Into the Wild Green Yonder

Into the Wild Green Yonder, sometimes incorrectly known as The Wild Green Yonder, is the fourth Direct-to-DVD film. It was released on 23 February, 2009 in Europe, 24 February, 2009 in the USA and on 4 March, 2009 in Australia on DVD and Blu-ray.

Guest stars include Penn & Teller, Snoop Dogg, Seth MacFarlane and Phil Hendrie.

Plot outline
<!--==Plot speculation==

Since the film is still in post-production, and even though has recently been released, not much is known, even only a week before its release date. But its predecessors have revealed some information about its content.

According to the DVD commentary of, the truth about the mysterious Number 9 Man (seen in season one and two and also Bender's Big Score) will be revealed, and he will be given a speaking role. The commentators also mention that there will be some golfing involved.

It was revealed that this film will boast a musical number, sung by Seth MacFarlane.

David X. Cohen released a tiny bit of plot detail:

An interview with David X. Cohen also suggests that part of the film will rely heavily on Fry and Leela's relationship.

On the DVD of Bender's Game there is a teaser trailer for Into the Wild Green Yonder. In the trailer, Fry and Bender are playing poker with Leo Wong as the dealer. Fry is wearing a kind of foil hat which appears throughout the trailer worn by different people including the Number 9 Man. The Robot Mafia fire their guns at someone or something. Then, it seems that the Planet Express Crew goes missing, leaving only the Professor, Zoidberg, and Hermes. Fry gets hit over the head with a bottle by another man wearing a foil hat. Leela, Amy, and LaBarbara form a team of and rebel against the remaining members of the crew. Onboard the Nimbus, the entire DOOP army, with the exception of Zapp and Kif, is wiped out in an unknown accident (Bender is aboard the ship aswell). Fry joins some sort of cult (all wearing foil hats) led by the Number 9 Man who know a secret which Fry reluctantly foot-swears not to tell anyone. At a construction facility, where the crew and Inez Wong are, Zoidberg deems that Fry is dead. Everyone is distressed over this, which does not usually occur when someone dies. However, according to information provided in an interview, Fry is either not really dead or revived.

Blu-ray.com released this summary :

The following is an edited summary from Screenjabber 

There will be an ecological theme throughout the movie. The first act will take place mostly on Mars. Leo Wong wants to demolish an entire arm of the Milky Way galaxy to make way for the biggest miniature-golf course in the universe (the first hole is on Pluto's moon, Hydra, and is a 6 billion mile par 2 — "a tough shot"). An accident during some demolition work on Mars sees Fry develop mind-reading abilities when a piece of women's jewelry gets lodged in his brain. Which leads to him wearing a tinfoil hat to keep the voices out, and joining the super-secret Legion of Mad Fellows led by Number 9 Man. Meanwhile, Bender starts having an affair with the burlesque-dancer wife of Donbot and Leela joins an eco-feminist collective and becomes an outlaw. Professor Farnsworth is the scientist roped in to do the environmental impact report for Wong's planned mini-golf course, which gets the go-ahead. The final piece of the galaxy in his way is a violet dwarf star, which plays a vital part in the climax. The fate of the universe depends on Fry yet again. -->

Production
The choice of Ken Keeler as the main writer for Into the Wild Green Yonder was no coincidence, he also wrote the episode "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings", which back then was considered the final episode of Futurama, but later turned out simply to be the final episode of the original run. Given how Into the Wild Green Yonder was perceived as possibly the last ever film/episode the writers got to do with Futurama, they also wanted to make this a memorable one, and the choice of Ken Keeler was finalised.

Originally, the Mars Vegas segment was supposed to last as long as it did (that equal of an episode length), but since they liked the setting so much, the writers extended the setting for one fourth of the film, where some of the plot, which originally intended to develop on Earth, simply occurred on Mars. The subplot with Bender and Fanny was also extended because of this change. Ken Keeler had originally written a lot more lines between Bender and Donbot, in the awkward shots between him, Donbot and Fanny.

Into the Wild Green Yonder was supposed to be the "classic science-fiction story" of the four films, with Bender's Big Score being the "time travel epic", The Beast with a Billion Backs being the "monster film" and Bender's Game being the "fantasy film". As a classic science-fiction story, Into the Wild Green Yonder focuses on an ancient war between two equally ancient species, which subsequently gains new weight as our own main characters enter the ordeal.

