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Futurama - The Beast with a Billion Backs [2008]

Director: Peter Avanzino
Actors: Billy West, Katey Sagal
Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Category: DVD

List Price: ~~Ł15.99~~
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Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

16 reviews
Sales Rank: 3

Format: Pal
Rating: To Be Announced
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 85
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.7

EAN: 5039036037709
ASIN: B0015FNMN6

Theatrical Release Date: 2008
Release Date: June 30, 2008 (New: This Week)
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.co.uk Review
The latest feature-length DVD spin-off from Matt Groening's terrific Futurama, The Beast With The Billion Backs picks up directly after the recent Bender's Big Score, and the momentum and fun from that production comes along with it.

The story of The Beast With The Billion Backs follows, as you may have guessed from the title, the arrival of a strange creature on Earth. Said creature then takes control of Fry, who becomes the Pope of a brand new religion that soon begins to exert its grip on the planet. And without giving too much away, the panic and paranoia becomes just one part of an ambitious animated adventure, that makes a fair few points among its many, many laughs.

The good news for fans of Futurama is that The Beast With The Billion Backs really delivers, with more guffaws and a better all-round script than the mightily enjoyable Bender's Big Score. It's not without the odd problem, and still doesn't quite manage to match the highs of the TV show at its finest, but it's a very welcome fresh addition to the Futurama universe.

Two further direct-to-DVD movies are in the works at the time of this review being written, and with them comes continued hope for a full-on revival of one of the funniest animated programmes of the past ten years. It may not make suitable family viewing, but Futurama is brilliant television, and The Beast With A Billion Backs offers plenty of evidence as to why. Strongly recommended. --Jon Foster

Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...

3 out of 5 stars

Flawed Chapter in Futurama Revival July 3, 2008
Just watched this and I have to agree with the reviewers who feel it is not up to the quality of Big Score or indeed the better moments from the TV series. Okay it's animation and zany at that so I'm not expecting things to make a whole lot of sense or a sweeping denouement, but the plot just seemed lacking and the finale half hearted. In fact, I started to nod off during the last 20 minutes, the story was just not holding my attention.

Kudos to Matt Groening for bringing back Futurama, which has always been his labour of love as opposed to the Simpsons, but the writers and producers seem to have taken their foot off the gas on this one. Let's hope they can return to form with the next one.

Part of the problem is the long gap between the TV series and the movie revival - things have moved on as has the audience, to an extent. The Futurama series were (for the most part) that good, they really can't be improved on. An issue that to some extent also afflicted the recent attempt to revive Babylon 5.

Trivia note: David Cross who voices Yivo, the tentacled creature, may be familiar to some as the same voice actor who voiced the nerdy Zero in GTA: San Andreas.

4 out of 5 stars

Good but not as good as the series July 2, 2008
This is the second of four feature-length adventures from Futurama and I must say that although it is still funny and greatly entertaining, it is still not as good as the series. In this film a special rift has appeared above Earth and the Planet Express crew must investigate the anomaly while dealing with a number of personal issues.

The Beast with a Billion Backs shows all the usual writing proficiency that has always been a feature of Futurama in all its incarnations, never being anything other than brilliant throughout. As well as this the animation and the vocal cast are all as good as you would expect from the show but for some reason it just doesn't seem to come across as good as it could be.

This is not to say that the film is without its moments and there are many scenes here that would probably rate as some of the best in the shows entire run, it just doesn't seem to excite as much it should. The Beast with a Billion Backs is a good film that will be greatly enjoyed by any true Futurama fan, it is just that it could have been a lot better.

4 out of 5 stars

Beter than Bender's Big Score July 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

It doesn't come to as a surprise that 'Futurama' only gets better, & this is a prime example. Ignore the haters who whine this is unfunny, wished it was still cancelled & trying to nitpick any possible plotholes. I can assure you, there's NOTHING to complain about. In fact, there are plenty of little jokes that get you giggling if not bursting in tears of laughter. Continuity & errors I didn't spot any (I'm 1 of many loyal 'Futurama' fans, so if I didn't see any problems, then I assure you everything is in order).

