''Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs'' is a 2008 American

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, television series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strat ...

adult animated An adult is an animal that has reached full growth. The biological definition of the word means an animal reaching sexual maturity and thus capable of reproduction. In the human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and ...

science-fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, sp ...

film based on the

animated series An animated series, or a cartoon series, is a set of Animation, animated films with a common title, usually related to one another. These episodes typically share the same main heroes, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series ...

Futurama ''Futurama'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company and later revived by Comedy Central, and then Hulu. The series follows Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1 ...

'', and the second of four

straight-to-DVD Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, television series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strateg ...

films that make up the show's fifth season. The film was released in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

on June 24, 2008, followed by a UK release on June 30, 2008 and an

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

n release on August 6, 2008. The title refers to a euphemism for

sexual intercourse Sexual intercourse (also coitus or copulation) is a sexual activity typically involving the insertion of the Erection, erect male Human penis, penis inside the female vagina and followed by Pelvic thrust, thrusting motions for sexual pleasure ...

—" the beast with two backs".

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...

aired the film as a "four-part epic" on October 19, 2008. The movie won an

Annie Award The Annie Awards are accolades which the Los Angeles branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood, has presented each year since 1972 to recognize excellence in animation shown in American cinema and television. Origina ...

for "Best Animated Home Entertainment Production".

Plot

A month after the universe was ripped open, 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 other boyfriends. At a conference,

Professor Farnsworth Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, commonly referred to in-show as either Professor Farnsworth or simply Professor, is a fictional character in the American animated television series ''Futurama''. The mad scientist proprietor of the Planet Express ...

proposes an expedition to investigate the anomaly. When Bender explores the anomaly, his touch causes it to emit a

shock wave In physics, a shock wave (also spelled shockwave), or shock, is a type of propagating disturbance that moves faster than the local speed of sound in the medium. Like an ordinary wave, a shock wave carries energy and can propagate through a me ...

that sends him and the ship flying. Farnsworth discovers that only living beings can pass through the anomaly; electrical objects are either repelled or destroyed. His plans for another expedition are rejected in favor of a military assault led by

Zapp Brannigan This article lists the many characters of ''Futurama,'' an American Cartoon series, 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 ad ...

, which results in Kif's death while Fry enters the anomaly. On the other side of the anomaly, Fry comes across a colossal, one-eyed, tentacled alien named "Yivo" which begins forcing its appendages through the anomaly. Yivo's tentacles touch everyone in the universe, and nothing can stop them since they are made of "electro-matter", which can only be harmed by other electro-matter. Fry returns to Earth with Yivo's

tentacle In zoology, a tentacle is a flexible, mobile, and elongated organ present in some species of animals, most of them invertebrates. In animal anatomy, tentacles usually occur in one or more pairs. Anatomically, the tentacles of animals work main ...

attached to the back of his neck and tells everyone to "love the tentacle". Yivo's tentacles attach themselves to nearly everyone, causing their victims to fall in love with it, eventually leaving Leela as the only one unattached. Fry becomes the pope of a religion established to worship Yivo. Leela examines Yivo's tentacle fragment and discovers that they are actually reproductive organs, revealing this to everyone at a universal religious gathering. Yivo admits that mating with everyone in the universe was its original intention but claims that it is now truly in love with them. As a sign of good faith, Yivo resurrects Kif who is heartbroken to discover that while he was dead, Zapp capitalized on Amy's grief and slept with her. Yivo begins 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 well. However, the universe's leaders feel that Yivo has made no commitment and send a delegation to break up with it. Before they can do so, Yivo proposes marriage and they accept. Bender becomes frustrated from being neglected by Fry and makes a deal with the

Robot Devil This article lists the many characters of ''Futurama,'' 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 l ...

for an army of robots to take over the world in exchange for his first-born son, with Robot Devil being genuinely shocked over how callous it was. His attack is made unnecessary when humanity leaves Earth willingly to live on Yivo, along with the other civilizations of the universe, leaving Bender lonely and stagnates the robot population, who are built to serve humans. The universe's residents promise Yivo that they will never contact other universes. Fry, however, cannot help writing a letter to Bender, which is sent without Yivo's knowledge. Bender receives Fry's letter, which is made out of electro-matter, and decides to rescue his friend from his relationship with Yivo. He and his army

harpoon A harpoon is a long, spear-like projectile used in fishing, whaling, sealing, and other hunting to shoot, kill, and capture large fish or marine mammals such as seals, sea cows, and whales. It impales the target and secures it with barb or ...

