Futurama: Bender’s Game
Directed by: Dwayne Carey-Hill
Written by: Michael Rowe and Patric Verrone, Eric Horsted and David X. Cohen (story)
Starring: Billy West, Katey Sagal, John Di Maggio, Tresse MacNeille, Maurice LaMarche, Frank Welker

In case you’ve been living off-planet for the past couple of years, I feel that it is my duty to inform you that Matt Groening’s criminally underappreciated sci-fi animated series Futurama has been recently revived from the graveyard of canceled Fox programs. Instead of reinstating the show for another season of half-hour episodes, however, they decided to release four new feature-length movies on DVD, before breaking them up into individual episodes to be re-aired on Comedy Central.

The reason for this release strategy was obvious: money. Releasing them on DVD first would create a nice little revenue stream, and by promoting them as full-length movies, they could charge the same price as any other movie on DVD. But let’s be realistic here: now that they have reached the third installment in this series of animated movies, it’s becoming pretty obvious that they are actually 4 episode bundles, connected through the illusion of a plot.

More and more people are starting to voice concerns about the distinct lack of cohesiveness in these Futurama flicks, and although I enjoyed the last movie The Beast with a Billion Backs quite a bit, it did have a few too many random transitions and disconnected moments. Now we have Futurama: Bender’s Game, which is definitely the weakest of the movies they have released thus far. Although it touches on plenty of geek-tastic subjects and brings some fun characters back on screen, it’s simply unable to stay funny for the full 90 minutes.

It’s really too bad because the general concept seemed like a good one. As the title and cover artwork for the DVD indicate, the movie is mainly a vehicle through which the writers can riff on Dungeons & Dragons and fantasy role-playing. The story starts with Bender joining a game of D&D that Cubert and his friends are engaged in, but he finds himself drawn into the fantasy world and becoming addicted like Tom Hanks in Mazes and Monsters, which lands him in the HAL Institute for Criminally Insane Robots.

Meanwhile, there is a dark matter shortage in the galaxy, causing fuel prices to skyrocket. Professor Farnsworth investigates, only to find that Mom is behind it all, due to her monopoly on dark matter. The good news is that Farnsworth has a special crystal that can end the dark matter shortage; the bad news is that it somehow warps everyone into a fantasy world buried deep within the dark recesses of Bender’s imagination.

If that sounds like a pretty big leap, even for Futurama, well that’s exactly what it feels like when it happens on screen. About halfway through the movie, the setting suddenly shifts to this medieval alternate reality where everyone rides on horseback and carries swords, and no one bats an eyelash. It might not have been so jarring if it actually set the stage for some great comedic content, but unfortunately the best they can manage are a handful of Lord of the Rings references. There are a few gags aimed at role-players in the early part of the movie, but in general it’s a pretty light episode in terms of nerdy inside jokes. Gary Gygax gets a mention and a dedication in the credits, but the episode of Futurama where he actually appeared was much more memorable in my opinion.

The dark matter subplot was obviously supposed to be a commentary on the oil situation and gas prices in the U.S., but it doesn’t really have anything clever to say. I will concede that it was cool to see Mom in this episode, along with her three quarreling sons/henchmen. There’s an interesting twist related to Farnsworth and Mom that proved to be somewhat amusing as well.

Other than that, there weren’t really any other noteworthy appearances from well-known characters or guest voices except for George Takei and Rich Little. The Yellow Submarine take off in the opening scene is also worth mentioning just because it was kinda neat, albeit completely unrelated to anything else.

I like to think that Futurama never got stale and predictable like The Simpsons, mainly because it only lasted for four seasons, but also because there is almost no limit to where they can go with the show. Bender’s Game, however, proves that Futurama could easily fall victim to the same trap as The Simpsons if they aren’t careful to uphold the quality of writing that they’ve had in the past. They can be as wacky as they want, but there still needs to be a story holding it all together. That said, the mere existence of a show that pokes fun at topics this obscure is a rare and wonderful thing, and I’m sure there are many of us who will continue to support it as long as we get some entertainment out of it.

There is one more feature-length movie coming next year (Futurama: Into The Wild Green Yonder), and it’s unclear what will happen to the show after that. At this point I’ve decided that I would much rather get my Futurama fix in half-hour installments.

Extras on the DVD for Bender’s Game include an audio commentary track with the director, writers and voice cast, a Futurama “Genetics Lab” game, a featurette on Dungeons & Dragons and Futurama, How to Draw Futurama in 83 Easy Steps, 3D Models with Animator Discussion, storyboard animatic, deleted scenes, blooper reel, Anti-Piracy Warning from Bender, and the trailer for Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder. — Sean

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