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Administrator
Liquid Emperor
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« on: 11-22-2010 04:10 »
« Last Edit on: 11-22-2010 04:12 »
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The Futurama holiday special "Futurama Holiday Spectacular" marks the end of the 2010 Futurama run. Use this thread for reviews of the episode and for general discussion about it. Beware, SPOILERs! Don't forget to leave a short review on CGEF.
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i_c_weiner
DOOP Secretary
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I only saw the last two segments, but both were great. I'd love to see Al Gore as Captain Lance Starman. Can't wait to see the Xmas segment and the new season in June!
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Frisco17
DOOP Secretary
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Good, not great but still solidly good. The exploding gingerbread house and Zoidberg knowing Kwanzaabot was coming were hilarious.
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FishyJoe
Honorary German
Urban Legend
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I'm not surprised at the freak-out...this was definitely a disappointment. But it wasn't all bad.
The cheesy opening and sponsorship was quite funny. But then as soon as they broke into song, they lost me. I think I am officially "over" comedy musical numbers in cartoon shows. They've been really hit or miss for me. Futurama has had some good ones, but when they miss, they can really derail the episode.
From then on, segment 1 was just bad. I don't know what else to say. Not much to laugh at.
But there is good news! Segment 2 was great (again, except for the song)! Fry and the crew turning into oil was a hilarious ending. I loved how Bender just forgets they're dead after 500 million years, or whatever. "Hey do you guys wanna--oh yeah". Funny!
Kwanzaa segment was "fair". It had some laughs. I love seeing Barbados Slim. I thought it was pretty lazy that they went for the same story structure (explain the holiday with a song; realize you need something like pine trees or oil or beeswax; search for it and end with the crew dying) for each segment, and honestly seeing the bees again didn't do a whole lot for me. The kwanzaa song actually wasn't too bad.
Unfortunately, this is yet another case of "we waited [insert period of time] for THIS?". If this were a normal episode aired right in the middle of 20 other episodes, like in a full broadast season, I think this would have been alright. Instead, the way-too-short season 6 ends, and then we wait months and we get this holiday special as the only episode until whenever-the-hell season 6.2 starts airing. It leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth to know that this is the only new Futurama we've had in so long.
But whatever. Like I said, it wasn't all bad. At least I have the Robonica segment.
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Svip
Administrator
DOOP Secretary
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I will go with 'okay'. I wasn't hyped for this episode, so I guess that helps. The problem is that each segment was very 'format-y', unlike regular AOI-episodes, where each segment can be vastly different and unpredictable. And the songs weren't as great as in the previous Xmas-segments, including Bender's Big Score.
To me, this entire episode seemed just to be a nod to old episodes, which I didn't really care for. Why the mention of pine trees? Sure it was established in "Xmas Story" that they were extinct, but why not keep them that way? Was I the only one who caught Farnsworth's line, 'and again the only hope is Norwegian' to be a nod to 'Angry Norwegian Anchovies'?
Then you had the second episode picking up Robonica from "Fear of a Bot Planet" and the mention of petrol, which had been the topic of many an episode prior to this. And yeah, the bees.
What bothered me the most is actually that I am a canon-guy. I like canon, and I like it not to be disrupted. While each of these segments are obviously non-canon, it doesn't alter the fact that they weren't established with the same kind of 'framing' as the regular AOI-episodes were.
The segments were not really interesting and it seemed like a cheap cop-out at best. It had some good lines, here and there. But none of it was the songs. While not specifically bad, they were uninteresting and forgettable. Unlike many previous songs on the show.
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Zmithy
Professor
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I think I would have liked it more if I knew it was going to be AOI-style..as it was I watched the first part wondering why everything was being rushed at breakneck speed and wondering wtf was going on.
"Anthology of Xmas" as the title would have made it much better for me.. even if it meant losing the Scruffy joke (although, now that I think about it, randomly killing him without any explanation or acknowledgment would be an awesome conclusion to the characters story arc :P).
Middle section was definitely the best, simply because it made the least sense and was the most entertaining and well written... the drilling was cool, and the jokes were good in that bit.... loved the mole graves and albino humping worm.
