Futurama - Leela und die Enzyklopoden

Ya ever notice how most people who take the effort to log are the ones who want to criticize or even hate on something?

People who laughed wildly and were genuinely happy with the product seem much less likely to worry about it afterwards.

For the record, my family and I have every Futurama episode and movie on DVD. We like them a lot. We've been looking forward to this movie a long time and in general weren't disappointed (it wasn't the best of the movies but that's just IMHO). These shows have NEVER been about internal consistency, btw.

Bring back the freaking series. If I was Bill Gates I'd just write a check to bring it (and Firefly too, what the hey?) back in a heartbeat. Creating a pleasurable experience for people should count as a humanitarian act.

If you want to hate on something, go watch The English Patient. Your reviews might help spare some innocent people in the future from being subjected to three hours of terminal boredom and depression.

I agree the 2nd movie was the best of the 4.

I will always love and hold dear Futurama, certain episodes stand out, the romantic sentimental, never to forget Frys dog, or the holophone episode, or the message Fry wrote in space. The comedic lover never to forget Zoidbergs attempt to win a mate, the Whatif machine, or anything Bender has ever done. Oh, and Zap of course, (moreso than Kif).

The episodes that appeal the least to me are the lengthy plot related Nibbler time twisting episodes, and the other overly story arced episodes that introduce new characters too often, which is the category in which I would place these movies.

I have to say that the Wong family has always been consistently boring material for me, and I know, others too.

I guess 90 minutes has that problem, in that there is a necessity to create a drama rather than a subsection of throwaway laughs and The Simpsons movie suffered from a similar fault. I believe it could have been done though. It's fair to say that South Park pulled it off better than most with their Bigger Longer movie.

It's sad to see the gang go. Regardless of speculation, it will be years, if at all, before they re-emerge, and although these 4 episodes were less than perfect, each and every outing was punctuated with many smirk worthy hits, if not laugh out loud moments, and anything that can keep you smiling and wanting more is worth archiving on the good shelf in my opinion, and I will revisit not only classic episodes but these movies again and again over the years ahead.

The idealist in me looks forward to a day that the writers get off the phone and yell, 'we've been unaxed!', cause although movies are eager berries to pick, they often lack the exhilarating hit, the condensed juice of a good 22 minutes of laughter, packaged in the format we have trained our brains to consume so well.

What say Fox, these guys deserve a call for their efforts. Agreed?

'Into The Wild Green Yonder' is the 4th movie in the very popular Futurama movie series.Just like the television show and the first 3 movies, 'Into the Wild Green Yonder' is filled with lots of crude and suggestive humor.Most of it is funny, as you'd expect.The movie is also surprisingly sexist.The main targets in the movie are woman.Not just woman, but feminists.If you were a feminist trying to struggle for the right to vote, then you will be shocked and appalled by this movie.Just try not to overreact and form a feminist group in order to cancel the TV show and find every copy of this movie and burn them.As entertaining this movie may be, it does lack the certain spark the first 3 movies had.My favorite movie in the series is 'Bender's Game', and this film isn't near to being as good.Still, I found 'Into the 'Wild Green Yonder' to be a funny and entertaining movie that fans of the show and movies will enjoy.If you don't like the show, then you can bite my shiny metal ass.

Direct-to-DVD movie; Genre: Sci-Fi, Animated Comedy; Content Rating: Unrated (contains adult content & animated violence); Available: DVD and Blu-Ray; Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 – 4);

After 4 hugely rewarding seasons on the Fox Network (not that they knew it) and 3 DVD movies, Matt Groening and David X Cohen's cancelled, cult sci-fi saga "Futurama" comes to a rollicking close with "Into the Wild Green Yonder". The movies were a reward for those who got slapped in the face by Fox's abrupt cancellation and were underwhelmed by the run's finale, "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings" in which the show micro-focused its entire story down to a love story between future fish-out-of-water Phillip J. Fry (Billy West) and one-eyed mutant space pilot Leela (Katy Segel). "Yonder" is the epic finale we've been waiting for and I'm thrilled to report it delivers.

