Posted on: July 17, 2008 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

“Beast With A Billion Backs” is the second of four different movie-length shows that are to be released by Fox in the next year or so. The movie starts off with Bender tearing a hole in the universe, to which the crew of the Planet Express move on with their lives. This means that Kif and Amy are finally married, and Fry is able to move beyond Leela and get fairly serious with Colleen. Professors Farnsworth and Wernstrom are striving to be the first to investigate this tear, and ultimately decide to play for it. Farnsworth wins, and sends Bender to properly take data and understand the hole. Bender’s touch creates a wave that allows Yivo, a many-tentacled creature, to start inserting its tentacles into the other (Futurama-universe) side of the anomaly.

Ultimately, Yivo finds love in the polyamorous Colleen, and things are quickly brought back to order. Other sub-plots, such as Bender’s initiation and later leading the League of Robots, make for a compelling, fun, and interesting mini-movie. Furthermore, the voice work of the guest stars (David Cross as Yivo, Brittany Murphy as Colleen) is stellar, making for characters that seem normal compared to the ragtag Planet Express crew. There are a few extra features which viewers can properly sink their teeth into, of which the commentary has to be the best of all of these. This allows viewers to see exactly what influenced the creators to create this story line in such a way, and how exactly the events in the movie fit in with the larger Futurama universe.

Deleted scenes give a fuller feel to the film, while the footage that was originally intended for the (now-canceled) Futurama game. Finally, the trailer for “Bender’s Game” may just be the most valuable added feature to “Beast With A Billion Backs”, giving viewers a first look into the third film in the Futurama film quartet. “Bender’s Game” is set to come out towards the holidays, and the footage seems to take a much different tack than the previous two films have taken. Overall, the plot of Beast With A Billion Backs is much more interesting than Bender’s Big Score, which seemed to fall a little flat. The quality of Beast With A Billion Backs is such that fans of the show and of this film should eagerly anticipate “Bender’s Game”.

Rating: 7.4/10

Futurama: Beast With A Billion Backs / 2008 Fox / 89 Minutes / http://www.futurama.com / http://www.fox.com /

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