Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs – DVD Review

DVD Reviews, Reviews

Futurama
Available at Amazon.com

Like so many other shows past and present on the Fox Network, Futurama was never given a solid chance. From the beginning it was clear that the network executives didn’t understand it, and didn’t give a quizblorg if it failed or succeeded, which was a shame because it was one of the funniest, most intelligent cartoons ever made. As galling as it is to see your favorite show canceled, it’s even more so when it’s so plainly good. And after four years of consistently creating great work, the show was consigned to the living death of syndication along with other cartoons like Family Guy.

But what should have been a death sentence for the show turned out to be its salvation. Channels like Cartoon Network and Comedy Central began showing reruns at more appropriate times when the crucial eighteen to thirty demographic would be watching. More importantly, though, was that the time slots remained relatively consistent. This allowed for the already loyal fan base to grow and the resulting upswing in ratings was high enough to make network executives consider giving Futurama another chance. This time it was Comedy Central who gave them the green light to make more episodes, and instead of the traditional method of making a show directly for air, Rough Draft Studios went another way and signed on for four direct-to-DVD features that would later be cut, reedited, and aired on Comedy Central as individual episodes.

Now I love Futurama with a passion normally reserved for family and religion, and I was just as excited as everyone else about the resurrection of my favorite cartoon, but I couldn’t help but feel just a little disappointed with the first movie, Bender’s Big Score. Overall I enjoyed it and have rewatched it at least once, but I had difficulties with the awkward pacing and the sections that seemed to drag on just a little too long. So I was a little hesitant about The Beast With a Billion Backs.

Shame on me for doubting.

While there were a couple of parts where I thought the pacing was a bit off, or the sheer amount of plot going on was almost overwhelming, it never got in the way of me completely enjoying this movie. This is ninety minutes of almost nonstop laughter and is almost as good as any Futurama episode.

I can’t say much about the plot without giving too much away, but the movie does begin right where Bender’s Big Score left off. The strain of having too many time-lost Benders in one place tore the universe a new space hole, and the Professor wins the right to examine the rift in space/time. I don’t want to ruin the rest of it, but rest assured that, as always, mayhem and hilarity ensue.


The movie is presented in 1.77:1 Widescreen aspect ratio, and it looks good. The animation is sharp, and the transitions between the traditional 2-D hand drawn and 3D computer generated styles are some of the smoothest I’ve seen. The audio is presented in Dolby Digital and like the video was top notch. The sounds were clear and the production made nice use of directionality.

Commentary by Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Billy West, John Di Maggio, Maurice LaMarche, Michael Rowe, Claudia Katz, Peter Avanzino, and Lee Supercinski
Most of the time I’ve found that commentary tracks are pretty much alike: there is a lot of self congratulation and boring technical talk, but this track is actually fun to listen to. Of course there are moments of self congratulation and technical talk, but the commentators can be very funny when going off on tangents or breaking into certain characters’ voices. Plus, I believe this is the only DVD commentary that mentions the death of Dungeons & Dragons creator Gary Gygax, and that has to count for something.

Futurama: The Lost Adventure (running time 30:11)
This is actually the FMVs from the 2003 video game reedited into a thirty minute pseudo episode, and the results are somewhat interesting. The story and dialogue are amusing, but the characters don’t look quite right as 3D models (except for Bender), and the moments when they had to integrate actual game play footage to connect the story points were jarring. Unless you’re just a huge Futurama fan, I’d recommend skipping this.

Storyboard Animatics (running time: 21:46)
This featurette shows the storyboard animatics for the first twenty-one minutes of the movie with the finished sound and dialogue tracks overlaid. This one is mainly for those who are extremely interested in the minutia of animation.

Deleted Scenes: Original Opening (running time: 00:50); Fry and Colleen Meeting (running time: 00:50); St. Asimov’s Parade (running time: 00:21); Zapp and Scientists (running time: 00:47); Amy, Fry, and Leela (running time: 00:24); Scruffy, The Janitor (running time: 00:29)
These deleted scenes range from the finished to animatics and storyboard layouts. They’re fairly amusing, but I can see why they were cut from the finished movie.

David Cross Featurette: Meet Yivo! (running time: 2:03)
A short, but funny feature where David Cross basically eats popcorn and says whatever pops into his mind to the camera.

Blooperama: The Futurama Cast at “Work” (running time: 2:12)
This is even more unstructured than the David Cross Featurette; it’s mainly just clips of Billy West, John Di Maggio, Katey Sagal, and the other voice actors reading their lines. I thought it was a little odd seeing the actors because I’ve some to associate their voices with those characters, but it was still fun to watch.

3D Models With Animation Discussion (running time: 4:11)
Like the Storyboard Animatics, this featurette will appeal to those who are really interested in animation; if you’re not, then I’d suggest moving on to another feature.

A Brief History of Deathball (running time: 2:02)
In this featurette, the director talks about the evolution of the designs for Deathball, from the costumes to the court itself. Again, this was a very technical extra.

Bender’s Game (running time: 2:01)
This is a sneak peek at the next Futurama movie, which is slated to come out in the latter half of 2008. It was difficult to get a handle on the plot, but it looks like quite a bit of the movie will take place in a D&Desque fantasy world, so I have high hopes.


Although it’s not quite as good as the old episodes, this movie is a significant step up from Bender’s Big Score, and will definitely be something I’ll watch again. It will be interesting to see how it will play once Comedy Central airs the acts as individual episodes, but this is good enough to go ahead and buy if you’re a fan of the show. Highly recommended.

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20th Century Fox presents Futurama: The Beast With a Billion Backs. Directed by Peter Avanzino. Starring Billy West, John Di Maggio, Katey Sagal, Brittany Murphy, Stephen Hawking, Tress MacNeille, and Lauren Tom. Written by Michael Rowe. Running time: 90 minutes. Rated Not Rated. Released on DVD: <June 24, 2008. Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs.