Naturama
← Previous | Navigation in production order | Next → |
---|
← Previous | Navigation in broadcast order | Next → |
---|
Season 7 episode Broadcast season 9 episode | |||||||||
Naturama | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No. | 127 | ||||||||
Production number | 7ACV13 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Directed by | Crystal Chesney-Thompson | ||||||||
Title caption | Tell Your Parents It's Educational | ||||||||
First air date | 29 August 2012 | ||||||||
Broadcast number | S09E13 | ||||||||
Sponsor | Mutual of Omicron | ||||||||
Additional | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Season 7 | |||||||||
|
"Naturama" is the one hundred and twenty-seventh episode of Futurama, the thirteenth of the seventh production season and the thirteenth and last of the ninth broadcast season. It is the fifth segmented episode. It aired on 29 August 2012, on Comedy Central. The crew are re-imagined as wild animals in a nature documentary.
Plot
Production
On 8 November 2011, Eric Rogers revealed that this was the day of the table read of the episode,[1] that the episode had been co-written by him[1] and that the episode would air August 2012,[2] also saying, "Different kind of story this time, but funny as ever!"[1] On 11 November 2011, Phil LaMarr revealed that this was the day of the recording of the episode.[3] On 29 February 2012, CGEF revealed the episode's title, its other writers to be Michael Saikin and Neil Mukhopadhyay and its director to be Crystal Chesney-Thompson.[4][5] On 31 May 2012, the website Zap2it published an article in which Matt Groening revealed that "[that] year [the production team was] calling [their] little trilogy the "Saturday Morning Fun Pit"" [6] - suggesting that "Naturama" had been renamed. On 10 July, MSN TV updated their Futurama episode guide, revealing the episode's plot.[7] The same day, Zap2it released a TV listing of Futurama which showed the same information about the episode.[8]
On 12 July, following the broadcast of the episode "Zapp Dingbat", the public were given the opportunity to participate in a live chat with the Futurama cast and crew. Several clips of "Naturama" were shown during the live stream.[9]
Image gallery
A screenshot from the episode shown during the live stream, showing Professor Farnsworth and Mom reimagined as tortoises.
A screenshot from the episode shown during the live stream, showing Zoidberg reimagined as a squid.
Reception
This episode was named #18 on IGN's list of top 25 Futurama episodes.
Additional information
Trivia
- Aired as a one hour event with "31st Century Fox". Incidently, an episode dealing with animal rights.
- The song that plays over the montage of Salmon Fry and Salmon Leela spending time with each other in the segment "The Salmon" is Sea of Love by The Honeydrippers.
- This marks Nibbler's only appearance in the first half of Season 7, but he is in the form of a fish and is only briefly seen.
- Strangely, Nibbler was introduced in an episode that both revolved around endangered species and Zapp Brannigan trying to get with Leela.
- The episode was dedicated to Lonesome George, the last remaining Pinta Island Tortoise, who died on 24 June 2012.
- This is the third episode to feature an alternate opening sequence, after Into the Wild Green Yonder and "Viva Mars Vegas". It is also the only episode to feature original animation in place of a reference or sample of other animation.
- Just like "The Futurama Holiday Spectacular", the episode is structured into three disjointed (though relevant) vignettes and at the end of the episode Earth is destroyed.
- Salmon-Hermes gets decapitated, similar to how Hermes gets decapitated in Bender's Big Score.
- This episode does however have a centralized theme across the three segments as does "Reincarnation" and mildly uses a framing story as does "Anthology of Interest I" and "Anthology of Interest II".
- Each story plays off one of the various relationships seen on Futurama. The first segment expands the Fry-Leela relationship alongside Zapp Brannigan's constant attempts at Leela. The second segment expands the on-again/off-again relationship of Farnsworth and Mom as well as the paternity of her children (though the Professor is only the father of one of her kids). Finally the third segment expands the relationship of Kif with Amy and could even briefly hint at the fling she had with Bender.
