Futurama: Bender's Big Score

Reviewer: Craig Phillips
Rating (out of 5): ***½

The show that Simpsons creator Matt Groening followed that huge hit with, Futurama didn't have the same ratings success as its famous cousin, but developed a large and loyal cult following. Unfortunately, it was doomed as another high quality comedy that Fox shifted around confusingly for four seasons, showing less patience than it did with the Simpsons, only to, as with Family Guy (which I'm much less of a fan of, but it certainly has a huge following), realize they blew it and brought a cult favorite back. Bender's Big Score is the first of what will be several new feature-length Futurama episodes. And fans can breathe a sigh of relief: even if it stumbles about a few times -- blame it on writers rust after the four year layover (which the opening sequence cleverly references, along with a well-deserved, thinly-veiled smackback at Fox itself) -- in many ways it's as if they'd never left. Good news everyone: It has roughly the same amount of laughs as you'd find if you watched three solid episodes of the show back to back.

The film stars, yes, Bender the wise-ass robot, who becomes captive to a virus as part of a hostile takeover by scammer aliens (who use spam to fool the Planet Express company's gullible employees). After gaining access to a secret code that allows them to travel through time -- Fry has the time travel secret with the power to destroy the universe written in binary code tattooed on his ass, and don't ask, just enjoy! -- the evil scammers use Bender to do their bidding, including the theft of all the valuable objects in human history. Time travel paradox gags have been used on the show before, and they come close here to one time travel paradox too many, but they find the right pace as the show goes along, using the main plot to cleverly launch a few side stories that all end up connecting at the end. This stretched out episode does have more than its fair share of butt and dick jokes, though admittedly many of them are genuinely funny. And that's always been one of the charms of Futurama: jokes that only PhDs in math could come up with (or even understand) mix with sight gags and crude humor for the sophomoronic in all of us.

There's the old Futurama standbys - disemboded heads in jars, Dr. Zoidberg losing his mind, and his shell, Professor Farnsworth going senile, Nibbler, Al Gore. A silly story involving Fry and a Narwahl shows Futurama's softer side, while Leela experiences a blossoming romance with a medical assistant who seems suspciously like... no, I won't say it. Many other favorite supporting characters appear, and not gratuitously (yes, ladies, Zapp Brannigan jumps in to try to save the day, with bedraggled Kip there as always to meet his {sigh} needs).

One underrated aspect of the show has always been the voice work done by some of the most gifted cartoon voice actors in Hollywood. Billy West, once best regarded for voicing Stimpy the cat on John Kricfalusi's Ren and Stimpy, shows his amazing versatility here as the 20th century every(pizza delivery)man and well-meaning idiot, as the lobsterish (with a Yiddish accent) Dr. Zoidberg, as dottering Professor Farnsworth, as the stubbornly moronic womanizing space captain Zapp, among many other characters. John DiMaggio as Bender and many of the show's raspier characterizations (Robot Santa, who also makes a cameo here, Mr. Panucci the Pizza Man, Elzar the Emeril-like chef, and so on); Phil LaMarr as the Jamaican bureaucrat (and limbo champion) Hermes, Katey Sagal as mono-eyed Leela, long-time voice talent Maurice LaMarche as Kif Kroker and others, and veteran cartoony voice genius Frank Welker as Nibbler, Leela's adorable alien pet with the voracious appetite and a secret identity. The film also offers up Sarah Silverman as Fry's ex-girlfriend and Mark Hamill, enjoying his renaissance as a cartoon actor. And Al Gore.

All in all, if Bender's Big Score isn't the very best of Futurama (and what could ever top the inspired genius that is the Slurm Factory episode?), it most certainly offers a welcome reminder of how sorely missed it was. Especially for those of us who were sick of watching the same episodes rerun on the Cartoon Network ad nauseum. And if you don't agree, well as Leela says here, "What are you, a whining machine?"

The DVD includes host of fine little extras, including a treat for math nerds, "Bite My Shiny Metal X," a lecture of sorts on the usages of math in the show over time, with help from the show's nerdy writers (secret languages decoded and Pi explained!). But even better a full episode of America's favorite brainwashing sitcom, "Everyone Loves Hypnotoad" - you'll want to fastforward through most of it, lest you become hypnotized, but there are some hilarious moments, a Seinfeld reference, a few ads and a special promotion, that make it worth sticking with.