Thoughts on 7ACV13 - Naturama - SPOILERS

[#80 :]

Probably true. Furries tend to work wolves and foxes into everything.

[#81 :]

For some reason, wolf furries are usually the most hilarious.   Especially if they are wearing those three wolf moon t shirts. (I used to own a few t shirts that were similar, only they had fairies and butterflies on them.  Now I wear them when I'm painting, if I wear them at all.)

Behold.
http://weeb-horrors.deviantart.com/art/Wolfy-s-Destiny-298354631

http://weebstories.tumblr.com/post/23408096494/peter-and-the-weeaboo-wolfabo

And... http://weebstories.tumblr.com/post/21855837991/anon-wolfaboo-horror-story

The first one is my favourite because I love happy endings.  

And back on topic....  This episode is my favourite this season.  NOt a favourite of all time, but I still enjoyed it a lot.

[#82 :]

Not quite on the level of Reincarnation but this was a fun episode nonetheless. I think I remember the writers saying that most of the humor in this episode would be nature-related rather than the heavily sci-fi oriented humor they usually opt for. In that case, the humor was quite good, I thought the documentary format was great. The only thing that bothered me about this episode was the fact that the plot in each act wasn't all that much different from the others. (Something Reincarnation did quite well as a comparison)

I was not expecting this episode to be as dark as it was, but this was a pleasant surprise. At least in my opinion, Futurama does dark humor very well.

So while it didn't stick out as well as Reincarnation this was still a solid episode. 7.5/10.

[#83 :]

"Naturama"


The Professor as a Pinta Island tortoise with Leela, Fry, Hermes and Amy as finches


In my opinion episodes that use the format of having three separate stories in one twenty minute slot either turn out terrible as the short time either keeps the story at a fast pace or make it feel too rushed. In this episode it worked well in the first and third acts but the second act was a little rushed. While I say it worked plot wise it didn't really work as an episode. All three segments felt very similar and not any of them were particularly memorable outside of the character designs. I did like how the episode didn't soften how brutal nature really is but they could have made the animal jokes better.

There's a few things listed below that do make me chuckle but those are quite minor. I'm guessing the jokes come from seeing the characters as different animals but that joke does wear thin after a short while (not saying they weren't designed well, they really were) Here are my thoughts on each individual segment...


The Salmon

I probably found this the sweetest and least creepy of all the segments. It was pretty funny but the plot was really not that interesting (It seems like a retread of all the episodes with Fry trying to win his love for Leela by risking his life) There were moments such as the use of "Sea of Love" by Robert Plant during the montage which worked really well and it has got some nice nature-related gags but overall, it's nothing special.
                                                                  - 13/20


The Pinta Island Tortoise

The worst of the three. Besides a few comments by Hubert this episode was particularly dry humor-wise. It really wasn't that interesting and besides the sequence between day and night, nothing really stood out or was that memorable. I guess it was cool seeing 'Mom' again but that didn't make up for the lack of jokes (I would say good jokes but it was as though there was no attempt at any during this) and the lack of and interesting story.

                                                                  - 09/20


The Elephant Seal

The funniest of the three but it was still not great. This and the first segment felt really similar which doesn't help. I personally would have had Zapp as the beach master but that's just probably just me. I will say that this did work quite well and did have the most interesting story but again, it wasn't too great.

                                                                  - 14/20


* "You haven't ignored the last of me"
* "Next you'll be telling me I can't crap in the woods"
* "And so the endless circle of life comes to an end. Meaningless and grim, why did they live and why did they die? No reason"
* "Sad news everyone ... I'm lonely"
* "For in the end nature is horrific and teaches us nothing ... coming up next, the hilarious antics of the elephant seal - the clowns of the sea!"
* "Of all the spectacles in nature, who can match the mating ritual of the elephant seal? Certainly not the salmon and the tortoise, yeah right!"
* "Back off losers! Stay away from my beaches"
* "Once a lady goes walrus they never ... sh'never ... No one ever goes walrus!"
* "I can't believe you came! The beach master will kill you if he finds out also, who are you?"
* "Oh that's it! No more mister nice jerk"
* I also enjoyed seeing a cameo of Zoidberg in each segment


I'm guessing this pleased the shippers as it basically contained almost every ship on the entire show. The narration and the character designs saved this episode and while it's no where near as bad as the Holiday Spectacular, it's not even close to Reincarnation or any of the Anthologies. It's in the bottom half of the season but that's what I expected really...


12/20 (C+)     

[#84 :]

This episode was quite off track, but I enjoyed it.  The strange story helped it stand out a little from the rest of season 7.  I especially enjoyed Zoidberg's various characterizations.  I give it a 7/10

[#85 :]

Best parts of "Naturama" would be the narrator going on about how nature teaches us nothing, and Zoidberg as a Blue-footed Booby being cut off during his explanation.

[#86 :]

[...] and Zoidberg as a Blue-footed Booby being cut off during his explanation.

I would've preferred a segment on the Blue-Footed Booby rather than the Galapagos tortoise. My reasons:
1. Booby. My favorite animal name. Always hilarious.
2. Blue-Feet. How awesome is that!?! So silly, but I do want! Besides, the blue feet of the booby (snirk) is my favorite color.
3. I don't think this applies to that particular variety of booby (heh), but there is one species that lays two eggs, and when the second one hatches, I think the older-hatched sibling attacks its baby brother/sister and pushes it out of the nest, where the parents promptly ignore the assault and the chick meets its demise by being cooked in the hot sun. And apparently if one were to intervene and prevent the older chick (or parents, I swear from the documentary that it was actually the parents) from committing ornithicide, the parents actually don't have any difficulty in raising both. From what I remember (probably incorrectly) is that some research was conducted and apparently when the parent boobies (haha) mate once again, they only have a 75% success rate at offspring mortality or something. Still, interesting stuff.

