The second season of FUTURAMA, Matt Groening's Emmy-Award-winning JETSONS-meets-SIMPSONS satire of pop culture hits DVD shelves on Aug. 12, 2003 (Fox Home Entertainment, $49.98). Life among the beer-fueled robots in the year 30003, starring Bender, Fry, Leela and Nibbler, was vastly improved the second time around, according to many fans. And the digital animation was better too. Termed "a brilliant, hilarious reflection of our own materially (ridiculously) overdeveloped but morally underdeveloped society" by its creators, the second season features all 19 episodes plus deleted scenes, Easter eggs, animatics, storyboards and commentary.
Highlights include: "I Second That Emotion" (Bender gets an empathy chip installed), "Anthology of Interest I: (Al Gore, Stephen Hawking and Nichelle Nichols join forces to help Fry in a nightmarish "what if" scenario); and "Xmas Story" (Santa Claus becomes an eight-foot robot who terrorizes people on Christmas Eve).
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
