Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs

This is a rare disappointment for me, a huge fan of all things Groening and Futurama in particular. The first thing that is perhaps small but really bugs me is the Disney-esque style applied to the animation. The first bit we see is in the first scene when Zoidberg sends the table flying and liquid drips down the window. The effect is rather languid and self-conscious. Like, "Look at us we can do the detail oriented cloying animation that we often deride in our writing." There was some of this in the Simpsons Movie but it was, generally, in the context of satire. I felt this tone was over-wrought in "Beast" and really detracted from the visual style of Futurama which is a much more important facet. The more I watch and think about it the more I dislike it. It feels like a real sell-out. Perhaps my antipathy is magnified by the third-rate writing. The plot is extremel weak. I won't be a spoiler but just say the narrative builds somewhat awkwardly to a climax then fizzles out in an insipid attempt at relationship humor. I can't say I recommend buying this. I feel a little ripped-off.

I loved Futurama. I even liked the first movie, although not nearly as much as the series. I have also never written an online review like this, but felt compelled after seeing this. This movie was a complete disappointment. The pace was slow, many subplots were totally pointless, the portrayal of the characters was completely inconsistent with how they were developed in the series, the main plot was very disturbing, and there was almost no good humor.

The obvious insertion of the flying spaghetti monster (an atheist icon) as the big bad monster and the portrayal of the "God" character Yivo (named very similar to Yahweh, the Christian God) as a crazy mass rapist and forceful conqueror is also quite insulting. I'm all for making fun of the ritualistic hyper-religious folk, as we often need to take ourselves a little less seriously, but this seriously crossed the line. We are the ones who should take ourselves more lightly and take God seriously. They might as well as just come out and had one of the characters yell in my face "I hate you and everything you believe in!". I can't completely fault them on this point, as I fully know that apart from God's loving intervention in our lives that's what everyone thinks. But to characterize the attention of a God who saves us a loving father as a mass rapist is unbelievably hurtful.

Even with that, the central message was still fairly absent, as the movie seemed to have no coherent message or point. I can't believe I paid money for this, and I'm quite disappointed in the Futurama crew. They should have killed this one even before it made it to an animatic. If this review prevents a few people from buying the DVD and encourages the creators to attempt to undo some of the damage this movie did to their intellectual property, I think the time writing this review will be worth it.

When Futurama first came out by Groening and Cohen, I thought the premise was great, not too Jetsons, but also not too apocalyptic either. Basically, it dealt with a hapless delivery boy getting accidentally frozen for one thousand years, and awakens to a freaked out future.

Regrettably, thanks to Fox putting it on Football Sundays, the show never really got the notice it deserve, despite the fact it lasted four seasons in its original run. Yet, it got new life on Adult Swim, and though Comedy Central has it currently, I rarely get to watch it.

Anyway, recently the guys at Futurama decided on reviving the series through four new feature-length films. The original plan was to 'connect' the films from one to another, but apparently Reality has stepped in and dictated otherwise.

Whereas 'Bender's Big Score,' did focus on the series' Past Episodes, it seems 'Beast with a Billion Backs' throws out all convention and just starts with cannonizing what we knew of the series itself.

Basically the film begins revealing what happened after 'Bender's Big Score,' with the TimeSpace disruption creating an anomaly and ripping a tear in the Universe.

Though the tale runs like a typical Futurama episode, the problem here is, the writers have somehow given up on the Fry/Leela romance, while finally marrying Amy and Kiff. Though which is humourous, it does lack the typical fare we've come to expect with Futurama.

Perhaps the writers felt since the last film showed Fry jealous of Leela's romance, maybe it was time for the shoe to be on the other foot. But the problem is, it's a bit too instantaneous for Fry to find romance. Considering throughout the series the only person he's actually dated have been Amy and Leela, and his Past girlfriend (who later left him for Pauly Shore).

The story's loosely based on a 1955 sci-fi film, "The Beast with a Million Eyes." Except here our Beast takes over with tentacles after Fry decides on leaving his Universe after being unlucky in love once too many times.

The problem here is unlike the other film where the characters interacted with each other throughout the main story line, it seems 'Beast' is a bit disconnected with Bender wanting to join the League of Robots, while Fry convinces the people of Earth of the Beast's good intentions.

Meaning though you'd like to enjoy this second venture, it's rather hard because it seems more like the writers wanted parodying a classic film than genuinely focusing on why we liked Futurama in the first place.

But it doesn't mean the DVD is all bad, we do see some humour with other characters this time around than just focusing on the main characters. And though the subplots don't have quite the same connection as the first film did, it is fun watching Bender impress Calculon and later subtly take over the League due to the 'Kill All Humans' by-laws.

Though it lacks the sharpness of its first incarnate, 'Beast with a Million Backs,' does have some merits by spoofing classic sci-fi as well as the spoof at the beginning intro.

Hopefully, 'Bender's Game' will make up for the 'Beast's' shortcomings and bring back the main reason why we miss the Planet Express crew for these years.

For me, this came off as being a very solid effort from the Futurama folks. I felt it had a solid amount of comedic beats that worked (I laughed quite a bit) and the story itself was Futurama at its near best -- large and ambitious, enjoyably surreal, philosophical in a biting sort of way, and making pretty decent use of its characters for developing the story. True, it was less "movie" like in design, especially in comparison to BGS, as some have pointed out, but that didn't detract from it for me.

I would count myself as a reasonably solid member of the Futurama fanbase, and I've got say Bender's Big Score and now Beast with a Billion Backs (which I actually liked slightly better) have been very rewarding experiences. I disagree with those who say that either have shown some rust in the franchise; to me this is Futurama at its best. The writing is sharp; the production and direction is sharp; and the voice acting remains top notch and has shown no signs of fading from the passage of years.

This is another classic in the Futurama saga. Being a tremendous fan of The Simpsons, I find this animation to be very funny and extrememly clever. I highly recommend this item. Its alot of fun!