The first season of “Futurama,” a science-fiction animated sitcom, is now on DVD. The series was Matt Groening’s long-awaited followup to “The Simpsons” and has received critical acclaim. The DVDs contain the first 13 episodes—only episodes one through nine were shown in the first air season; the others were produced at the same time but not shown until the second season—and special features.
First things first. When I first opened up this set, I was blown away by the packaging. Every surface is covered in beautifully drawn and colored “Futurama” art. For example, the interior “jacket” that holds the three DVD cases shows a cityscape of New New York with traffic, billboards, and interesting characters.
The quality continued as I popped the first disc into the player. The menus were clean, and I was amused when the menu text switched into the show’s alien alphabet. I was a bit disappointed that the menu backgrounds were static, but each episode’s menu background would make good cover art if the episode were packaged separately. The sound and video of each episode are crisp and clean; the DVDs are superbly mastered.
Unfortunately, the set is rather light on the special features. The show’s contract with animators Rough Draft Studios apparently allows for up to two minutes of animation beyond what fits into a half hour of television, thus very few entire scenes were animated but not aired. These find their way onto the DVDs, but only six of the episodes had deleted scenes. More interesting are the concept art gallery and featurette that appears to have been produced before the first episode was completed. In addition, the story board, script, and animatics for the pilot are available on the first DVD (an animatic is a moving story board with the actual recorded dialog.) The script is an early version, and the story board includes quite a bit of material that was cut before the episode was animated.
The best “extra” on the DVDs, though, is the full-length commentary recorded for each episode. Groening and producer/writer David X. Cohen are on each track, along with writers, directors, and either Billy West—the voice of Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Zapp Brannigan, Dr. Zoidberg, and many others—or John DiMaggio—Bender and many bit parts. It would have been nice to hear from some of the other voice actors or to hear West and DiMaggio comment together on some of the episodes, but the commentary as recorded is amusing and informative.
Fans of the show would do well to purchase this DVD set. Others should definitely rent or borrow it; “Futurama” is clever and funny, and everyone should at least watch the series pilot. The second season is now available in Europe and is scheduled for a September release in North America. New episodes—backlogs held onto by Fox— air at 7 pm Sundays, but are often preempted. Cartoon Network shows reruns Sunday through Thursday at 11 pm.
