Thoughts on [4ACV09] - Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles

[on:]

The usual review thread for "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles". No spoiling before it airs. No reading on if you don't want to be spoiled, either.

Some moderator will hopefully open the thread once it's time for that.

[Reply #1 on:]

I can't believe no one opened this yet.

Well, I'm not much on reveiews, so I'll give it 4 stars out of five and open it up to the rest of you.

[Reply #2 on:]

Let me get this out of my system first: OH . . . MY . . . GOD!!!! A Nor-type spacestation!!  This episode just went from great to outstanding, I’ll give it 10/10 for that shot alone. 

There I feel much better now. We now return to our usual schedule.

Great episode. The Zoidberg larva stages alone had we rolling on the floor several times. Each more hillarious than the next, and good timing as well.

Lots of good old-people-jokes, and watching Farnsworth de-age was a hoot, particular the afro and hippie stages. I know I’ve driven behind a Farnsworth driver a few times.

The crew as teenagers was good and very cute. Ah to be young again, and in love. Fry and Leela’s date, and the resulting boat-race was amazing. Great animation in that one. And unlike “Less Than Hero” Leela’s parents were great in this episode. That’s how I want them to be used, not the pathetic, chronically depressed nitwits in LTH, but just plain, old, weird mutants.

All the little PEE’rs was great, although I have a feeling Kryten wont like the fatty-fat-fat Amy, much like her parents.

I’ll give this episode a 4 on the vote thingy. I would for the DS9 reference alone, but the episode itself merrits a 4 as well.

[Reply #3 on:]

Great episode, I like it!      

[Reply #4 on:]

It was hilarious.  I liked the returning reference to the time-altering cronitons from "time keeps slippin", and I found how zoidberg's larva stages were basically earlier forms of sea life hilarious (especially the part when one of his "childern" fell into the fountain of aging).  Leela's parents not being strict enough was great as was the professor which is no suprise. The ending with Zuzu was also cool

9.5/10

honestly I didn't think it would air today after FOX replaced the voice clip about an upcoming Futurama with one advertising The Pitts

[Reply #5 on:]

It was kinda slow in the beginning, but quickly picked up. It was funny and VERY creative. It reminded me of the time I used to spit spitballs at people. I loved the Rebel With a Cause parody. The only problem I had with the ep was Fry and his cracky voice. I mean, did his voice have to crack everytime he opened his mouth?! Even the ending was good!

[Reply #6 on:]

DEFINATELY the best episode of this season sooo far!!!  Although we are supposed to get some really good ones soon.  This episode is like growing on me soooo fast, its like my favorite episode of the week.  My whole family loved this episode.  AND you thought Futurama was slowing down after that superhero episode.  I mean it I LOVE THIS EPISODE.  I really liked the sewer race, but the whole episode was funny...  "GO AHEAD, the door is right there!" Bender,"I'll be good"... HEHEHEHE  Actually Fox was funny all night long...  I swear I was laughing allll night long! But FUTURAMA made it all that better!

[Reply #7 on:]

yeah best ep of the season so far

[Reply #8 on:]

The absolutely most bizzare 30 minutes of television I've seen in my life.  Also one of the most hilarious.  Blowing up a similar-to-but-legally-distinct-from-DS9, zoidberg's larva stages, Zoidberg's brother, etc.  Definitely makes the Top Ten.

[Reply #9 on:]

This was a wonderful episode. Despite being a little...strange (i.e. the dragon, Fry and Leela dating as teens), this episode was funny all the while. Much better than "Less Than Hero" and I'm suprised to see Leela's parents twice in a row. 5/5

[Reply #10 on:]

Was I the only one expecting zoidberg's sibling (I knew they wouldn't really kill him!) to go through a new stage AFTER the familiar zoidberg one? I feel it was a missed oppurtunity for a great gag. Another of those little "secret facts" about the characters. I was expecting him to change into something either huge and horrifying or confusingly bizarre just before dying.

The actual life cycle was Coral(or possibly a sponge)> Water hydra> Sea Urchin> Anglerfish> Lamprey> Clam> Isopod/trilobite-like crustacean> Cuttlefish> good ol' squidlobsterman. It actually really didn't exactly go down the evolutionary chain, since two types of vertebrate fish (the angler and lamprey) were lower stages than the invertebrate Zoidberg and other simpler creatures. 

The antenna ears on Bender was a cute reference to his original designs, as was Hermes' younger hairdo. I loved Zuzu the gargoyle, and the other Mutant Teens, Moose and the scaly eyestalked girl, were interesting. I love seeing the various creative mutants. Did the one consisting of just a leg show up anywhere in the background?

RNA=Robot dna? I always get a huge kick out of the show's deliberately preposterous science, a nod to all the impossible ways things get explained away in more serious science fiction.

[Reply #11 on:]

 

Originally posted by Scythemantis:
Was I the only one expecting zoidberg's sibling (I knew they wouldn't really kill him!) to go through a new stage AFTER the familiar zoidberg one?

Nah, they already showed an old Decapodian - Harold Zoid.

