compared to some of the classic tv episodes.
March 3rd, 2008 at 9:10 am
Just because it’s labeled as comedy it doesn’t mean that it can only be good if you laugh.
I had a similar experience when watching it and after some reflection I decided that I liked it because it was a good movie. Not a hilarious gag-fest or something, simply a good movie.
February 23rd, 2008 at 2:55 am
quite enjoyed your work .
February 23rd, 2008 at 2:10 am
Carroll…
One notable blogging tool that does not support trackback yet is Blogger.A Trackback is one of three types of Linkbacks, methods for…
February 9th, 2008 at 1:51 am
“I’m so cold… my processor is running at peak efficiency!”
That line had my fiance and I cracking up repeatedly for days.
Anyone else enjoy the math lecture? It was kind of neat, seeing exactly how much real dorkiness they put into it.
December 11th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
Oh, wait, comments on the movie…
I think there were several problems:
For a movie called “Bender’s Big Score”, they kinda neutered him. He was the hedonistic foil to the rest of the “feelers”, taking him out of the equation sucked some of the fun out of it and made it far more of a drama than a comedy.
Futurama itself has had better time travel episodes, and far trippier sci-fi plots, like the universe in a box episode.
It was decent, but like most here, I think I was expecting something different.
December 11th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
Best Futurama lines ever:
Fry: I’ll be whatever I wanna do.
Fry: Its just like the story of the grasshopper and the octopus. All year long the grasshopper kept burying acorns for winter while the octopus mooched off his girlfriend and watched TV. Then the winter came, and the grasshopper died, and the octopus ate all his acorns and also he got a racecar. Is any of this getting through to you?
The most laugh-out-loud scene was Zapp, Fry and Kif, hanging on a wall, being told they were sentenced to death by Snoo-Snoo. Priceless facial expressions.
December 11th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
You loved the movie, but you can’t help but feel as if it’s a sort of alternate-universe, meta-Futurama. This is probably because you didn’t even really get into the show until after it was cancelled, and the DVD box sets you own have come to represent the entire product, with The Devil’s Hands being, in your opinion, one of the best ending episodes any series has ever had.
However, it was really funny, and you always stick A-B repeat on for a while when it gets to this line near the end: “You haven’t seen the last of Barbados Slim! Now, goodbye, forever!”
God, you love that line.
December 9th, 2007 at 10:14 pm
Yeah, you liked it.
Is it wrong that after this long, just seeing one reference to Fry’s dog and the “I will wait for you” song literally makes my eyes water?
December 9th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
Michael, by simply questioning the content of this article, as to whether or not it contained any traces of racism, serves to further your racist agenda. The question at the end of the article makes it rather explicit that there is in fact not a racist note to be read within the article (or that any racist commentary had been removed) but in principle exposes the inherent racism behind your words by codifying any previous commentary (http://www.cracked.com/blog/2007/11/30/rodney-king-why-beating-him-wasnt-enough/) you may have made, if we are in fact still living in a post-modern/post-ideological universe.
And I didn’t even know there was a futurama movie, I thought it was all a put-on.
Was it good?
December 9th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
the best nibbler quote was “not only can i talk, I can pontificate!”
December 9th, 2007 at 8:46 am
fav quote
Bender: Compare your lives to mine and then kill yourselves!
December 8th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
I don’t know why Michael is talking about up there. He must think we’re talking about Family Guy. I know they both starts with “F,” Mike, but one day you’ll discover what a joy reading can be when you finish reading the word.
I thought the Futurama movie was hilarious. And yeah, I quote the show sometimes. My new favorite one came from Nibbler: “Quick! Everyone out of the universe!”
December 8th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Did anyone think that the first head on the right, that was rolled into the wedding,
was Steve Erwin’s? I’ve only watch it once and I can see how repeated veiwings it would get better each time. Which is kind of how the series was for me in the first place. The only problem I had with was, at times, it was kind of like watching extended PSA about internet scams.
December 8th, 2007 at 11:57 am
Great movie, and great time travelling paradox plot. Actually…it was awesome.I just didn t like the referrence to Fry s puppy. They kind of …spoiled the “Jurassic Bark” story wich happens to be one of the best futurama episodes ever. It would be nice if they had used a little bit more of the doggie.It would be happy if he took it in the boat with hi,m instead of just making the dog wait in front of Panuzzi s pizza waiting for Fry to get back in that “I will wait for you” song.
