Futurama (TV Series) That Darn Katz! (2010) User Reviews

Proof that cats are evil!

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 13 August 2017]

The day before Amy is due to present her doctoral thesis she is feeling rather stressed so the others take her to the Hip Joint for a drink or five… inevitably she oversleeps the next morning. She arrives late wearing nothing but her underwear, until Professor Farnsworth give her a lab coat, and gives her presentation about harnessing the power of the Earth's rotation; it isn't made easy by the fact that Amy is allergic to cats and Prof Katz has one on his lap. The panel of professors promptly fail her and she returns to Earth. It turns out that Katz's cat had stowed away aboard the ship and returned to. The crew, apart from Amy and Nibbler, are besotted by his cuteness… clearly he is evil. It isn't long before we learn the shocking truth; cats come from a distant planet that has stopped rotating and they intend to use the energy of the Earth's rotation to make their own world spin again; this will stop the Earth turning… Amy and Nibbler will have to thwart their plans, or if they can't do that restart the Earth.

After 'The Late Philip J Fry' this episode may seem a bit light but it is still decent enough. It was nice to see Amy and Nibbler take the lead for a change. The plot is silly but rather fun and there are plenty of laughs to be had. Other reviews have commented on the fact that this episode seems comparatively unpopular; I'd say it was a mid-range episode but I guess cat lovers marked it down for portraying cats as evil, cat haters because it featured cats and anime fans because the cats aren't as cute as the cat-girls in 'Asobi ni Ikuyo!' (AKA Cat Planet Cuties)! Overall this might not be a classic episode but it is still pretty good, certainly not bad enough to skip.

The problem with "That Darn Katz"

[Theraxorterminate · 6/10 · 18 September 2013]

As much as I love Futurama as the Simpsons I have become a fan of it too. I'm not really 100% sure about what makes this episode disliked, but i guess it has to do with the cats on it.

The episode has a very good premise and shows good character development between Amy and Nibbler. There's many funny jokes on this one and the episode itself is worth watching IMO. But when I said about the cats it made me believe that the fans and some critics disliked the way how the main villain on this episode is nothing but a Thubanian or a cat as what is their species and looks like. So the attempt for cat look-like species to move the sun (which they need), the fans thought the idea was too lazy, lame and not interesting at all.

All in all not the worst episode I've seen but an idea that I believe the fans did not want to see for such a simplistic idea.

Was this inspired by a 1977 British horror film?

[kittystomp · 10/10 · 31 December 2019]

I liked this episode because I love cats - tooth, claw and everything and 'That Darn Katz' does a great pantomime of real cat behavior.

I just watched a 1977 British horror film called 'The Uncanny' that starred Peter Cushing. The story line involves a man (Peter Cushing) trying to get a publisher (Ray Milland) to accept a manuscript he has written about a sinister conspiracy by cats against humans, the story is told in three vignettes. The publisher in the 1977 movie bears a striking resemblance and similar voice to Mr. Katz in the Futurama episode, and he has a fluffy white cat that is the spitting image of Mr. Katz's cat - the mastermind of the plot to take over the world. In 'The Uncanny', the publisher's kitty displays an awareness that Peter Cushing has uncovered this global plot of cats against humans and spreads that word to other cats who later stalk and kill Cushing while the white cat exerts mind control over Ray Milland to have him destroy the incriminating manuscript. Was 'That Darn Katz' loosely based on 'The Uncanny'? Watch 'The Uncanny' (it's currently on Amazon Prime Streaming Video) and you be the judge. If it isn't the inspiration for the Futurama episode then it's a darn catty coincidence.

Excellent episode

[daniellebovic8 · 10/10 · 9 August 2010]

Really, people, the fifth WORST episode ever? I don't understand why people are giving the new episodes such poor marks (The Late Philip J. Fry inexplicably notwithstanding). I guess if the majority of these grades are coming from the real hardcore fans, that makes sense; a chief characteristic of a fan like that is to go on and on about how great a show Futurama is only to savage individual episodes at every opportunity. Virtually every one of the new season episodes is near or at the bottom of the ratings on IMDb. Perhaps the people giving these marks should re-watch some of the earlier episodes that they haven't seen in a while in order to make a better comparison. "Katz" wasn't profound, it did not have a great plot, and it did not have the best character interactions, but it was terrifically wacky and funny and made the most of an admittedly absurd premise.

bruh.

[10086cn · 1/10 · 29 July 2021]

How the hell did Fry succumb to the influence of the cats if he's missing that delta brainwave as a result of being his own grandfather? And seriously, "Cut! That extra looked at the camera. We'll have to do it again."?! I thought Calculon only did 1 take!

The only plausible thing I can think of by this is, whoever it was that wrote this episode of Futurama, they clearly don't know Futurama well enough to write and produce an episode and as a result they made things inconsistent with certain characters, storylines, tropes and such. Whoever that person happens to be, shame on you!