Please be warned: this post contains explicit spoilers for the final Futurama, particularly as it applies to the relationship between Leela and Fry.
Of the four Futurama direct-to-DVD releases over the last fifteen months, I've been more disappointed than thrilled. I blame this on the first film: Bender's Big Score, which was fantastic. It was everything great about Futurama in an hour and a half movie -- I laughed, and I thrilled, and I danced, and, yes, I cried.
But The Beast With A Billion Backs, and Bender's Game, were disappointing to me. I think this is because Bender's Big Score felt like a movie, whereas the other two felt like three or four episodes clumsily mashed into a film. While the latter is an approach which makes sense (the movies will be broken down into episodes for airing on Comedy Central, or Cartoon Network, or wherever the show airs now). Clearly, my expectations were too high.
Fortunately, Into The Wild Green Yonder feels like a unified film. While it's not as funny, or as touching, as Bender's Big Score, I'm glad that if Futurama does end with this film, it ends on a high note. My only criticism is this:
A big part of the plot of Bender's Big Score is the relationship between Fry and Leela. It's the reason tears streak down my (now furry) cheeks when I watch it. However, at the end of the film, the reset button is pressed, and the two move their separate ways. At the end of Into the Wild Green Yonder, the two make a connection and it is implied that said connection (of the romantic type) is lasting. I just feel that this is a development that would have made absolute sense at the end of Bender's Big Score, and here, in this film, it just seems out of place.
Also: the commentary track is funny. They always are.
, which was fantastic. It was everything great about Futurama in an hour and a half movie -- I laughed, and I thrilled, and I danced, and, yes, I cried.