Futurama - Season 7 - DVD

Film: With The Simpsons, Matt Groening has undoubtedly created one of the most successful and long-lasting TV series of all time and a genuine cultural phenomenon. However, he couldn't really repeat a similar success with Futurama. Although this series also had a loyal fan base from the start, they did not follow the adventures of delivery boy Fry, who lands in the future by an unfortunate coincidence, the robot Bender, Professor Farnsworth, Leela and Co. in large enough numbers to keep the series alive for long. After four seasons was the end, the channel Fox turned off the lights of the staff of Planet Express in 2003.

After the DVD boxes of the series sold extremely well and they also aired on Fox animated series Family Guy after just such a DVD boom successfully revived on TV, nothing stood in the way of a reanimation of Futurama. So initially four DVD films were planned, preceding a later TV reboot. And after those four movies sold really well, Futurama was revived for three more seasons on the Comedy Central channel. But in the fall of 2013, Fry, Leela, and Bender had what was probably their final adventure.

In home theater, Futurama is now entering its penultimate round. The first thirteen episodes of the final season are coming to our stores as Season 7. In it, Bender's fling with a vending machine (or rather, a vending machine) has unforeseen consequences, as the Earth is threatened with final doom and the crew of Planet Express pays a visit to the Oktoberfest, which in the future, however, has little in common with the beer-dominated fun. In addition, the presidential elections take place and Nixon gets an opponent who simply has too many positive qualities to be a real politician. But what is behind the mysterious opposing candidate and can Bender help Nixon to another election victory?

Futurama has always been very good at taking aim at contemporary society through an exaggerated futuristic portrayal. Whether pop culture phenomena or political events, the series bristles with direct or subtle allusions and satirical bite. In the new episodes, which were created after the long hiatus, this no longer works quite as well as in the first four seasons. These just seemed fresher and cheekier. One has a little feeling that the creators in the new episodes were too strained to meet the high expectations of the fans. Sure, the series is still enormously funny and often very clever. But the class of the early phase of Futurama simply could not be reached after the comeback.

This is, however, whining on a very high level. Because even in the somewhat weaker episodes, the series still bristles with enormous ingenuity, amusing allusions, cryptic wit and wonderfully absurd humour. The educational film about where robo-babies come from or the election commercials with which Team Nixon want to defame the challenger, Fry's constant attempts to prove his love to Leela or the very special welcome with which the refugees from the sinking Earth are received on Mars, make the episodes of this seventh DVD box set a great pleasure for all Futurama fans. So if you can't get enough of Bender and Co, you should get this box set delivered from Planet Express very quickly. Worth seeing!

Picture: As usual with a current animated series, the picture is very clean and pleases with its rich colors and good overall sharpness. The audio is very lively at many moments and has some decent surround effects to offer. Dialogue is well intelligible and powerfully mixed, and the music has been well matched to voices and effects. For this, a well-deserved: good!

Extras: Both DVDs have to offer as a bonus some (partly unfinished animated) deleted scenes (Disc 1 approx. 6:41 min., Disc 2 approx. 6:19 min.). In addition, there's a jam session with composer Christopher Tyng (approx. 8:04 min.) on DVD 1 and a Futurama screensaver and karaoke special on the second disc. There is also at least one audio commentary for each episode, and these are of similar informational and entertainment value to the comparable commentaries on the Simpsons DVDs. Good!

Conclusion: Futurama enters its penultimate round on home theater. While the episodes don't quite have the bite and ingenuity of the first seasons, there are once again plenty of successful gags somewhere between satire and calamity that often push the entertainment value of the series to truly galactic heights. Offspring for Bender, the end of the world, unusual presidential elections or a visit to the Oktoberfest make these 13 episodes again an absolute must for all Futurama fans! The double DVD is technically well realized, and the entertaining audio commentaries are particularly appealing in the clearly arranged bonus material. Absolutely recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp