The Breakroom

You just can’t keep a good robot down! That appears to be the skinny out of Hollywood this morning as several sources are reporting that Comedy Central has agreed to order thirteen new episodes of Fox’s cult hit Futurama. Although canceled several years ago (before its time we might add), the show has gained popularity once again through its nightly showings on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim and its successful DVD sales. No one is happier about this than Gedeon as his Futurama icon sets have been a fan favorite since their release. With any luck, we’ll all be crowding around the TV to watch Fry, Leela and Bender in new adventures before you can say “Bite my shiny metal ass!”.

A quick detour from the world of icons for a moment to talk about the new PIXAR film Cars. Some of the workers saw the latest animated feature from the wizards at Steve’s other place of work this weekend and we have to say we were impressed. This comes as a relief since ever since the original teaser trailer premiered, we’ve been a little worried. Whomever put this trailer together really should be scrapped, (sorry) because we’re happy to say it did no justice to the final product. Cars is a thoroughly enjoyable, albeit a bit long, journey into the surrealistic world of these friendly automobiles.

The animation is top notch (of course), the voice work is spot on, and the story while not totally original, warms the heart. Combine this plus tons of visual eye candy for car lovers, some awesome music from Sheryl Crow plus the usual assortment of “in-jokes” and you’ve got yourself another winner in the Disney / PIXAR line up. Critical reviews for Cars have been mixed, but we say to them “get off your high horse and smell the motor oil man!”. Taken for what it is, Cars is great from start to finish and it is worthy of a visit to the theater AND a place in our DVD collection. Lighten up dudes! For more on Cars and general news about PIXAR, check out the blog Luxo. Lots of information about their films, company culture and just general cool stuff.

The annual pilgrimage to the video game temple of E3 has once again come and gone. The major players in the video game entertainment industry showed their wares, covered up their booth babes and through it all we learned some interesting tidbits. We will wait to reserve final judgment however until our friend, Cabel Sasser, posts his expo review over at his excellent blog. If his Nintendo DS reviews are any indication, we’re sure his show floor adventures will be “Must see E3”. Now if you’ll excuse us, Talos has to start saving up to buy his PS3 while Ged sits and waits patiently for Nintendo to announce the release date of the Wii. Back to work!