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Brock Baker
Crustacean
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Well <i>I</i> liked it. Sure it was the weakest Christmas-themed episode, but it still wasn't bad. I love the anthology episodes and this didn't disappoint, I don't get where all the hate is coming from. Here's hoping for many more seasons, can't wait 'til June! I just wish this episode wasn't competing against "The Walking Dead" and others.
eh 8.5/10
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Aki
Professor
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People will never be pleased. Like someone said earlier, this was mindless fun, and I enjoyed it. I was quite pleased with the season overall, but I'm realistic. The episode could have been so much better.
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NastyInThePasty
Professor
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Damn DVR cut off the end credits again. It stopped when Bender came back to Planet Express as saw the floozybots wrestling in the oil. What happened after?
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Aki
Professor
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Damn DVR cut off the end credits again. It stopped when Bender came back to Planet Express as saw the floozybots wrestling in the oil. What happened after?
...the next third of the episode came.
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Rush
Bending Unit
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« Reply #28 on: 11-22-2010 19:29 »
« Last Edit on: 11-22-2010 19:31 »
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I like "Anthology of Interest" episodes because they have no real effect on cannon if any at all, so they can be as crazy as they want to be. For it kinda said in the end they'll all be back and alive just as they ever were. I give it 9/10. What did the Futurama crew do on Xmas in the universe (Universe Gamma/Universe A) where we mostly seen them on TV? I'd guess they put down those armored shutters from "A Tale of Two Santas" and barricaded/reinforced the armor-plated chimney cover so that Robot Santa wouldn't be able to get in. Then Robot Santa would of given up and moved on to terrorize some others. As many of you may know it's original name was meant to be "Holiday Val-U-Pak". Do you think the "The Futurama Holiday Spectacular Speculation" is a better name? I do. It was a nice break from Fry and Leela shippyness even though I'm a big shipper.
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Ratraccoon
Crustacean
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Damn DVR cut off the end credits again. It stopped when Bender came back to Planet Express as saw the floozybots wrestling in the oil. What happened after?
That was pretty much the end of Robonica part if you missed the part where Bender says it's a miracle. You just missed the Kwanzaa part Where they were searching for bee's wax for candles. They couldn't find any on Earth because the bees were infected with parasites. So they went to the giant space bees who were also infected. They got rid of the parasites on those bees but then the bees made candles out of the crew.
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Gorky
DOOP Secretary
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I didn't give this episode a thorough watch, but I paid enough attention to know that it was pretty damn lame (and yes, I realize that doesn't sound like such an awful indictment, but whatever). I enjoyed the first two segments (and all three songs were decent), but none of them were particularly inspired. Like others, I think the Robonukah segment was the most well-thought-out, and definitely the funniest (best song, too, if that matters). It can't redeem the sub-par first segment and stupid-as-hell final segment (I'm worried that my opinion about the final segment might be offensive in some way, but oh well). Neither can Al Gore.
Also: the "Sting" callback was pointless and kind of gross. It also bugged me that the bees could talk in this one; last time, they only communicated by hitting dancing.
This was easily the least enjoyable episode thus far for me this season--but I didn't exactly have high expectations for it in the first place. I'm not worried that next summer's episodes will be equally disappointing; I think this one was kind of screwed from the start, destined to be a bit self-conscious, self-serving, and hokey. So I'm not bummed, but I'm not ecstatic--but I'm ultimately of the opinion that new, kind of lousy Futurama is better than no Futurama at all (in small doses, that is).
5/10
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TheFutureisWild
Crustacean
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Xmas-after watching it . . . wtf? that's the best you can do?
Robanukkah- i liked this one (sorta). it just left me wondering that after 500 million years why were the fembots still wrestling? wouldn't they get bored at some point before that? im probably overthinking the small details but i dont fricken care.
Kwanzaa- i didn't like how it started off, but the fact that they actually went back to the space bee hive seemed to me extremely stupid, then funny.
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futz
Liquid Emperor
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Technically the bees couldn't talk anymore than they could in The Sting. The Professor put translators in everybody's helmets before they left.
I'd have to give the episode a 7 it seemed they got hung up on making each segment with too many similarities - a song about the holiday, most everybody must die at the end, etc. Like they used the same framework and the just filled in exchangeable blanks for the different stories. Songs went on too long and sort pushed out a lot things that could have been done. Sort of like the episode was done on the cheap.
I'd have to rank The Prisoner of Benda tops of the season with Rebirth and A Clockwork Origin a bit below.
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