- " Futurama " Twentieth Century Fox - Region 1 - NTSC vs. Twentieth Century Fox - Region 2

(aka "Aloa Mars!" or "Doomsville")

created by Matt Groening
USA 1999 - 2003

Philip J. Fry, a pizza delivery guy is accidentally frozen in 1999 on New Year's Eve and thawed out exactly 1000 years later.

This series may have done the unthinkable for me. It may have eclipsed The Simpsons as my favorite TV series. It is so fun and filled with one-liners and extravagant, eccentric characters - I love every minute of it!. I think appreciation of Science Fiction TV, books, films etc. is a must to get all the perfectly timed 'inside jokes' that are frequently spit-out. I also think the inclusion of 'heads from the past in large jars 'is a consistent reflection back to our history and hence given a commonality that can be satirized - it's absurdity is always hilarious. The Nixon head episodes are some of my favorite. Relationships evolving and expiring give it a valued human touch - unlike The Simpsons these characters actually seem to progress, learn and advance. I actually find myself changing whom is my favorite character - This week - the giant lobster and consummate loser, Dr. Zoidberg. I watch these over and over again. My two year-old now dances to the theme music it is played so often. Really these 4 boxsets are some of my most valued DVDs. I am very saddened that the series was cancelled, but I cherish the 4 seasons that I own on DVD. out of

Poster

TV première: March 28, 1999

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DVD Comparison (Season 1-4):

Twentieth Century Fox - Region 1 - NTSC vs. Twentieth Century Fox - Region 2 - PAL

Big thanks to Geert Jan Alsem for all the Screen Caps!

(Twentieth Century Fox - Region 1 - NTSC - LEFT vs. Twentieth Century Fox - Region 2 - PAL - RIGHT)

DVD Box Covers
Distribution	Twentieth Century Fox Region 1 - NTSC	Twentieth Century Fox Region 2 - PAL
Runtime	0:23:18	0:21:34 (4% PAL speedup)
Video	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 6.71 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.99 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate: Twentieth Century Fox
Bitrate: Twentieth Century Fox
Audio	Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround English (all), French (s1, s2, s3), Spanish (all)	Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround English (all), French (s1, s2, s3), Italian (s1, s2)
Subtitles	English (all), French (s1, s4), Spanish (all)	Danish (s3, s4), Dutch (s1), English (all), Finnish (s3, s4), French (s1, s2), Italian (s1, s2), Norwegian (s3, s4), Swedish (s3, s4)
Features	Release Information: Studio: Twentieth Century Fox Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Audio commentary for each episode • Deleted scenes • Storyboards • Animatics • Miscellaneous other extras DVD Release Date: March 25, 2003 Slim Case Chapters 5	Release Information: Studio: Twentieth Century Fox Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Audio commentary for each episode • Deleted scenes • Storyboards • Animatics • Miscellaneous other extras DVD Release Date: January 28, 2002 Keep Case Chapters 5

Comments

IMAGE: The video of the Region 1 set looks sharpest. The Region 2 suffers from edge enhancement, but the amount varies per episode.

The Region 2 seems to be vertically stretched a little, resulting in a tiny bit of cropping at the bottom.

Both regions suffer from ghosting at seemingly random times. On the Region 2 it's worse than on the Region 1. When it happens on the Region 1 there are always just one or two consecutive 'ghost frames' between normal frames, while on the Region 2 some scenes consist of nothing but 'ghost frames'. In season three and four most ghosting issues are gone.

SOUND: The pitch of the Region 2 audio is 4% too high because of PAL-speedup. (If you've never seen the show on NTSC you probably won't notice this.) In season three and four they "fixed" this by time stretching the audio. This means they used a more advanced method to speed up the audio without making the pitch higher. For me this pitch correction just makes the speedup more noticable though.

EXTRAS: The extra features are basicly the same on both regions. There might be a few minor differences, but the important stuff is all there on both sets.

MENU: Same as with the extra features: not 100% the same, but pretty much. Simple menus on the season one sets, getting better each season with in later seasons fully animated menus with newly recorded soundbits by the Futurama voice cast. The menus of season three and four are in anamorphic widescreen on the Region 2 discs.

PACKAGING: Graphicly the packaging is practicly the same for both regions. The main difference is that the Region 1 discs are in slim cases and the Region 2 discs are in keep cases. Also the Region 2 box of season four has some glow-in-the-dark graphics, the Region 1 looks the same only without the glow-in-the-dark effect.

CONCLUSION: The Region 2 set has several flaws compared to the Region 1 set. The show still looks and sound good though, and the technical flaws can be easily overlooked if you consider the high entertainment value all the episodes and extra features bring you. So if your DVD player only plays region 2, it's definitely worth getting. However if you have the choice between the two regions, the Region 1 set is clearly superior.

- Geert Jan Alsem

DVD Menus
(Twentieth Century Fox - Region 1 - NTSC - LEFT vs. Twentieth Century Fox - Region 2 - PAL - RIGHT)

Screen Captures

(Twentieth Century Fox - Region 1 - NTSC - TOP vs. Twentieth Century Fox - Region 2 - PAL - BOTTOM)
Subtitle sample

(Twentieth Century Fox - Region 1 - NTSC - TOP vs. Twentieth Century Fox - Region 2 - PAL - BOTTOM)

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Report Card:

Image:	Region 1
Sound:	-
Extras:	-
Menu:	-

DVD Box Covers

Distribution

Twentieth Century Fox

Region 1 - NTSC

Twentieth Century Fox
Region 2 - PAL