[#87 :]

I would've preferred a segment on the Blue-Footed Booby rather than the Galapagos tortoise. My reasons:
1. Booby. My favorite animal name. Always hilarious.

the Great Tit would like a word with you.

[#88 :]

I would've preferred a segment on the Blue-Footed Booby rather than the Galapagos tortoise. My reasons:
1. Booby. My favorite animal name. Always hilarious.

the Great Tit would like a word with you.

Really?

...

... yeah, you're right. Well done! This sexual innuendo bird name is much better than the last one.

[#89 :]

Of course "the sexual innuendo bird" would be the best bird name of all.

[#90 :]

I believe there are Booby birds at Lake Titicaca.  

[#91 :]

Careful; there is a risk of Thrush.

[#92 :]

If your date has swallows tattooed somewhere on her skin, you know you're in for a good time.

I know a good joke.  You have three birds, and you need to hire one of them.
The first bird steals from the till, but is always in on time and works overtime for free.
The second bird never steals, but is always the last one to turn up and the first one to leave, and is usually at least twenty minutes late every morning.
The last bird is always in on time but never steals, but is always extremely rude to the customers.

Which bird do you hire?

[#93 :]

Spacefish, and you hire...? What's the word, bird?

[#94 :]

You hire the bird with the biggest tits.

(In the UK, bird is slang for a female, usually a young or attractive woman.)

[#95 :]

Ha! I know about the bird = girl thing, thanks to the Beatles.

[#96 :]

Double post, but it's been more than two months.

Last night, I was indulging in a Nat Geo nature show called "Monster Fish." The host (a pretty hot PhD and field fish biologist, I might say) travels around the world, finding and studying fish in various aquatic ecosystems. He went to eastern Russia, the Kamchatka Peninsula, to study the legions of salmon who migrated to spawn. (This region is really remote, and has like 14,000 rivers, per the show.)

It was rather funny (well, not really in a humorous way, and not for the salmon who die, but that's the circle of life) to see the real life salmon spawning and then dying--and it made me think of this episode. The fish's color gradually deepens from silver to red/purple, and then they die.

Afterwards, I was reading about salmon spawning on Wikipedia, and then laughed when I read that the hatchlings are called "sac fry". Then I thought of the word, "salmon"--why wasn't there a joke about Hermes saying "sal-mon?"

The real life story is much more interesting than the silly Naturama segment. Nonetheless, I had a fond chuckle.

[#97 :]

http://www.peelified.com/index.php?topic=20852.msg1340596;topicseen#msg1340596

[#98 :]

You have a stream by your workplace??? And one with real life fishies!

Sometimes I get sick of living in drought-assed Texas.

[#99 :]

Yep -- it runs right through the business park.  It's more of a trickle of an excuse for a creek, until the fall rains come.

I thought Naturama was harmlessly cute, but it didn't really strike my fancy.

[#100 :]

So I just got the Volume 7 DVD and finally got around to watching the rest of the season (or some of it)...

This episode wasn't bad. Not bad at all. Which...is saying a lot for the rest of the season, unfortunately. I thought it was well organized, didn't feel rushed at all, and I enjoyed the incorporation of several regular secondary characters into the plots (and recycling of old lines like Bender's 'Let's go already!' . I can't really think of a bad part of this other than it being like a fanfic out of canon like Reincarnation, which I won't hold against it because you figure that's what it is going into it...so in the regards, I'm leaning toward probably a strong 9. 

[#101 :]

Something that bugged me upon re-watching this episode:

Salmon Hedonismbot's mouth lights up when he talks like in the normal version of the show, but Salmon Bender's behaves like a human's mouth. Shouldn't Salmon Bender's mouth act in it's normal robotic form like Salmon Hedonismbot's?

[#102 :]

Oh god, an inconsistency in Naturama?! THE SHOW IS RUINED.

[#103 :]

Random trivia about this episode taken from the audio commentary:

Brrr was originally called Grrr, as in "Grizzly Bear".

[#104 :]

I quite liked this episode. In my opinion, many of the 7A episodes were funny but weird; this episode strikes me as weird yet charming, which is better.

I agree with the general consensus that the first act was the strongest and the second act was the weakest. However, just to show this segment some love, I will say that I found the finches to be delightfully hilarious when they jumped around emphatically while talking to Professor Tortoise.

My main gripe for this episode would be that all three segments were about sea/sea-and-land creatures and their mating rituals. Way too similar in concept. Nature is seemingly endless. Why not explore a tiger's hunting trials and triumphs in the jungle? Or something about a marsupial trying to evade its predator in the Australian outback? Or prey/predator insect battles? They could have explored three vastly different stories here, and yet they chose to explore three similar stories.

I must commend the writers for taking a risk on this episode and going in a completely different route. The narrator's performance was spot-on. So dry, sarcastic, and dark, all while maintaining the feel of an actual nature documentary's voiceover. And the visuals were stunning. Wow.

[#105 :]

I definitely feel like Naturama garners a lot of unwarranted flak. Obviously it's not one the show's best episodes, but it honestly does a fine job of being exactly what it set out to be: a weird parody of nature documentaries. I can't really name anything particularly wrong with the episode, but at the same it time I can see why the far-fetched nature (hehe) turns some people off.

[#106 :]

My main gripe for this episode would be that all three segments were about sea/sea-and-land creatures and their mating rituals. Way too similar in concept. Nature is seemingly endless. Why not explore a tiger's hunting trials and triumphs in the jungle? Or something about a marsupial trying to evade its predator in the Australian outback? Or prey/predator insect battles? They could have explored three vastly different stories here, and yet they chose to explore three similar stories.

This is my primary gripe with the episode, too.

Well, that and it's not very funny.