Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs
Encyclopedia
Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs is an animated science-fiction comedy film
, the second of the four Futurama
straight-to-DVD
films. The film was released in the United States
and Canada
on June 24, 2008, followed by a UK release on June 30, 2008 and an Australia
n release on August 6, 2008. It has been confirmed by David X. Cohen
on the audio commentary that the title refers to the phrase for sexual intercourse
"the beast with two backs" which originated in English
in Shakespeare's Othello
. Comedy Central
aired the movie as a "four-part epic" on October 19, 2008. The movie won an Annie Award
for "Best Animated Home Entertainment Production".
, people decide to go on with their lives. Amy
and Kif
get married. Fry
starts dating a girl named Colleen, but breaks up with her when he discovers she has many more boyfriends
.
At a scientific conference, Professor Farnsworth
proposes an expedition to investigate the anomaly. When Bender explores the anomaly, his touch causes it to emit a shock wave
that sends him and the ship flying. Farnsworth and Wernstrom discover that only living beings can pass through the anomaly; electrical objects such as robot
s are either repelled or destroyed. The two plan to initiate another expedition but are rejected in favor of a military assault on the anomaly led by Zapp Brannigan
.
Meanwhile, both Fry and Bender begin to feel lonely. Fry sneaks aboard Zapp's ship's lint cabinet just before the ship takes off so that he can find solace on the other side of the anomaly. Bender attempts suicide, only to be approached by the League of Robots, a secret society of robots who like to blather about and tease humans, led by his hero Calculon. Bender becomes a very prestigious member due to his perceived hatred of humans, although Calculon suspects that Bender is deceiving them.
Fry enters the anomaly while Kif is killed during Zapp's unsuccesful plan of attack. On the other side of the anomaly, Fry comes across a colossal, one-eyed, tentacled creature
, which begins forcing its appendages through the anomaly. The tentacles attack everyone in the universe, and nothing can stop them since they are made of electro-matter that can only be harmed by other electro-matter. Fry returns to Earth
with a tentacle attached to the back of his neck and tells everyone to "love the tentacle." The tentacles attach themselves to nearly everyone, causing their victims to fall in love with it. With the monster's influence spreading, Fry becomes the pope
of a new religion
established to worship the tentacles.
Bender, meanwhile, believes that the League of Robots should uphold a strict anti-humans policy. However, when he assists his friends in eluding the tentacles by hiding them in another member's leg, he is caught red-handed by the other members. When Calculon calls his bluff about hating humans, he challenges Calculon to a duel
in which he cheats. This confrontation results in the loss of Calculon's arm and severe damage to much of the city, including the League's own headquarters. Calculon is outraged by Bender's behavior and resigns from the League, making Bender its new leader.
Leela ends up the last person in the universe unattached to a tentacle, after Zapp and Amy are taken over after Zapp seduces Amy. She examines a tentacle fragment and discovers that they are actually reproductive organs, revealing this to everyone at a universal religious gathering. The creature, named "Yivo", admits that mating with everyone in the universe was its original intention but explains that it is now truly in love with them. As a sign of good faith, Yivo resurrects Kif, who is displeased to learn that Zapp lured the lonely Amy into sleeping with him. Yivo asks to begin the relationship anew and removes its tentacles from everyone.
Yivo takes everyone in the universe out on a date at the same time, which goes extremely well. However, the universe's leaders feel that Yivo has made no commitment and sends a delegation to break up with it. Before they can do so, Yivo proposes marriage and they accept. Bender becomes fed up with being neglected by Fry and makes a deal with the Robot Devil for an army of robots to take over the world and rebuild his human-hating reputation, which happens in exchange for Bender's first-born son, whom Bender kicks into a pit of lava after a heartwarming reunion. Before Bender can attack, humanity leaves Earth willingly to live on Yivo, along with the other civilizations of the universe, moving onto Yivo's body via golden escalators. This leaves Bender lonely once more and stagnates the robot population, who are built to serve humans. As the robots inherit Earth, everyone else promises never to make contact with other universes. Fry, however, cannot help writing a letter to Bender, which is sent without Yivo knowing. Yivo's body appears like a classic vision of Heaven
, with Angels really being harmless birds. Leela does not trust Yivo's motives at first, but when she sees that everyone is happy, she succumbs to her own loneliness and accepts Yivo.
