Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder (2009) (V)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Peter Avanzino

Writers:

Matt Groening (creator)
Matt Groening (developer) ...

Release Date:

24 February 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Comedy | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

All the other galaxies will be green with envy!

Plot:

Dark forces older than time itself are on the attack, hell-bent on stopping the dawn of a wondrous new green age...

Plot Keywords:

Women In Prison | Feminist Group | Adult Animation | Megaphone | Robot

Cast

Billy West	...	Philip J. Fry / Professor Hubert Farnsworth / Dr. Zoidberg / Leo Wong / Poker Sign-Up Clerk / Leo's Caddy / President Richard Nixon / Miniture Gold Construction Worker / Zapp Brannigan / The Dark One's Psychic Voice / Antonin Scalia's Head / Madfellow / Striped Biologist Taunter (voice)
Katey Sagal	...	Turanga Leela (voice)
John Di Maggio	...	Bender / Joey Mousepad / Elzar / Sal / Additional Voices (voice)
Tress MacNeille	...	Fanny / Michael's Wife / Boobs Vanderbilt / Dixie / Linda / Petunia / Ruth Ginsberg's Head / Mom (voice)
Maurice LaMarche	...	Donbot / Clamps / Fanny's Announcer / Tex Connecticut / Lrrr / Lrrr's Father / Headless Body of Agnew / Morbo / Kif Kroker / Narrator / Abe Lincoln / Calculon (voice)
Phil LaMarr	...	Hermes Conrad / Magna-Phallix Commercial Voice-Over / Nixon's Bodyguard / Thomas / The Dark One / Preacherbot (voice)
Lauren Tom	...	Amy Wong / Inez Wong / Trixie (voice)
David Herman	...	The Number 9 Man / Michael / Neputnian (voice)
Dawnn Lewis	...	LaBarbara Conrad / Womens' Prison Warden (voice)
Snoop Dogg	...	Himself (voice)
Phil Hendrie	...	Frida Waterfall / Hutch Waterfall / The Encyclopod (voice)
Seth MacFarlane	...	Mars Vegas Singer (voice)
Penn Jillette	...	Himself (voice) (as Penn & Teller)
Teller	...	Himself (credit only) (as Penn & Teller)

Also Known As:

Into the Wild Green Yonder (Australia)
The Futurama Movie 4 (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

89 min (DVD version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Certification:

Australia:PG | Argentina:13 | Singapore:PG | Netherlands:6 | UK:12 | Ireland:12

Company:

20th Century Fox Television

Trivia:

Calculon can be heard rehearsing his acceptance speech, thanking his operating system 'Windows 7', before malfunctioning. This is a reference to the difficulties many users face when using Microsoft OS's.

Goofs:

Continuity: Bender's feminista mask disappears in one shot and then reappears in the next shot towards the end of the movie.

Quotes:

Bender: [First lines] Mars Vegas, the eternal city.
Leo Wong: [Leo Wong pushes a TNT plunger that destroys the entire city] Two, one, zero!
Bender: Rest in hell, Crapville!

Movie Connections:

Spoofs "Batman" (1966)

Soundtrack:

That Was Then (And This is Too)

A fun, clever send-off to one of the greatest animated series of all time

And here we are, folks. We've reached the final installment of the four direct-to-DVD Futurama films. It's been fun, but sadly, all good things must come to an end.

While "Into the Wild Green Yonder" isn't the strongest of the four films, it certainly offers up laughs and plenty of the clever, over the top sci-fi concepts that the series is famous for. Unfortunately, for every joke that hits the nail on the head, another joke comes across as contrived, or simply falls a little flat. Not to despair though, as the jokes that work, work really, really well.

The animation is, as always, top notch. The characters we all know and love are once again brought to life by the wonderful cast, and we get a couple of bonus cameos here thanks to Penn Jillette, Snoop Dogg, and Family Guy's Seth MacFarlane.

As with the other 3 DVD Futurama movies, the story is a tad messy, jumping from plot thread to plot thread, with each episode only vaguely maintaining a semblance of continuity until everything is tied up neatly at the end. That said, the overarching story in this outing is actually very clever, and the ending is spectacular and well designed.

The story ties up some loose ends, but also leaves us on an ambiguous note, perhaps hinting at a future series of DVD movies, or a theatrical film, or, hopefully, an entire new season to grace our TV screens. Fingers crossed that we get more Futurama, as this series is no where near reaching its use-by-date.