Thoughts on 7ACV13 - Naturama - SPOILERS

[on:]

Here you go.

[Reply #1 on:]

Thoughts on 7ACV14 - Naturama - SPOILERS

7ACV14? "Naturama" production code is 7ACV13.

[Reply #2 on:]

On par with Reincarnation which is good in my books, some of the puns were pretty cringe-worthy though.

9/10, 10/10 if the awful puns were thrown away.

[Reply #3 on:]

Apologies for the episode number error. How does one fix that?

[Reply #4 on:]

Not bad. Not my favorite three-parter. It was certainly entertaining though. I loved the Morgan Freemanesque narrator, and the whole Mutual of Omicron theme. I think I liked the first segment the best. It had some of the best jokes in my opinion. The second segment was fun, but a bit bland. The third segment was also pretty good, but not... fantastic to me. Overall the episode was visually stunning, as have pretty much all the episodes been this season. I can't wait to see what they have in store next season! 7/10

[Reply #5 on:]

and Nibbler makes his only 7A appearance...

Good, very funny, especially the Zoidberg and Scruffy bits...


9/10

[Reply #6 on:]

Best episode ever.

[Reply #7 on:]

*EDIT OF 2013* When I first watched this, I was thinking of a 8/10 vote for this episode. But I decided to give it a 9/10 for the hell of it. After more viewings though, or more notably watching it on DVD a few months later, I saw alot of flaws with this episode, and thought that it was really bad. Worse than the "Holiday Spectacular". And I still do, after just rewatching it. I think I want to change the vote to a 6/10. Below is my edited review of this ep.

The first act was great, loved the non-canon shipping stuff with Fry/Leela. I actually enjoyed Zapp (Also a salmon, like Leela and Fry) a little more than usual for some reason. The second act was pretty bad. Not much to really say about it. Nothing important happened. All it did was involve the professor as a tortoise, looking to have sex with mom. Really weak. The third act was better, but not by alot. It just seems like they were trying too hard to be funny. It failed terribly. But it did have alot of good visuals. I wouldn't compare it to the masterpiece known as Reincarnation, but it still was a less-than-decent episode. I would say it's worse than The Futurama Spectacular. It least that made me laugh a few times, and had a way better feel than this.

Can't wait for next year! I feel better episodes during 2013!

Show spoiler

A topper for Seymour!!  

Show spoiler

Muder in Planet Express!?   who dies?

Show spoiler

Zoidberg dating a alien with no sense of smell.

Had a pretty good half-season, but we're done with it now sadly.  

[Reply #8 on:]

Harem, I can hardly see em'.

[Reply #9 on:]

I don't have a whole lot to say about this episode. A few random thoughts on the three segments individually:

Act One: I thought the Fry/Leela stuff was cute, though actually seeing them lay and fertilize eggs was kind of squicky. Zapp had some decent one-liners, and I absolutely loved the Lrrr and Ndnd cameos. This was probably the funniest of the three segments, and the most cohesive.

Act Two: Nothing particularly striking about this segment. Fry's response to the tortoise's off-screen lovemaking was kind of funny, I suppose, if not a bit drawn out. And it was fun to see Mom again; I think I'll have to add "slutty Brazil nut" to my personal lexicon.

Act Three: This segment was probably the most emotionally compelling of the three--even if it was kind of a retread of the first segment, which has similar Romeo and Juliet, star-crossed lover undertones. The ending was needlessly violent, though; I get that it tied in with the episode's overarching (and, to me, hilarious) theme of nature being meaninglessly violent, but I didn't need to see a pancaked Kif and a blood-soaked Bender. I have a weak constitution, damn it!

Speaking more generally about the episode, I will say that I appreciate what it was trying to do. I liked that it appropriated various romantic relationships--Fry/Leela, Farnsworth/Mom, Kif/Amy--and translated them to these stories about the animal kingdom; it gave me some kind of emotional foothold in these otherwise zany, cartoon-y vignettes. It was clever.

I also loved the narration; in fact, it may have been my favorite thing about the episode. It was so dry, so matter-of-fact, so bleak--and it really tickled me.

That said, though, I think that overall this episode was kind of pointless. I would have rather gotten either a straight-up AOI episode, or an actual canon episode. This episode wasn't offensively bad (it was kind of sexually explicit, in its own way, but that didn't bother me too much); it was entertaining enough, and I think it's great that the writers tried something new and creative and weird, but it's not something I necessarily wanted or needed to see. I'll give it a 7/10, I guess, but I wasn't overly-thrilled by it or anything.

[Reply #10 on:]

Missing the Holiday Spectacular already?

[Reply #11 on:]

Sucks. That is all! Watched 5 mins then turned it off.

[Reply #12 on:]

Show spoiler

A topper for Seymour!! 

Show spoiler

Muder in Planet Express!?  who dies?

Show spoiler

Zoidberg dating a alien with no sense of smell.

