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'Futurama - The Beast with a Billion Backs [2008]' starring Billy West and directed by Peter Avanzino. (StaEAN 5039036037709)

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

Strange..... for some reason, I liked this a lot better than Benders big score (BBS). Looking at the other reviews, most people rate the 2 feature length episodes the other way around. For me, this was back to the Futurama I love, didn't find it too long or fragmented like BBS, and no gripes at the network (MY major gripe about BBS). For me this was a good movie... enjoyed it a lot. 4 not 5 stars as there could have been a few more belly laughs.

futurama, the science fiction cartoon brought to you by those who made the simpsons, returns for another tv movie. like the first one in this range, bender's big score, it's actually four episodes that form one long story joined together in one long 85 minute movie.

and anyone who says it's not funny is absolutely right. because it's not funny. It's absolutely hilarious!

slightly better paced as a movie than bender's big score, the jokes just keep coming and the pace never lets up for eighty five minutes as a result. and very very funny these jokes are. the film follows on directly from the cliffhanger ending of bender's big score, but you don't need to have watched that in order to get into this.

the story involves several of the characters falling into relationships, whilst others go on an expedition to a spatial anomaly that leads through to another universe. and what lies beyond will have an effect on the entire human race...

the disc allows you direct scene access, and subtitles in danish finnish norwegian swedish and english. english is the only language track available.

extras wise this isn't quite as good as bender's big score, the vast majority of them being features about the animation. and whether you'll enjoy those depends on how interested you are in such things.

you see the entire first quarter of the film in storyboard form, running twenty two minutes.

there are also short features on the 3d models used in the animation, and the design of the deathball stadium seen in it.

there's a short feature on the character of yivo and the voiceover artist who does his voice, which is quite fun.

a handful of deleted scenes, done in storyboard form, all of which are very funny.

a trailer for bender's game, the next in the series which is out in november.

and one absolute gem: futurama, the lost adventure. a few years back there was a futurama computer game, and this is all the linked scenes from the game that form a story on their own, with occasional shots of the game in the middle. running the length of a usual episode it's very funny, and contains a killer final twist. the animation style is rather different to the tv show and is, as they say on it, 3D. SORT OF. but it's quite nice to look at.

commentaries for this and the main film from the cast and crew are also on the disc.

and for an easter egg go to the special features menu and click on where it says globo scope and you'll see an image of a certain item that appears in the movie. there's nothing more to it than that, though.

but all in all, a great futurama movie and not a bad package for it. can't wait for the next one.

The plot of this feature length Futurama episode is no where near as intelligent as "Bender's Big Score" but it is just as enjoyable and possibly slightly more humourous ("Bender's Big Score" wasn't big on laughs). The funniest part for me was Destructor's line "MY LEG FEELS FUNNY!" this was back to the old almost unexplained hilarity of Futurama.

However, the storyline is generally quite gross, which wouldn't bother everyone, but if you only like Futurama's really intelligent brand of humour, this is not for you.

The special features are brilliant, particularly the animated trailer for "An Inconvenient Truth" and the epidode comprised of all the cut scenes from the old Futurama videogame, a real must have for any Futurama collection.

Overall, I would say that this is brilliant for Futurama fans, it may not be as good as the series, but this is only because of the nature of the format.

I made the same mistake with this one as I did the last. I watched it the whole way through and came away thinking it was dreadful. Now, after watching it in 20 mins clips (as 4 episodes rather than a movie) I must confess....it is as good as the TV shows.

With Bender taking over Earth, Fry becoming pope of a new religion....this cannot be missed for a futurama fan...

gotta wait till Nov now for the next 1

This and "Benders Big Score" where such a let down for me. I'm a huge fan of the TV series and was looking forward to these feature length films. But all the writers have managed to do is mess up the characters and storylines created by the excellent TV series. All the jokes have been taken from the series. The storylines are weak and they just drag on and on.

I wish they never bothered