Yivo from the other side of the anomaly and tow it into their own universe. 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, Yivo breaks up with the universe and makes everyone leave. Yivo finds consolation with Colleen, and they begin a relationship as they return to the other universe and close the anomaly. Fry decides to find love elsewhere and tries to ask Leela out, but she rejects him, angered at him using her as a rebound from Colleen. Kif and Amy's relationship is strained due to Amy's affair with Zapp. Bender breaks up his friends' quarrel and assures them that what they experienced was not love, since love is (in his own words) "a jealous, hard-to-obtain emotion that does not share itself with the world". Bender shares his love for Fry and Leela by giving them a big hug, which chokes them.

Cast

Billy West William Richard Werstine (born 1952), known professionally as Billy West, is an American voice actor, comedian, radio personality, impressionist and musician. His voice roles include Bugs Bunny in the 1996 film ''Space Jam'', the title characte ...

as Philip J. Fry,

Dr. Zoidberg Dr. Johnathan Alfred Zoidberg, often referred to as John A. Zoidberg, or simply Zoidberg is a fictional character from the American animated series ''Futurama''. He is a Decapodian, a crustacean-like species of alien, who works as the staff doct ...

, Additional voices *

Katey Sagal Catherine Louise Sagal (born January 19, 1954) is an American actress and singer. She is known for playing Peggy Bundy on '' Married... with Children'' (1987–1997), Leela on '' Futurama'' (1999–2003, 2008–2013, 2023–present), Cate He ...

as Leela *

John DiMaggio John William DiMaggio ( ; born September 4, 1968) is an American actor. His various voice roles include Bender on ''Futurama'', Jake the Dog on ''Adventure Time'', Marcus Fenix in the ''Gears of War'' series, Dr. Drakken on '' Kim Possible'', ...

as Bender, Additional voices *

Tress MacNeille Teressa Claire "Tress" MacNeille (; born June 20, 1951) >https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/macneille-tress-1951 is an American voice actress, who has contributed to voice-over work with credits including vo ...

as Additional voices *

Maurice LaMarche Maurice LaMarche (born March 30, 1958) is a Canadian voice actor. Across a career spanning more than four decades he has voiced Chief Quimby on Inspector Gadget, Egon Spengler on ''The Real Ghostbusters'', The Brain on ''Animaniacs'' and its spi ...

Kif Kroker This article lists the many characters of ''Futurama,'' 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 l ...

Calculon This article lists the many characters of ''Futurama,'' 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 l ...

Hedonismbot This article lists the many characters of ''Futurama,'' 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 l ...

, Additional voices *

Phil LaMarr Phil LaMarr is an American actor and comedian. He was one of the original featured cast members on the sketch comedy television series '' Mad TV'', where he stayed for five seasons. His voice acting roles in animated series include the Sam B of ' ...

Hermes Conrad This article lists the many characters of ''Futurama,'' 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 l ...

, Billionairebot, Additional voices *

Lauren Tom Lauren Tom (born August 4, 1961) is an American actress. She began her career on stage, winning an Obie Award, and gained recognition for her role in '' The Joy Luck Club'' (1993). On television, she is known for her roles in the NBC sitcom ''Fri ...

Amy Wong This article lists the many characters of ''Futurama,'' 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 ...

