Review of Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder (2009) by Connor H — 15 Jun 2010

Futurama is quite possibly the best tv show ever created. In my opinion it even beats out The Simpsons. But alas, the show was cancelled some years back. Futurama fans, like me, were devestated and forced to watch previous episodes over and over again. But it just didn't stay dead! In 2007 it was announced that there were going to be 4 straight to dvd films that would make up the 5th season. I was ecstatic. However, the public's opinion on the previous 3 has been relatively mixed. Benders Big Score was considered the best of the bunch but Beast with a Billion Backs and Bender's Game were generally looked at as inferrior to the rest of the series. I personally really liked all three, but I can understand where these complaints are coming from. But now, the final Futurama DVD, and possibly the last we'll see of the show, has now been released. Titled, Into The Wild Green Yonder, the latest hopes to end the series with a bang. Does it?

The story, like the other films, has many different plots going on at once. Fry gains the ability to read minds and joins a group of people called Madmen that are intent on stopping the "Dark Ones" and Fry may be the solution. Leela joins an environmental group to stop the destruction of a purple star while Bender falls for the mafia bot's wife. There is plenty more to it then just all that of course and it is very cool to see how the plots intertwine with one another. Unfortunately, some plot points just seem to go nowhere. Bender's love for the Mafia bot's wife is entertaining but disappears after the first 30 minutes. In fact, she is never mentioned again in the movie! This is probobly due to the fact that the movie is basically four episodes with an interconnecting story. Don't worry though, the rest of the story is great and the movie ends nicely.

Now what about the humor? Fans will be glad to know that most of the randomness that dumbed down the previous two films is absent. There are a few random and dumb jokes throughout the movie, but they are overshadowed by the rest of the hilarious jokes in the film. Yep, this Futurama movie is probobly the funniest of the four. And while Bender's Big Score had a much sweeter story to it, this one has some great moments between Fry and his love intrest Leela.

Like the others, the film is great looking with crisp animation that is almost theater quality. The CG effects look great and blend in with the rest of the 2D world. The features on the dvd are pretty cool to such as a mockumentry and various other featurettes. They're nothing special, but they are great extras to a great movie.

Overall, I can't really think of much to complain about. A couple dumb jokes and a couple plots that go nowhere are overshadowed by the rest of the epic storyline, hilarious jokes, and some sweet and tender moments. This is the best of the Futurama movies and hopefully there will be more (the end doesn't exactly complete the series) but if there isn't, this film is a great way to end the best series of all time.