Cinematical

Long before I was a writer for this fine online publication, I was an avid reader of both Cinematical and TV Squad. One of the things that made me very jealous about TVS (aside from the fact that all their writers are more talented than I am) was that they got to write about two series I'm very passionate about: The phenomenally brilliant Arrested Development and the hilariously geeky Futurama. And now that the latter series is about to make the leap into movie-ville, that means that now *I* get to write about it! As Tobias Funke would say: Huzzah!

Granted, the four Futurama movies are being produced directly for the DVD marketplace, but with Matt Groening and all of his original producers / writers / cast members on hand, I predict that these animated flicks will prove to be a real gold mine for the old-school Planet Express fans. While browsing through my bible I came across some info that might not be brand-new to the die-hard Futurama freaks -- but it was the first I heard about it, so I got all excited and logged in to Cinematical to start sharing the nerdiness.

According to the IMDb, the Futurama movies are called Bender's Big Score!, Bender's Game, Into the Wild Green Yonder and The Beast with a Billion Backs. Aside from those titles, that's about all the info that the IMDb has to impart. But being a longtime and unquestioning supporter of The Hypnotoad, I'm of course very familiar with the excellent fansite called CGEF.com. If you need a website to bookmark and refresh constantly in an effort to learn the latest on these Futurama movies, I highly recommend the CGEF.

Anyway, their news bin informs us of the following: Actress Lauren Tom told IGN that the voice-work on all four movies is done. (Apparently the movies will also break down into 16 episodes for Cartoon Network Comedy Central, which is just fine by me. Just give me the DVD versions!) A little more poking around yields the news that the first flick (Bender's Big Score!) will be in DVD stores before the end of the year with the others to follow in short order throughout 2008. Awesome. (And really, if you've never seen Futurama and you're wondering why I'm this psyched about the new flicks, just do yourself a favor and buy / rent the first two seasons. And then the second two. And then you won't wonder anymore.)