Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs

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.

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 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.

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!

A rip in the very fabric of time and space sees another universe potentially linked to the one more familiar to the crew of Planet Express. However, it has been there a while and the initial panic and fear has sapped into acceptance with a bit of fear. The intension is to launch a scientific mission to travel to the rift and study it, a mission that Fry decides not to go on as he thinks he has found love in a new relationship. The expedition doesn't bring back much in the way of information but very soon it becomes clear that something is coming through and taking over the world – but what are its intentions?

I came to the first Futurama film hoping for it to be just as good as the TV show – not brilliant but just funny and creative. I was disappointed there but I wanted to watch the next film regardless. The improvements are obvious because the narrative is slightly more focused and does feel like it is all part of the same film. Of course it is not perfect and for stretches it does feel fragmented and unsure of itself – but just not as bad as the first film. What it feels like though is that they are filling the time with plot rather than anything else, so instead of having one central story, the threads are expanded to fill time even if the material or substance isn't really there to do it. As with Bender's Big Score, this film doesn't ever convince that it has enough about it to justify being 80 minutes long – and that is not even that long for a film. So Amy and Kif relationship appears to be there just to fill time, likewise Fry's relationship and, although funny, the League of Robots feels dropped in as well.

It is funnier though and for that I am grateful but it is not funny enough because the writers do seems to have focused on filling the film with plot rather than laughs. The cast do as well as one would expect, given that this is hardly a testing film to act in. West and Di Maggio have the lion's share but the other cast (Tom, Sagal etc) are also good and the additions of Cross, Castellaneta and Murphy are good in their voice work. In terms of animation you can see more money has been spent on it and it does look good while also keeping the feel of Futurama.

Beast with a Billion Backs is better than Bender's Big Score but it still suffers from many of the same problems. The script is not loaded with laughs and gags but rather lots of plotting to try and fill the long running time. However it is not "one" story but rather lots of bits pieced vaguely together and the feel of time being filled is unavoidable. So an improvement but still not great – hopefully the next few films over the next few years will be better.