About a month ago, Family Guy crossed over with the Simpsons. It was a cross over, that to this viewer, was lackluster, mainly because of how much Family Guy there was in it. For more information, here's my review of that. Now, a month later, and over a year after it was canceled, Futurama crossed over with Simpsons. Now unlike Family Guy, Futurama was made by the same guys that brought us The Simpsons. It should also be noted that I'm a fan of Futurama. I wasn't die hard and actively sought it out, but I enjoyed watching it when I could catch it. So, what happens when one Groening series crosses over with another? In short, sheer awesomeness.
Yes, this is great. The basic plot is that one of the Simpson's accidentally caused the creation of a mutant rabbit thing that appears in the year 3014, or sometime between the beginning and end of the series. So, Bender is sent back in time to stop the creator of this abomination, terminator style. Of course, Bender screws it up and ends up becoming friends with Homer, because as Lisa and Bart point out, Bender is essentially the same character as Homer. Then the rest of the Planet Express crew get sent to the present/past (depending on which timeline you're following), and anything after this will be spoilers.
So how was this cross over? As I said, much better. Like the Simpsons Guy, this one had an equal blend of Simpsons and Futurama style humor, but since they're both made by the same people, it merged a lot better than Simpsons Guy. Unlike the Family Guy thing where it had 10 minutes "building up" to the cross over, this one jumped right into it. A little build up, but like 2 minutes to just to establish the reason that we would later find out was the cause of Bender coming back in the first place. No drawn out arbitrary sub-plot thing like in Simpsons Guy. Speaking of which, nothing is drawn out. Establishing the cause of the cross over, the right amount. Establishing Bender and Homer's friendship, the right amount. Dealing with the threat and everything that gets to it, the right amount. The little side plot with Bender and Maggie, the right amount. This was not an excuse to boost Simpsons ratings by having Futurama make "extended cameos" like Simpsons Guy, this was actually a believable cross over thing.
Speaking of "a ploy to boost ratings," this really wasn't at all. How can I tell? I didn't see any advertisements at all. Simpsons Guy, that was everywhere. It was like every other add was advertizing that. This, well I didn't find out about it until I checked the Fox schedule. This wasn't Matt saying "I need to have a crazy season premier, so I'm going to cross over with another big Fox show," like I imagine Seth was saying when he did Simpsons Guy. This I believe was Matt saying "I have another franchise that people love, I'm doing that thing with Seth, so how about I cross over Simpsons and Futurama?" It was great. Just amazing. It'll be on Hulu soon, and I suggest you watch it. Well this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.
