Movie review: Futurama: Into The Wild Green Yonder

Into The Wild Green Yonder is the fourth and final Futurama movie. A few years ago someone suggested to Matt Groening that he make a movie version of the show. After some negotiation they settled on making four straight to DVD movies. The first one, Bender's Big Score, was released in November of 2007. Then the second movie, The Beast With a Billion Backs, was released in June of 2008. The third movie, Bender's Game, was released in November of 2008. Now the fourth and final movie Into The Wild Green Yonder was just released on February 24.

For those that aren't familiar with the series Futurama it revolves around the main character Philip J. Fry. Fry accidently falls into a cryogenic tube and wakes up 1000 years later. He is in a world where space travel, aliens and robots are common place. In fact his best friend is the foul mouthed, beer drinking, kleptomaniac robot Bender. He works as a delivery boy for his distant nephew Professor Hubert Farnsworth. The main love interest of the story is Leela (voiced by Katey Sagal from Married With Children). The interesting thing about her is that she only has one eye. There are many other characters that are just as interesting. The series lasted about 72 episodes before it was canceled by Fox.

So now with the movies they have said they were going to wrap up the series. The plot of this movie concerns Fry who suddenly finds himself with the ability to read people's minds. He then finds out that he has to help save the universe and help to restore life to the dead parts of space. There is also a subplot of Leela becoming an environmentalist that helps to move along the story.

Of the four movies my personal favorite is the first one Bender's Big Score, but this one would definitely rate second followed by Bender's Game and The Beast With a Billion Backs. The voice acting was as good as it usually is. Now Futurama was never one of those shows to have you clutching your sides with laughter and instead revolves around more subtle jokes and jokes that usually cater to nerds, Trekkies and people into science fiction. As a nerd myself I can say I definitely appreciate the humor. But if you are expecting side splitting humor then this is not the movie for you. However there is one running gag with a leech constantly attaching itself to Leela's body that gave me some pretty good laughs.

The plot of the movie is pretty good as well. It did a good job of keeping you wondering what would happen and how they would wrap up the series. However I can say that I'm a little disappointed with the ending. I won't spoil anything but it's one of those endings that leaves you wanting more, but unfortunately there won't be any more. The rest of the movie was well written and had some real good dialogue.

Now the overall look of the movie is consistent with the series. Unlike the other movies I watching this one on Blu-Ray. This really helped the colors to pop and for the finer details of the animation to really stand out. But if you watch this on DVD you won't miss out on too much but if you have a choice check it out on Blu-Ray.

If you are a fan of the series then I don't think I need to tell you to check out this movie. But if you aren't a fan then I recommend checking out the DVDs of the series before diving into the movies. If the series itself doesn't grab you then the movies aren't going to do much to change your mind.

My score: 8.0/10