One left: Futurama Movie News Thread

[#520 :]

I must admit that in my "marathon viewing" up to the release date for ITWGY I'm not really looking forward to seeing BWABB again.

It was ok but the last twenty minutes were pretty dull, not to mention the ending smacked of a 'last minute clean up' job which was also the case for Bender's Game (though on the whole BG was much better than BWABB).

I'd say that BBS was the only one out of the three released so far that actually felt like a proper movie, I was pretty impressed with the way everything came together at the end in it, less so with the other two.

Thankfully going by reviews ITWGY sounds as though it'll be more like BBS in that regard.

[#521 :]

It was ok but the last twenty minutes were pretty dull, not to mention the ending smacked of a 'last minute clean up' job which was also the case for Bender's Game (though on the whole BG was much better than BWABB).

I'd say that BBS was the only one out of the three released so far that actually felt like a proper movie, I was pretty impressed with the way everything came together at the end in it, less so with the other two.

*nods*

Indeed, I completely agree with you about TBWABB. 

Plus, I also share the same thoughts that you have, regarding how the movies were written. 

[#522 :]

BBS definetely felt like a proper movie. I can't wait to watch it on our new big screen TV....when we move.....in a few months......after the house is built.....and dad picks up the TV's purchased from china.

[#523 :]

DVD give-away contest for Into the Wild Green Yonder is up at CGEF now: http://www.gotfuturama.com/Information/Articles/Into_the_Wild_Green_Yonder_DVD_Contest/

[#524 :]

potentially awesome news!  This is the latest update on FMMB.

Nathan Aaron from Hippo Juice wrote to say that they did a 45 minute podcast with Billy West this past weekend and among a whole lot of other things he hints that a sixth season was being talked about.  Unfortunately, he didn't say who was talking about it.  You can listen to it and decide for yourself - just click on the HippoPod link and you'll see it right there. Be forewarned - lots of rough language and offensive to almost everyone, especially to 14 year old nerds.  The whole podcast is almost an hour and a half long, and Billy's interview starts about 45 minutes into it. He's asked &ldquo:Have they told you anything about another season?” and he replies “They're talking ... they're trying to figure out mayby how to do a sixth season ... but they're talking about it.”

 

[#525 :]

DVD give-away contest for Into the Wild Green Yonder is up at CGEF now: http://www.gotfuturama.com/Information/Articles/Into_the_Wild_Green_Yonder_DVD_Contest/

That is so unfair that the fans in the UK can't enter the comp

[#526 :]

We say this every year.

[#527 :]

Books I thought you lived in Canada. I will start preparing my entry thanks for the news Marc

[#528 :]

I found this on Billy West's website.

The new Futurama DVD is coming out next week! I'm real excited about
this and a little wistful that this is the 4th one.
I heard they were "talking" about some new projects and if they do
anything I'll be so psyched because this is hands down my favorite show.

I really wish Mr. West would ease up on his bashing of conservative Americans.  I had to wade through a longwinded exposition on how stupid and backward I supposedly am just to get that bit of information. 

[#529 :]

I found this on Billy West's website.

The new Futurama DVD is coming out next week! I'm real excited about
this and a little wistful that this is the 4th one.
I heard they were "talking" about some new projects and if they do
anything I'll be so psyched because this is hands down my favorite show.

I really wish Mr. West would ease up on his bashing of conservative Americans.  I had to wade through a longwinded exposition on how stupid and backward I supposedly am just to get that bit of information. 

Believe it or not, he and I got into a left vs right debate on his site and he was very pleasent and cordial to me; he even admonished a couple of users who were bashing me.  Yeah, he's a typical Hollywood lefty but I can at least respect him because that how he views things and really feels.  He has the utmost contempt for the Hollywood faux-liberals - he feels wishy-washy people are even worse than people from the right.

And you have to admit, Dubya's reign wasn't anything for the neocons to be proud of.

[#530 :]

And for all Aussies it is officially "I hate UK and USA because they get ITWGY before us!" month.

[#531 :]

Hey, for those who don't know yet, the official site of the DVDs, ilovebender.com, has been updated for "Into the Wild Green Yonder".

"Bender's Big Score" and "The Beast with a Billion Backs" barely have anything on that site. I assume that they'll have material added when both movies are released on Blu-Ray, whenever (if) that may be.

By the way, I believe our own JavieR has made the high scores on the slots on the Futurama widget, along with a few others I can't remember.

[#532 :]

what does the screen saver look like

[#533 :]

It's part of your punishment for the crimes that got you sent to that stinkin' island in the first place.

ooooOOOOOOOoooooooo!...

[#534 :]

ITWGY is currently #7 in the list of most pirated movies for this week.  Not sure whether that's good news or bad news, since it means there's an assload of people not buying the movie.