Why did I gave this DVD 4 stars instead of 5 if there's nothing to complain about? Well, I'm sure the 3rd & the 4th film only gets better. Like I said on 'Bender's Big Score' (which I gave it a 3 stars rating), rating too high doesn't do any justice if the future films are much superior.

Lets get a lowdown on the story (I won't be as descriptive as other reviews, otherwise I might just tell the whole plot & spoil you all): This follows the events that concluded in 'Bender's Big Score', where the people of earth try to solve the rip in the universe problem. Meanwhile, Fry is dating Colleen (voiced by Brittany Murphy) who causes a unique relationship problem with Fry. Bender joins a robot club & tentacles (so it would seem) attack all the citizens in the universe.

This may come to as a spoiler, but this movie ties in perfectly with the 1st installent, it doesn't conclude anything for the 3rd film, so everything is solved within 80+ mins.

The special featurettes includes:

- Audio commentary
- 'Futurama: The Lost Adventure' (if you've played 'Futurama: The Game' back in 2003, it's just the cutscenes from the VG converted into 1 episode - nothing new, plus there's audio commentary - 30mins)
- Storyboard animatic (20+ mins)
- Deleted scenes (some are draft drawings & some are fully coloured but got cut out on the last minute I presume - 3mins)
- David Cross Featurette (a moment with David, who voiced the tentacles - 2+ mins)
- Blooperama (by far my fave featurette, you get to see behind the scenes of the main 'Futurama' casts doing their lines - obviously screwing up & enjoying each others company - 2+ mins)
- 3D models with animator discussion (3mins)
- A brief history of deathball (1+ min)
- 'Bender's Game' (a sneak peek at the 3rd film, this time it's fully animated & in colour - 2mins)

I totally enjoyed this film, if you like 'Bender's Big Score' you'll definitely like this film a bit more, the only thing that's missing that the 1st film had was a heart warming moment. However there are plenty other emotions this movie can trigger, laughter, repulsion, disgust, depression, annoyance (btw it may seem like I'm bashing, but I'm not, the movie does cause these emotions, trust me!). Most comedic moments really comes from Bender & Zapp, both near their best. It's also a nice touch that the film included a spoof on another popular movie; 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest'.

4 out of 5 stars

Looser & Funnier than Bender's Big Score July 2, 2008
I found this a lot more entertaining than Bender's Big Score. The 'plot' is complete nonsense, but then what do you expect? And there are a lot more laughs than in BBS (which got too bogged down in plot detail). There are also a lot less self-referrential cameos & suchlike, which will make this a lot more accessible to new audiences or occasional Futurama viewers. The story doesn't quite hang together, & there are a few plot points that don't really get resolved properly at the end, but it feels more like an old-style episode of Futurama than Bender's Big Score did.

Also I adore the little black & white skit at the beginning, which shows the Planet Express crew in a '20s Steamboat Willie type cartoon with a jaunty whistled version of the Futurama tune.

Oh, and Fry's new girlfriend is hot. & I don't usually say that about a cartoon.

The DVD has a trailer for the next one, Bender's Game, due out this Christmas, which promises lots of Lord of the Rings and Dungeons & Dragons based humour. Could be good . . .

5 out of 5 stars

Probably even better than the last June 30, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

I was laughing constantly throughout watching this. The funny bits come at regular intervals, and I don't understand those reviews that have said there were too few of them, perhaps they just don't like/get the humour? I would like to remind naysayers in particular of the science conference scene which floored me with the stream of fantastic lines, and of course, most other scenes are no different. These lines are all in the futurama vein that we know and love of surrealism, linguistic oddities (usually from Fry) and general stupidity.

The differences between this and the last film are as follows: there was no seriousness or tearjerking to it, allowing for greater laughability but not being detrimental to the film. The plot wasn't as intricate as the last and wouldn't 'confuse' you if you got confused by BBS and consists only of the main story and a couple of linked sub-stories. Unfortunately, there is a lack of nerdish science, maths and Star Wars references that were so abundant in BBS, but this is the film's only week point.

A host of new characters, objects, events (for example, deathball) and rules to the Futurama universe develop our knowledge and make this a truly worthy edition to the Futurama saga. An abundance of extras as well proves this dvd to be of very reasonable value and Futurama votary or not, there is no reason you shouldn't add this to your collection. NO REASON.