It’s time to bring the first batch of Matt Groening’s other animated series to a finish, although Futurama Season 4 was not the end of the series by a long shot, even though it looked like it back in Summer 2003 when the ‘final’ episode was broadcast. Even after 72 episodes, the series had only produced a few bad apples and the fourth production season – which was actually partly the fourth and fifth broadcast season – was the best one yet. Futurama had evolved from a science-fiction workplace sitcom to epic storytelling with often complex plots developing an overall mythology of the series’ own universe – combined with the brilliant animation and the indespensable voice acting, this made the series into a classic far ahead of its time. Back in the early 2000s, there was no was to watch it in its original English version here in Germany except from the DVDs, which were thankfully quickly released in the UK and were absolutely indespensable – and a lot of fun because of the great extras. This review is, as usual, primarily about the series itself with a technical DVD review tacked on almost as an afterthought.

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It’s been a while since the last review, but here’s the continuation of the review series about that other thing Matt Groening once did: Futurama! This article is not only a review of the DVDs, but mainly an in-depth piece about Futurama Season Two, when the series became even better than the already amazing first season and hit its stride that would almost constantly continue for a long time. There are only few slightly weak episodes and some of the biggest classics of the series with lots of new character development, introductions and plenty of crazy stories. Even those early episodes hold up very well and it’s almost unbelievable that they are already over one and a half decades old. The DVDs suffer a little under the somewhat less than optimal image quality, but make more than up for it with great extras including the enormously entertaining audio commentaries on each episode.

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Note: As I wrote in the previous review, the next reviews are going to follow when they’re ready. That means not necessarily in weekly installments – but they’re coming! I’m just taking things slow – stay tuned!

Originally, Pixar was not really keen on turning their hit movies into franchises, with the notable exception of Toy Story. This attitude has changed a lot over the last years and now a whole load of sequel seem to be arriving. Monsters University is one of them and even a movie that was actually not expected at all, arriving twelve years after its predecessor. Going for a prequel instead a sequel might have been a good idea, but unfortunately the movie’s dazzling visuals and entertaining characters are not able to weigh against the lack of good storytelling. It’s still a watchable movie though, but the Pixar magic is just not there. So the first completely new review of 2014 is, for once, not a fully positive one – even the DVD release is not all it could have been despite a flawless technical presentation.

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It’s February already and this means I really have to get DVDLog out of the Winter hiatus slowly. As an introduction to 2014 and a preparation to a coming review, I’m pulling out a DVD from 2002: Pixar’s fourth movie Monsters, Inc.! It’s one of their best early efforts and while not completely without faults, one of the movies almost completely foreign to the studio’s usual fare. I only saw it in 2002 when the DVD came out because I had missed it in the cinemas, but while I was never a big fan of Toy Story and A Bug’s Life I always liked Monsters, Inc. – probably because of the great voice cast and the wonderful animation, making up for a slightly weak script. The DVD release from 2002 also has some small faults, but is still amazing today with its enormeous amount of extras.

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Back in July I reviewed the first series of Shaun the Sheep, finally closing one of the gaps in my fondness for all things Aardman. Originally I wanted to review Series 2 earlier, but varying prices kept me from ordering it until now and because of a lack of other options I chose to make it the last review of the year. I know it’s not much and not even a particularly new disc, but the second series even ends with some Christmas-themed episodes, so it’s only fitting to have a look at the continuing adventures of Aardman’s plasticine sheep. The BBC DVD release of the second batch of fourty episode does not have a lot of extras, but image and sound are even better than before and for a price of about £10 for such a nice boxset I’m certainly not asking any questions.

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With this little end-of-year update, DVDLog will be going into a winter hiatus until the end of January, when I’ll be back with more reviews and hopefully some other improvements. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, everyone – as usual, there are some more season’s greetings over on my other blog!

About four years ago, I was really happy that Matt Groening’s other animated series Futurama had been renewed by Comedy Central after they had produced four direct-to-dvd movies. Now, after four half-seasons with together 52 episodes, Comedy Central has decided not to order any more, effectively cancelling the series again. Once again, I read this first on Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy Blog – and I can only agree with what he wrote – Futurama is not only a simple animated series, but amazing science-fiction storytelling that is completely unique in television history. This untimely cancelling is especially sad because the new episodes had become better and better and even reached the brilliant heights of the early seasons.

The remaining 13 episodes, which are already produced, will air in the USA this summer with the DVD and Blu-Ray releases following shortly before Christmas. The final episode has already been conceived as a possible ending of the series, so there will be at least some closure. Maybe Futurama will just take a break for a few years and come back on a different channel… the producers certainly haven’t given up hope and are already talking about looking for an alternative home for Futurama!

Wegen schönem Wetter gibt es diese Woche (mal wieder) keine neue Review, aber damit es hier nicht zu still bleibt, noch ein kleines DVD-Newsupdate: Ice Age 4 – Continental Drift erscheint in Deutschland am 26. November als DVD und Blu-Ray – Extras wurden aber noch keine genannt und andere Länder haben auch noch keinen Termin. Außerdem habe ich gerade gesehen, daß Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted in den USA auch schon für den 16. Oktober als DVD und Blu-Ray angekündigt wurde, aber da gibt es wiederum noch keinen deutschen Termin.

Die Ice Age-Reviews: Ice Age · Ice Age – The Meltdown · Ice Age – Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Die Madagascar-Reviews: Madagascar · Madagascar – Escape 2 Africa

Da ich es nur sehr selten ins Kino schaffe, schreibe ich auch nicht sehr oft über das, was in der Filmbranche aktuell los ist. Statt einer Review mache ich diese Woche mal eine Ausnahme und werfe im Animation Update einen kleinen Blick auf meine Lieblingsbranche: das Trickfilm-Genre, in dem im Moment ganz schön was los ist und sich die großen drei Studios – Pixar, Dreamworks und Blue Sky – nicht gerade duellieren, aber den Markt ganz schön gesättigt halten. Es ist natürlich kein Geheimnis, wer mein Favorit ist, aber mal schauen, was die Studios demnächst so alles zu bieten haben…