Friday, March 15, 2013

MR The Beast with a Billion Backs


Time for the second Futurama movie!
 
 The future is here, with all these Futurama-related reviews!

Movie: Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs
Directed by Peter Avanzino
Release date 2008
Genre Animated science-fiction/comedy
Country USA

Here's the second movie, The Beast with a Billion Backs!

Before Futurama's return to television, several movies were made.
This one was released in June 2008.
Eric Kaplan and David X. Cohen wrote the story, while this time Peter Avanzino directed it.


The story continues right from where Bender's Big Score left us.

A anomaly opened up in space in the form of a rift.
It was caused by Bender's time travel.

After getting back to the crew's new situation - Fry gets new a girlfriend, Colleen (voiced by Brittany Murphy), Amy and Kif get married - several scientists from all around the world meet to discuss the situation.
The convention is lead by none other than Stephen Hawking (the real one dubbed the character!). They decide to sent a team to investigate it.
The way to settle it? Professor Farnsworth and his rival Professor Werstrom have their respective crew compete in a game Deathball!

The Planet Express gets to sacrifice send Bender try to communicate with it...
After that fails Zapp Brannigan attacks the anomaly.

Turns out a giant omni-potent tentacle creature come out of it.
"It" is called Yivo.
And it only seeks love~


This second movie might feels more lik a 90-minute long episode rather than a proper feature film, but is still fun!

If Bender's Big Score mostly served to reintroduced the series with lots of gimmicks (time travel, various subplots) and tons of characters (everyone got a cameo in it, etc), The Beast with a Billion Backs relies a bit more on a familiar kind of plot to show the kind of stories Futurama was all about.

The film looks as good as the previous one, most of the cast returned - Dan Castellaneta even got a little cameo in the form of the fan favorite Robot Devil.

The opening intro is also worth mentioning!
This time it's a Steamboat Willie homage! It perfectly mimics old classic black & white cartoon!


Overall, it was a pretty great film!

The dvd comes loaded with a few extras.
An audio commentary, storyboards, deleted scenes as usual.
PLUS!
Futurama: The Lost Adventure.  It is basically the story of the Futurama game repacked as a full episode for those who either missed or would like a 20-minutes refresh.
I really liked this idea, love this bonus!

Another fantastic entry, lots of fun, worth a look for Futurama fans and newcomers alike!

I give it:
2.5 / 3 Felixes!

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