Humans like cabbage, right?

[vovat]

bethje and I watched the new Futurama movie, The Beast with a Billion Backs, last night. I think I actually liked it better than Bender's Big Score. Of course, being the first of the new movies, BBS had to re-establish the show, while BBB didn't. I also think that BBS had a somewhat disjointed plot, with the writers throwing in whatever they thought would be cool. BBB, on the other hand, was surprisingly unified, with what initially seemed like irrelevant subplots becoming significant down the line. I feared it would become a bit tedious after almost everybody was under the influence of the tentacles, but there turned out to be some interesting twists after that. I found myself wondering whether they were going to keep Kif dead or revive him somehow. I'm glad he wasn't written out entirely, but the way Yivo brought him back seemed a little overly convenient. Oh, well. Stephen Hawking's appearance was cool (although I have to wonder how his speech synthesizer works when he's a head in a jar), and I liked seeing Pazuzu and Robot 1-X again.

And now, some nerdy notes on things I noticed:

• Dan Castellaneta reappeared as the Robot Devil, but Hank Azaria didn't reprise his role as Harold Zoid.
  
• Assuming Fry's cell phone contact list is alphabetical, the Professor apparently isn't on it.
  
• At one point, Zapp says, "Stardate: Year of the Tiger." I believe 3008 will actually be the Year of the Dragon.
  
• I've eaten at the Times Square Applebee's before. I wonder if it will be just as overpriced in another thousand years.
  
• I used to have one of those Labyrinth games on which the Deathball court was based. I sucked at it.
  
• At least as far as I could see, Nibbler never showed up. Has he permanently abandoned the Universe, or will he show up again in one of the later movies?
  

I'm definitely looking forward to the next one, but I think I'd prefer it if the next two don't have plots where the fate of the world hangs in the balance, as that's starting to get a bit predictable. I know they need big stories for these feature-length movies, but I'm sure they can do that without yet another alien invasion being the central theme.


Okay, I think I'm going to watch it with commentary now. I wanted to get my own thoughts out there before hearing what the writers had to say, but it looks like I've now accomplished that.

Comments

[loz]

I didn't love it.

In fact, I spent most of it cringing or staring at the screen in horror.

I was not enamoured of how it completely disregarded the continuity of BBS. (Okay, I admit, I'm sort of a huge Fry/Leela fan. I don't exactly know how I became emotionally invested in a cartoon couple, but I blame the writers.)

And I found it profoundly creepy in a Lovecraftian kind of way.

But, having said that, it had some amazing moments and very funny lines and scenes. I think I'll like it more on second viewing, because I'll get over the shock of "ewww, tentacles!"

David Cross was awesome.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I was not enamoured of how it completely disregarded the continuity of BBS.

I'm not really sure that it did, or at least it didn't any more than BBS ignored "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings." I don't remember the end of BBS exactly, but wasn't it pretty much established that Leela still thought Fry wasn't mature enough for her? So I don't find it that odd that Fry would find somebody else. I agree that it would be nice if they would get together eventually, but if that happens, it probably won't be until the fourth movie.

David Cross was awesome.

I agree. He seemed like a rather left-field choice for the character, but he did a great job. Maybe they chose him partially because of his ability to get away with jokes about rather disturbing things (like, y'know, tentacle rape).

[majellen.livejournal.com]

Is Zapp EVER right though? ;)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Good point. Still, I thinking looking up what year of the Chinese zodiac 3008 will actually be deserves some geek points. {g}

[revme.livejournal.com]

I also liked this one much better than BBS; it seemed that BBS kinda was a little too fan-pandery and went on too long. This one maybe went on a LITTLE too long (but that's the thing with doing 4-episode-long stories, y'know?), but not as much as BBS. And Yivo was awesome, as was the whole actually copping to the "Oh, this actually IS Heaven" bit, with him sending the images of himself and whatnot. Or, rather, Schlurself. But yes. I dug it! MORE FUTURAMA.

(though I have to admit to being a little nervous based on the trailer to Bender's Game. A title like that was awesome, but I'm a little hesitant for something that looks like it's going to be a dream-sequence/fantasy or something about What If Futurama Characters Were In D&D?!?!)

And Amy's ultra-slutty funeral dress was hilarious.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I also liked this one much better than BBS; it seemed that BBS kinda was a little too fan-pandery and went on too long.

I think BBS came off as kind of disjointed, because they tried to work in a little bit of everything.

And I have to say I'll be kind of disappointed if "Bender's Game" is entirely a fantasy sequence. I mean, a regular episode of the show like that would have been fine, but a movie like that seems like overkill. Besides, if it's all outside the normal continuity, it presumably won't develop any of the ongoing plot threads. I'm certainly not going to dismiss it based simply on a preview, though.

And hey, how come Bender gets to be in the title of two of these movies, and none of the other main characters even get one? I guess I have to remember that they suck and Bender's great, and deal with it.