Director: Dwayne Carey-Hill
Created by:Matt Groening
Studio: 20th Century Fox Television
Release Date: November 4, 2008

Bender’s Game (name based on Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game) is really a story within a story. We have Mom’s company (monopoly) charging an increasing amount for dark matter which leads to Professor Farnsworth trying to stop the monopoly by using a crystal that he created a long time ago that will make dark matter the poop that it really is. It was nice to see the Nibblonians play a role in the story as I have always found them to be the glue that keeps the overall storyline in check. Well as luck would have it when the crystal comes in contact to nullify the dark matter, Bender gets caught up with having enough of the stuff in his metal body to rip reality in two and throw the gang into a D&D/Lord of the Rings fantasy world that exists in his imagination.

Futurama is one of those shows that everyone can enjoy, but the hidden Easter Eggs make it that much better. They do cater to a specific age in the audience and a certain type of person as well. Lucky for me I fit the bill on both ends and I believe this is what makes it one of my top shows. It has enough 80s references (and old cartoons) as well as fantasy references to make all the flock of seagulls and dungeon masters feel at home. We have a few scenes with Cubert and Dwight playing Dungeons and Dragons trying to get Bender to use his imagination. At the same time we also get to see Mom’s company including Walt, Larry and Ignar trying to track down the crystal that the professor has hidden and lost. The crystal itself is a die used by the kids playing their game of D&D and is a bit more powerful then everyone thinks. Once time-space is ripped and everyone is in Bender’s world do we see a bit more of the fantasy. Bender is a knight, and a glutenous one at that, the professor is a wizard obviously, Amy the queen of the water nymphos, Leela is a centaur, Hermes is head of the non violent centaurs, Zoidberg something of a tunnel horror, and Fry is turned into a Gollum-like character with the crystal die substituted for the ring. Phew that is a lot of characters, but Zapp and Kif are no where to be found in this adventure to keep the list manageable at least.

I love Mom’s as the monopoly of all companies, run by a nice elderly grandmother type that wouldn’t harm a fly, but behind closed doors she is a ruthless company head. Plus her sons are just the sons she would not want to have, yet she has to deal with them anyway screwing up her schemes of taking everything and everyone over.  The older episode A Fishful of Dollars where we first see Mom is a great starting oint to understand the character.  This part of the storyline set in the present (of their time) based on the dark matter price increase (related to our previous gas price explosion) had some real funny moments based on older shows and references. We see Rosie from The Jetsons has malfunctions and offed the Jetsons which puts her in the HAL institute for Criminally Insane Robots, where Bender has also ended up. This is the kind of humor that appeals to me, where things from the past are brought into the present for that humor factor. If you have never seen the Jetsons, it is still funny that they are in a Institute for the Criminally Insane Robots, but seeing her there just throws it over the top. Having an understanding of D&D also helps with the other storyline as they use spells and powers right out of the Players Handbook which is real cool. The writers know how the game is played which means the humor based on that is well thought out. I also enjoyed watching Cubert and Dwight play the game with their friends as well and the interaction of Dwight as the Dungeon Master with the rest of the gamers.

This DVD episode (movie) gives us a lot of background on storylines we saw earlier in the series. I love that about Futurama, it is consistent and brings you back to situations and characters, it makes you feel like the world is truly alive. We hear a bit more about the Farnsworth and Wernstrom rivalry, more about Nibblers story of the imploding planet and what dark matter really is, as well as Mom and her sons. Futurama is one of the more fleshed out worlds in cartoons, and it benefits from that.

The quality of the voice acting has always been superb with Bender’s Game being no exception. The actors and actresses work very hard to not only nail the lines, but to keep it interesting with the little quirks that there characters have. Each character is unique and alive. The quality of the actual DVD I do not want to comment on as I had a screener and usually they are re-compressed to ad watermarks and the studio title every so often.

DVD Extras:

Storyboard

This was cool, just to see how movies in general are put together, it was the full story played out via the storyboards, so make sure you do not try to watch this part first! For me, I never realized how much work goes into the storyboard.

Futurama Genetics lab

This is where you are able to take two characters and merge them together into a new character with a new name. It is a bit limited but good for a quick chuckle the first time you go through it.

Dungeons & Dragons & Futurama

They take us through all of the D&D references in all of the past seasons of Futurama. This was a great extra and brought back some fond memories of the series.

How to draw Fry, Bender/Flexo, Leela, & Zoidberg

This was a bit of a skit with the artists and their characters. Well done and enough humor to want to watch them draw the characters even if you are not an artist.

3D modeling of various ships in the series

Was not too exciting, was ships from the Destruction Derby they had in the movie.

Deleted scene

In story board form, was understandable why they cut it, but I am glad they showed it to us at least in this form. I love extras.

“Blooperama,” voice actors outtakes

Am I the only one that still finds it funny to hear Bender’s voice coming out of a human?

Trailer for the fourth movie: “Into the Wild Green Yonder”

Looks like it will be another hit for Futurama, problem is when are they going to pick up the show for a new full season? Into the Wild Green Yonder actually looks more like a regular season episode of Futurama then the rest of the DVD movies have been.

There were also a few others including Bender’s Anti-Piracy Warning, which was pretty funny

Overall Futurama Bender’s Game took some of my favorite chocolate (Fantasy) and mixed it with my favorite peanut-butter (Futurama) and it is a tasty package. I would have to say that it would be my favorite of the straight to DVD movies from the Futurama crew. While it is not always laugh out loud funny, its suble jokes and stunts were well done, a thinking mans show as you will, and one better appreciated if you know a bit about the 80s and old cartoons as mentioned earlier. A worthy story to the Futurama Universe, be greedy like Bender and go buy a few copies.

View/Post Comments

Buy it now at Amazon!

Related Entries

Topics: 20th Century Fox Television, Bender's Game, Dwayne Carey-Hill, Futurama, Matt Groening