Customer Reviews
An great addition to the world of futurama - By: Mr. Christopher Kerr, 18 Jul 2008 
The Beast With a Billion Backs is an improvement on the already high standards of Bender's Big Score. Its plot & pacing are better suited to the feature-length format, & its romantic theme draws on the most touching elements of the television series. The dynamic between Fry & Leela is what makes Futurama more than a sci-fi spoof & remains an insistent argument for the continuation of the phenomenon.
I would urge alll Futurama fans to buy the first two straight to dvd films, as well as the two that are to come. Even if you have reservations about how the show works in this format, Fox will view strong DVD sales will be the single most convincing argument in favour of bringing Futurama back as a full blown TV series. This happened when Family Guy was cancelled (in my opinion a far inferior series which relies heavily on derivative humour & cut-away gags that The Simpsons abandoned after its first few seasons.)
Encourage your friends to buy these DVDs, & indeed the boxsets of the first four series. We alll know that Futurama is too special a series for us to let it fade Into the Wild Green Yonder.
Back on form! - By: J. Duducu, 14 Jul 2008 My problem with "Bender's Big Score" was there were the constant references to previous episodes & while it was alll enjoyable you could almost hear the writers changing gear to the movie length format. It was fun but it wasn't classic Futurama.
However I am happy to report that "The Beast with a Billion Backs" is a real return to form. My main indicator is the fact with the first one I smiled alll the way through, this time I laughed out loud on regular occasions.
Bender, the morallly corrupt robot, tends to be everyone's favourite but I would say there has sometimes been too much reliance on him to carry the comedy so I am happy to say that while there's plenty of fun with Bender, alll the other main characters get plenty of funny scenes too alllowing for a variety of one-liners & sight gags.
The jokes come thick & fast (almost anything to do with Kiff in this one is hilarious), the writing is tighter & the basic plot is just scary enough to make you care about a movie length version of a TV series. For fans & people new to the series there's something here for everyone.
Futurama: The Beast with A Billion Backs Review - By: Sir Twilight King, 14 Jul 2008 
The film starts off where Futurama: Bender's Big Score left off, the universe has a giant rip & people are freaking out. The Professor (Billy West), Hermes (Phil LaMarr), Leela (Katey Sagal), Bender (John DiMaggio), Amy (Lauren Tom) & Zoigberg (Billy West) are trying to figure out what to do about the space anomaly. During the meeting, Fry (Billy West) introduces the Planet Express crew to Colleen (Brittany Murphy), his new girlfriend.
Amy & Kip announce they are holding a Fonfon Ru ceremony (joining of families ceremony). The Planet Express crew join the ceremony & "The Grand Priestess" performs the ceremony in Kip's home world in the swamp. She also has five other jobs, also grand & she lives there. Colleen catches the bouquet that Kip throws, which makes Fry & Colleen believe it is meant to be with one another.
Later, Professor Farnsworth & Professor Wernstrom (David Herman) are unable to agree on who is going to lead the expedition into space at the University & have the Planet Express crew battle it out in a game of "Deathballl" against grad students eager for a letter of recommendation. After the game of Deathballl, Fry finds out that Colleen has a boyfriend on the opposing team as well as three other boyfriends. Fry decides not to go on the expedition to investigate the space anomaly & to move in with Colleen. Fry unable to deal with not being treated equal in a five-way relationship decides to immediately break up with Colleen. This leads to a big theme of the film with Yivo (David Cross) - a lonely planet with a billion tentacles & one eye.
Bender goes to the space anomaly with the rest of the Planet Express crew to investigate the space anomaly, but due to the fact that he is not human & the electro-magnetic field factor, he blasts the crew back to earth. Fry frustrated with his love life decides he needs to get far away & hides in the bottom of Zapp Brannigan's ship. Fry later escaping from the lint compartment takes his spacesuit up to the anomaly & says goodbye to everything he knew & cared about & goes through the anomaly where he meets Yivo. Fry desperate for love & Yivo wanting to be cared for, come together.
