Commafruit

Futurama returns! Two years after being cancelled by Fox, new Futurama content is realised in the form of the first of four feature length, straight-to-DVD (and torrent) episodes. Fox are satirised brutally (and in no subtle way – Planet Express are described as having been shut down by the “Box Delivery Network”) in the first few minutes of the film.

In the story, Planet Express (and later, Earth) are taken over by Internet-scammers, who in the process discover a method of travelling back in time. This produces a convoluted series of events involving multiple versions of several characters (most notably Fry, who essentially has two plotlines), but everything ties together beautifully by the end. None of the familiar style of humour is lost, although there is possibly less real-world satire.

I was also impressed with the number of references to previous episodes and the number of previous (often rather minor) characters featured. A selection: Scruffy, LaBarbara, Dwight, Nibbler & the Nibblonians, the space god, Barbados slim, Hedonism bot, Bubblegum Tate and the Globetrotters, Elzar, Michelle, Al Gore, Seymour, Mr. Panucci, Horrible Gelatinous Blob, Morbo & Linda, Tinny Tim, Robot Santa, “welcome to the world of tomorrow” guy, the Robot Devil, Leela’s parents, Hypnotoad, Richard Nixon & Agnew, Kwanza bot, Zapp & Kif, Cubert, Sal^w and the Robot Mafia.

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Even for a children’s film this can seem horribly saccharine at times, and the frequency of the musical parts (aka the filler) begins to grate very quickly. Scored higher as a couple of lines made me laugh, but disappointing overall.

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Christmas is coming, one of the things that reminds me of this season as much as anything is The Snowman^w. This Irn-Bru advert is a brilliant variation – supposedly it’s only due to be shown in Scotland, hopefully they’ll reconsider and show it in England also.

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Enjoyable, funny, beautifully animated. I enjoyed this film but still ended up feeling slightly disappointed. Perhaps I still get too excited about CGI movies? Or maybe, like many, I have come to ask too much of Pixar.

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Having grown up with Wallace and Gromit, always enjoying their antics, I can say I was disappointed by this latest instalment. The physical comedy was fun, but the subtle in-addition-to-the-plot jokes were so lacking here that the whole films seemed a little bland.

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A beautifully animated, superbly witty musical fairy tale. The story hardly matters, it’s the vivid and lively characters who really excite, and the graphics & music which create the atmosphere. Add to this some snappy dialogue backed by great voice acting (when Emily requests to be taken to the land of the living, she recieves the reply “But why do you want to go up there, when people are dying to get down here?”), and the view is enchanted.

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