, Additional voices *

David Herman David Herman (born February 20, 1967) is an American actor and comedian. He was an original cast member on ''MADtv'' from 1995 to 1997, and played Michael Bolton in ''Office Space''. He has done voice acting work in hundreds of episodes of '' ...

as Dr. Wernstrom, Additional voices *

Dan Castellaneta Daniel Louis Castellaneta ( ; born October 29, 1957) is an American actor. He is best known for voicing Homer Simpson on the animated series ''The Simpsons'' (as well as other characters on the show such as Grampa Simpson, Krusty the Clown, ...

as The Robot Devil *

David Cross David Cross (born April 4, 1964) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and director. Cross is best known for his stand-up performances, the HBO sketch comedy series '' Mr. Show with Bob and David'' (1995–1998), his role as Ian Hawk ...

as Yivo *

Stephen Hawking Stephen William Hawking (8January 194214March 2018) was an English theoretical physics, theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author who was director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge. Between ...

as Himself *

Brittany Murphy Brittany Anne Murphy-Monjack (; November 10, 1977 – December 20, 2009) was an American actress and singer, known for her work in both comedy and drama. Born in Atlanta, Murphy moved to Los Angeles as a teenager to pursue a career in a ...

as Colleen O'Hallahan

Features

Opening

''Futurama''s 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 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 Walt Disney Animation Studios and was released by Pat Powers (producer), Pat Powers, under the name of Cele ...

'' starring Zoidberg, Leela (in the

Mickey Mickey is a given name and nickname, often a short form (hypocorism) of Michael, Michaela, and Michelle, and occasionally a surname. Notable people and characters with the name include: People Given name or nickname Men * Mickey Andrews (bor ...

role), Fry, and Bender. The Planet Express Ship then flies by the moon and zaps the Hydroponic Farmer from "

The Series Has Landed "The Series Has Landed", also known as "Episode Two: The Series Has Landed", is the second episode in the first season of the American animated television series ''Futurama''. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on Apr ...

" with the ship's ray gun. Following the cartoon, the Planet Express Ship crashes out from the television billboard. In the

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 may refer to: Science and technology Mathematics * Binary number, a representation of numbers using only two values (0 and 1) for each digit * Binary function, a function that takes two arguments * Binary operation, a mathematical op ...

representation of the

ASCII ASCII ( ), an acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for representing a particular set of 95 (English language focused) printable character, printable and 33 control character, control c ...

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 Flip the Frog is an animated cartoon character created by American animator Ub Iwerks. He starred in a series of cartoons produced by Celebrity Pictures and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1930 to 1933. The series had many recurring cha ...

'' 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" is the eighteenth and final episode in the fourth season of the American animated television series '' Futurama'', the 72nd episode of the series overall, and the finale of the original run. It original ...

", that of ''Futurama''s own opening sequence.

Guest stars

The film features voice talents from:

as Colleen, Fry's new

polyamorous Polyamory () is the practice of, or the desire for, romantic relationships with more than one partner at the same time, with the informed consent of all partners involved. Some people who identify as polyamorous believe in consensual non-mono ...

girlfriend;

as Yivo, the planet-sized

d omnipotent alien; Professor Stephen Hawking reprising himself, this time as his own head in a jar; and

reprising his role as the Robot Devil. Aside from her regular work on the animated series ''

King of the Hill ''King of the Hill'' is an American animated sitcom created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels that initially aired on Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox from January 12, 1997, to September 13, 2009, with four more episodes airing in First-run syndicati ...

'', this was Murphy's last voice-over role before her death on December 20, 2009.

DVD

The DVD features a commentary track, deleted scenes, and footage animated for the ''Futurama'' video game retitled '' Futurama: The Lost Adventure''. ''The Lost Adventure'' also features its own commentary track.

References

External links

* * * *''

The Beast with a Billion Backs ''Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs'' is a 2008 American direct-to-video adult animated science-fiction film based on the animated series ''Futurama'', and the second of four straight-to-DVD films that make up the show's fifth season. ...

'' at ''the Infosphere''. * at
DVD Talk Review
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