Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder

Direct-to-DVD movie; Genre: Sci-Fi, Animated Comedy; Content Rating: Unrated (contains adult content & animated violence); Available: DVD and Blu-Ray; Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 – 4);

After 4 hugely rewarding seasons on the Fox Network (not that they knew it) and 3 DVD movies, Matt Groening and David X Cohen's cancelled, cult sci-fi saga "Futurama" comes to a rollicking close with "Into the Wild Green Yonder". The movies were a reward for those who got slapped in the face by Fox's abrupt cancellation and were underwhelmed by the run's finale, "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings" in which the show micro-focused its entire story down to a love story between future fish-out-of-water Phillip J. Fry (Billy West) and one-eyed mutant space pilot Leela (Katy Segel). "Yonder" is the epic finale we've been waiting for and I'm thrilled to report it delivers.

As always, "Futurama's" focus is still its unique cast of characters and their conflicting motives, but "Yonder" is a bigger, funnier, more epic ending, worthy of the vast, detailed universe this series created. As a movie, it's the best of the 4 DVDs which says a lot given how highly I still regard "The Beast With A Billion Backs". Where "Beast" was an ambitious and sharp story it still felt disjointed and episodic, where "Yonder" is the first film to feel like a real theatrical release movie from start to finish. It's smoother, with a more complex story, than "The Simpsons Movie".

As with any "Futurama" story, it would be almost criminal to describe the plot: both because it is so delightfully convoluted in its accurate and liberal basis in science fact and sci-fi convention and I do not wish to spoil the numerous wonderful twists and turns herein. However, in the first few minutes events transpire that set our heroes on a collision course toward series end and saving the galaxy: Al Gore-style! Amy Wong's (Lauren Tom) dad is building a new casino on Mars, but his plans to put in a massive mini-golf park threaten the endangered species of the entire galaxy which raises the ire of eco-femenistas (led by radio genius Phil Hendrie in duel role as a female member of the show's Waterfall hippie family and her brother) as well as a secret society Fry gets involved with when an accident leaves him with the ability to read minds. Oh yeah, and Bender has an affair with the Don-Bot's wife.

Almost none of the action in "Yonder" takes place on Earth or at Planet Express. With Leela joining the femenists, Fry in a double-cross to save the universe and Bender dodging the mob and joining up with Zapp Brannigan (again West), the characters spend the movie away from or at odds with each other. Cohen and co-writer Ken Keeler have scripted a clever chess game where each story and each motive weaves together beautifully, all building to a finale that finds that perfect balance between being a thrilling sci-fi adventure and a satisfying character conflict for our 3 unlikely heroes.

"Yonder" is also the funniest movie of the 4 and at times more laugh-out-loud than the series. When Fry (now reading minds) and Bender (with the DonBot's lucky Robot's Foot - his own) go head to head in a high-stakes poker tournament the scene is one of the funniest and most cleverly constructed the show has ever done. "Yonder" has a lot of fun with Bender in this movie. Bender is the kind of anti-hero character that usually has his own story as it is hard to write him into helping the gang save the world in the primary story without cheating his character's nature. "Yonder" finds a perfect place for him. The movie also has a load of fun with the eco-femenists. Few shows make fun of women the way "Futurama" has the balls too with Cohen and Keeler's unique vision of male/female clichés turning "Yonder's" conflicts into a damn-near battle of the sexes. It's refreshing. The movie gets less riotous as the 3rd act comes and the stakes of the story are raised, but that's the case with any action/comedy.

This is a fun one, people. "Into the Wild Green Yonder" fires on all cylinders, deliver the kind of originality and imagination that only "Futurama" can. As funny and poignant as any episode of the series. Both a great movie and a great finale for this much loved series. Don't miss it.

* * * * / 4

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.

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.

'Into The Wild Green Yonder' is the 4th movie in the very popular Futurama movie series.Just like the television show and the first 3 movies, 'Into the Wild Green Yonder' is filled with lots of crude and suggestive humor.Most of it is funny, as you'd expect.The movie is also surprisingly sexist.The main targets in the movie are woman.Not just woman, but feminists.If you were a feminist trying to struggle for the right to vote, then you will be shocked and appalled by this movie.Just try not to overreact and form a feminist group in order to cancel the TV show and find every copy of this movie and burn them.As entertaining this movie may be, it does lack the certain spark the first 3 movies had.My favorite movie in the series is 'Bender's Game', and this film isn't near to being as good.Still, I found 'Into the 'Wild Green Yonder' to be a funny and entertaining movie that fans of the show and movies will enjoy.If you don't like the show, then you can bite my shiny metal ass.

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