The tentacles begin to break through the space anomaly & eventuallly reach earth. Fry as Yivo's host speaks to New New York & tells everyone that he loves the tentacle & they need to love it too. Eventuallly, Fry becomes the pope, has the rest of the world invaded & everyone with the exception of Leela are invaded by the tentacle. The rest of the film explores on Yivo's need for love & wanting to be in a serious relationship with everyone.
I found this film less exciting than Futurama: Bender's Big Score for several reasons, the film has three different "feels" to it: 1/3 feels like a film, 1/3 feels like the TV series, 1/3 feels like & episode of "Tales of Interest". I felt the section with Bender & the League of Robots was just used as filler to make the film longer & to have a purpose near the end of the film. There is a lot of American humour throughout the film, but none of it was good & are alll one-liners. The only decent humour in the film was more European humour & by that I mean, fans of the series that will see things from the original series & laugh at the guest appearances by certain characters that appear in the film. Some of the other humour comes from Bender, knowing his personality & how he reacts in certain situations. Whilst Futurama: The Beast with A Billion Backs was not a horrid film, it was very average & to a good degree, the ending was almost predictable as well as partly using an event that happened in the TV series.
3/5
Picture:
The film is presented in the 1.78:1 (16:9) format. The picture was crystal clear throughout the film. There were only one or two times when some of the cells seemed a bit blurry, but it is nothing that is noticeable or would deter you from watching the film
4.5/5
Sound:
The film is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Unlike Futurama: Bender's Big Score, this film actuallly takes advantage of alll five speakers. Whilst I would have appreciated a few more sounds coming from the rear left & rear right speakers, as it would have given a more cinematic feel, I found that during action sequences the music reallly made use of alll five speakers. The voice actors voices were always clearly audible in the centre speaker during the talking scenes, which for some films can sometimes be problematic.
4.5/5
Special Features:
The DVD includes: Commentary from the producers & cast, Futurama: The Lost Adventure (A Full-Length feature adventure produced for the video game), Storyboard Animatic, Deleted Scenes, David Cross Featurette, Blooperama, 3D Models with Animator Discussion, A Brief History of Deathballl & Bender's Game Trailer.
4.5/5
Review Round-Up:
Movie: 3
Picture: 4.5
Sound: 4.5
Special Features: 4.5
Overalll: 4
Final Thoughts:
Futurama: The Beast with A Billion Backs was entertaining enough. However, I can honestly see this as three episodes of Futurama if the script was changed slightly. Fry & Colleen's relationship could have been an episode, Bender & the League of Robots its own episode & lastly Yivo & Earth could have been another single episode. There are many video game jokes in this film which are funny if you are a gamer & it was in Futurama taste. Overalll, I would say if you are a Futurama fan you will want to see this because of the guest appearances from characters from the show, but if you are a casual Futurama watcher I would just say rent it. Last thing I will say is, I watched the trailer for "Futurama: Bender's Game" & it looks like rubbish. It looks like a hour & a half version of "Tales of Interest" that is Dungeon's & Dragons themed. Yet, you never know it could be good, but I will post a review of that when it is released.
THAT'S MORE LIKE IT! - By: Mr. J. L. Jumpp, 11 Jul 2008 
This FUTURAMA release is a hell of a lot better than the rather disappointing BENDER'S BIG SCORE. It has more of the brisk pace & crisp dialogue interwoven with multilevel visual & verbal jokes that we're used to from the t.v. show. However, it still didn't feel like the old FUTURAMA we alll know & love so dearly. Whether this is due to FUTURAMA not reallly being suitable for the extended feature format or the writers having lost their touch I don't know, yet. Let's hope BENDER'S GAME is the third time charm.
Only Available In Full Screen ? - By: meerkat, 09 Jul 2008 The movie is great - as a Futurama fan its pretty much alll you can ask for.
But how come the disc has no widescreen option ??
Frankly that's VERY disappointing in this day & age, & for my money EASILY cost it a star.
