While I did locate WALL-E, I was pleased to see Marvin the Paranoid Android, Twiki from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Muffit form the original Battlestar Galactica, Futurama's Calculon and, too my great pleasure, Mr. Butlertron from Clone High. Wesley! (Where’s WALL-E? by Richard Sargent; link via The Daily What Geek)
Bender: I came to Earth with a simple dream: To kill all humans. And this is how it must end!?
Bender is Robby the Robot in this Forbidden Planet/Futurama mashup. Leela's looking good though. (Forbidden Future at shirt.woot, link via Shopped Sci Fi)
I would watch this movie, even though the movies they did were mostly meh. If it was anything like Roswell That Ends Well it would be amazing. (Unreality via Geek Mythology)
The thing that concerns me the most about this is the implication that Dr. Zoidberg managed to have sex. (Espermatozoidberg by Eduard Fortuny, via Herochan)
Andy Kuhn re-imagines the Futurama gang as the Justice League of America. Love Bender as Batman but I just can't imagine Fry ever being fast enough to be Flash. Maybe the worms got back into him like they predicted. (Link via Geek Mythology)
"Inspired by political propaganda from the 20th Century, these messages are cranialogicall designed to control the hearts and minds of citizens of 31st Century New New York."
If I know Bender Bending RodrÃguez, he will only use that weapon for good. No, wait, the opposite of that. Bite my colossal metal ass! (Futurama Time via Gizmodo)
Cancelled cartoons take their revenge upon they living. Oh my god, they killed Kenny! Again. And yes Futurama is back but they're still a little pissed about the hiatus. (Dawn Of The 'Toons by RedRobotMonkey, via gamefreaks)
The long-awaited return of Futurama begins tonight, unless you live in Canada. Which I do. As far as I can tell it will not be airing here, at least not on the same day and date.
I contacted Global TV, which aired the original episodes, but nobody got back to me. I contacted the Comedy Network (the not-so-equivalent version of Comedy Central) who aired the reruns. Nothing. I emailed a couple of prominent Canadian TV critics, but they must be too busy watching TV or something. I'd watch it on Hulu on Comedy Central's site, but they geo-block Canadian users.
I want to watch the revival, to support the return of a clever, sharp cartoon, but for whatever reason it's not airing here. So screw it, off to the internets, where I found it quicker than the time it took to contact all the above people.
I tried networks, I really did try to do it the "right" way, but if you won't work with fans, we'll find a way. I've already watched the first episode and will watch the second later today. So I guess it wasn't bad news after all.
"A friend of mine suggested one day that it would be cool to see the characters of Futurama as X-Men and so I drew him Fry as Cyclops. For some reason I couldn't just stop there...and what came of it was a pretty extensive illustration with some of the most obscure characters from both the X-Men and Futurama universes."
deviantARTist gottabecarl X-Men/Futurama mashup is stunning. I really don't know my X-Men beyond the movies (yes, I know, my bad) but I would have picked Mom as Magneto to counter Professor Farnsworth's Professor X. Though Zapp Brannigan is always amusing. (Link via Neatogeek)
So Futurama is returning to Comedy Central on June 24 in the U.S. (woo hoo!) but there is no word about air dates in Canada or even what network will broadcast it. Anyone, a little help?
In the meantime, here is the first image of the reconstituted season, appropriately titled Rebirth. (Links via Geekologie; Underwire)
An R2-D2 coffee maker would probably be really popular whereas a Bender fabric steamer would steal everything in your home and somehow leave your clothes more wrinkled than when you started. (Question, is the Tin Man a robot?) (Used Parts by Dale Austin via The Daily What)
Love, love, love this recreation of the cast of Futurama as Star Wars characters by storyboard artist David Au. Seeing them like this its hard not to think that Star Wars had an influence, especially the Han Solo/Zap Brannigan and Chewbacca/Kif Kroker comparison.
Woman: We favour unreasonably huge subsidies to the Brain Slug Planet. Fry: OK, but what are the Brain Slugs who control you gonna do for the working man? Woman: Attach Brain Slugs to them. Fry: Sure, you say that now!
I have never seen anything more delicious and terrifying than Alicia Traveria's Brain Slug cupcakes. I'd even consider attaching one to my head except that I'd be concerned the poor little thing would starve to death. (Link via Neatorama)
Good news everybody, Futurama is back, in black and white and filmed in glorious cellphone shakey-cam! Topless Robot has unearthed a video of the first three minutes of storyboard animatics from "Rebirth" from the next season of Futurama. Watch it quick before FOX stomps all over it.
