Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs

I just picked the DVD up this morning, and viewed it as well as most of the extras so I figured I'd give my impressions. Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs is the second direct to DVD Futurama film; and continues directly after the first film, Bender's Big Score. And like the previous movie, this too comes in a "carbon neutral" case, though this case lacks a window or shiny plastic so its actually much sturdier. But how's the movie hold up?

To me the funniest part was actually the opening sequence, which plays on the traditional sequence in warped way. The movie it self has its moments, but it doesn't seem to hold itself together as much as Bender's Big Score did. There are alot of useless parts to the story, and the main focus of the film, David Cross' Yivo character, never really seems to get that much attention. Not to say the movie is bad, if you're a fan you will certainly enjoy this, but it doesn't seem to do the series as much justice as it could have. But that's just my thoughts.

Also on the disc is Futurama: The Lost Episode, which is actually made up of in-game cutscenes and gameplay footage from the Futurama video game released on Playstation 2 a few years back. For what it's worth its not all that bad, anbd clocks up to the length ofa normal episode. Other features include commentary for both the movie and the Lost Episode; Storyboards, Deleted Scenes (storyboard, animatic, full color); a David Cross featrurette; Cast Blooper Reel; 3-D Models; A Brief History of Deathball; anda trailer for the next film, Bender's Game.

If you're a Futurama fan, you'll definitely need to pick this up, as you're probably one that requires all released footage of the show. But if your a casual fan, see if you can rent this or wait for Comedy Central to air it (and maybe botch it up while they're at it). After seeing the Bender's Game trailer though, I think the next film is going to be much more fan oriented, as it's clearly targeted to the nerd crowd.

Overall Score - 7.5/10