VOTD: This 18-Minute Live-Action 'Futurama' Fan Film Is Unsettling And Impressive At The Same Time

Last year, right in the heart of summer, we featured a trailer for an ambitious project that was taking the animated world of Futurama and turning it into a live-action short film, complete with make-up and effects that could fuel your nightmares. The project wasn't yet done, and there was no indication as to when it would be done. But the time has come.

Fan-O-Rama: A Futurama Fan Film is exactly what the title says it is, but they've used real actors in place of animated illustrations, complete with some photorealistic visual effects, and some rather unsettling make-up and prosthetics. Clocking in at 18-minutes, this is quite the ambitious piece of work.

Watch the live-action Futurama fan film after the jump.

Dan Lanigan directs the live-action Futurama fan film, which he also wrote with Andy Klimczak and Kody Frederick, the latter also tasked with playing Fry and the former playing Zoidberg. Meanwhile, Katie Lanigan plays Leela, Olivia Yang plays Amy, Marshall Porter plays Hermes, and Brock Baker provides the voices for Bender, Zoidberg and Professor Farnsworth.

Here's the explanation of how they all came together to make it:

In the year 2014 one man, Dan Lanigan, in addition to other men, and some women, set out on a quest to become the first person in his family to create a live-action Futurama fan film. He is now regarded by most of his immediate kin as the foremost authority on the subject. This is his story.

Of course, he was far too lazy to do it alone. Dan sought out the greatest mind/ego of his age, Martin Moonwalker Meunier to help him invent new technologies, techniques, and recipes to bring the visual realism sorely lacking in the cartoon. He signed on the attractive Kody Frederick to star, help write and produce, as well as add the sex-appeal sorely lacking in the cartoon. He engaged his niece, Katie Lanigan, to act, help produce, and add the nepotism sorely lacking in the cartoon. He activated the legendary Garzatron, a synthetic being capable of carrying on 16 conversations at once with himself, to help design and build stuff. Adam Cook was raised from the dead in accordance with ancient Swedish prophecy to help produce. Dan secured the musical genius, Eric Diaz, a talented singer-songwriter, to make costumes. He brought aboard Andy Klimczak so he wouldn't be the only fat guy on set. He also acted and helped write.

While they nailed the look of every single character from the show, not to mention the interior of the Planet Express headquarters and the delivery ship itself, the voice of Bender isn't anywhere near as on point as Zoidberg and the Professor. Still, these folks did some truly impressive work, all just because they were huge fans of the show. Nice work, Cinema Relics.