Could I have a source for that?

Watched 5 mins then turned it off.

Me too, and I still thought it was the best episode ever, that's how good it was

[Reply #13 on:]

Apologies for the episode number error. How does one fix that?

If you click the "Edit" button on your original post, it will allow you to change the thread title. You have that power, as the Progenitor of the PEE Poll!

some of the puns were pretty cringe-worthy though.

Huh. The puns seemed far more prominent (and, occasionally, eye-roll-worthy) to me in "31st Century Fox"; I wasn't bothered by them here. To each his own, though.

[Reply #14 on:]

Huh. The puns seemed far more prominent (and, occasionally, eye-roll-worthy) to me in "31st Century Fox"; I wasn't bothered by them here. To each his own, though.

I didn't deduct points of for 31st Century Fox because I hated everything about the episode.

Also the springer spaniel one was so bad it was funny, the ones in Naturama weren't going for that. Puns are only funny when they're ironic.

[Reply #15 on:]

I was surprised. This was actually okay.

Seeing the characters as animals was entertaining, which made up for the smaller amount of jokes.

Woo! I'm doing it in my sleep!

[Reply #16 on:]

The only thing about this is I feel like the animals they picked were more or less the same. I guess that's just me.

Wow they made an episode of Bender being a legit pimp.

[Reply #17 on:]

Puns are only funny when they're ironic.

Morbo: PUNS DO NOT WORK LIKE THAT!!!


It might have been more interesting with one segment of Futurama-characters-as-animals, and then two other ideas (Perhaps exploring the other universes discovered in the Farnsworth Parabox?)

[Reply #18 on:]

5/10. Strictly meh, this felt more like something that should have been tackled by Futurama's older sibling, The Simpsons.

There was a lack of background jokes for most of the episode, there was nothing outstanding about the stories told, and the only things that I really found funny were Bender as a seal-lord, and Mom's three baby tortoises being crushed (along with patches of the narration).

I get that the writers were experimenting with something new. Occasionally they succeed with it. But this time, it fell flat for me. A disappointing close to a largely disappointing half-season. I shall be watching the next half-season with my expectations suitably lowered.

Apologies for the episode number error. How does one fix that?

You fix it by editing the title. You make up for it by not being a retard in the future.

If you're going to open a thread, at least make sure you have something to say about the subject. Opening an episode review thread without a review is the height of bad form. In addition, people should be able to change their votes on the poll.

I suggest that you read the manual before opening any more threads.

[Reply #19 on:]

"You haven't ignored the last of me."

[Reply #20 on:]

Show spoiler

A topper for Seymour!! 

Show spoiler

Muder in Planet Express!?  who dies?

Show spoiler

Zoidberg dating a alien with no sense of smell.

Could I have a source for that?

He's right about the murder and the Zoidberg one, but I haven't seen anything about an episode that's gonna be like JB...

Anyway, great ep. Not as great as I thought it would be, but still great. First act was the strongest, second was kind of meh and third was alright I guess. I actually preferred 31st Century Fox, which I did not expect.

7/10

[Reply #21 on:]

I actually liked Zoidberg's "Welcome to the abyss".

[Reply #22 on:]

They should keep making these like reincarnations. For the next reincarnation: My Pony Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Smurfs and Lego.

I give this a 7/10.

[Reply #23 on:]

They should keep making these like reincarnations. For the next reincarnation: My Pony Pony: Friendship Is Magic,

NO

Smurfs

Meh.

Lego.

YES!

Also, the next reincarnation-type episode has already been confirmed, it's gonna be a parody of '70s and '80s cartoons, such as Scooby-Doo and G.I. Joe.

[Reply #24 on:]

Apologies for the episode number error. How does one fix that?

If you click the "Edit" button on your original post, it will allow you to change the thread title. You have that power, as the Progenitor of the PEE Poll!

Or just wait for TMC to come along and handle it. That schmuck will do the dirty work for free.

[Reply #25 on:]

It just felt rather...disappointing to me. I really liked the reference to Mutual of Omaha's "Wild Kingdom" (I used to watch loads of that show because my dad was crazy about it). But the transitions were abrupt, not funny, and gave me the impression overall of lazy or hurried writing ("can't think of anything clever for the narrator to say--just cut to the next segment"). The jokes were few and far between. And each segment seemed to lack cohesiveness. The whole episode seemed to be rather all over the place.

I think some people on the Newsarama thread were complaining about the focus on mating, but I thought, well, what more do animals live for than to propagate their genes? The scene in the middle segment, where Bender/Iguana squirms uncomfortably at Professor/Tortoise moaning during sex while Leela/Finch says to just act nonchalantly and then does so, was hilarious to me. I also loved the surprise of the "Let's go already!" line coming unexpectedly from the iguana, before I knew it was supposed to be Bender.

I gave it a 6/10. I just found it to be rather mediocre.

