Animation Blog

Futurama is a cartoon animation series which has illustrations which look eerily similar to The Simpsons. Don’t worry this is not some lousy rip-off; in fact, this is the virtues of the brand of the creator of The Simpsons, Matt Groening, who co-created Futurama along with David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Network.

Futurama centers on the story of Philip J. Fry who was accidentally frozen cryogenically before the onset of the year 2000. He reawakened on New Year’s Eve of the year 2999. In the new timeline, Fry gets a job as a cargo delivery boy for Planet Express. Futurama shows us the interaction of the various characters in Fry’s workplace.

Viewers are taken to the city of “New New York” which is technologically advanced and perched atop the ruins of “Old New York.” The problems of today are magnified in the future and yet made to appear as a normal part of society – a few examples are global warming, corrupt bureaucracies and substance abuse.

Also as a way to stay track of current events and to give commentaries and critique of today’s celebrity, the show invented the concept of keeping heads of people alive in jars. Also, the Internet was depicted as a far-reaching virtual world of its own on top of the real world – but it has the problems of today such as pornography, pop-up ads and dirty chat rooms. Moreover, television has not been supplanted as the primary form of entertainment. This is ironic as the wheel is already an obsolete design and the mode of transportation has been dominantly hover cars and transport tubes.

As far as the environment is concerned, animals have not been totally eradicated. The rat has been supplanted as a common pest by owls – and grotesque and mutated beings are also present and mingling with people together with self-aware robots. Greenhouse gases are still a problem but the World has been trying to counter by harvesting a giant ice cube which dropped from space.

Futurama depicts the future as without cultural boundaries – in an exaggerated form in fact because humans co-exist with robots and mutants. However, there are still the social problems and prejudices of today such as sewer mutants being required by law to live in the sewers.

Philip Fry is voiced by the versatile voice actor Billy West. The difference of the present world and the future world is seen through his perspective. Joining Fry is the one-eyed Planet Express captain Leela who serves as her love interest in the show. She is first portrayed as an alien but eventually discovers that she is a mutated human from the sewers.

Here are the rest of the major characters of Futurama:

- Bender Bending Rodriguez (John DiMaggio)

Bender is a heavy drinking, cigar-smoking, kleptomaniacal, misanthropic, egocentric, ill-tempered robot. Though originally programmed to bend girders for suicide booths, and later designated ship’s cook, by the time of Bender’s Big Score, he has become assistant sales manager of Planet Express. He is Fry’s best friend and roommate. He is also known to have deep desires to be a folk singer and a chef. He was built in Mexico. His serial number, 2716057, is expressible as the sum of two cubes.

- Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth (Billy West)

Over 160 years old, Professor Hubert Farnsworth is Fry’s distant nephew and closest living relative. Farnsworth founded Planet Express to fund his mad scientist experiments and inventions. He clones himself to create a successor, Cubert Farnsworth, whom he treats like a son.

- Dr. John A. Zoidberg (Billy West)

Zoidberg is a lobster-like alien from the planet Decapod 10 and is the neurotic staff physician of Planet Express. Although he claims to be an expert on humans, his knowledge of human anatomy and physiology is woefully inadequate. Zoidberg is homeless, penniless, and despite being depicted as Professor Farnsworth’s long-term friend, held in contempt by everyone on the crew, except Fry.

- Amy Wong (Lauren Tom)

Amy is an incredibly rich, blunt, spoiled and extremely accident-prone long-term intern at Planet Express. She is an engineering student at Mars University and heiress to the western hemisphere of Mars. Though born on Mars, she is ethnically Chinese and is prone to cursing in Cantonese and using 31st century slang. Her parents are the wealthy ranchers Leo and Inez Wong. Although initially portrayed as somewhat promiscuous, she eventually develops a lasting monogamous relationship with Kif Kroker.

Sadly, the show was cancelled in 2003 after Fox stopped production of the show. It found a new home on the Adult Swim block of Cartoon Network as reruns from 2004 to 2007. Presently, it is being revived as four direct-to-DVD films (Bender’s Big Score, The Beast With a Billion Backs, Bender’s Game, and Into the Wild Green Yonder) so let’s see how if it performs and if it works out a la Family Guy.

Here are snippets of the show intros of Futurama throughout the years: