Synopsis
The complete set of episodes from the second season, with our 20th-Century hero nowrelatively well adapted to life in the far-flung future. The characters by this point are wellestablished and a fairly broad ensemble. The series has never struck me as being quite as funnyas the The Simpsons in their prime, but there is still lots of choice material.
Audio
The audio is a 2.0 mix. This is pretty common for TV discs, though it is certainly notnecessary… and there are plenty of counterexamples out there (the recent NYPD Blue release isjust one). In any event, the sound is very clear, with no distortion on music or dialogue. Thesurround effects are almost entirely limited to the music (this too is pretty common withcartoons), and there are very few sound effects that make it to the rear speakers.
Video
While sound is often far from spectacular with TV cartoons on disc, the picture quality isusually very good, and Futurama is no exception. The colours are brilliant, as goofily primaryas you could hope. The image is razor-sharp, and there is no grain, speckling, pixellation, orother flaws. A first-class transfer.
Special Features
Every single episode has a commentary track. That’s right. Every one. That should keep yougoing for a while. Matt Groening is the unifying voice on the tracks, and he presides over around table with a raft of other creators and cast members. The result, though not uninformative,does fall prey to a frequent problem when you have a good half-dozen people all participatingat the same time, and that is a lot a silly, trivial discussion. Still, there is so much commentaryhere that these folks can’t be expected to be on-topic all the time. The other extras consist of 15deleted scenes from individual episodes, an animatic for “Why Must I Be a Crustacean inLove?”, a still gallery, and the video game trailer. The menu’s main page and intro are animatedand scored.
Closing Thoughts
A solid package, and I particularly salute the time it took to provide commentary for an entireseason.
Special Features List
- Audio Commentary for All Episodes
- 15 Deleted Scenes
- Animatic
- Still Gallery
- Video Game Trailer
- Easter Eggs
