Futurama: Em a Distante e Selvagem Era Verde

The fourth (and, at time of writing, final) Futurama movie is the one that cements the standard for the collection of DVD's by making a majority of the four. Having enjoyed Bender's Game more than the other two films, I was hoping that the third film had been a turn away from the lesser first two. Instead though Wild Green Yonder is more like the first two films in that it is not funny enough to last 90 minutes and suffers from a total overdose of plot.

Now I'm not suggesting that the third film was brilliant, but just that it seemed to keep all the characters in the same plot thread and also helped itself immensely by being consistently funny so I was likely to be thinking about the problems it had (and it did). Wild Green Yonder does not do this. First and foremost is the problem that, while it has good laughs, there is not enough funny material to spread across 90 minutes. With Futurama the plots have always been a bit secondary and the episodes worked off quick-fire comedy and asides. 90 minutes means you have to have a plot and cannot easily rely on quick-fire comedy as easily unless you really get it right (a reason why I worry about the Arrested Development movie). This film doesn't have enough comedy in it to keep the viewer laughing to the point where it is the film's "all".

The writers have tried to do the plot in such a way to create lots of smaller situations though, seemingly in order to allow for lots of gags and jokes. The problem is that, without the laughter to cover this, it leaves the plot fragmented and really messy. As with the other films, the characters are split up across several different threads that kind-of all move in the same direction to the same place but just makes the film feel like a mess with no flow or motion. It is fun to see as many of the characters as we do but by ramming them all into the film it partially causes this – in my opinion Bender's Game is the only one that makes this business work simply because it kept the characters more or less together in the various sections of the film. Here they are fragmented and it doesn't work as well.

The look of the film is as good as the usual Futurama standard and I enjoyed the different things they did with the titles, credits etc. The voice work is also good and, when anyone in the main cast is given a good line or catchphrase they generally nail it with their delivery. The guest voices are more mixed with most good but some dialling it in. Overall Wild Green Yonder is a solid film that, like the others, will mostly please fans without being good enough to win over casual viewers. It is funny but not enough for the running time and the plot threads are messy, distracting and fragmenting. I still quite enjoyed it but it was only "OK" and not good enough to hide the problems even as I was watching it.

I agree the 2nd movie was the best of the 4.

I will always love and hold dear Futurama, certain episodes stand out, the romantic sentimental, never to forget Frys dog, or the holophone episode, or the message Fry wrote in space. The comedic lover never to forget Zoidbergs attempt to win a mate, the Whatif machine, or anything Bender has ever done. Oh, and Zap of course, (moreso than Kif).

The episodes that appeal the least to me are the lengthy plot related Nibbler time twisting episodes, and the other overly story arced episodes that introduce new characters too often, which is the category in which I would place these movies.

I have to say that the Wong family has always been consistently boring material for me, and I know, others too.

I guess 90 minutes has that problem, in that there is a necessity to create a drama rather than a subsection of throwaway laughs and The Simpsons movie suffered from a similar fault. I believe it could have been done though. It's fair to say that South Park pulled it off better than most with their Bigger Longer movie.

It's sad to see the gang go. Regardless of speculation, it will be years, if at all, before they re-emerge, and although these 4 episodes were less than perfect, each and every outing was punctuated with many smirk worthy hits, if not laugh out loud moments, and anything that can keep you smiling and wanting more is worth archiving on the good shelf in my opinion, and I will revisit not only classic episodes but these movies again and again over the years ahead.

The idealist in me looks forward to a day that the writers get off the phone and yell, 'we've been unaxed!', cause although movies are eager berries to pick, they often lack the exhilarating hit, the condensed juice of a good 22 minutes of laughter, packaged in the format we have trained our brains to consume so well.

What say Fox, these guys deserve a call for their efforts. Agreed?

And here we are, folks. We've reached the final installment of the four direct-to-DVD Futurama films. It's been fun, but sadly, all good things must come to an end.

While "Into the Wild Green Yonder" isn't the strongest of the four films, it certainly offers up laughs and plenty of the clever, over the top sci-fi concepts that the series is famous for. Unfortunately, for every joke that hits the nail on the head, another joke comes across as contrived, or simply falls a little flat. Not to despair though, as the jokes that work, work really, really well.

The animation is, as always, top notch. The characters we all know and love are once again brought to life by the wonderful cast, and we get a couple of bonus cameos here thanks to Penn Jillette, Snoop Dogg, and Family Guy's Seth MacFarlane.

As with the other 3 DVD Futurama movies, the story is a tad messy, jumping from plot thread to plot thread, with each episode only vaguely maintaining a semblance of continuity until everything is tied up neatly at the end. That said, the overarching story in this outing is actually very clever, and the ending is spectacular and well designed.

The story ties up some loose ends, but also leaves us on an ambiguous note, perhaps hinting at a future series of DVD movies, or a theatrical film, or, hopefully, an entire new season to grace our TV screens. Fingers crossed that we get more Futurama, as this series is no where near reaching its use-by-date.

Ya ever notice how most people who take the effort to log are the ones who want to criticize or even hate on something?

People who laughed wildly and were genuinely happy with the product seem much less likely to worry about it afterwards.

For the record, my family and I have every Futurama episode and movie on DVD. We like them a lot. We've been looking forward to this movie a long time and in general weren't disappointed (it wasn't the best of the movies but that's just IMHO). These shows have NEVER been about internal consistency, btw.

Bring back the freaking series. If I was Bill Gates I'd just write a check to bring it (and Firefly too, what the hey?) back in a heartbeat. Creating a pleasurable experience for people should count as a humanitarian act.

If you want to hate on something, go watch The English Patient. Your reviews might help spare some innocent people in the future from being subjected to three hours of terminal boredom and depression.

Futurama really is such a "Meh" show and their attempt at revitalizing it with wall to wall feature movies really did it no favors in my eyes.

In a generic plot featuring all your usual favorites this essentially feature length episode alike the others has it's moments and there are laughs to be had but considerably too few. The plot is instantly forgettable and reminds me again why I never really gave the television show the time of day.

It's not that it's bad, it's just distinctly mediocre. It's like The Simpsons, but without the overwhelming charm and fantastic characters.

If you like Futurama you'll likely enjoy this, otherwise hop skip and jump over it.

The Good:

There are a few laughs to be had

The Bad:

Not as funny as it should be

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Tin foil hats are a growth industry

Kansas is unfamiliar with evolution

You can't sue the military

Feminism angle wasn't satire, it really does seem to have gone that way