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THE STUDIO GATE

All right humans, Bender's back on the screen and you better hide your liquor!

“Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder" is now available on Blu-ray.

An offshoot of Matt Groening's imaginative mind, "Futurama" was always a fun show to watch. After the show ran its course on the Fox network, the "Futurama" crew went to work on series of feature-length movies. "Into the Wild Green Yonder" is a fun one. It's as though the crew of Planet Express, and their human creators, haven't missed a beat.

The show was always funny, but not as funny at Groening's other famous creation, "The Simpsons." While watching episodes of "Futurama," I've never laughed so hard as to make my belly ache. Yet, the show won me over with its sly references to sci-fi and sci-fi movies. The main characters have also been enjoyable. Fry isn't the most fascinating character ever to grace the television screen, but thankfully the rest of the cast rounds him out.

"Into the Wild Green Yonder" focuses on the demolition of Mars Vegas and the expansion of a giant space miniature golf course. Bender gets involved with the Donbot's wife, and Leela joins a fringe group of environmentalist women. The plot seems absurd, but it's not and it's also quite fun. Oh, and Snoop Dogg is the head judge in a court. Yeah, you have to see it to see what I'm talking about.

This is a Blu-ray reference disc, in my opinion. The picture quality is superb, though going from a digitally produced animated show helps. Everything is crystal clear in the picture department. The color scheme is bright.

Sound quality comes via DTS-MA and it sounds excellent. The soundtrack does get loud in passages, but it's all mixed very well. It's kind of fun listening to the "Futurama" theme in high quality sound.

So yeah, "Futurama" geeks, it's back and still rocks the universe. Forgive the rudeness of my review. Bender found some kind of machine that transmits his thoughts into my head. Rude robot!     

Bill Kallay

Special thanks to Click Communications

Photos: © 20th Century Fox. All rights reserved.