[Reply #12 on:]

Very funny episode - if strange.  Digged the DS9 shot 

At the beginning I was pretty much like "Huh?", like a person from under the red sun, but it improved as the show went on.  I still think it could have been executed better - there were a lot of wasted opportunities for "teen" jokes, but nonetheless a good episode.

9/10

[Reply #13 on:]

Great episode!  The professor was hilarious, both when he was old ("Damn good meat!" ) and young (all the 70s and 60s verisons of the professor). The Fry/Leela dating scene was cute and baby Bender was adorable.  Also, I was cracking up at the scene with Amy back with her family. Can't actually remember the quote from heart, though.

Four out of five stars, or whatever the rating system is.

[Reply #14 on:]

This was a good ep. Had me laughing right from the start, when P'zuzu shit in the Professor's face. Once again there was alot going on and it felt cluttered and hurried.  That's ok though, because it was so funny.  The various stages of the Professor and Zoidberg were priceless.

Fry: "Eww, you smell like smoking and drinking"
Farnsworth: "I had a few beers, but I'm cool to drive" 

Full points for destroying that annoying DS-9 station.

All in all.  An above average ep. 8/10

[Reply #15 on:]

There were plenty of teen jokes. Trust me, I'm a teen, and seeing more would have just been plain annoying.

And isn't it "Dug"? I don't think "digged" is valid English. Of course, neither is the use of "dig" to show approval or affection, so you can just completely ignore me now.

Despite, there were beautiful one-liners - especially the Professor's 70s talk. To hear that old voice talk 70s is one of the funniest moments in Futurama. Doesn't replace "A Pharoah to Remember"'s "You are now slaves to the great Pharoah Hamenthotep!" sequence as the funniest set of lines, but it comes close. Oh, and Zoidberg dying but not dying: it was quite creative and leavened the scene.
8.7/10

[Reply #16 on:]

 

Originally posted by Nixorbo:
 Nah, they already showed an old Decapodian - Harold Zoid.

They sacrifice consistency for humor quite often though, and it wouldn't be all that far-fetched to say they change into something after growing elderly. Then again, they also could have added a "surprise" when he was still shifting rapidly back through the larval stages. A lot of time passed in the actual episode between some of his transformations... I dunno, I was just expecting them to slip in binky from life in hell or something   

[Reply #17 on:]

i loved the whole Leela/parents interaction thing. It was great.

Munda:  ok, your the boss.
Leela:  no i'm noooottttt!!!         

and just how cute was the Leela/Fry dating scene? The 'awwww' factor was right up there.
Not that there are a lot of other options or anything but this ep was my fav of the McSeason

[Reply #18 on:]

Excellent ep.
I love the sequence where Farnsworth is driving. Okay, I'll admit it: I'm a Trekkist (please dont hate me!), but the scene where Farnsworth inadvertantly destroys the DS-9 SS lookalike had me laughing out loud.
I think Leela's parents wer dealt with much better in this ep than LTH.
The adolescent interaction between Fry & Leela was good for the 'aw' factor.
Leela sneaking out to join her friends, after insisting she be grounded for wrecking the high-school, had me actually saying, "Now there's the Leela we know!"
I repeat for emphasis: Excellent ep!
4.75/5

Also:
Did anyone else notice El Chupanebre (sp?) in the scene where the Leela & Fry, and Moose & the eye-stalked girl are racing past the movie theater?
 

[Reply #19 on:]

wow I'm first who rated ep on PEEL!!! 

[Reply #20 on:]

Wow...wonderful episode.     Munda and Morris were great as parents ("No beer til you finish your tequilla!" ) and seeing the crew as kids was hilarious.  Zoidberg's constant shape-shifting was a riot especially.  Leela and Fry dating was cute, though I'm wondering why suddenly becoming a teenager made her agree to go out with him.  Anyway, there were several "Aw" moments between them in the episode, which makes for one very happy LFR.     I'd say it's one of the best of the season, though "Less Than Hero" still holds a special place in my heart (Perhaps because I've been into superhero stories as of late).  I've also never seen Star Trek, save for one episode of Enterprise that I only half-watched, so I didn't laugh at the Professor's driving the way others did.  I give it a 9/10.

Favorite quote: "Whatever you're really doing, make sure you're home by midnight."

EDIT: Did you notice the failure of cartoon acoustics in the scene where Leela decides to remain a kid?

[Reply #21 on:]

His driving wasn't the star trek reference...the space station he blew up was the station "star trek: deep space nine" took place on. I'm not a big trek fan either, but I found it funny 

[Reply #22 on:]

I missed the reference to DS9, that's been off the air awhile (though I guess it was onscreen when they wrote this ep).  Best ep of the year, though like Less Than Hero I feel they were in a hurry to tell a complex story and fit it all it in 22 minutes.  Less Than Hero would have been a better ep (though it was very good) if they had 44 minutes to explore what it would be for Fry and Leela to have superpowers, as it was it felt rushed, especially the ending. 
I am sorry FOX has decided to continue showing these eps, it's over, everyone should just forget about it, they should have replaced it with a rerun of When Fish Attack at the last minute.  Fans of this show should learn who is in charge.  Yep, guess I'll write a letter telling them I support their treatment of Futurama fans, send it out to them tomorrow.

