Video: Let’s begin with some much-deserved kudos: Fan-o-rama, this fan-made Futurama flick, is just mind-boggling in its accuracy. The newly released trailer does its level best to capture the unusual characters, locations and pastel palette of Matt Groening’s beloved show. Even the show’s character designs have been brought to life… and that’s the problem.
While it’s pretty easy to put a cyclops pilot or (barely) medically trained lobster-man in animation, putting those same features onto flesh-and-blood humans is a marvellously efficient route to the uncanny valley. Leela’s eye is extremely off-putting, while Professor Farnsworth is a nightmare to behold in real life. Even Fry, Hermes and Amy — who as best as I recall were relatively ordinary humans — look… off. Putty-like.
Honestly, Fan-o-rama‘s only problem seems to be is that it’s too accurate, which is an impressive problem for a fan film to have. There’s no release date for the project, nor is any plot in particular is hinted at, unless we’re meant to take Fry and Bender’s quest for beer at face value. In which case, all conflict is visibly resolved 37 seconds into the trailer. But you can head to the technically official website for updates.