I d feel better if it turned out that after all, poor doggie lived a full life together with his loving Fry.
December 8th, 2007 at 5:28 am
Plus, I dont care how good a virus it was, Bender would’ve shrugged it off or used it against those “ass skin hanging” fags.
December 8th, 2007 at 5:24 am
Way too much ass play and gay shit. The sprungers were GAY sucking on things and everything was about MENS ASSES… LAME
December 8th, 2007 at 2:52 am
okay, i have now watched it a 3rd or 4th time. More like 3.5 (watching it online, watching clips online, and watching it when the dvd i ordered from amazon finally arrived, and watching it with the commentary). I can honestly say that the things that bothered me about it have gotten less and less each time and I’ve begun to get more in the groove of it. Definitely better with repeat watchings.
December 7th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
…also: too many musical numbers. Once is funny; twice is pushing it.
December 7th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
I liked it, but I did get that same weird “am I just not in the mood to laugh?” feeling that you did. I think it was simply crammed too full of jokes, but without the comic pacing of a standard episode of Futurama or (a better rapid fire joke example) Arrested Development. In the commentary, David X. Cohen actually mentions that they kind of over wrote the script, but that the other 3 movies won’t suffer from that.
December 7th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
Don’t worry Morbo. Ignorant cocks have been misspelling the Swaim name that way for decades. I’m not sure why; is “Swain” THAT much more common than “Swaim?”
December 7th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Morbo says puny earthling Michael Swaim’s name is Michael Swain
December 7th, 2007 at 11:44 am
I enjoyed it, despite the lack of laugh-out-loud moments. I thought it was witty and well done.
Though, it lacked in Morbo and the King of Omacron-Perseii-8, my two favorite characters.
December 7th, 2007 at 11:37 am
You liked it. Although oerhaps it was not laugh out loud funny, or as the kids say not ROTFLMAO funny. There’s something to be said about a sheer appreciation for what the show brought to TV (At least the first two seasons). I always felt that it didn’t get what it really deserved. I’ve heard it called ‘blue-collar simpsons’ but we know that the satire was almost as sharp (it is hard to compete when Conan ‘O Brien is on his game ya know?).
I’m one of those people to. I’m not allowed in certain libraries because of it. There was some…unpleasantness.
December 7th, 2007 at 2:52 am
Morbo also can’t spell Swaim’s name right for shit.
December 7th, 2007 at 2:46 am
Morbo says puny earthling Michael Swain liked movie. Morbo says NOW it official.
December 7th, 2007 at 1:44 am
Good point about the format stuff. I think you’ve probably got a point there. We’re so Pavlovian, those little touches like the establishing shot of the office are almost a prerequisite for our laughter.
Okay, it’s official, I liked it. But I’m definitely a lot more excited to see the next one, and the one after that. I’m interested to see what they learned from making this one. And by “interested” I mean slavishly anticipatory.
December 7th, 2007 at 12:52 am
I think overall you liked it.
I walked away with the same problem. I was able to notice how the plot was handled extremely well for something so complicated and how all my favorite characters showed up and how good it was see futurama again. Also the knowingly nerdy sci-finess of it all.
Yet after the first five minutes (which were incredible) I didn’t really laugh. And I think the problem is the transition from the TV show format to the movie. I enjoyed the simpsons movie, but it suffered from the same problems. No show can quite make the jump right and it isn’t even about pacing or being able to fill the time. It’s that all the familiar cuts and music are gone. Throughout the movie there is no outside shot of the building where they all work with the familiar three or four notes playing over it. Instead it leaves a void, it’s just silent background which just makes everything feel awkward. I swear if you were to add a few of the familiar cuts from the show everyone would feel so much better about it.
I got tired of the spammers too. They really got on my nerves once they started stealing stuff from the past because then they just seemed boring and pointless. But they did provide one of the funniest moment of the film. Their sprungers. When they sprunge fry a and orgasm, i was laughing.