Bender receives Fry's letter, which is made out of electro-matter, and decides to set out and "rescue" his friend from his relationship with Yivo. He and his army harpoon
Yivo from the other side of the tear in space-time and tow it into their own universe where they are able to attack it. Fry convinces Bender to spare Yivo, but Yivo discovers that the robots' weapons are lined with the electro-matter from Fry's letter, allowing them to harm it. Since Fry broke his promise to never make contact with other universes, Yivo breaks up with the universe and makes everyone leave. While everyone else leaves aboard Bender's ship, Yivo finds consolation with Colleen, and they begin a relationship as they head back to the other universe together and close the anomaly, as Yivo cannot stay in the Universe due to the fact it would suffocate.
Everyone laments that they will never know happiness or love with Yivo again. Fry decides to find love elsewhere and tries to ask Leela out, but she rejects him since he had already stopped trying once he met Colleen; Kif and Amy's relationship is strained due to Amy's affair with Zapp; and Farnsworth and Wernstrom go back to being archrivals. Bender breaks up his friends' quarrel and assures them that what they experienced was not love, as love is a jealous, hard-to-get emotion that does not share itself with the world. Bender shares his own love with Fry and Leela by giving them a big hug, which actually strangles them.
starring Zoidberg, Leela (in the Mickey
role), Fry, Bender. The Planet Express Ship then flies by the moon and zaps the Hydroponic Farmer from "The Series Has Landed" with the ship's ray gun. Following the cartoon, the Planet Express Ship crashes out from the television billboard.
In the Comedy Central
broadcast, the opening sequence is shortened to remove the entire scene where the Planet Express crew flies by the moon. In the opening sequence of the second part, the opening subtitle reads "It Makes a Nice Sandwich", and the third part's opening subtitle is "0100100001101001", which is the binary
representation of the ASCII
encoding of the word "Hi", and the fourth part's opening subtitle is "The Robots are Coming! The Robots are Coming!
". The opening cartoon of the first part is the 1931 Flip the Frog
cartoon The Soup Song, while the opening cartoons for the last three parts is the same one seen in "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings
", that of Futuramas own opening sequence.
as Colleen, Fry's new polyamorous
girlfriend; David Cross
as Yivo, the planet-sized tentacle
d omnipotent alien; Professor Stephen Hawking
reprising himself, this time as his own head in a jar; and Dan Castellaneta
reprising his role as the Robot Devil.
Aside from her regular work on the animated series King of the Hill
, this was Murphy's last voice-over role before her death in December 2009.
retitled Futurama: The Lost Adventure. The Lost Adventure also features its own commentary track.
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
, the second of the four Futurama
Futurama
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
straight-to-DVD
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...
films. The film was released in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
on June 24, 2008, followed by a UK release on June 30, 2008 and an Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n release on August 6, 2008. It has been confirmed by David X. Cohen
David X. Cohen
David Samuel Cohen , primarily known as David X. Cohen, is an American television writer. He has written for The Simpsons and he is the head writer and executive producer of Futurama.-Early life:...
on the audio commentary that the title refers to the phrase for sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
"the beast with two backs" which originated in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
in Shakespeare's Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
. Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
aired the movie as a "four-part epic" on October 19, 2008. The movie won an Annie Award
Annie Award
The Annie Awards have been presented by the Los Angeles, California branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood since 1972...
for "Best Animated Home Entertainment Production".
Plot
A month after the universe was ripped open in Futurama: Bender's Big ScoreFuturama: Bender's Big Score
Futurama: Bender's Big Score is an Annie Award-winning direct-to-video film based on the animated series Futurama. It was released in the United States on November 27, 2007. Bender's Big Score, along with the three follow-up films, comprise season five of Futurama, with each film being separated...
, people decide to go on with their lives. Amy
Amy Wong
Amy Wong, voiced by Lauren Tom, is a fictional character, one of the main characters from the Fox and Comedy Central television animated series Futurama. She works as an intern at Planet Express...
and Kif
Kif Kroker
Lieutenant Kif Kroker is a character from the animated television series Futurama. He is the long suffering assistant to Captain Zapp Brannigan and Fourth Lieutenant on the Democratic Order of Planets starship Nimbus...
get married. Fry
Philip J. Fry
Philip J. Fry, known simply as Fry, is a fictional character, the main protagonist of the animated science fiction sitcom Futurama. He is voiced by Billy West using a version of his own voice as he sounded when he was 25.-Character overview:...
starts dating a girl named Colleen, but breaks up with her when he discovers she has many more boyfriends
Polyamory
Polyamory is the practice, desire, or acceptance of having more than one intimate relationship at a time with the knowledge and consent of everyone involved....
.
At a scientific conference, Professor Farnsworth
Hubert J. Farnsworth
Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, or simply The Professor, is a fictional character in the American animated television series Futurama. He is voiced by Billy West using a combination of impressions of Burgess Meredith and Frank Morgan. Farnsworth is the proprietor of the Planet Express delivery...
proposes an expedition to investigate the anomaly. When Bender explores the anomaly, his touch causes it to emit a shock wave
Shock wave
A shock wave is a type of propagating disturbance. Like an ordinary wave, it carries energy and can propagate through a medium or in some cases in the absence of a material medium, through a field such as the electromagnetic field...
that sends him and the ship flying. Farnsworth and Wernstrom discover that only living beings can pass through the anomaly; electrical objects such as robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
s are either repelled or destroyed. The two plan to initiate another expedition but are rejected in favor of a military assault on the anomaly led by Zapp Brannigan
Zapp Brannigan
Captain Zapp Brannigan is a fictional character in the animated sitcom Futurama. He is voiced by Billy West, but was originally intended to be voiced by Phil Hartman, with West taking over the role after Hartman's death. Brannigan is a 25-Star General in the Democratic Order of Planets, and captain...
.
Meanwhile, both Fry and Bender begin to feel lonely. Fry sneaks aboard Zapp's ship's lint cabinet just before the ship takes off so that he can find solace on the other side of the anomaly. Bender attempts suicide, only to be approached by the League of Robots, a secret society of robots who like to blather about and tease humans, led by his hero Calculon. Bender becomes a very prestigious member due to his perceived hatred of humans, although Calculon suspects that Bender is deceiving them.
Fry enters the anomaly while Kif is killed during Zapp's unsuccesful plan of attack. On the other side of the anomaly, Fry comes across a colossal, one-eyed, tentacled creature
Beholder
The beholder is a fictional monster in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It resembles a floating orb of flesh with a large mouth, single central eye, and lots of smaller eyestalks on top with deadly magical powers....
, which begins forcing its appendages through the anomaly. The tentacles attack everyone in the universe, and nothing can stop them since they are made of electro-matter that can only be harmed by other electro-matter. Fry returns to Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
with a tentacle attached to the back of his neck and tells everyone to "love the tentacle." The tentacles attach themselves to nearly everyone, causing their victims to fall in love with it. With the monster's influence spreading, Fry becomes the pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
of a new religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
established to worship the tentacles.
Bender, meanwhile, believes that the League of Robots should uphold a strict anti-humans policy. However, when he assists his friends in eluding the tentacles by hiding them in another member's leg, he is caught red-handed by the other members. When Calculon calls his bluff about hating humans, he challenges Calculon to a duel
Duel
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...
in which he cheats. This confrontation results in the loss of Calculon's arm and severe damage to much of the city, including the League's own headquarters. Calculon is outraged by Bender's behavior and resigns from the League, making Bender its new leader.
Leela ends up the last person in the universe unattached to a tentacle, after Zapp and Amy are taken over after Zapp seduces Amy. She examines a tentacle fragment and discovers that they are actually reproductive organs, revealing this to everyone at a universal religious gathering. The creature, named "Yivo", admits that mating with everyone in the universe was its original intention but explains that it is now truly in love with them. As a sign of good faith, Yivo resurrects Kif, who is displeased to learn that Zapp lured the lonely Amy into sleeping with him. Yivo asks to begin the relationship anew and removes its tentacles from everyone.
Yivo takes everyone in the universe out on a date at the same time, which goes extremely well. However, the universe's leaders feel that Yivo has made no commitment and sends a delegation to break up with it. Before they can do so, Yivo proposes marriage and they accept. Bender becomes fed up with being neglected by Fry and makes a deal with the Robot Devil for an army of robots to take over the world and rebuild his human-hating reputation, which happens in exchange for Bender's first-born son, whom Bender kicks into a pit of lava after a heartwarming reunion. Before Bender can attack, humanity leaves Earth willingly to live on Yivo, along with the other civilizations of the universe, moving onto Yivo's body via golden escalators. This leaves Bender lonely once more and stagnates the robot population, who are built to serve humans. As the robots inherit Earth, everyone else promises never to make contact with other universes. Fry, however, cannot help writing a letter to Bender, which is sent without Yivo knowing. Yivo's body appears like a classic vision of Heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
, with Angels really being harmless birds. Leela does not trust Yivo's motives at first, but when she sees that everyone is happy, she succumbs to her own loneliness and accepts Yivo.
Bender receives Fry's letter, which is made out of electro-matter, and decides to set out and "rescue" his friend from his relationship with Yivo. He and his army harpoon
Harpoon
A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument used in fishing to catch fish or large marine mammals such as whales. It accomplishes this task by impaling the target animal, allowing the fishermen to use a rope or chain attached to the butt of the projectile to catch the animal...
Yivo from the other side of the tear in space-time and tow it into their own universe where they are able to attack it. Fry convinces Bender to spare Yivo, but Yivo discovers that the robots' weapons are lined with the electro-matter from Fry's letter, allowing them to harm it. Since Fry broke his promise to never make contact with other universes, Yivo breaks up with the universe and makes everyone leave. While everyone else leaves aboard Bender's ship, Yivo finds consolation with Colleen, and they begin a relationship as they head back to the other universe together and close the anomaly, as Yivo cannot stay in the Universe due to the fact it would suffocate.
Everyone laments that they will never know happiness or love with Yivo again. Fry decides to find love elsewhere and tries to ask Leela out, but she rejects him since he had already stopped trying once he met Colleen; Kif and Amy's relationship is strained due to Amy's affair with Zapp; and Farnsworth and Wernstrom go back to being archrivals. Bender breaks up his friends' quarrel and assures them that what they experienced was not love, as love is a jealous, hard-to-get emotion that does not share itself with the world. Bender shares his own love with Fry and Leela by giving them a big hug, which actually strangles them.
Cast
| Actor | Character |
|---|---|
| Billy West Billy West William Richard "Billy" West is an American voice actor. Born in Detroit but raised in the Roslindale neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, Billy launched his career in the early 1980s performing daily comedic routines on Boston's WBCN. He left the radio station to work on the short-lived revival... |
Philip J. Fry Philip J. Fry Philip J. Fry, known simply as Fry, is a fictional character, the main protagonist of the animated science fiction sitcom Futurama. He is voiced by Billy West using a version of his own voice as he sounded when he was 25.-Character overview:... Professor Farnsworth Hubert J. Farnsworth Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, or simply The Professor, is a fictional character in the American animated television series Futurama. He is voiced by Billy West using a combination of impressions of Burgess Meredith and Frank Morgan. Farnsworth is the proprietor of the Planet Express delivery... Dr. Zoidberg Zapp Brannigan Zapp Brannigan Captain Zapp Brannigan is a fictional character in the animated sitcom Futurama. He is voiced by Billy West, but was originally intended to be voiced by Phil Hartman, with West taking over the role after Hartman's death. Brannigan is a 25-Star General in the Democratic Order of Planets, and captain... Additional voices |
| Katey Sagal Katey Sagal Catherine Louise "Katey" Sagal is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She first achieved widespread fame as Peggy Bundy on the long-running Fox comedy series Married..... |
Leela |
| John DiMaggio John DiMaggio John William DiMaggio is an American voice actor. A native of North Plainfield, New Jersey, he is known for his gruff, deep voice and New Jersey accent, which he uses to voice mainly villains and anti-heroes.-Filmography:... |
Bender Additional voices |
