Futurama - Die Ära des Tentakels

Unfortunately, this movie does not live up to the standards of the perfect track record of the Fox series. It does have several good moments, its trademark goofy sci-fi inventions, and all the voice actors from the show, but it left me unsatisfied. It looks like the cardinal rule of any phenomenal TV show is true-- if it's canceled, keep it that way. I'm afraid Futurama's gone the route of ol' Family Guy, whose first 50 episodes (all prior to cancellation) were superb. After those, an okay movie, followed by a terrible wheelbarrow of rehashed jokes and overused side characters heaped together with family guy merch out the wazoo. Futurama is still my favorite show, but this movie is not representative of the show.

The first movie to come out from the TV show felt a little shaky and unsure of itself. This is much better, it feels stronger and more confident and doesn't suffer from the over heightened expectations of fans like myself that the first film did.

The plot is quite sophisticated for a cartoon but not for a Futurama, the characters are back in their tried and tested roles and it is a great way to spend 90 minutes.

As I have said before I don't think the cartoon format transfers that well to feature length. There are more laughs than in a normal episode but they are spread further apart making the film feel less funny than it actually is.

I am ecstatic that the series of feature lengths are continuing and treasure my copy.

Network: None; Direct to DVD movie; Genre: Animated Comedy, Sci-Fi; Content Rating: Unrated (contains animated violence, gore, scatological humor and suggested sex); Available: only on DVD; Perspective: contemporary (star range: 1 - 4);

The surprises of "Futurama's" 2nd direct-to-DVD feature-length movie adventure start right from the beginning, when it picks up mere days after the events of "Bender's Big Score" turning what appeared to be a throw away gag at the end of that movie into the catalyst for this one.

Like an average episode of Fox's red-headed stepchild of a masterpiece, "The Beast With A Billion Backs" starts out as one thing and goes some pretty outlandish and unpredictable places. Places sick, twisted and wildly imaginative. Places only "Futurama" with all of it's delirious cynical sacrilege can go. To describe the unfolding plot in detail would do a disservice to it, but suffice to say it involves a new love (guest star Brittney Murphy) for Fry (Billy West) - welcome after the labored Fry/Leela (always reliable Katey Sagal) story - Bender's (John DiMaggio) quest to prove the existence of The League of Robots, the marriage & death of a major character and a rip in the universe that unleashes the title monster.

But here's the answer to the real question: for my money, yes, "Billion" is better than "Big Score". A lot better. The giddy excitement to be back that bubbled out of "Score" and made that movie passable has now settled down into the business of actual storytelling and laugh generating. This time, instead of simply parading out favorite characters to have their random moment, the likes of Calculon, the Robot Devil, Zapp Brannigan and Richard Nixon all appear in service of the story. A story, such as it is, so crazy it will send eyes rolling to the back of the head of anyone but the most hardcore "Futurama" fan.

When the multi-tentacle beast (voiced by David Cross) shows up it affords the show opportunities to dig deep into some of their favorite red meat sacred cows - dating and religion - in addition to the monster movie mayhem. This movie and it's metaphors may not appeal to the young fan who stumbled on "Futurama" on free TV, but I loved every insane second of it. If you go in expecting anything less than absolute lunacy you will be totally lost with "Billion". It's probably a blessing in disguise that this movie was never pitched for the big screen. Direct to DVD gives Matt Groening, David X. Cohen and crew the chance to pitch the movie straight to the fans. They go absolutely wild, bouncing around the feature, indulging and expanding in some of their most twisted desires. Like the best "Futurama" episodes, "Billion" is unpredictable, alive with imagination and far too original for mainstream consumption.

The jokes are back with that same nonsensical, but sharp and on-story wit we've come to expect from this show. "Futurama" was never the funniest thing around, but "Billion" has a high ratio of landed jokes and real laugh-out-loud moments. But best of all, director Peter Avanzino (of some of the show's best episodes: "X-Mas Story", "Parasites Lost" and "Fear of a Bot Planet") ropes this madness into a strong, cohesive story that fills feature length without feeling like 4 episodes cobbled together and makes sense in it's own wonderfully weird way.

Let me repeat that: "The Beast With A Billion Backs" feels like a real movie instead of 4 episodes. Few TV shows can nail this and "Futurama" gets it right on the 2nd try. "Billion" doesn't have a big movie ending and that ending comes about 20 minutes longer than it feels like it should, but it does work.

Here is an epic adventure for the Planet Express crew worthy of a movie format. Now we've got a struggle for the fate of the universe, multiple story lines balanced to give every character something to do and the show's sense of humor, disgusting pension for gross-out gags, combustible originality and razor sharp satirical wit back on it's game. I love it. This is, in just about every aspect, the "Futurama" movie I've been waiting for.

* * * * / 4

This movie isn't really as bad as everyone seems to be saying. My only problem is it feels rather segmented/disjointed, as if it's 3 separate movies (probably due to the fact that it's basically 3 episodes strung together). Other than that, the jokes, especially in the 1st half hour are fast-paced and hilarious. I laughed way more than I did during Bender's Big Score, which only managed to get a couple chuckles and nostalgic smiles out of me. Really, the only reason there's any problem at all is that they're forcing themselves to write 90 minute episodes, where they really shine in the 30 minute block. If you're a fan of the series, you should (in theory) be quite happy with this.

The first Futurama movie felt like a collection of episodes strung together, "Benders Big Score" was enjoyable for fans, but like "the family guy movie", or "the Simpson's movie", it doesn't do anything the show didn't do, the same cannot be said for "The Beast With A Billion Backs", which while not as laugh a second as it could be(still multiple laughs per minute) is strengthened by being one of the strongest stories that Futurama has ever ran.

My favorite Futurama episode finds Bender floating in space alone, and a tiny microscopic colony grows onto his back, and begins worshiping him as their God, in trying to help improve their lives, he ultimately destroys them all, and then encounters a large energy being in the middle of space, who for all intense and purposes is the God...who doesn't seem to know who he is or what he is doing, but knows that God can't please everyone and if his job is done right no one "should" know he exists at all.. moments like that are the reason I watched Futurama in the first place, and its the kind of thinking that produced "The Beast With A Billion Backs", which is possibly the most unique, thought provoking, and amusing love story, I've ever seen in an animated film, or maybe ever.

It's a metaphysical love story, with inter-dimensional sea monsters and robotic demonic pirates, it's a story of infidelity and jealousy (not just with Fry, consider the subplot of Kif and Amy, compare Fry's first relationship with his last, Benders final monologue, etc). Is love personal or universal, can it be shared or must it be guarded, can any kind of perfect love exist within imperfect human conditions? Can/should God love everyone? Because it's Futurama you don't sit down, expecting to be challenged or even moved. "Sorry Bender...Robots don't go to heaven...", but that's just how it ends up.

So no this does not feel like "The Futurama" you've seen a thousand times before, it's best moments are still there, but it has a sense of direction, purpose, and story structure, that's its never had before, and is damned commendable. The best adult cartoon movie since "South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut", but as much for the story telling itself as the laughs.

It's the Cthulu Love story of our times!