There’s no cure for the summertime blues like a little intergalactic irreverence. For those who’d rather not brave the heat to make it to the blockbuster-loaded theaters, Planet Express is back on time for the delivery of another straight-to-DVD dose of Futurama’s space-age quirk with The Beast With A Billion Backs.
As with the show’s first crack at the feature format, the movie enjoys success for the most part, with some notable improvements. The creative team has wisely dropped the many tedious musical numbers. David Cross (Kung Fu Panda) is a welcomed addition as the alien Yivo, and there are some cameos here that are as enjoyable as they were the first go-’round.
The Harlem Globe Trotters make an appearance, as well as the Amazonian women who love “snu snu,” a perfect match for Yivo, the newest member of the Futurama galaxy.
But for all its positive elements, The Beast still feels like three standard episodes pasted together to make a feature-length film. There are three plotlines running through the movie, but each would have better served as a standard 30-minute episode.
In one arc, Yivo enters Earth through the rip in space created at the end of Bender’s Big Score. He uses his tentacles to attach to the back of the neck of all humans, and they form a new religion worshipping the tentacle. Naturally, Fry is the pope of this religion. It makes for some funny scenes as some of the Planet Express crew evade the tentacle’s grasp, but the story thread does not rate as one of Futurama’s better efforts.
Fry’s new girlfriend, Colleen, (Brittany Murphy, King of the Hill), encompasses the second of the three arcs. Hilarity ensues as Fry soon discovers that Colleen has very different ideas about what a relationship entails than Fry (or many in the known universe) does.
The final plotline entails Bender’s search for the mythical League of Robots, which he discovers is run by his hero, robot soap opera star Calculon. Bender’s trials and attempts to get into this league involve lots of alcohol and, as a result, are the best of the scenes involving Bender.
All three of these would have made great episodes in the commercial break-paced world of Futurama on television, but there’s a measure of unevenness with the way the stories are forcibly interwoven.
It’s a shame, because there’s really nothing wrong with any of the stories involved here, but they don’t make for a cohesive movie.
In terms of the DVD’s special features, there is plenty here for Futurama geeks to enjoy. The disc includes a commentary track with creators Matt Groening and David X. Cohen, stars Billy West, John DiMaggio and Maurice LaMarche, producers Michael Rowe, Claudia Katz and Lee Supercinski, and director Peter Avanzino.
The DVD also includes a “lost episode,” culled from scenes cut from the Futurama video game and short clips of the actual game play. Surprisingly, it does form an episode in a more or less clear fashion – it just doesn’t have the typical Futurama look, as it was created as a video game, and the animation doesn’t quite match.
Ultimately, The Beast is as up and down as its predecessor. For those already familiar with the series, it will be a nice addition to the expanding Futurama universe, but it definitely wouldn’t be the best way to introduce someone to the show. Except for the die-hard fans out there, you can probably afford to wait for this one to pop up on Comedy Central.
3 out of 5 Stars
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