To me, this movie is perfection.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Finding a balance between comic invention and sci-fi nonsense has been the pinnacle of TV's very funny "Futurama", and according to the show creator Matt Groening, this is a balance that the execs at the FOX network never understood. That explains why this inventive hit show was dumped in 1999 after only 72 episodes. The network didn't understand this show but the legions of fans sure did. Beginning in 2003, the show was given new life thanks to a highly rated string of reruns on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup which ran nearly as long as the show's original run. There are those still hoping that its popularity in reruns will bring about new episodes just like FOX's other briefly canceled hit "Family Guy".There is no series rebirth of Futurama yet but fans were delighted when a series of straight-to-DVD feature films began appearing last Christmas. Proposed to be a four-part series, it began with the ambitious Futurama: Bender's Big Score, a time-twisty two-hour movie in which the Planet Express crew had to save earth from a trio of nudist alien scam artists who used a time sphere to steal artifacts from history. The cleverly written story sent Bender and Fry back and forth in history through a plot so complicated that even the writers are at a loss to explain it. It ended, I was happy to discover, with a cliff-hanger as the universe ripped itself open as Bender informs us "Well, we're boned!" Now, here we are at Part 2, with the ungainly title "The Beast With a Billion Backs" and this one doesn't have the spark of the earlier movie. It begins by attempting to tie up that space-rip problem as Stephen Hawking teams Professor Farnsworth and his super-centenarian arch-enemy Ogden Wernstrom to figure out the problem. Meanwhile, Fry attempts to deal with his new girlfriend Colleen (voiced by Britney Murphy) and her quartet of other boyfriends. When he finally decides, after weeks, that he can't compete with four other guys he decides to float himself to the space anomaly and end and it all. Unfortunately, he returns to earth hooked to an alien tentacle (which is hooked to a planet sized entity, voice by David Cross) and proclaims a new religion. That tentacle attaches itself to the inhabitants of this planet, pumps them full of good feeling and effectively begins "dating" humanity. Believe me, it gets worse.I haven't even begun to scratch the surface of this bizarre plot, suffice to say that even hard-core Futurama fans (which includes yours truly) will find it a bit much to take. That would be okay if the jokes worked but I am sorry to report that many of them don't. As a show and as a feature film, Futurama succeeds at throwing a joke or a sight-gag at us at the rate of about three every ten seconds so that even if you laugh 25% of the time, you still enjoy yourself. Futurama: The Beast With a Billion Backs has enough creative energy for ten movies and a plot that would leave Roger Corman baffled.** (of four)

A number of fans on various websites talking about today's feature were disappointed when comparing it to Bender's Big Score and while I disagree, which will be explained later, I can see why; the premise is unconventional, it does not have an immediate lasting impression and it did lack the laugh-out-loud humour we've come to expect. It was a gargantuan premise dealing with themes that can feel like retreads when looking at Futurama's history. This is Beast with a Billion Backs.Plot: At the end of the last movie, a tear in the universes has been opened and been dubbed an 'anomaly'. The Planet Express crew go to investigate, Kif and Amy get married and Fry begins a relationship with Colleen (Brittany Murphy), who also has 4 other boyfriends. Fry is unhappy with the polyamory so he ventures through the anomaly to discover a colossal, one-eyed multi-tentacle beast named Yivo. The tentacles attack everyone in this universe, with anyone who is attacked by one to utter "Love the tentacle". This worship results in Fry becoming Pope of this new-found religion, discovering the tentacles are its genitals and our universe is hoping to move in with Yivo.The writing staff of Futurama/Simpsons have both liberal and conservative members and this can be a refreshing change with liberal messaging shows like South Park and American Dad! for it presents many ideas, issues and themes from both perspectives and never gives a final stance, but more for the audience to decide. So, the major theme here is love. While others will have a final message, what Beast with a Billion Backs does is not have a preachy message at the end but present various pros & cons on various factors within love. For example, Colleen explains to Fry that no one man can satisfy her for she has too much love to give and needs much love in return; their entire relationship has the positives which is overall satisfaction for her and the understanding of the first 4 boyfriends, but the discomfort Fry ultimately suffers. He does eventually understand her after meeting Yivo. Another example is Bender's actions and speech about the dark-side of love, saying its greedy, selfish and vengeful. It has no finale in its message on how the team views love but simply various examples and ideas on what some of them may think/feel about love. Both liberal and conservative views presented here without besmirching the other.The only theme it failed to explore at all was religion, which could have given way to vast exploration but seeing as it's a sensitive subject that Futurama are not known for tackling or challenging, I think this was wise move. Plus, the vastness of the unanswerable love query was explored brilliantly enough and this could have cluttered the film.In response to it being unconventional premise is something I disagree; they have explored relationships in prior episodes but it was focused mainly, not exclusively, on Fry and Leela, including Bender's Big Score. It's great to see the team bring this onto a bigger scale, venture beyond The Planet Express crew and see it be both comforting and destructive.In response to not having an immediate lasting impression...it is a film that may require multiple viewings to appreciate the phenomenal and creative writing. After the first film, many thought it would remain daft and silly with the emotional serious tones being centred around Fry, but here, they expand it to the whole universe and I personally felt the heartbreak at the end, ending on such a bittersweet note.The humour is lacking, however, with laughs being few and far between; the only moments I remember were from Stephen Hawking and Zapp Brannigan. The jokes were much more visual than prior, which I'm not sure the reason for this creative choice but this isn't entirely foreign to Futurama; it just seemed more focused there than on the dialogue.Beast with a Billion Backs is a fantastic follow-up to the first, linking the two seamlessly and pushing Futurama forward. While the jokes are lacklustre, its concept was bold and it continues taking advantage that in the future, anything can happen.More reviews at anyfilmaday.blogspot.co.uk

I found it pretty amusing and rather bold but then Futurama thrives on surprises. It's definitely the most disgusting Futurama episode/movie with lots of gross-out moments but I mean that in a complimentary way. I would also say that it's also the most romantic and epic but then again in a very unconventional humorous way. One of the best most darkly humored moments was Bender's secret at the end which I won't spoil for you. :) The voice acting was its usual great and the animation was fine especially with all those tentacles. I liked the extras especially the 30 minutes featurette showing the story cinematics from the Futurama video game.Rating: 7 out of 10

I have mixed feelings about the new "season" of Futurama being released first as a multi-episode mesh of a straight-to-DVD movie and then chopped up into three separate episodes. I enjoy getting all the goods at once. However, I feel like I'm being tricked into thinking that three distinctly different episodes are actually one movie.This "movie" is three very distinctly different episodes. There is the one that gives the movie its title. A beast from another dimension comes through a rip in space and wants to love everyone on Earth. There is a second episode in which Fry falls in love with a woman who has multiple boyfriends. In the third episode, Bender joins a secret robot club that has the motto, "Kill All Humans." Bender's episode was the best, primarily because it featured Bender. The jokes are frequent and well-timed, as expected from Futurama. The beast episode spent most of its humor in representing Fry as an intelligent leader of a new religion. However, Fry's episode was sappy and lacking in much humor. This is all to be expected. Take any season of Futurama and you'll find Bender-focused episodes to be full of great jokes. Other episodes are either funny or sappy (rarely a lot of both). By combining all three of these stereotypical Futurama episodes into a single movie, you will get a good dose of whatever you prefer - as long as it isn't Dr. Zoidberg (who had an abnormally small role in the movie).