Review of Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs (2008) by The A — 04 Aug 2014

Another direct to DVD sequel to the great animated series Futurama, The Beast With a Billion Backs was key to see how the Futurama saga turned out.

Playing right off the back of Bender's Big Score, The Beast With a Billion Backs continues the story precisely where the last one left off. It ends up on another zany science fiction story, this time up on an apocalyptic scale which ranges from exploring concepts of romance to religion and segregation of society. Certain elements of the film are disgusting, particularly the character Yivo plunging his its tentacles into everybody. A feature length tale about a gigantic alien octopus rapist is a new to the series, and it is on an all new level of ridiculousness for the series. Admittedly, The Beast With a Billion Backs is my least favourite film of the direct to DVD Futurama film series mainly because the concept is so ridiculous and takes itself very seriously in exploring its themes instead of turning them in for the cheap laughs that they should be, not to mention the fact that it is seriously disgusting. The more than you really think about the plot, the worse it gets. But still, considering the general charm of the characters of the Futurama universe and the colourful animation of the film, The Beast With a Billion Backs has enough strength to appeal to fans. Although as a big fan of Futurama even I found that there were a lot more flaws in The Beast With a Billion Backs than in the many other films, but I still enjoyed it.

Although the jokes in The Beast With a Billion Backs were not in a high enough quantity as they usually should have been, the characters in the film are voiced with a talented cast so that the energy in the film is all there. The voice of newcomer David Cross is a nice touch for the role of Yivo because he delivers his lines cleverly enough with emotional passion in that part even though he is portraying a perverted intergalactic octopus. So the technical aspects of The Beast With a Billion Backs seem to be up par once again. The only problem is that the film is so busy focusing on the ridiculous nature of the story that it puts less emphasis on the great anecdotes of all the characters which made Futurama great. The Beast With a Billion Backs is scattered in focus because there are many central plots but a surplus of characters as well. While some of the plot points make interesting points, but I don't really watch Futurama to learn, I watch it to laugh. That was one of the things about the film that I found less favourable.

The animation of the film is all very colourful as well and has some good three-dimensional moments, although the excess of pink tentacles may render it less appealing. The preceding film Bender's Big Score did face the similar element of pink nudist aliens with their own disgusting elements, but The Beast With a Billion Backs set that as a challenge and took it to all new heights. But in all it has the same kind of colour and detail that the other films and episodes of the television series.

So The Beast With a Billion Backs has the strength to appeal to fans of the television series, and although some of the plot points and visual elements are rather disgusting while the film is too focused on telling its story to remember to put enough jokes in, it still has enough of the charm that its characters bring to it to entertain fans of the franchise.