Reception

 * The episode was subject to censorship by itself.

Miscellany

 * See Miscellany of Into the Wild Green Yonder for trivia, goofs, etc.

Characters

 * Amy Wong
 * Bender Bending Rodríguez
 * Debut: Boobs Vanderbilt
 * Calculon
 * Clamps
 * Debut: Dark Ones
 * Dixie and Trixie
 * Donbot
 * Dr. John A. Zoidberg
 * Elzar
 * Debut: Fanny
 * Fnog
 * Frida Waterfall
 * Headless body of Agnew
 * Hedonismbot
 * Hermes Conrad
 * Horrible Gelatinous Blob
 * Debut: Hutch Waterfall
 * Joey Mousepad
 * Kif Kroker
 * LaBarbara Conrad
 * Debut: Last Encyclopod
 * Leo and Inez Wong
 * Linda
 * Lrrr
 * Debut: Manly Alien
 * Debut: Maxi-Padlock Warden
 * Mom
 * Morbo
 * Nibbler
 * Number 9 Man
 * Debut: Penn & Teller
 * Petunia
 * Philip J. Fry
 * Preacherbot
 * Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth
 * Richard Nixon's head
 * Sal
 * Scruffy
 * Debut: Smiley Smith
 * Snoop Dogg's head
 * Debut: "Tex" Connecticut
 * Turanga Leela
 * Zapp Brannigan

Cast

 * Billy West as Philip J. Fry, Professor Hubert Farnsworth, Dr. Zoidberg, Zapp Brannigan, Leo Wong, Richard Nixon's head, The Dark One (Physic voice), Poker sign-up clerk, Miniture Golf Construction Worker, Leo's Caddy, Antonin Scalia's Head, Madfellow, Striped Biologist Taunter, Additional Voices
 * Katey Sagal as Turanga Leela
 * John DiMaggio as Bender, Joey Mousepad, Elzar, Sal, Additional Voices
 * Tress MacNeille as Boobs Vanderbilt, Michael's Wife, Ruth Ginsberg's Head, Fanny, Dixie, Linda, Petunia, Mom, Additional Voices
 * Maurice LaMarche as Kif Kroker, Donbot, Clamps, Lrrr, Morbo, Calculon, Headless body of Agnew, Fanny's Announcer, "Tex" Connecticut, Lrrr's father, Abe Lincoln, Narrator, Additional Voices
 * Phil LaMarr as Hermes Conrad, The Dark One, Preacherbot, Magna-Phallix Commercial Voice-Over, Nixon's Bodyguard, Thomas, Additional Voices
 * Lauren Tom as Amy Wong, Inez Wong, Trixie, Additional Voices
 * David Herman as Number 9 Man, Scruffy, Michael, Neputnian, Additional Voices
 * Dawnn Lewis as LaBarbara Conrad, Women's Prison Warden.
 * Snoop Dogg as Himself
 * Phil Hendrie as Frida Waterfall, Hutch Waterfall, Encyclopod
 * Penn & Teller as Themselves
 * Seth MacFarlane as the vocal for the opening theme (credited as Mars Vegas Singer on IMDb).

The DVD
The DVD includes the following:
 * The film itself.
 * Audio Commentary by Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, John DiMaggio, Maurice LaMarche, Michael Rowe, Lee Supercinski, Patric M. Verrone and Peter Avanzino
 * Storyboard Animatic: Into the Wild Green Yonder, Part 1
 * Featurette: Matt Groening and David X. Cohen in Space!
 * Docudramarama: "How We Make Futurama So Good"
 * "Louder! Louder!": The Acting Technique of Penn Jillette
 * Golden Stinkers: A Treasury of Deleted Scenes
 * How To Draw Futurama In 10 Very Difficult Steps
 * 3D Models with Animator Discussion
 * Bender's Movie Theater Etiquette
 * Zapp Brannigan's Guide to Making Love at a Woman
 * An unnamed Easter Egg of an animation on toilet paper of Bender drinking a pint of beer, repeated many times
 * An unnamed easter egg that shows what Zapp Braniggan was saying in his speech during the scene where Fry is trying to discover the dark one.

Blu-Ray feature:
 * Picture-in-picture commentary.
 * The Region B version of this disc has a slightly different cover design.