| Tress MacNeille Tress MacNeille Tress MacNeille is an American voice actress best known for providing various voices on the animated series The Simpsons, Futurama, Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Disney's House of Mouse, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Rugrats, All Grown Up!, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, and Dave the... |
Additional voices |
| Maurice LaMarche Maurice LaMarche Maurice LaMarche is an Emmy Award winning Canadian-American voice actor and former stand up comedian. He is best known for his voicework in Futurama as Kif Kroker, as Egon Spengler in The Real Ghostbusters, Verminous Skumm and Duke Nukem in Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Big Bob Pataki in Hey... |
Kif Kroker Kif Kroker Lieutenant Kif Kroker is a character from the animated television series Futurama. He is the long suffering assistant to Captain Zapp Brannigan and Fourth Lieutenant on the Democratic Order of Planets starship Nimbus... Calculon Hedonismbot Additional voices |
| Phil LaMarr Phil LaMarr Phillip "Phil" LaMarr is an American actor, comedian and voice actor. One of the original cast members on the sketch comedy series MADtv, he is also known for his small, but memorable role as Marvin in Pulp Fiction... |
Hermes Conrad Hermes Conrad Hermes Conrad is a fictional character in the Futurama animated series. He is voiced by Phil LaMarr.- Appearance and personality :Born in 2959, Hermes is a grade 36 bureaucrat from Jamaica. He manages the Planet Express delivery business with responsibilities that include paying bills, giving out... Billionairebot Raging Bender "Raging Bender" is the eighth episode in the second production season of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on February 27, 2000 as the twelfth episode of the second broadcast season. The episode was written by Lewis Morton and directed by Ron Hughart... Additional voices |
| Lauren Tom Lauren Tom Lauren Tom is an American actress and voice actress perhaps best known for her roles as Lena St Clair in The Joy Luck Club, Julie in the TV series Friends, and for providing the voices for both mother and daughter characters on two animated TV comedy series: on Futurama she voices Amy Wong and her... |
Amy Wong Amy Wong Amy Wong, voiced by Lauren Tom, is a fictional character, one of the main characters from the Fox and Comedy Central television animated series Futurama. She works as an intern at Planet Express... Additional voices |
| David Herman David Herman David Herman is an American actor, comedian and voice actor best known as an original cast member of MADtv and for his role as Michael Bolton in Office Space. He is also known for his voice roles on television programs such as Futurama and King of the Hill.- Biography :David Herman was born in New... |
Dr. Wernstrom Additional voices |
| Dan Castellaneta Dan Castellaneta Daniel Louis "Dan" Castellaneta is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, singer and screenwriter. Noted for his long-running role as Homer Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, he voices many other characters on The Simpsons, including Abraham "Grampa" Simpson, Barney Gumble,... |
The Robot Devil |
| David Cross David Cross David Cross is an American actor, writer and stand-up comedian perhaps best known for his work on HBO's sketch comedy series Mr... |
Yivo |
| Stephen Hawking Stephen Hawking Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA is an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, whose scientific books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity... |
Himself |
| Brittany Murphy Brittany Murphy Brittany Anne Murphy-Monjack , known professionally as Brittany Murphy, was an American actress and singer. She starred in films such as Clueless, Just Married, Girl Interrupted, Spun, 8 Mile, Uptown Girls, Sin City, Happy Feet, and Riding in Cars with Boys... |
Colleen |
Opening
Futuramas common opening sequence and opening caption are present in the film as in all its episodes, though unlike the first film the opening sequence is not extended for a cast list. The opening subtitle reads "The proud result of prison labor" and the opening cartoon consists of a short black-and-white cartoon after the normal sequence. However, rather than immediately crash through the large television billboard, the Planet Express Ship is absorbed by it and is transformed into an appropriately animated black-and-white version of itself. The cartoon to which they're transported is a spoof of Steamboat WillieSteamboat Willie
Steamboat Willie is a 1928 American animated short film directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. It was produced in black-and-white by The Walt Disney Studio and released by Celebrity Productions. The cartoon is considered the debut of Mickey Mouse, and as his girlfriend Minnie, but the characters...
starring Zoidberg, Leela (in the Mickey
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
role), Fry, Bender. The Planet Express Ship then flies by the moon and zaps the Hydroponic Farmer from "The Series Has Landed" with the ship's ray gun. Following the cartoon, the Planet Express Ship crashes out from the television billboard.