Maybe David Attenborough narrating would have made it vastly better.

[Reply #26 on:]

This one was about as good as I expected. It was silly and funny as these episodes tend to be, but it wasn't as good as reincarnation. I think the salmon segment was probably the best of the three.

6/10

[Reply #27 on:]

7/10. Not a bad episode. Had it's moments. Nowhere near as good as Reincarnation, but still a million times better than TFHS.

Act 2 was my favourite, followed by act 3.

The first act.... not so much for me. Also, there was a huge mistake - scruffy appears again AFTER he was killed by zoidberg...

[Reply #28 on:]

Also, there was a huge mistake - scruffy appears again AFTER he was killed by zoidberg...

Maybe it was a reference to Scruffy being a zombie?

[Reply #29 on:]

Touching, gross, weird, funny and a little bit melancholy.  I like this episode a lot.

The act was the funniest, then it kind of dropped a notch by each segment for me.   I felt the jokes and the touchingness of each segment decreased by each segment.  I really hated Kif dying in the elephant seal one.  I would have had Bender dying of a heart attack as he's about to finish beating the crap out of Kif.   I also felt there weren't really enough cameos as there should have been, aside from the ocean dive bit (anyone notice how the eel looked just like the first animal on Vergon 6 that Nibbler ate?).  I was hoping that Bender's harem would have included females made to look like his favourite floozies, like Hookerbot/Crushinator or Ruth and Esther.   I think one of the females sounded a bit like Esther, but that was it (plus Esther sounds like one of Tress McNeille's default voices anyway).  

But all in all, my favourite episode of this season along with 31st Century Fox.   I was actually pleasantly surprised.

[Reply #30 on:]

(anyone notice how the eel looked just like the first animal on Vergon 6 that Nibbler ate?).

The Omicronian ships destroying Earth at the end reminded me of the implosion of Vergon 6.

[Reply #31 on:]

Show spoiler

A topper for Seymour!! 

Show spoiler

Muder in Planet Express!?  who dies?

Show spoiler

Zoidberg dating a alien with no sense of smell.

Could I have a source for that?

He's right about the murder and the Zoidberg one, but I haven't seen anything about an episode that's gonna be like JB...

Anyway, great ep. Not as great as I thought it would be, but still great. First act was the strongest, second was kind of meh and third was alright I guess. I actually preferred 31st Century Fox, which I did not expect.

7/10

It was on Eric Roger's twitter sometime ago.

[Reply #32 on:]

Aaah yes! It was in reply to me!

I tweeted an article that said The Bots and the Bees was almost as sad as Jurassic Bark, and he replied saying there's an episode coming up much worse than TBATB. (Maybe even JB...)

I don't think he meant Near-Death Wish, that was more of a bittersweet thing.

[Reply #33 on:]

I really don't understand the mediocre/bad reviews some of you are giving this. I would probably put this as one of my favorite episodes this season- just so lovably strange and dark. The theme about nature being cruel was hilarious, and there were actually a few really cute shippy moments.
This episode was excellent, what gives guys?
9/10, maybe a 10...

[Reply #34 on:]

This one really surprised me. I wasn't expecting much but ended up having a lot of fun watching it. It wasn't the best three-parter they've ever done but it was enjoyable for what it was and definitely kept me engaged more than the first episode. I'll rate it a 7/10 for now, though that could easily jump up a notch or two with repeated viewings.

[Reply #35 on:]

Oh on a rewatch, one of the elephant seals sounds just like Munda, but I'm guessing it wasn't meant to be a cameo since the seal has two eyes.

[Reply #36 on:]

I don't know how this ever made it beyond the brainfart stage. When the best joke in an entire episode is about Scruffy's mustache, that's the first clue you are in trouble (come to think of it, Neutopia ... ?)

This wouldn't be so bad if an episode like "reincarnation" wouldn't exist. But it does.
Maybe I'm just missing robot floozies wrestling in petroleum oil; at least that not-so-great episode had an enjoyable highlight.

[Reply #37 on:]

(anyone notice how the eel looked just like the first animal on Vergon 6 that Nibbler ate?).

The Omicronian ships destroying Earth at the end reminded me of the implosion of Vergon 6.

I enjoyed that bit from the ending 

[Reply #38 on:]

Oh on a rewatch, one of the elephant seals sounds just like Munda, but I'm guessing it wasn't meant to be a cameo since the seal has two eyes.

I swear it was either Ruth or Esther.

[Reply #39 on:]

Pretty good. I thought the first one was the best, with the best story and some great one liners. Yes, that's literally all I say when Zapp is involved.
The second one was the worst for me. I just didn't find it very funny or interesting.
The third one was the funniest by far. It seems to have grossed a lot of people out, but seeing Kif squished was hilarious to me. And overall, the narrator really helped carry this episode. It would have been way worse without him.

First Act: 9/10
Second Act: 6/10
Third Act: 8/10

Overall, 8/10