Futurama always seemed to have its hits and misses, but the 2024 season has been surprisingly strong and continues with great episodes. Cuteness Overlord marks the return of Kirstin Gore as screenwriter after over 20 years – she wrote the classic Leelas’s Homeworld from Season 4 and now comes back with another family-focused story. But this time it’s not about Leela but a new household that has been introduced recently – the Wong-Krokers with their three children. It’s also the first Amy episode for a long time and has a lot of fun parodying a certain toy collecting craze from a long time ago.

Amy Wong has come a long way from her initial debut as the ditzy, klutzy Planet Express intern and her character development already started in the original four season run of the series. The family situation of Cuteness Overlord is actually a result of a long reaching plot that goes back to Kif Gets Knocked Up A Notch from season 4 and Children Of A Lesser Bog from season 8. Nevertheless, the series had not really explored Amy’s and Kif’s family life in depth and Kirsten Gore’s episode does exactiy that, setting up the scenery that leads to the actual plot of the episode.

While being a bit clumsy, Amy is usually a more level-headed character, but this time she’s allowed to go off the rails a bit more. The idea of her falling into a toy collection craze did not come out of the blue but directly leads back to a 2023 film project from writer Kirstin Gore that takes a humorous look at the Beanie Babies hype of the 1990s. It’s possible that this idea has been around since the early days of Futurama, but it’s more likely that The Beanie Bubble was the idea for Cuteness Overlord. The only drawback is that it’s a very American phenomenon and not widely known around Europe, but the parody still works fine without knowing about the beanie babies.

While this episode could have once more slipped easily into soap opera territory, the careful writing avoids falling into tired cliches. Amy and Kif trying to make their patchwork family work and Amy falling into a toy collection scheme at first doesn’t seem like heavy science fiction at all and could have worked in the present time too, but the story develops a true Futurama twist in the second half. The more futuristic part of the tale does not just involve the rest of the crew but also brings back Zapp Brannigan, who is actually much more competent than usual but still can’t help to be a little sexist on the side.

Since Cuteness Overlord is an Amy and Kif story, it’s also their voice actors’ big outing. Especially Lauren Tom has been a little bit on the sidelines but now as the main character has a lot more dialogue than usual. The actress sounds just like her old self, but this time gives Amy a little bit more edge and bite. She also provides the voice of her (adopted) daughter Mandy who is as at times as sassy as her mom but also a very sweet kid. Maurice LaMarche also has a much bigger role as Amy’s partner Kif, who started out as a bit of a joke character in the first season but has now grown into much more. LaMarche has always played him with a weary, tired voice and has emphasized this even more now – becoming a parent has made the green amphibian certainly more sullen and exhausted. His son Axl, also voiced by Maurice LaMarche, sounds just like him, just a third of an octave higher and even more bored.

The great performances by Lauren Tom and Maurice LaMarche are of course supported by their co-stars because the episode is still partly an ensemble piece. Billy West has little to do as Fry, but brings back the bigger-than-life Shatner-esque Zapp Brannigan, even though the Captain has somewhat mellowed compared to his earlier appearances. Katey Sagal’s Leela has a smaller role this time, but is also still her old spunky, sarcastic self. Tress MacNeille also returns as Mom for a little bit and John DiMaggio, Phil LaMarr and David Herman are there in the background too. The unknown voice actress Nicole St. John reprises her role as the orphan girl Sally who we will hopefully see again sometime.

Visually, this episode is nothing much to write home about, but the simplicity is perfect for an episode with a strong story. Most of the background scenery has been seen before and is perfectly reproduced including the good old orphanarium. The real challenge in this episode was creating a whole range of fictional toys and the production designers really rose to the occasion. The Fuzzy Funbags are not just an imitation of the Beanie Babies but a successful mix of parody and homage to the 1990s phenomenon and perfectly create an almost vintage-looking toy design with endless variations. Watching the product palette expand throughout the episode is almost half the fun of the episode.

Cuteness Overlord takes a simple concept that could have resulted in a boring episode but turns it completely around to make another memorable entry in this year’s Futurama season.