Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs
Directed by Peter Avanzino
Created by Matt Groening
Developed by Matt Groening and David X. Cohen
Written by Michael Rowe
Voice Actors
Billy West
Katey Sagal
John Di Maggio
Tress MacNeille
Maurice LaMarche
Phil LaMarr
Lauren Tom
David Herman
Dan Castellaneta
David Cross
Stephen Hawking (as himself)
Brittany Murphy
I’ve been a huge fan of the animated series, Futurama ever since it first aired on the Fox network in 1999. I followed it’s migration to syndication on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block – back when some Fox executive decided to bury the show just because they didn’t get Futurama’s eccentric humor. I even followed Futurama’s migration to Comedy Central when those same Fox execs looked at Futurama’s high ratings on Adult Swim and realized they could still make money from the project, even though they never really believed in it in the first place. And no, I have never contemplated nor advocated feeding those “brilliant” executives to the News Monster or the supreme ruler of Omicron Persei 8.
Still… it’s an option. I’m just saying.
In what was an unprecedented example of the perfect marriage between greed, corporate jackassery, and entertainment, the series was revived in 2007 as four straight-to-DVD films. If you’re too cheap to rent or buy the DVD’s, do not despair! Comedy Central entered into an agreement with 20th Century Fox Television to syndicate the existing episodes and air the films in an episodic format. So essentially, if you have Direct TV or basic cable, why pay for a feature-length Futurama film twice? It’s like they’re banking on their target audience to be brain-damaged potheads or suffer from Alzheimer’s.
I don’t know what to make of the feature-length films. Aside from the apparent marketing dishonesty, there is an acute lack of quality content, particularly in the second feature film, Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs. I was satisfied with the first film, Futurama: Bender’s Big Score, which was funny and irreverent, just like the series I enjoyed so much. But I wonder how much of my enjoyment was driven by nostalgia and the long-awaited gratification of seeing a New Futurama Thing?
The same cannot be said about the second film, which was clearly subpar. Though I was entertained by the second Futurama film, I was somewhat disappointed by the inexplicable lack of humor. True fans of the cartoon will be content to watch the familiar characters with familiar voices go many familiar places and do lots of things, but the average movie fan who watches this film for the first time with no previous knowledge of the Futurama universe won’t have any idea what’s going on, nor will they care to find out.
The Beast with a Billion Backs is actually a sequel to the previous Futurama full-length feature, Futurama: Bender’s Big Score. In their typical self-effacing, “too-cool for school” fashion, the cast and overall story completely blow-off any and all continuity issues that should tie it to the previous feature.
Much of the movie centers on an entity that emerges from the “anomaly”, or the time-rift created by Bender in the previous film. This entity appears to be hell-bent on subjugating Earth and the entire known universe, but appearances can be deceiving.
Like many of the Futurama episodes, this film is full of playful irreverent nonsense. As always, it’s fun to tune-in and turn off the rational part of the brain that would reject most of the absurd ideas of what the future will be like. But unlike the previous episodes that are bizarre and hilarious, this feature film seems content on just being ridiculous and nostalgic.
Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs might satisfy the die-hard Futurama fan, but I recommend that the average fan skip this one. At the very least, if you’re not familiar with the Futurama universe, watch some of the animated series reruns on Comedy Central first to see if its brand of humor is your cup of tea.
And even if it is your brand of humor, for God’s sake, don’t pay for it twice! It will air on Comedy Central by mid-October, this year.
The Grades
Story: It’s irreverent, bizarre and quirky, as always. Unfortunately, it’s light on humor. Grade: C-
Acting: Grade: B
Visuals: Grade: B
Originality/Innovation: Grade: C
Enjoyability Grade: As a fan of Futurama, I was entertained. As a fan of film, I was disappointed. Grade: C-
Date Material: Grade: B
Contemporary Element (Will it be watchable two decades from now?): Grade: B
Redeeming Quality: Hey… it’s Futurama! So there’s that. Grade: B
Overall Grade: C+
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