In the Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
broadcast, the opening sequence is shortened to remove the entire scene where the Planet Express crew flies by the moon. In the opening sequence of the second part, the opening subtitle reads "It Makes a Nice Sandwich", and the third part's opening subtitle is "0100100001101001", which is the binary
Binary code
A binary code is a way of representing text or computer processor instructions by the use of the binary number system's two-binary digits 0 and 1. This is accomplished by assigning a bit string to each particular symbol or instruction...
representation of the ASCII
ASCII
The American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character-encoding scheme based on the ordering of the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that use text...
encoding of the word "Hi", and the fourth part's opening subtitle is "The Robots are Coming! The Robots are Coming!
Paul Revere
Paul Revere was an American silversmith and a patriot in the American Revolution. He is most famous for alerting Colonial militia of approaching British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord, as dramatized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, Paul Revere's Ride...
". The opening cartoon of the first part is the 1931 Flip the Frog
Flip the Frog
Flip the Frog is an animated cartoon character created by American cartoonist Ub Iwerks. He starred in a series of cartoons produced by Celebrity Pictures and distributed through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1930 to 1933...
cartoon The Soup Song, while the opening cartoons for the last three parts is the same one seen in "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings
The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings
"The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings" is the eighteenth episode in the fourth production season of the animated television series Futurama, and was aired for the first time in the United States on August 10, 2003 as the sixteenth episode of the fifth broadcast season...
", that of Futuramas own opening sequence.
Guest stars
The film features voice talents from: Brittany MurphyBrittany Murphy
Brittany Anne Murphy-Monjack , known professionally as Brittany Murphy, was an American actress and singer. She starred in films such as Clueless, Just Married, Girl Interrupted, Spun, 8 Mile, Uptown Girls, Sin City, Happy Feet, and Riding in Cars with Boys...
as Colleen, Fry's new polyamorous
Polyamory
Polyamory is the practice, desire, or acceptance of having more than one intimate relationship at a time with the knowledge and consent of everyone involved....
girlfriend; David Cross
David Cross
David Cross is an American actor, writer and stand-up comedian perhaps best known for his work on HBO's sketch comedy series Mr...
as Yivo, the planet-sized tentacle
Tentacle
A tentacle or bothrium is one of usually two or more elongated flexible organs present in animals, especially invertebrates. The term may also refer to the hairs of the leaves of some insectivorous plants. Usually, tentacles are used for feeding, feeling and grasping. Anatomically, they work like...
d omnipotent alien; Professor Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking
Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA is an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, whose scientific books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity...
reprising himself, this time as his own head in a jar; and Dan Castellaneta
Dan Castellaneta
Daniel Louis "Dan" Castellaneta is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, singer and screenwriter. Noted for his long-running role as Homer Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, he voices many other characters on The Simpsons, including Abraham "Grampa" Simpson, Barney Gumble,...
reprising his role as the Robot Devil.
Aside from her regular work on the animated series King of the Hill
King of the Hill
King of the Hill is an American animated dramedy series created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, that ran from January 12, 1997, to May 6, 2010, on Fox network. It centers on the Hills, a working-class Methodist family in the fictional small town of Arlen, Texas...
, this was Murphy's last voice-over role before her death in December 2009.
DVD
The DVD features a commentary track, deleted scenes, and footage animated for the Futurama video gameFuturama (video game)
Futurama is a 3D platform game based on the science fiction cartoon series Futurama. Versions are available for the PS2 and Xbox, both of which use cel-shading technology. Nintendo GameCube and Game Boy Advance games were planned for release, though they were cancelled due to a belief that their...
retitled Futurama: The Lost Adventure. The Lost Adventure also features its own commentary track.
External links
- The Beast with a Billion Backs at the Infosphere.
- First review at www.screenjabber.com
- DVD Talk Review
- Reviewgraveyard.com Review