“Seeing Leela fly off the Hexadecapus and crash through the moon dome and survive inside a stuffed animal by breathing a balloon was a dose of reality.”

Good and Bad News Everyone… The good news is that we get thirteen more hilarious Futurama episodes in this Blu-ray collection. The bad news is that these are the final 13 episodes of the series (at least for now).

The thirteen episodes in season 7B include:

• “Forty Percent Leadbelly” – Bender joins a railroad camp to get the real-word experiences he needs to reinvent himself as folk singer Ramblin’ Rodriguez.
• “2-D Blacktop” – The professor joins a street racing gang, but when he crashes the ship, the crew gets trapped in 2 dimensions.
• “T.: The Terrestrial” – Fry is stranded on Omicron Persei 8 where he is found and befriended by Lrrr’s son Jrrr.
• “Fry and Leela’s Big Fling” – Fry and Leela’s romantic getaway at a private resort is interrupted by the presence of her ex; the rest of the crew make a delivery to planet Simian 7.
• “The Inhuman Torch” – Bender takes all the credit when the Planet Express crew rescues 15 helium miners trapped on the Sun; the others worry that Bender may be creating disasters so that he can continue being the hero.
• “Saturday Morning Fun Pit” – A trilogy of Saturday Morning Cartoon parodies including “Bendee Boo and the Mystery Crew” (Scooby-Doo), “Purpleberry Pond” (Strawebery Shortcake and The Smurfs) and G.I. ZAPP (G.I. Joe meets Mystery Science Theater 3000).
• “Calculon 2.0” – After the Professor resurrects Calculon, the acting robot tries to resurrect and reinvent his former career with one man show.
• “Assie Come Home” – During a delivery to a gang-run planet, Bender is bot-jacked and taken to a robot chop shop. The Planet Express crew tries to track down all of his pieces—including his shiny metal posterior.
• “Leela and the Genestalk” – When Leela develops squidification, Fry trades the Planet Express ship for some magic beans, hoping they will be able to provide a cure.
• “Game of Tones” – Fry revisits the past via his dreams to find his memory that could save Earth from destruction, but he gets distracted spending time with his loved ones.
• “Murder on the Planet Express” – A corporate team-building retreat soon turns into a nightmare as the Planet Express crew discover there’s a shape-shifting killer alien on board the ship.
• “Stench and Stenchibility” – Zoidberg finds love with a woman who was born with no sense of smell, but a nose transplant threatens the relationship; Bender enters tap dance competition.
• “Meanwhile” – Fry steals the professor’s time button to make a special moment last longer, but ends up getting stuck in a deadly time loop.

This is another stellar collection of episodes, with some really great storylines. The writing is so witty with jokes that work on many levels, and each episode is packed with lots of visual gags as well. With so many layers of humor, the episodes can be rewatched over and over again and still feel fresh.

There are so many great episodes in this collection, that it’s hard to pick a favorite. I really loved watching Lrrr trying to turn his son Jrrr into more of a warrior and the resulting E.T. parody was so much fun. This year’s anthology episode paying homage to Saturday morning cartoons was also thoroughly entertaining with spot-on parodies, even down to the “we’ll be right back” interstitials. This season also contains some really emotional moments with Fry revisiting his family, and the final moments of the series finale. Plus, these episodes contain some really fun guest-stars including George Takei, Larry Bird, Adam West, and Burt Ward playing themselves, and Game of Thrones‘ Emilia Clarke playing Zoidberg’s love interest.

This Blu-ray collection contains some great bonus features including highly entertaining audio commentaries on all of the episodes, over 16 minutes of deleted/extended scenes, a writer’s room tour and an extensive behind-the-scenes look at the animation process.

While the series originally aired in HD on Comedy Central, it somehow looks even better on this Blu-ray. The series also sounds amazing, making great use of the stereo and surround channels to add depth to the experience of watching the series.

Overall, these final (for now) episodes of Futurama are a highly entertaining collection that come highly recommended.

What’s Included on the Blu-ray:

Episodes: (288min)

• All 13 episodes of Season 7B (2013):
  Disc 1: “Forty Percent Leadbelly”, “2-D Blacktop”,”T.: The Terrestrial”, “Fry and Leela’s Big Fling”, “The Inhuman Torch”, “Saturday Morning Fun Pit”, “Calculon 2.0”
  Disc 2: “Assie Come Home”, “Leela and the Genestalk”, “Game of Tones”, “Murder on the Planet Express”, “Stench and Stenchibility”, “Meanwhile”

• Widescreen 1.78:1
• Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French

Extras:

• Full Length Audio Commentary On All 13 Episodes
  These are always my favorite of the special features on the Futurama Blu-rays. These highly entertaining and informative commentaries bring together producers, actors, directors and writers to discuss the episodes and provide behind-the-scenes tidbits about the stories.
• Bonus Animator Commentary on Game Of Tones
  Artists from Rough Draft Studios provide an additional commentary for the “Game of Tones” episode, giving another perspective from what we get in the other commentaries.
• Precious Trimmings: A Compendium Of Deleted Scenes (16:06)
  A fun collection of 25 deleted/extended scenes from these thirteen episodes. The scenes are in various states of completion/colorization.
• Futurama University (24:27)
  The animators at Rough Draft Studios give an interesting behind-the-scenes look at the process of creating this season’s episodes. Those interviewed include producer Claudia Katz, character designer Shannon O’Connor, supervising director Peter Avanzino, director of computer graphics Scott Vanzo, color supervisor Samantha Harrison, color key Bari Kumar, digital background painter Alex Chao, lead 3-D artist Eric Whited, 3-D animator B. Shimbe Shim, amd 3-D animator Don Kim. Play All or select from “Character Design”, “Color”, and “3-D Modeling”.
• Inside Futurama: The Writer’s Room Of Tomorrow (13:25)
  Co-Executive Producer/Writer Patric Verrone gives viewers a fun tour of the Futurama writers’ room. He is joined by Executive Producer/Head Writer David X. Cohen, who explains the writing process.

Final Thoughts:

It’s sad to see Futurama come to an end (for the fourth time!), but this collection of the series’ final 13 episodes comes highly recommended. The episodes are highly rewatchable and entertaining and provide a satisfying ending to the show (hopefully just for now). The Blu-ray also contains some great bonus features including audio commentaries, deleted scenes and a pair of interesting featurettes.