The second time I watched it I realized that all the Futurama staples were there. The humor, the pathos - both of which i felt a little lacking in the first viewing, definitely seemed much more Futurama level quality when I really paid close attention. It was just missing some of the familiarity which is because the cuts frame the show.
December 6th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
And to the point of the article, I think it was just a culmination of a few things, weak songs (first one wasn’t bad but niether was up to par with previous ventures into musicality) Also a plot that meandered around and felt like it was buying time at certain points. It’s good to see fry develop and mature, but It felt like it was shoehorned in there. I’d say while I enjoyed the movie immensely (seen it 3 times, one with commentary) It felt like they were wrapping up the first series so they could start on the new one, and transitional stuff is always less enjoyable. e.g. Two Towers, Bourne Supremecy, Matrix Reloaded.
December 6th, 2007 at 11:49 pm
You liked it. You may not have laughed, but you liked it.
Also, are nerd-boners any larger than normal boners? If so, then my penis is far larger than anything I could have ever imagined.
And I could have sworn your girlfriend killed herself because you kept selling her pills? Or was that just a different thing?
Eh. Whatever. Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da, life goes on.
December 6th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
I quote Bender daily, whether its “There’s no God, and your idiotic Human ideals are laughable” or “Oh…Your…God” or “Bite my shiny metal ass!” Another point, futurama humor isn’t driven by shallow easily quotable dialogue, but clever wordplay, i.e. it’s not funny if taken out of context.
December 6th, 2007 at 10:17 pm
Is futurama even quotable????
December 6th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
This is the first I’ve heard of this and I think I just creamed myself.
December 6th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
go back to southpark, Michael
December 6th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
Sorry, I’ve never been able to get through an episode, let alone a movie length version! Stupid gags, lame characters and plots. Like recycled Flintstones or something. Plus I hate these Shrek-like things that rely on continual references to other stuff. Do something original, why don’t you?
December 6th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
I think because they’ve done similar plots SO well in the past (”Luck of the Fryrish” beats out the Narwhal plot in both pathos and subtlety) I felt robbed. They kind of fucked themselves by being so goddamned amazing. Again, not to say everyone shouldn’t buy this DVD, which they should.
December 6th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
“Devil’s Hands, Godfellas”*
December 6th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
All I kept thinking was that it was far, far superior to The Simpsons Movie. The Simpsons Movie had absolutely zero in-references, was all too “green” for my tastes, and didn’t really surprise me considering the direction the series has taken the last few years. That being said, Futurama is really good at being a Dramedy Cartoon, the whole storyline with Fry and the Narwhal was very sad. It had a great number of in-references, and while it isn’t as good as the best Futurama episodes, Devil’s Hands Godfellas, and The one where Fry’s dog gets a flashback montage, it was still an extralong, better than average, Futurama story. I’ll admit I got sick of those spammers really fast and hoped they would go away early in the film.
December 6th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
It was a good plot, better than a lot of Futurama episodes in terms of story, however it lacked something. Al Gore got on my nerves. I still think the greatest Futurama plot would be Hedonismbot being sent to Robot Hell.
December 6th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
I happily admit I was turned on by the nude leela. Not full frontal, but side and back. Some time paradox problems here and there.
bonus items = lame, besides hypnotoad (no hypnotoda, NO!!!!!!)
December 6th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
I’ve just been informed by my mother that I am descended from Gypsies. I would like to amend my earlier comment to read “Gypsies make everything better.” (Also, we prefer not to be called “Gypsies.”)
December 6th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
You did like it. It was great. Rest your little head.
December 6th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Flub, is your name derived from the Futurama movie commentary?
December 6th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
Hello, I am an antisocial paranoid who has diagnosed America’s slavish adherence to PC as liberal guilt. Any suggestion that racism is a bad thing will earn you a tedious scolding in which I will point out decontextualized “double-standards,” such as “black comedians do a White Voice.”
Also, you liked it.
December 6th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
Oh, man! Gypsies ruin everything.
December 6th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
There was the gypsy booth robot that Fry went to when Bender was lost in space and met god.
December 6th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Hermes was black, as was the robot policeman. The show was good because it didn’t have any Gypsies.
December 6th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
What I’m getting here is that you liked this series because there weren’t any black people in it, and this is subconsciously detracting from your enjoyment of the movie.
You racist shitbag.