As always, "Futurama's" focus is still its unique cast of characters and their conflicting motives, but "Yonder" is a bigger, funnier, more epic ending, worthy of the vast, detailed universe this series created. As a movie, it's the best of the 4 DVDs which says a lot given how highly I still regard "The Beast With A Billion Backs". Where "Beast" was an ambitious and sharp story it still felt disjointed and episodic, where "Yonder" is the first film to feel like a real theatrical release movie from start to finish. It's smoother, with a more complex story, than "The Simpsons Movie".

As with any "Futurama" story, it would be almost criminal to describe the plot: both because it is so delightfully convoluted in its accurate and liberal basis in science fact and sci-fi convention and I do not wish to spoil the numerous wonderful twists and turns herein. However, in the first few minutes events transpire that set our heroes on a collision course toward series end and saving the galaxy: Al Gore-style! Amy Wong's (Lauren Tom) dad is building a new casino on Mars, but his plans to put in a massive mini-golf park threaten the endangered species of the entire galaxy which raises the ire of eco-femenistas (led by radio genius Phil Hendrie in duel role as a female member of the show's Waterfall hippie family and her brother) as well as a secret society Fry gets involved with when an accident leaves him with the ability to read minds. Oh yeah, and Bender has an affair with the Don-Bot's wife.

Almost none of the action in "Yonder" takes place on Earth or at Planet Express. With Leela joining the femenists, Fry in a double-cross to save the universe and Bender dodging the mob and joining up with Zapp Brannigan (again West), the characters spend the movie away from or at odds with each other. Cohen and co-writer Ken Keeler have scripted a clever chess game where each story and each motive weaves together beautifully, all building to a finale that finds that perfect balance between being a thrilling sci-fi adventure and a satisfying character conflict for our 3 unlikely heroes.

"Yonder" is also the funniest movie of the 4 and at times more laugh-out-loud than the series. When Fry (now reading minds) and Bender (with the DonBot's lucky Robot's Foot - his own) go head to head in a high-stakes poker tournament the scene is one of the funniest and most cleverly constructed the show has ever done. "Yonder" has a lot of fun with Bender in this movie. Bender is the kind of anti-hero character that usually has his own story as it is hard to write him into helping the gang save the world in the primary story without cheating his character's nature. "Yonder" finds a perfect place for him. The movie also has a load of fun with the eco-femenists. Few shows make fun of women the way "Futurama" has the balls too with Cohen and Keeler's unique vision of male/female clichés turning "Yonder's" conflicts into a damn-near battle of the sexes. It's refreshing. The movie gets less riotous as the 3rd act comes and the stakes of the story are raised, but that's the case with any action/comedy.

This is a fun one, people. "Into the Wild Green Yonder" fires on all cylinders, deliver the kind of originality and imagination that only "Futurama" can. As funny and poignant as any episode of the series. Both a great movie and a great finale for this much loved series. Don't miss it.

* * * * / 4

The Planet Express crew is on Mars where Amy's parents are paving over to build a new bigger casino. Eco-feministas are protesting. Fry is injured and starts hearing other people's thoughts. Leela saves a Martian leech that gets attached to her. Fry meets homeless Hutch who warns him about the Dark Ones. Leo next wants to destroy large parts of the galaxy to build his miniature golf course. Farnsworth is his rubber stamp but the crew finds primordial life on an asteroid. Leela joins the eco-feminists to sabotage the project. Zapp Brannigan is tasked with hunting down the eco-feminists. Fry learns the asteroid is an Encyclopods egg which is storage of endangered species and the mortal enemy of The Dark Ones.

I like some parts but there is too much story. It's a bit too disjointed. It feels like the characters are going every which way. I usually like Futurama more when the crew is together. This is the fourth and last Futurama movie before it got renewed by Comedy Central. Sometimes the movie is shown in four half-hour episodes. The movie is already disjointed and watching the four parts separately doesn't help. I love Futurama and this is solid fan service. It's unlikely to be good for newbies.