Airdate: May 21st, 2000
On October 25th, 1990, a TV showed featured two siblings (and their baby sister) gathering in a treehouse to tell the darkest, and yet funniest, tales of terror. The elder brother regaled two stories about a haunted house and an alien invasion. The younger sister recited one of the great horror poems of antebellum America.
Thus, The Simpsons made a mark on animation history. The "three shorts" episodes became more acceptable for adult-targeted animated shows to execute, albeit one restrained to an annual basis. However, and correct me if I'm wrong, but it would be The Simpsons sister show that sealed the deal for this being a trope in the "adult-targeted animation" genre.
The first "Anthology of Interest" (and, by the way, no matter what the name, the three shorts episodes are all getting the "Anthology of Interest" tag) is framed by the Professor's introduction of his device - the "Fing-Long-er". He uses it to turn on the "What-If Machine" - a screen that generates alternate realities. The main trio all get a chance to see their alternate realities.
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| "Let's watch, shall we..." |
(Warning: Spoilers Ahead)
First up, Bender. Feeling insecure about his robotic life amongst humans, he wonders... what if he was 500 feet tall???
First Segment: Terror at 500 Feet
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| Iron Giant, this is not. |
To analyze Bender's first line as deeply as I did might be a symptom of some form of insanity. He seems to regret his robotic-ness, feeling that he got the short hand of the stick. We got a hint of this in "Fear of a Bot Planet", but it does shed some light onto possible self-loathing, as well as maybe a hint of anti-Robot discrimination of some kind. Or, more likely, I'm just reading too much into a line from a non-canon episode.
Besides, it's the segment itself that counts, and it is hysterical. Take the two most beloved characters in the Futurama canon, sitting on opposite sides of the moral compass, and put them in a battle to the death. It is epic and hilarious. Not a while lot more needs to be said. The ending twist also subverts the "Gentle Giant" cliche to a hysterical level.
One thing I did find interesting is how Zoidberg, as soon as he becomes taller, goes mad with power - wrecking the city up, targeting those that wronged him ("Deny my credit card application, will you?") While the "Anthology of Interest" episodes are non-canon, this could be a sign of Zoidberg's (completely understandable) dislike of his lot in life. Again, might be reading too much into that line, but still.
There are a couple of small animation nitpicks, and I do have a few questions about continuity. Overall, though, this was a fun first segment.
Score: 8. (More for the aforementioned nitpicks. I know - I'm very strict with my grading.)
After this, Leela's hesitation about asking a question to the machine leads to the others chiding her for her conservative nature. Frustrated, Leela wonders what her life would be like had she been more impulsive... just a little.
Second Segment: Dial "L" For Leela
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| 1100 Watts of Impulse. |
I mentioned in my review of "Love's Labours Lost In Space" that Leela was, in effect, a parody of Star Trek's Captain Jean-Luc Picard - levelheaded and by the book. Since Futurama runs on comedy, some tend to think of Leela as overtly levelheaded, even boring. While her character is more complex than that, it is true that she is the least impulsive of the characters. Removing her sense of restraint in this segment, we get a look at how low she can go - a murder spree, damn it. In effect, while she isn't completely unimpulsive in the show proper, her more grounded measure does serve as a great balance to the childish and impulsive Fry and Bender.
Besides that, the entire murder mystery, while a bit cheesy, is also fun, and by extension, hilarious. I just love how the character's reactions range from "blackmail to keep silent" (Bender), to apathy at how idiotic Zoidberg's investigation is (Cubert, who winds up on the wrong end of a sword). And the ending, where Leela resorts to bribing Fry to keep him silent, is utterly flawless.
I'll get to the dialogue in this episode in a bit, but the one flaw this segment has is that the dialogue just feels a bit clunkier than the other two. Again, I'll elaborate a bit later, but it's a minor flaw in an otherwise brilliant segment.
Score: 8.5
Fry then goes up to bat. His original idea on wanting to see 500-foot Bender again being turfed, Fry proceeds to wonder what would happen if he didn't enter "the freezer-doodle" and come to the "future-jiggy".
Segment Three: The Un-Freeze of a Lifetime
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| A rare sight - Fry against nerds. |
It's December 31st, 1999, Manhattan. Phillip J. Fry's life is in the toilet - he delivers pizzas on holidays, his girlfriend dumps him, and he's placed on a crank call to Applied Cryogenics. Ringing in the new year there... his chair tips and he clonks his head on a cryogenic tube. Suddenly, a rift appears in space, showing a motley crew of aliens. Describing it the next day at the Pizza Parlor to customer and physicist Stephen Hawking, that night, he gets clonked on the head and kidnapped by the Vice Presidential Action Rangers. The VPAR are led by Vice President Al Gore (voiced by Al Gore), and also consist of Nichelle Nichols, Gary Gygax, Hawking, and Deep Blue (all of whom, sans Blue, voice themselves). Their goal is to protect the space time continuum.
Probably the most creative of the three segments, it provides some foreshadowing as to the future of the Futurama canon - mainly, Fry's role in it. We'll get more information in Seasons 3 and 4, but this segment tries to avoid the "altered future" archetype by, well, destroying the future. "Un-Freeze", however, also runs with this trope and leans on the fourth wall with it, as indicated by the guest star list - Star Trek's Nichelle Nichols (who played Uhura), environmentalist VP Gore, physicist Hawking, the Deep Blue computer, and game creator Gygax.
Their team of "Vice Presidential Action Rangers" is hilariously low-budget and quick to suggest outright murder. This could be a possible stab at the Vice Presidency - the lack of prestige, the trend to stick more "impulsive" and ideological politicians in the job to let them wither away (Theodore Roosevelt, who managed to get to the top thanks to a crazed gunman.) I love just how petty they are, as well - especially Hawking, who, in this universe, is quick to declare himself the namesake of the rip in space-time.
Beyond those two aspects, again, this segment provides the laughs. In fact, it's probably the most well-produced segment of the three. The dialogue and animation are great, the comedy is sublime, and the idea is inventive and foreshadow-y. What else can I say but, great job?
Score: 9.
Overall Review: As far as this being the first "Anthology of Interest"-esque story goes, this one isn't half bad. The segments were memorable, the comedy was executed well across the board, and the twists and turns were pretty quirky. It even gave a small bit of insight to some of the characters, as well as the show's canon.
One of the problems I had with the first two segments was that the dialogue seemed a bit out of place and unnatural, even for a comedy show. I attribute that as an intentional ploy by the writers, with the "What-If Machine" not really being used before this episode. The clunks may have shown that the machine needed time to warm up.
That, and the end of the episode adds even more ambiguity to the situation - it turns out to be all just a simulation of the What-If Machine, a question asked by Farnsworth.
I have to say, though - for the first "AOI" episode ever, the writers didn't do a bad job.
Average Score: 8.5
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