Futurama: Bender’s Big Score

Mack Guffin — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:52:10 +0000

FUTURAMA is Matt Groening’s science fiction toon series that aired from 1999 to 2003 with four seasons and 72 episodes before being cancelled. It never quite reached the level of THE SIMPSONS at its best, but it’s a funny series with a lot of fun references for science fiction fans. And like THE SIMPSONS, there’s a payoff when you know the incidental characters that appear here and there. Some episodes and seasons were better than others, and its greatest episode was probably the one with the STAR TREK cast, “Where No Fan Has Gone Before.”

Now FOX is producing four straight-to-DVD movies, and this first one, FUTURAMA: BENDER’S BIG SCORE, came out in November 2007.

A race of nudist aliens (and, like most nudists, they should keep their clothes on) has attacked Earth with an email scamming plot, and are taking over the planet with identify theft and stolen credit card numbers.

They discover that, mysteriously, the secret to time travel has been tattooed on Fry’s ass in the form of a Bender tattoo. Using this, they take over Bender and send him into the past to steal Earth’s greatest art treasures.

Time travel was a plotline not explored on the FUTURAMA series, with the exception of one expedition to 1947 Roswell.

This works as an epic story more than just a string of FUTURAMA episodes lumped together (although it’s being sliced up into 4 episodes for syndication). The 4+ year hiatus allowed the writers to bring their A-game back to this. And they get a bit fancier with the animation. About the only thing that doesn’t work is some ill-conceived musical numbers.

If you’re not a fan of the show, this probably won’t change your mind, but if you did like the show, this is a fun reunion.

DVD extras:

* Feature-length commentary with Groening, the writers and director, and the voice actors.
* “Futurama Returns!”, a live reading by the cast of a FUTURAMA comic book at a science fiction convention.
* “A Terrifying Message from Al Gore.”
* “Bite My Shiny Metal X”, A math lecture about FUTURAMA.
* “Everybody Loves Hypnotoad”, a TV show from the FUTURAMA-verse.
* Deleted scenes.
* Character sketches.
* Comic-Con promo.

Movies for Guys » Katey Sagal

Futurama: Bender’s Big Score