Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs
Short description
Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs is an animated science fiction comedy from 2008. A tear in space-time has opened a passage into another universe, and the crew of Planet Express is sent to investigate it. What waits on the other side is a planet-sized, many-tentacled creature whose arrival on Earth sets off a chain of events involving a new religion, a message that spreads across the planet, and an exodus that leaves the robots behind. Fry, the central figure in these developments, has just come out of a relationship and is drawn into the middle of them.
The film is a feature-length instalment in the Futurama series, released after the show's original run ended and following an earlier direct-to-video movie. Peter Avanzino directed it, placing it first in the chronological list of his two Futurama features, ahead of Into the Wild Green Yonder. The voice cast returns the show's regulars: Billy West as Fry, Dr. Zoidberg and Professor Farnsworth, Katey Sagal as Leela, John DiMaggio as Bender, alongside Phil LaMarr, Lauren Tom and Tress MacNeille in supporting roles. Claudia Katz and Lee Supercinski produced.
Audience response has been solid rather than spectacular: on IMDb it holds 7.1/10 from roughly 26,000 votes, and on TMDB 7/10 from about 630 votes. The two scores sit close together, indicating a broadly consistent reception among viewers. At 90 minutes, it is structured as a self-contained adventure rather than an episode of the series.
What's left behind the scenes
- According to David Cohen, the producer and screenwriter of the project, the title was derived from the sexual term 'the beast with two backs,' first used by François Rabelais in his novel 'Gargantua and Pantagruel'.
- The intro for the Decapod 10 planet's video telephone company parodies one of the early logos of Universal Pictures.
- Yivo controls Fry's body in the same way that Leviathan controls the doctor's body in the film “Hellraiser II: Hellbound”.
- The Robot League, with its rituals, secret meetings, and other paraphernalia, parodies a Masonic lodge.
- Leela drinks a beverage called “Red Minotaur” to calm down. This is a parody of another energy drink – “Red Bull”.
- When Bender returns from the hospital and says he knows what he wants to be when he grows up, Hermes asks him: “Are you going to star in Calculon's show again like last time?” This is a reference to the episode “Bender Should Not Be Allowed On TV”.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
