espite the fact that it met a most untimely production death back in 2002, Futurama is leading a fairly active afterlife. Not only has it become a regular part of the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup, but the series has now produced its third DVD collection. The 22 episodes contained in this volume continue with the exploits of the Planet Express crew in the 31st century (when they're not time-traveling, that is). Various comedic nooks and crannies of the show's principal characters are further explored, and several satellite characters that have appeared in previous episodes also see some development—TV sitcom stuff.
More of Fry's past—like his relationship with his brother, Yancy, and his grandfather's stint at an infamous army base (in the Emmy Award-winning "Roswell That Ends Well")—is revealed in several of Volume Three's stories. Leela seeks more self-definition, through the likes of sports and another eye. Many of Bender's exploits in this collection revolve around either money-making scams or the delinquent robot assuming the role of despotic leader, lording over some civilization or other. Kirk analog Zapp Brannigan features prominently (perhaps too prominently) in the sextacular "Amazon Women in the Mood," and Kiff's and Amy's relationship reaches a milestone when they visit the Wong's Martian ranch in "Where the Buggalo Roam." Nibbler, Leela's dark-matter-excreting pet, has his mysterious origins revealed.
And what animated comedy would be complete without famous guest appearances? In "I Dated a Robot," Lucy Liu is illegally downloaded so Fry can have a girlfriend, and in "Bendin' in the Wind," rocker Beck helps Bender with his dream of becoming a folk singer after he's paralyzed in an unfortunate accident with a giant can opener.
Then there's the Hypno-Toad....
Amazing menus and entertaining extras
Like volumes One and Two, Futurama Volume Three sports marvelous packaging and menu design, contains lots of deleted scenes, has tons of entertaining commentary, and offers other goodies like animatics and galleries. In several ways, however, this collection surpasses its predecessors.
Volume Three has a much better episode-to-dollar ratio than the previous volumes and a better variety of participants on its audio commentaries. (And the lesson to be learned from these commentaries, if viewers hadn't learned it previously?—David X. Cohen is the man. He is Futurama's druid—its most learned historian, its most adept magic-coraller, its most impassioned advocate, its greatest nerd.)
But perhaps the greatest improvement Volume Three offers is what happens at its menu screens. Not only are the main menus animated, but each one possesses audio clips of different Futurama characters welcoming viewers to the disc (and often taunting them once they're there). Every individual episode menu also contains unique audio, in which various characters introduce and/or make fun of the episode selected. (One example: At the menu screen for "The Route of All Evil"—in which Professor Farnsworth's clone, Cubert, and Hermes' son, Dwight, start up a delivery company to rival their elders'—a Nibblonian intones, "Paperboys in space? ... Good work, everyone!")
And then there's the continuing quality of the series. The 22 episodes in this volume provide example after example of the results of great animation and writing, great characters and stories, great visual and verbal comedy. (Perhaps the best genre humor is in "Anthology of Interest II," in which Fry gets to see what the world would be like if it were more like a video game. Holy Space Invaders.) The one Emmy award (and couple of other awards) this group of episodes possesses is far short of what's deserved.