[#535 :]

Soy, just because people pirate the film doesn't still mean that they won't buy the film on DVD or Blu-Ray. Actually, I believe there is a statistic out there that concludes that people who pirate a movie are more likely to buy it. This will likely apply to "Into the Wild Green Yonder" as 1) it hasn't been officially released yet and 2) DVDs offer much higher quality of sound and video along with loads of worthwhile bonus features such as the commentary and deleted scenes.

[#536 :]

It'll still sell well, just about everyone here (myself included) who's already seen it online will still be buying the DVD on release date or receiving it through the post due to pre ordering it.

I imagine it'll be the same scenario for most people, there's still a certain appeal about owning the physical product, not to mention all the extras.

[#537 :]

ITWGY is currently #7 in the list of most pirated movies for this week.  Not sure whether that's good news or bad news, since it means there's an assload of people not buying the movie.

It doesn't sound good, but in our defense, it's a S-2-DVD and we'd like to know what it's like before we pay for it, like I've said since BBS.

[#538 :]

first of the four i havnt downloaded
(only because the usual place i get it from had spoilers in the download thread)
usual process is

watch download
watch dvd
watch with commentary
watch extras

i first got into the series through downloading tv rips and now i own all the eps and films on dvd

[#539 :]

And for all Aussies it is officially "I hate UK and USA because they get ITWGY before us!" month.

Well it's not so bad this time, we only get it a couple weeks after the US (March 4). Compare this to the March 5, 2008 release of Bender's Big Score, which came out some 3 and a half months after the United States.

[#540 :]

ITWGY is currently #7 in the list of most pirated movies for this week.  Not sure whether that's good news or bad news, since it means there's an assload of people not buying the movie.

I suspect the answer lies in whether the movie is any good or not.  If the movie is bad, then pirating is bad news.  If the movie is good, I agree with FW that people will prefer to own the official product, with the extra features, commentary and packaging.  Pirating may even provide a form of free advertising.  In my case I first became aware of Futurama first by one TV episode, then watching illegal clips on YouTube.  What I saw on YouTube motivated me to buy the whole DVD series.

So for now I'm betting that the pirating is a compliment to the movie, not a danger.  It allows people to get around the so-called "professional" reviews and judge for themselves. Given the unevenness of the posted online reviews, maybe that's not a bad thing.  We'll see. 

[#541 :]

I haven't seen the third movie yet.

[#542 :]

I have to join in with the pirate debate here. I've got the four movies on my hard drive at the moment. Once I have the DVDs (I plan to buy them but a combination of laziness and cash flow problems means I haven't left my house during the daytime for over a week) I'll delete them as they'll no longer be needed.

However, I know people whose only "contact" with the movies will be through their pirated/downloaded copy. They'll be quite happy to stick with their low-quality rip, no special features, no commentary, and no packaging.

For me, part of the appeal of the genuine product is all of that "extra" stuff that comes with it. I like to own the DVD. I like to have the box, the bits that come with it, and the special features. I like to explore the product.

Once I have watched something online or saved a torrent to watch later, I'm one of the people who are much more likely to want to go out and buy the thing itself. This makes me biased, of course, towards the side of the pirates.

I think that if there were a way that people could download a file which could then only be watched once, maybe twice, it would be a powerful marketing tool for direct to DVD movies, and for television shows with upcoming releases. If it were a subscription service with a low monthly charge for access to a download database full of watch-then-delete or streaming content, I'd probably ditch my mobile phone in favour of it. Then again, I hate mobile phones. Mine is basically a watch with the added feature that it makes annoying noises every time somebody somewhere wants to bug me about something.

But I digress.

What I'd really like to see is films being sold on flash memory chips, which then go into a box which houses hundreds of them, along with albums, computer games, and all kinds of fun stuff. Then the box connects to your computer, and your computer forwards the signal to the TV. You could either buy a cheap version which interrupts broadcast every fifteen minutes to play some advertising, or a premium version which costs more but is uninterrupted and has special features.

I'm thinking a couple of pounds for the cheap one, ten times that for premium. Advertisements could come from an online "bank" of thousands, with a fee for each one that you see being forwarded from the company to whoever owns the copyright on what you're watching.

If only the content box can decrpyt the chips, then there's no more piracy to be bothered about, since it would be far more effort to pirate something than it would be worth.

If anything that people now download was available on such chips, either from an online store or in the high street, then it would be almost as convenient to order it in than it is to search for and download it.

Something like Futurama would probably benefit hugely from this type of arrangement. Lots of people would buy the cheap version, and thus the copyright owner would make a lot more money long-term from advertising revenue. The premium version would likely be bought by obsessives who want all the extras, meaning that the copyright owner makes a larger amount over the short term, meaning that they would be able to use that money to make new episodes or movies.

Of course, this is just me thinking out of my ass. It'll probably never happen.

[#543 :]

What I'd really like to see is films being sold on flash memory chips, which then go into a box which houses hundreds of them, along with albums, computer games, and all kinds of fun stuff. Then the box connects to your computer, and your computer forwards the signal to the TV. You could either buy a cheap version which interrupts broadcast every fifteen minutes to play some advertising, or a premium version which costs more but is uninterrupted and has special features.

