DVD Review: 'Futurama: Beast With a Billion Backs'

WHEN FOX RESURRECTED "FAMILY GUY" from the dead in 2005, it opened up a window for other canceled shows to jump through. The first to reemerge was another Fox and Adult Swim staple, "Futurama."

After Fox effectively canned "Futurama" in 2003, the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim began airing the show's repeats and the show — with the help of DVD sales — became a cult favorite, just like "Family Guy" before it. Then, in 2005, a bidding war emerged for "Futurama" repeats and potential new episodes, with Comedy Central winning out.

But while "Family Guy" has relied on the same old tricks since its re-emergence, "Futurama" creator Matt Groening decided to try something new: Instead of returning to the traditional season format, Groening went with direct-to-DVD films, which would then be recut and edited into 16 regular episodes for broadcast on Comedy Central.

This clever move has helped the revived "Futurama" not be a caricature of its former self, at least for the time being — something you can't say about "Family Guy."

Last year, the first of four films, "Futurama: Bender's Big Score," was released and its episodes aired on Comedy Central this spring. Last Tuesday, the second installment, "Futurama: Beast With a Billion Backs," hit retail shelves.

"Beast" actually picks off where the "Big Score" left off, and it's refreshing to see how this film format is pushing the writers and creative team to try something different by continuing a long-running narrative. The movie starts with a "previously on," which shows the anomaly — a tear in the universe — that Bender (voiced by John Di Maggio) created in "Big Score." The world is amazed by the anomaly, and no one knows what to do. So, it's up to the Professor (Billy West) and the Planet Express crew to investigate. What follows is a 90-minute adventure featuring most of "Futurama's" staple cast and some new additions in a seemingly stream-of-consciousness narrative that somehow manages to link together.

What "Beast" attempts to do — as did "Big Score" — is try to connect several different larger stories together. Fry (West), Bender and Leela (Katy Segal) with the rest of Planet Express all have different stories that intertwine, yet the three main characters don't share a great deal of screen time together. It mostly works, though at times "Beast" can get convoluted, as if there were too many ideas to fit but the writers put them all in anyway.

The main story involves Fry breaking up with his new girlfriend, Colleen (Brittany Murphy), because she's polygamous. Feeling alone and depressed, Fry decides to travel to the anomaly, which turns out to be a portal to another universe. But this universe isn't like ours: It has a name, (Yivo), a voice (David Cross) and it's lonely.

What follows is a fairly perceptive commentary on love, religion and politics.

"Beast's" biggest flaw is its length. While the first hour is engaging and entertaining, the final half hour drags. But this one also leaves a much easier place for the next film to pick up — and it doesn't end nearly as open-ended as "Big Score" did.

Even though "Futurama: Beast with a Billion Backs" doesn't represent the best of the "Futurama" series, it's an admirable attempt at doing something new with a cartoon franchise. After doing five seasons of "Futurama" — and 19 of "The Simpsons" — you have to admire Groening for trying to keep things fresh.

Written by Express contributor Rudi Greenberg

Image courtesy 20th Century Fox