In between its initial cancellation in 2003 and its Comedy Central revival in 2010, Futurama produced four full-length movies. The extended running time allowed the show to experiment with more ambitious plot lines and character development. But which of the four Futurama movies was the best? Let’s look back at the films produced in between the two eras of Futurama and see if we can crown a champion:
I’ll certainly give this one credit for trying. It probably has the most ambitious storyline of any of the movies, taking place partially on Earth and partially within the Dungeons and Dragons universe. Unfortunately, the two worlds have never really come together in the right way, and we’re left with a plot that often seems jumbled and confusing. Perhaps more importantly, this movie is surprisingly light on jokes. In spite of all of these things, I would still recommend watching Bender’s Game at least once because it’s still pretty interesting, even with all of its flaws. We can chalk this one up to a noble failure, perhaps most notable for what we learn about the Professor’s relationship with Mom (Spoiler alert: Igner — the dumbest of her three children — is his son.)
3. The Beast With A Billion Backs
This one explores a fascinating concept: What if a giant monster with millions of tentacles dated everyone in universe at the same time? I mean, anyone who has ever struggled to find a date can find some intrigue there, right? Of course, things end up going wrong; the monster, named Yivo, breaks up with the universe when Fry breaks his promise to never make contact with another universe. Even worse, he runs off with Fry’s girlfriend! Okay, there’s a ton of stuff going on in this one, and like Bender’s Game, it can be really hard to follow at times. Still, it’s well worth your time if you haven’t seen it already.
The last of the four films, Into the Wild Green Yonder does a fine job of wrapping up the loose ends and giving us a satisfying ending (Fry and Leela finally say “I love you!”). Perhaps more importantly, it’s just funny as hell. Particularly inspired are the Mars Vegas scenes in which Bender scores with the Donbot’s wife, and Fry begins to hear voices in his head. Equally amusing is Frida Waterfall and her insistence to add a feminist twist to every word she says (“she-vacuate the premises… I mean fem-ises!”). This one was hilarious from start to finish and brought the Futurama films to a logical conclusion.
The first of the Futurama films was easily the best, mainly due to the heavy amount of emotion. We watch Fry become separated from Leela as she falls in love with Lars and subsequently leave Planet Express to work with a whale who reminds him of Leela. A lot of those scenes can lead to a fair amount of “Jurassic Bark” style weeping. Of course, we find out in the end that Lars is actually another iteration of Fry, so Leela was in fact in love with a more more mature of Fry the entire time (you had seven years to watch this, spoilers are fair game). Meanwhile, the world gets taken over by some evil Zoidberg-esque creations who work through spam email. In the end, their schemes are foiled by Bender, and the secret-code carrying tattoo on his ass. My only problem with this one is that the title kinda gives away the ending, but that’s a small gripe when this movie brings so much in the way of humor and emotion.
