BEFORE: Futurama Movie #3 of 4 - I was hoping to watch 2 movies tonight, but I had to keep current on "American Idol" and watch 2 crime shows from January (I'm that far behind...), but at least I have the whole summer to catch up on TV.
THE PLOT: The Planet Express crew get trapped in a fantasy world.
AFTER: Right away the movie scores, with a faithful animated spoof of "Yellow Submarine", and that's just in the opening credits! Other targets this time include Dungeons & Dragons, Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Lord of the Rings, The Jetsons, Alice in Wonderland, the Three Stooges and the Dixie Chicks. Oh, and Star Wars, of course, thus becoming the 1,000th film (or so) to parody a lightsaber battle.
This time I could see the breaks, where this would have been divided into 4 episodes had Fox not cancelled the 5th season of the show. A couple of "Previously on Futurama" bumpers, and it would be all set for airing - but honestly, it plays much better as a long-format DVD release.
I obviously realize that "Lord of the Rings" was just asking to be spoofed - and with a few simple name changes - Fry becomes Frydo, Leela becomes Leegola - we're good to go. But it's almost too easy to do a Gollum sequence these days. Plus, if you take the Futurama characters out of the Futurama universe, they lose a lot of their appeal. Part of the fun is having 4 seasons of references to draw from, and it's not the same when they throw that out the window and change reality around for an episode.
Still, this was funnier than last night's Futurama film, and the gags about role-playing games really hit home. But the question raised, about whether a robot can have an imagination - didn't we cover this with Data on "Star Trek: The Next Generation"?
Guest-starring the voices of Rich Little, George Takei, and the D&D master himself, Gary Gygax. (RIP)
RATING: 6 out of 10 on a 10-sided die (now roll for damage)
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