- Interestingly, Kif and Amy are the only official couple and were the only ones not to produce children in their segment.
- A bone vampire like Mr. Peppy is seen in the opening credits of the framing show. This is interesting as in "Fry Am the Egg Man", where he was introduced, he was an endangered species which is part of this episode's subject matter.
- Salmon Fry shouts 'Help! Fish Police', referencing Fry's catchphrase and the comic-book series and TV series Fish Police.
- The characters only appear as animals, making this one of three episodes in which none of the main characters appear, the others being "Reincarnation" and "Saturday Morning Fun Pit".
- The audio commentary reveals that Brrr was originally called Grrr, as in "Grizzly Bear".
- This is the only episode or comic of Futurama to not feature New New York since "Where the Buggalo Roam".
Allusions
- Click here to see cultural mentions made in this episode.
- The narrator is designed after Morgan Freeman and references his narration of March of the Penguins.
- Mutual of Omicron is a reference to Mutual of Omaha, and the alternate opening of the episode mimics the opening of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.
- "Lonesome Hubert" is a reference to Lonesome George, the last known Pinta Island tortoise, who died two months before the episode aired.
- A Facehugger jumps from an egg and attaches itself to someone in a space suit in the Mutual of Omicron opening, a reference to the Alien franchise.
- Fish-Fry and Fish-Leela meet in a kiss while consuming opposite ends of an eel in reference to Lady and the Tramp.
- During the salmon segment, fish-Zapp asks fish-Leela her sign, and she says "Pisces. We're all Pisces." Pisces is, of course, an astrological sign represented by two fish, and the word "Pisces" is the plural of "piscis", Latin for "fish".
- Tortoise-Mom, while fighting the rock mistaken for another tortoise, shouts "This volcanic archipelago isn't big enough for the two of us". This a reference to the otfen-quoted line, "...this town isn't big enough for the both of us..." from the 1932 movie The Western Code.
Goofs
- Salmon-Scruffy is seen several minutes after being eaten by Lobster-Zoidberg.
- During the camera pan from the new born seal cubs to their fathers, the Elephant Seal-Fry is missing pupils for several seconds.
- During the Pinta Island tortoise segment, as Lonesome Hubert is traveling to the far side of the island, he and the finches hear an owl and Lonesome Hubert retreats into his shell. However, as he later says, he would have no reason to fear the owl, as the tortoise has "no natural predators".
- Salmon-Hedonismbot's mouth lights up like his canon-counterpart's mouth, but Salmon-Bender's mouth behaves like a regular human mouth, whereas it should remain closed and have two moving lines.
Appearances
Characters
Miscellaneous
- A Bone Vampire
- Futurama (mentioned in speech only)
- "Help! Police!"
- "I am Lrrr"
- "Kill all humans"
- "Let's go already!"
References
- ^ a b c Eric Rogers (08 November 2011). Kitchelfilms. (Twitter.) Retrieved on 08 November 2011.
- ^ Eric Rogers (08 November 2011). Kitchelfilms. (Twitter.) Retrieved on 09 November 2011.
- ^ Phil LaMarr (11 November 2011). phillamarr. (Twitter.) Retrieved on 12 November 2011.
- ^ Episode Guide: 7 ACV. (CGEF.) 29 February 2012. Retrieved on 29 February 2012.
- ^ "Just Fan" (29 February 2012). "Futurama: Futurama News (pre-season 7)". (PEEL.) Retrieved on 29 February 2012.
- ^ Rick Porter (31 May 2012). 'Futurama' Season 7: Matt Groening teases an election, Fry and Leela and more. (Zap2it.) Retrieved on 05 June 2012.
- ^ Futurama - Episode Guide. (MSN TV.) Retrieved on 12 July 2012.
- ^ Futurama : Viva Mars Vegas; Naturama. (Zap2It.) Retrieved on 10 July 2024.
- ^ "Tastes Like Fry" (12 July 2012). "Newsarama! (Futurama News Thread)" (page 1). (PEEL.) Retrieved on 13 July 2012.