"When a love comes to an end," Oscar Wilde once said, "weaklings cry, efficient ones instantly find another love, and the wise already have one in reserve." Fans of "Futurama," which aired on Fox from 1999 to 2003, had ample time to prepare for the end, but many never found a replacement show or never got over its untimely cancellation. After five seasons, Fox pulled the plug. Since then, however, the show's heartbroken fans have obsessively bought the seasons on DVD, convincing Comedy Central (the company that owns the show's syndication rights) to commission a series of four direct-to-DVD feature-length films, of which "Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder" (2009) is the last.
Fox is notorious for killing great TV shows well before their time. Of course, the network has often backtracked after stunning DVD sales and attempted to cash in by releasing feature films and DVD movies like "Futurama" or, in the rare case of "Family Guy," bringing the show back.
This precedent gave "Futurama" fans a glimmer of hope. If the DVD films sold well enough, they reasoned, the show would be brought back. All the creators had to do was turn out an outstanding product. But even the most diehard fans of "Futurama" will admit that the show is decidedly hit-or-miss, and these DVD films are no different.
They seemed promising at first. The first, "Bender's Big Score" (2007), felt true to form, the triumphant return of a much-missed friend. The next one, "The Beast with a Billion Backs" (2008), was good overall. It had its moments, but something felt off, as though the time spent apart had changed this familiar show in deep and profound ways. The third film, "Bender's Game" (2008), was a cry for one more chance: The plot went strange places for no apparent reason, each scene striving to be as funny and irreverent as possible, but lapsing into nonsense toward the end. It was enjoyable, but not what fans were looking for.
This brings us to the fourth installment, "Into the Wild Green Yonder," which was released Feb. 24 on DVD and Blu-Ray. It is almost impossible to describe the plot of "Green Yonder" because it involves so many inexplicable occurrences. The script seems written as though the writers took all of the leftover, unused, unwanted and half-baked ideas from the show, threw them at a wall and saw what stuck. Then they took what didn't stick and tried again until some more stuck. After that, they glued everything else on and called it a day.
The film starts out on Mars, in Mars Vegas, which is being demolished for a newer, better Mars Vegas. Here's where the ridiculousness starts.
As the Planet Express crew watches the construction, a group of women in pink fatigues, dubbed eco-feminists, shows up to protest. One of the protesters, after being blown into the air by an explosion, falls on Fry (voiced by Billy West) and gets her "femi-necklace" impaled in his forehead, giving him the ability to read minds.
Fry soon finds himself pulled into "The Legion of Mad Fellows," a secret group of telepaths. It turns out that he's the only hope for the universe, which, for those keeping track at home, will seem extremely familiar. Meanwhile, Leela (Katey Sagal) and Amy (Lauren Tom) join the eco-feminists in their efforts to stop Leo Wong (West), Amy's father, from destroying an important star in order to build a giant miniature golf course.
The animation — the show's usual mix of hand-drawn and computer-generated images — looks as striking as ever, and the entire voice cast has returned for this DVD outing. Guest stars include magicians Penn & Teller, and the Doggfather himself, Snoop Dogg.
Fans of the show will likely find more to enjoy here than newcomers, although it is accessible enough for all interested parties. The show's irreverent wit is still there, but some jokes are fan-specific.
The film will probably work better as four episodes, the format in which it will eventually be aired on Comedy Central, than in one hour-and-a-half block. At certain points it drags and the multiple plot lines get frustrating, but the payoff at the end makes it all worth it. With no ambiguity at all, the finale is as perfect an ending to the Futurama legacy as any fan could ask for, or as perfect a segue into the much-rumored sixth season, should Fox decide to pick it up, as the writers could produce.
"Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder" succeeds wonderfully as long as viewers don't expect too much from it. It isn't perfect — far from it — but it does do more right than wrong, and that is definitely, in Professor Farnsworth's words, "Good news, everyone!"
