“Amy, the Mafia took everything we had. Our casino, our home, and our collection of rare servants.”
“Don’t worry, Mom, you can always live with me.”
“No, we can’t. Who do you think been paying your rent?”
“What’s rent?”
Good News Everyone, your favorite Planet Express crew is back again for thirteen more fun-filled episodes. The 2-disc Futurama Volume 7 DVD set brings together the first 13 episodes of Futurama‘s seventh season.
My favorite episode on this set has to be “Viva Mars Vegas” in which the Mafia takes over the Wong’s Casino on Mars, and Amy sets up an elaborate Oceans 11-style heist to get it back. It also features a great musical number “(Hey) Big Lobster” (a parody of “(Hey) Big Spender”) as Zoidberg enters the casino as a whale.
I also really enjoyed the season premiere, “The Bots and the Bees”, in which Bender fathers a son with the office soda machine. It is great to see that even after so many seasons, the writers are still finding new ways to show different sides of these characters—and in that episode we get to see a softer side of Bender, without sacrificing that sarcastic Bender we love.
The season 7-A finale, “Naturama”, is also quite creative. It is a three-story anthology that plays out like a nature special in which all of our favorite Futurama characters are portrayed as animals that seem to still fit their characters, and there is even a Morgan Freeman sound-alike narration. In the first story we see Fry and Leela as salmon during spawning season, in the second Professor Farnsworth as an old Pinta Island Tortoise, and the third has Kif as a sneaky male Elephant Seal trying to avoid beach master Bender to woo Amy.
Season 7-A also includes a lot of other great stories, including a Martian calendar predicting of the end of the world, the Earth’s 3012 President Election, Bender becoming a paparazzo, Leela’s parents separating (and her mom dating Zapp), Amy and Leela joining the Butterfly Derby, Hermes becoming obsessed with getting robotic implants, Fry getting turned into a sausage and getting eaten Oktoberfest, Bender trying to obtain Free Will, Fry meeting the professor’s parents, and Bender on a mission to stop fox hunting.
This show is so entertaining. The writing is smart, and the humor is multi-layered. Every time I watch an episode, I notice something new, and find another reason to laugh. I had trouble deciding on a quote for the top of this review as many of the scenes that had me laughing the hardest involved no spoken words—just hilarious situations and reactions from the characters. Each episode is a great blend of well-written humor, sight gags, and a lot of fun nerdy and pop-culture references.
This DVD set is loaded with special features including lots of deleted scenes and (my favorite) audio commentaries on every episode!
I could easily re-watch these episodes over and over again and highly recommend this set.
What’s Included on the DVD:
Episodes:
- All 13 episodes of the Seventh Season(296 min)
(Originally aired June 20, 2012-August 29, 2012)
- “The Bots and the Bees”, “A Farewell to Arms”, “Decision 3012”, “The Thief of Baghead”, “Zapp Dingbat”, “The Butterjunk Effect”, “The Six Million Dollar Mon”, “Fun on a Bun”, “Free Will Hunting”, “Near-Death Wish”, “31st Century Fox”, “Viva Mars Vegas”, “Naturama”
- Widescreen 1.78:1
- Audio: English DD 5.1
- English SDH, Spanish subtitles
Extras:
- Audio Commentary on All Episodes
The audio commentaries are the bonus feature I always look forward to on these Futurama DVD sets. The cast and creators are so much fun—jumping in and out of character, and even doing each other’s characters while talking about the episodes. Listening to these commentaries, you get all kinds of behind the scenes info including Easter eggs and explanations of the obscure nerdy references in the episodes. - Bonus Commentary on A Farewell To Arms (21:38)
Special extra commentary featuring artists from Rough Draft Studios along with the directors of the episode. It’s interesting to hear from a different perspective about how an episode is created. - Alternate Ending for Zapp Dingbat (21:38)
Watch the “Zapp Dingbat” episode with a really fun alternate ending that has the characters break into a “Space Surfin'” musical performance. - Too Good For TV: A Smorgasbord of Deleted Scenes (13:31)
23 deleted scenes spread across both discs. The scenes are in various states of colorization and completion (even within the same scene) but are fun and entertaining. I especially enjoyed one with Morbo unleashing his jealousy over his co-anchor Linda. - Christopher Tyng’s Big Score: A Jam Session with Futurama‘s Innovative Composer (8:24)
Short documentary-style interview with Futurama composer Christopher Tyng as he talks about how he got into music, TV and about his process. - Mobius Trip: Infinite Futurama Screen Loops
Two screen-saver like infinite videos based on the “Naturama” episode. In Aquarium, the various Futurama character-based fish and elephant seals swim back and forth. In Terrarium, the Professor Farnsworth tortoise walks back and forth as Futurama character birds flying by—and Hypnotoad is there the whole time, doing his thing in the corner. - Futurama Karaoke: Sing Along with Your Favorite Characters (9:07)
Sing along to some of your favorite songs from older Futurama episodes, including “Welcome To Robot Hell”, “This Toy Shop’s Going To War”, “That Was Then and This is Too”, “The March of the Non-Union Elves”, and “Even If It’s Not a Good Idea (The Bureaucrat Song)”. You can watch with or without the vocals.
Final Thoughts:
The episodes of Futurama contained on this DVD set were originally aired in HD (and are also available on Blu-ray), but the picture on this DVD looks great—very crisp and clear. I don’t have any complaints about the audio and video quality of this release.
This set is also loaded with Bonus Features. The audio commentaries are always my favorite part of the Futurama DVD releases—and the ones on this set continue to be thoroughly entertaining. Also included are a lot of fun deleted scenes and some other fun extras.
Futurama is a fun, highly re-watchable series that gives laughs and enjoyment every time. It is easy to recommend this DVD set!