It's almost Christmas, so time to turn on the TV and bathe in its seasonal warmth. I've already introduced three-year-old to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (and instilled a life-long fear of dentists) and I'm ready to watch my annual favourites: How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (animated, of course), A Christmas Story ("You'll shoot your eye out!") and Scrooged.
We all have regulars that we return to year after year, but Joanna Wilson thinks there is a better way. The author of The Christmas TV Companion has watched hundreds of Christmas specials to create a guide to unusual, overlooked and often bizarre Christmas-themed television episodes and film releases.
(Above: It's Jihad, Farley Towne, from Denis Leary's variety show, Merry F#%$in' Christmas. "It really isn't such a bad little bomb. It just needs a little hate.")
Wilson's thorough book highlights many of the more offbeat seasonal offerings, especially if your tastes aren't exactly in line with White Christmas. Her section on animation (my favourite) digs up gems like Saturday Night Live's TV Funhouse's take on A Charlie Brown Christmas.
A devoted fan of the Rankin/Bass stop-motion features (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, The Little Drummer Boy) she gives high praise to MAD TV's excellent parodies, placing Rudolph into Goodfellas and The Godfather. That is my kind of Christmas tale.
In the Sci-Fi section Wilson declares Futurama's yuletide tales "hands down, the far most interesting projection of Christmases future." Mostly because Santa is now a robot in the year 3000 who is out to kill everyone seeing as his naughty/nice gauge is set too high.
Wilson says, and I agree, that the "most jaw-dropping Christmas episodes have to be those from the series notorious for its crude tastelessness, South Park. In 1997, the creators popularized a new holiday icon for modern audiences: Mr Hankey, the Christmas Poo. The yuletide turd becomes a symbol that everyone in the town can embrace without offending their individual religious of family traditions.
While not the edgiest of their offerings, Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics has become a seasonal tradition for me. The duet between Santa and Jesus gets me every time.
Not surprisingly Wilson devotes a significant amount of time to the 1978 television special, The Star Wars Holiday Special. As someone who was eight when he watched this two-hour travesty when it originally aired, I mostly recall being bored. It really wasn't about Star Wars at all. I tried to watch it again last night but just couldn't get through it. But there it is above if you've only heard about it and want to find out for yourself. Good luck with that.
The real joy of The Christmas TV Companion is flipping through the pages and being introduced to something bizarre that you never knew existed. For me that was Franz Kafka's It's A Wonderful Life, which "dramatizes the anxiety-filled absurdist writer Franz Kafka's struggle to create the opening line of his novel Metamorphosis on Christmas Eve." It's truly odd.
So this Christmas, do yourself a favour: get this book and go watch something a little strange to get yourself into the holiday spirit.
How does FOX manage to turn a great idea into a shit hole with such ease? When it was confirmed last month that Futurama was being revived for a 26-episode run, I was thrilled. Yay, buying the (truth be told, kinda boring) straight-to-DVD movies worked. Bender would return to his insulting, pimping, boozing self and the show could get back to its incisive, hilarious satire of modern life, technology and sci-fi.
The show would look the same, the cast was already excited about returning and, if they could get back some of the key writing staff, it would be like it never left.
Well bite my shiny metal ass if they didn't find a way to screw it up. Forces of Geek is reporting that FOX has sent out a casting notice, looking to replace actors John DiMaggio (Bender), Billy West (Fry, Prof Farnsworth, Zoidberg) Katy Sagal (Turanga Leela) and the rest of the cast.
WTF?! What kind of cheap stunt is this? I can only hope this isn't true, but if it is, it would put me off the show entirely. I will not watch/purchase/reccomend the new Futurama if they treat the cast, and fans, like this. Hopefully they will reconsider.
Andy Kuhn re-imagines the Futurama gang as the Justice League of America. Love Bender as Batman but I just can't imagine Fry ever being fast enough to be Flash. Maybe the worms got back into him like they predicted. (Link via Geek Mythology)
Mr. Bender Head, we love you!
Kill Dill
A Clockwork Spud
Spud City
How does FOX manage to turn a great idea into a shit hole with such ease? When it was confirmed last month that Futurama was being revived for a 26-episode run, I was thrilled. Yay, buying the (truth be told, kinda boring) straight-to-DVD movies worked. Bender would return to his insulting, pimping, boozing self and the show could get back to its incisive, hilarious satire of modern life, technology and sci-fi.