Funny, for a few years I've been saying after the movie disk, it'll just be movies on flash disks.

Also I think that the fact that some countries/people get to watch these movies before anyone else contributes to the pirate thing. If it was released on the same day, I'm sure less people will need to download the movie. People would still do it, but it would be much less people.

[#544 :]

ITWGY went on the shelves in Ireland (possibly throughout the rest of Europe?) on the 20th.

When I stopped by the local HMV to purchase a copy, I saw 3 other Blu-Ray copies on the shelves.  I had to return a half-hour later to get that annoying red-tab anti-theft device taken off, and the Blu-Rays were gone, so that's a good sign.

As for the movie itself, the HD version is really quite pretty, what with all the outer space scenes and such.  Definitely worth the extra price if you have a Blu-Ray player.

[#545 :]

I moved a large chunk of the last page into the spoilers thread, as spoiler-related discussions do not belong in this one. So if yer wondering where you post went, it went there.

[#546 :]

Nice article here:

http://www.movieweb.com/news/NEjrYsjpvdUwms

[#547 :]

Nice article here:

http://www.movieweb.com/news/NEjrYsjpvdUwms

David X. Cohen: For our science fans, we always try to include some kind of a challenge, some kind of a scientific reference that they have to decode. So we have a very very difficult one for our astrophysicists. I had an actual astrophysicist who is an old friend of mine, provide me with the data. There is a little secret towards the end of the movie, a very subtle visual, I don't want to give anything away, but it harkens back to something we did in the pilot. There was a real subtle secret thing that we stuck in the pilot that a lot of fans noticed and we've kind of done a related thing here at the end of this movie. We have, near the end of this, a spectacular finale where basically all of the people, all the characters we've ever used, assemble for the grand finale. There's this really tremendous crowd sequence with hundreds of monsters, robots, everybody that we've ever seen on Futurama and we really wanted to have the wrap-up of this, just in case. As it turned out, it was such a huge shot that the Korean animators, who were doing all the coloring and everything, they actually assessed a fine against the American animators, our animation studio Rough Draft in the L.A. area. We actually had to pay a fine, but we decided to keep it in there. Oh, of course, Zapp Brannigan is back and we couldn't do the last one without a big part for Zapp Brannigan.

Paging SolyentOrange....paging SolyentOrange.

I'll bite--what was he referring to in the pilot?

[#548 :]

I'll bite--what was he referring to in the pilot?

Maybe Nibbler's shadow on the floor when Fry fell backwards into the freezer.

[#549 :]

Paging SolyentOrange....paging SolyentOrange.

way ahead of you JustNibblin:

The first time I watched ITWGY I wondered if the galactic coordinates that Leela listed for the Violet Dwarf had any significance, but figured that they probably didn't.  But then I listened to the video commentary and David X. Cohen proved once again that absolutely everything in this show is a nerdy reference.

So what is at galactic latitude -58.03, longitude 167.84?  Turns out its the star Mira (within a few arcseconds).  That's kind of a neat choice for them to make.  The primary star is losing its atmosphere to space, and the secondary, sun-like star is gathering it into a disc that might one day form planets. 

You have to love a show where the producer adresses all of the "astrophysics grad students in the audience."

[#550 :]

It will be interesting to see how many of the 250 or so characters we can all spot. Maybe a new threads for this. Anyone?

[#551 :]

Paging SolyentOrange....paging SolyentOrange.

way ahead of you JustNibblin:

The first time I watched ITWGY I wondered if the galactic coordinates that Leela listed for the Violet Dwarf had any significance, but figured that they probably didn't.  But then I listened to the video commentary and David X. Cohen proved once again that absolutely everything in this show is a nerdy reference.

So what is at galactic latitude -58.03, longitude 167.84?  Turns out its the star Mira (within a few arcseconds).  That's kind of a neat choice for them to make.  The primary star is losing its atmosphere to space, and the secondary, sun-like star is gathering it into a disc that might one day form planets. 

You have to love a show where the producer adresses all of the "astrophysics grad students in the audience."

I read your post earlier, but the surprise they mention is toward "the end of the movie," wheras Leela cites the coordinates of Mira a little before the halfway point in the movie.  In addition, they said it was a visual, so my gut feeling it that it's something else besides Mira...  I didn't see any recognizable constellations at the end, did see a nebula...

Guess we'll have to look at the crowd scene more carefully.

(Not that the Mira discovery wasn't clever...)

[#552 :]

I think Cohen is referring to two seperate things.  The first is the set of coordinates that Leela gives for the Violet Dwarf star,

and the second is a secret visual at the end of the movie.  My guess would be that the secret visual he is talking about is Nibbler's shadow, which appears on the starboard side of the bridge just before the ship enters the wormhole at the end