Review: "Anthology of Interest: III"

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Gulliver63
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Review: "Anthology of Interest: III"

Post by Gulliver63 » Sat Feb 16, 2013 1:59 pm

Last week as I was scouring the message board of Futurama Madness, I noticed that some folks there really wanted to see another "Anthology of Interest" episode of Futurama. I can only speak for myself, but I can hardly imagine a fan who wouldn't want to see the show do another one of these episodes. The first two were great vehicles for zany humor and general sillyness, and could go just about anywhere that a normal canon episode couldn't. In short, there were no limits to adhere to.

This in mind, I went with the premise that Morgan and Scruffy the Janitor never got to experience this amazing machine, and Amy Wong got jipped out of her chance to use it in the show. The story was fun, as I had to to a bit of historical research (ain't wiki great?) to keep myself from looking too foolish. Again, no life-changing moments here...just the fun, goofball humor that happens when you turn on the What If machine...

BTW, thanks again to Kaspired and Robert Stewart for their feedback and suggestions.
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Re: Review: "Anthology of Interest: III"

Post by c_nordlander » Sun Feb 17, 2013 9:31 pm

Typoes and technical nitpicks: "shined" should be "shone"; Scruffy hasn't actually spoken in the third person when the woman asks him if he always does (OK, this isn't really a grammar nitpick, but this is the best place to put it).

Also a fact nitpick: Cleopatra was never actually a Pharaoh; she was a Queen from the Greek family that ruled Egypt after its conquest by Alexander the Great. That's kind of nitpicky for a comedy story, though.

Seeing an AOI episode in prose format seemed a bit odd, but I enjoyed this! Some of the segments are a bit short on plot, and the writing doesn't really stand out (though there are some good descriptions), but all three segments have great ideas and top-notch jokes, and nobody is out of character. Giving Morgan and Scruffy questions is a cool idea, and all three questions are in character for the character asking. I like how you put in little references to Morgan's segment in the others, too.

In order:

"Goddess of Efficiency": Good enough, but not really memorable. Mainly, I think this is due to me finding Morgan a bit of a boring character when she's used prominently, which isn't really your fault. (And being boring is kind of a big character trait for her.) That said, the story is nicely paced, so Morgan doesn't overstay her welcome. The Paul reference is good, and the ending is pretty hilarious. EDIT: I forgot to mention: the "Odyssey" joke made me laugh out loud. Perfect.

"Just Like Me": My least favourite of the three, because there was very little plot. The fight with Mom is funny, especially its resolution, and Amy's realisation at the end is very good, but apart from that, the story feels kind of flat. It's very funny, though: the inscription on the Amy statue is probably the best joke I've seen in any of your stories. (EDIT: OK, you didn't come up with that one yourself. I've done the same before; besides, there are plenty of other excellent jokes in this fic.) The ending is a hoot as well.

"Immortal Janitor": At last, that janitor guy gets a tale of interest! Probably my favourite segment. The story manages to be quite dramatic in a low-key way and without ruining the humour. Slightly melancholy, and with good writing. I like the way you worked in the various present-day (well, you know what I mean) characters into various time periods, and the 2030s scene is a funny twist. Nicely creepy aliens, too. The Beatles joke felt a bit obvious, but then the line "I hear that there’s a famous band playing tonight" made it perfect.

I like the ending of the framing story.

The art is very nice as well. Morgan's face looks a bit odd on the first (in-document) picture, but I like all the rest. Arachne looks almost like a female Zapp. I think my favourite picture is the Amy Universe illustration. Fry's Amy hairstyle looks great. The title card is excellent, too.

All in all, I'd give this an A. Highly recommended.

Postscript: I don't normally pimp my writings in someone else's reviews thread, but in case you're interested (ha ha), here's a link to my own Anthology of Interest III. Funnily enough, it also has a Scruffy segment. No other similarities with your fic.
Last edited by c_nordlander on Wed Feb 27, 2013 9:47 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Review: "Anthology of Interest: III"

Post by Gulliver63 » Sun Feb 17, 2013 11:47 pm

Thanks! This whole thing came together quickly after reading a post in Madhouse, so I thought I'd give it a try. I thought I read where Cleo was the last Pharaoh, but I just did a superficial study (and it's been probably 30 years since I've seen the famous movie). The only real study in school I did of ancient Egypt was a boring art history class ::chuckles:: . I did like how the wiki article talked about a British invasion in the 1880's, which gave me a convenient segway into the next little episode of Scruffy's life.

Arachne came mostly from The Simpson's Titania who was used in an ad for Bongo Comics. The whole idea was to have her drop dead gorgeous, which didn't help her much with Morgan.

I simply must blather about the Beatles bit...in 2006, when I was a janitor BTW, I had planned a cartoon about the world's most famous janitor. He, like Captain Dan from Forrest Gump, bragged about how all of his relatives had done these amazing things throughout history. In the planning was the Beatles joke you saw here - glad it finally saw the light of day.

I agree about the Amy part...it was sort of like a cake that went flat in the oven. Her request was a logical one, but I just couldn't get it to really shine like the other bits. It might be fun to see what others might do with it. And I have to confess that the statue inscription came from a Zippy the Pinhead calendar, but I didn't know if it was an original idea for them.

Thank Kaspired for the Goddess references in all three stories...his idea was to have her return as a character, but I went for a more subtle approach.

My favorite part of the story is the Victorian England/WW2 bit...I think the idea of a Cockney accent for Amy is priceless. If you haven't been able to tell, I'm a huge Anglophile. Probably the closest I'll ever get to England is London, Kentucky, or Liverpool, Ohio ::chuckles::. And I really loved doing the ending, with the Star Trek reference thrown in there.

I don't mind the pimping, and I'll go over there and check it out. It'll be interesting to see what others have wanted from the What If machine. Thanks again.
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