Review of Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder (2009) by Harry W — 06 Oct 2014

The final entry into the series of direct-to-DVD Futurama movies, Into the Wild Green Yonder.

With Into the Wild Green Yonder, the animation of the series is as good as ever and the characters are still hilarious so it follows on the nature of the television series but incorporates more thought into itself this time around with a plot which takes itself very seriously. It may not be the funniest of the films, but it is certainly the most clever and original.

The script in Into the Wild Green Yonder is very original. It deals with serious issues such as gender politics and the destruction of the environment at the hands of corrupt corporations, and it plays it out for both comic effect and sentimental value in terms of how it affects the characters and the relationships shared between them, in particular the way that it nudges towards the relationship between Fry and Leela. It has a good story with a lot of strong underlying concepts and a funny script which moves along at a good pace and explores a lot of new themes as it progresses towards the ending which finishes on a cliffhanger and intrigues viewers as to what happens next. It also features a cameo of Snoop Dogg which is a nice touch to the humour.

One of the most original comic virties in Into the Wild Green Yonder is the satire on modern day feminism, particularly in the way that the eco-feminists of the story use a lot of puns which incoprorate women into simple words, ranging from turning communicate into "femmunicate" or gyroscope into "vagyroscope". In a world where people on social media sites such as Tumblr are burdened by words such as "mansplaining" created by the modern day feminist movement, Into the Wild Green Yonder makes excellent social commentray. And when it pokes fun at the senselessly sexist nature of Leo Wong as well as some anecdotes about many of the male characters' determination to make everything larger as an allegory for penis size compensation. Essentially, Into the Wild Green Yonder makes a clever satire of the mysoginist stereotype as well as radical modern feminism, so it maintains more meaning than the average Futurama episode or direct to DVD movie which makes it a very original piece or entertainment.

So thanks to the same charm as the television series with the addition of intelligent social commentary and a satire of sexism, Into the Wild Green Yonder ups the ante for the standard of Futurama and serves as another worthy finale for the Direct-to-DVD films.