[Reply #23 on:]

Funny episode.  It wasn't the best one ever, but I can't complain because it seems like a miracle that there actually was a new episode.

(Are there any casual Futurama viewers?  Usually, even if you don't watch a show regularly you know it's there.  But Futurama is so infrequent... when it came on tonight, I wondered if a bunch of people were saying, "Hey, I thought this was cancelled years ago!" )

Leela's parents were presented so seriously in "Leela's Homeworld" that it seemed odd for them to now be comic characters like everyone else.

What was the Professor's line about the moose?  There was some gag but I didn't catch it.

   

Originally posted by Scythemantis:
The actual life cycle was Coral(or possibly a sponge)> Water hydra> Sea Urchin> Anglerfish> Lamprey> Clam> Isopod/trilobite-like crustacean> Cuttlefish> good ol' squidlobsterman.

He was a starfish between the hydra (I thought it was a tube worm) and the sea urchin.  He's like that on the ship when the kids are playing with Bender's parts.

   

Originally posted by BumbleBeeTheta:
Leela and Fry dating was cute, though I'm wondering why suddenly becoming a teenager made her agree to go out with him.

I thought it was just another typical teenage thing she wanted to do.  But even if it wasn't a real date, she was still willing to do it with him.  (I liked her outfit.)

The Professor's clothes somehow got younger with him to match his age.  Leela's hair became shorter when she got younger, and her shirt, er, didn't fit as well.

At the end, Leela says she's still a few years younger.  I always assumed she was a few years older than Fry, so if that's right, they're now about the same age.

Does anyone have any idea what the ending meant?

[Reply #24 on:]

 

Originally posted by BumbleBeeTheta:
EDIT: Did you notice the failure of cartoon acoustics in the scene where Leela decides to remain a kid?

Say what?

[Reply #25 on:]

It was a great ep. Fry's voice changing tones (can't come up with the english word for that period), Zoidberg's different stages and the professor. Just great..

[Reply #26 on:]

 

Originally posted by Action Jacktion:

Are there any casual Futurama viewers?

Yes, but they all watch the show on Cartoon Network.  Seriously, its getting harder to remember to watch the show since there have been so few new episodes this season

 

Originally posted by Nero:
Fry's voice changing tones (can't come up with the english word for that period)

Its puberty

[Reply #27 on:]

 

I always assumed she was a few years older than Fry, so if that's right,

I'm afraid that's wrong. IIRC, they're both around 25 in 3000.

[Reply #28 on:]

Best episode EVER!
( nothing to do with my last name being bonnevie  )

[Reply #29 on:]

I really love this episode. It?s adorable and cute. I do love Fry?s voice when he was a teen and the ears and braces on Bender makes him look even cuter especially when he was an infant and a baby awwww. Hermes and Amy where cute as kids too and I like the fat teen Amy.

The Fry and Leela date was cute and Farnsworth was very funny and cool when he was young. I like the hippy version of him. I didn?t like Zoidberg changing I find that boring. But I do like to bit where his brother dies. I don?t get that gargoyle bit at the end.

[Reply #30 on:]

"bonnevie to you all."
bonnevie means good life.

[Reply #31 on:]

Aww sweet

[Reply #32 on:]

 

Originally posted by HDC:I'm afraid that's wrong. IIRC, they're both around 25 in 3000.

In one episode she says "I don't want to die at twenty-five" but Bender says "Unless we hit a time warp, I don't think that's going to happen."  The only time the show comes close to giving her age is "Leela's Homeworld," and that just says she's in her 20s.  Of course, she's more mature than Fry so it's natural to assume she's older, but it's not necessarily true.

[Reply #33 on:]

Brilliant.

Pubescent Fry was even funnier than normal Fry.  His awkwardness around the teenage Leela was too funny (I, of course, was never that awkward around girls ;-)

Zoidy played a great supporting role in this episode as well.  I loved the way his siblings were spawning off him.  His larval stages were extremely well done.

9.5 / 10

[Reply #34 on:]

I really enjoyed this episode.

Amy becoming a fat kid again... HAHA!

[Reply #35 on:]

 

In one episode she says "I don't want to die at twenty-five" but Bender says "Unless we hit a time warp, I don't think that's going to happen."

I personally don't think that she's lying here. Anyway, that Bender's quote seem to be even less reliable source of information about her age 

[Reply #36 on:]

Great episode. It was funny throughout and had plenty of great jokes. The Fry/Leela date was very funny aswell as Fry's voice.
I gave it 4/4 and it's one of the best episodes so far.

[Reply #37 on:]

I'm sure it was outstanding, but I'll be sure later on! 

[Reply #38 on:]

 

Originally posted by Action Jacktion:
What was the Professor's line about the moose?  There was some gag but I didn't catch it.

The Professor has a giant moose head mounted on his wall, and the kid's name was Moose.  The professor said he wanted to "meet this Moose" as he stroked the antlers of the mounted moose head. 

I think you can go it alone from there.

[Reply #39 on:]

 

Originally posted by dubdub:
"bonnevie to you all."
bonnevie means good life.

He said bonne nuit, which means good night