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, to be released on 23 February, 2009 in Europe and 24 February, 2009 in USA on both regular and Blu-Ray DVDs. The Australian releases of both formats will occur about a week later on 4 March, 2009.

As of 8 July, 2007 the voice acting for all the films (which includes the fifth season) is finished, according to Lauren Tom. Guest stars include Penn Jillette, Snoop Dogg, Seth MacFarlane and Phil Hendrie, the presence of Hendrie may suggest the return of The Waterfalls, specifically Frida Waterfall, who was introduced in "A Taste of Freedom" voiced by Hendrie.

Plot speculation
Since the film is still in post-production, and even though has just been released, not much is known. 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 also revealed that this film will boast more musical numbers, including one 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 feminists 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 ishttp://www.theinfosphere.org/index.php?title=Into_the_Wild_Green_Yonder&action=edit&section=1 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 mindreading 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.

The following is a review from dvdactive.

So, Into the Wild Green Yonder. Does it take Futurama out on the high it deserves? Sort of. This structure of cramming three or four regular episodes into one large arc is really what holds back a total good feeling towards the project. Having been so used to the twenty two minute episode structures, it’s difficult not to see the blatant stitched together plot points to make what is plainly separate stories feel like one movie. It’s maybe not as bad as it was in some of the previous feature lengths ( Beast with a Billion Backs was almost unwatchable because of it) but the jump from the opening Mars Vegas poker tournament into the Wong’s mini golf plans is just like going into a whole new episode with Fry’s mind reading and Leela’s leech being the only things holding the two acts together. In fact, the initial set up of the golf course development and Leela’s feelings towards Wong’s plans repeats the same jokes from the beginning of the Mars Vegas opening act, which is just plain distracting and untidy.

Beyond that really clunky transition, the last hour actually works quite well. There’s still no missing the sensation of how much better this might have been in the TV show structure, but the writers do manage to pull off the coming together of the individual character arcs this time out and it’s far more rewarding. The multiple set ups of Leela being an eco-vandal against Amy’s dad’s mini golf construction, whilst Fry becomes Wong’s security against Leela and Bender siding with Zap to find and arrest Leela for her eco-vandalism whilst the rest of the Planet Express staff are being held captive by Leela’s Feministas’ (phew) somehow makes the characters' very different adventures feel like they're heading towards the same place, rather than the whole cast just happening upon each other for the final scenes really made this feel like a planned larger story rather than a mish-mash with a last minute clean up.

The final scenes are for the fans of the show. Everyone turns out for Wong’s big explosion and by everyone, I mean pretty much everyone from all of Futurama’s history. The large crowd becomes a bit of a, ‘oh that guy!’ or ‘wow, I haven’t seen him in ages’ sort of affair. Add to that a sci-fi pay off that is pure sci-fi greatness which against all odds is what Futurama really is the master at. An animated show that spoofs classic elements of sci-fi, somehow manages to celebrate everything that’s great about it at the same time. Wrapping up the last instalment of what may be the last time we ever get to see these guys from the thirtieth century is a fantastic closing scene. It's the sort of scene you would expect from the closing of a show with an uncertain future, the sort of exciting, anything might happen event that gets all those character you love so much together for what could be the last time and leaves you with a ‘I’m gonna miss these guys if they don’t come back’ feeling in the fan boy part of your heart and the sudden feeling of acceptance of these flawed feature lengths washes over you with the conclusion that just below par Futurama is better than no  Futurama at all and maybe, just maybe, this project, whatever it was trying to prove, was just enough to get it back weekly on our TV sets where it should be.

Trivia

 * It is also implied in the commentary of Bender's Big Score that Bender's materials will cause him to melt in hundreds of thousands of years.
 * The writers have been quoted, at Comic-Con International 2008, saying that there is a "scene" containing "all of the characters" from Futurama, all clearly distinguishable. It is unclear if this is within the film itself or on one of the special features (probably not seeing as the features have been announced and there is no mention of it).
 * Tickle Me Bender dolls are an obvious parody of Sesame Street's Tickle Me Elmo dolls.
 * The Australian release of this film falls on the eve of the anniversary of Bender's Big Score's Australian release date.
 * Robby the Robot will make another cameo appearance in this movie, the first being in.
 * In the trailer, Amy wears her Zoidberg stained outfit from and the professor wears his driving gear from.

Characters
Characters that can automatically confirmed, and characters that have been confirmed.
 * Headless body of Agnew
 * Amy Wong
 * Bender Bending Rodríguez
 * Clamps
 * Donbot
 * Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth
 * Philip J. Fry
 * Frida Waterfall (speculative)
 * Hermes Conrad
 * Joey Mousepad
 * Kif Kroker
 * LaBarbara Conrad
 * Turanga Leela
 * Leo and Inez Wong
 * Nibbler
 * Richard Nixon's head
 * Number 9 Man
 * Scruffy
 * Snoop Dogg's head
 * Zapp Brannigan
 * Dr. John A. Zoidberg

Cast

 * Billy West as Philip J. Fry, Professor Hubert Farnsworth, Dr. Zoidberg, Zapp Brannigan, Leo Wong, Additional Voices
 * Katey Sagal as Turanga Leela
 * John DiMaggio as Bender, Joey Mousepad, Additional Voices
 * Tress MacNeille as Additional Voices
 * Maurice LaMarche as Kif Kroker, Donbot, Clamps, Additional Voices
 * Phil LaMarr as Hermes Conrad, Additional Voices
 * Lauren Tom as Amy Wong, Inez Wong, Additional Voices
 * David Herman as Number 9 Man (?), Additional Voices
 * Dawnn Lewis as LaBarbara Conrad
 * Penn Jillette as TBA
 * Phil Hendrie as TBA
 * Snoop Dogg as Himself
 * Seth MacFarlane as TBA

The DVD
The following information has been released about the DVD Blu-Ray feature:
 * 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
 * Picture-in-picture commentary.