Futurama: Bender's Game (2008)

The Planet Express crew get trapped in a fantasy world.

Director:

Dwayne Carey-Hill

Writers:

Matt Groening (created by), Matt Groening (developed by)

Stars:

Billy West, Katey Sagal, John DiMaggio

1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Billy West	...	Philip J. Fry / Frydo / Professor Hubert Farnsworth / The Great Wizard Greyfarn / Dr. Zoidberg / Monster Zoidberg / Farmer / Dwarf / Smitty / Treedledum (voice)
Katey Sagal	...	Turanga Leela / Leegola (voice)
John DiMaggio	...	Bender / Titanius Anglesmith / Igner / Ignus / Sal / Hood Ornament Thief / Hermaphrobot / Frydo's Reflection #1 / URL / Bellboy Robot (voice)
Tress MacNeille	...	Mom / Momon / Turanga Munda / Nurse Ratchet / Linda / Slurm Queen / Ship's Computer / Natalie Maines / Intercom Robot / Rosie the Robot Maid / Swamp Hag / Centaurette (voice)
Maurice LaMarche	...	Walt / Waltazar / The Scary Door Narrator / Dr. Perceptron / Morbo / Calculon / Mad Hatter Robot / Vending Machine Robot / Killbots / Morcs / Centaur (voice)
Phil LaMarr	...	Hermes Conrad / Hermaphrodite / Dwight Conrad / Pay 'n' Chew Robot / Nibblonian #1 / Slave Robot / Peaches (voice)
Lauren Tom	...	Amy Wong / Gynecaladriel / Chinese Boy (voice)
David Herman	...	Larry / Larius / Turanga Morris / Scruffy / Dr. Ogden Wernstrom / Roberto / Nibblonian #2 / Cook / Redneck / Military Man / Frydo's Reflection #2 (voice)
Kath Soucie	...	Cubert Farnsworth / Indian Boy (voice)
Frank Welker	...	Nibbler / Trolls / Tyrannosaurus Rex / Monkey / Polar Bear / Rat / Chickens / Tunneling Horror (voice)
E. Gary Gygax	...	Gary Gygax (voice) (archive footage) (as Gary Gygax)
Rich Little	...	Rich Little's Head as Howard Cosell (voice)
George Takei	...	George Takei's Head (voice)

Storyline

The Planet Express crew get trapped in a fantasy world.

---

Plot Keywords:

muscle growth | tyrannosaurus rex | mace | horseback riding | horse | 

---

Genres:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Comedy | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 November 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Futurama Movie 3

Company Credits

Production Co:

20th Century Fox Television, The Curiosity Company, Twentieth Century Fox Animation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The elevator to Mom's underground lair stops at level 65.

---

Goofs

When Mom's three sons are first charging Leela, Fry, and Bender, they are each carrying a lance. But after Bender launches himself with his own lance, their lances disappear, but then they reappear.

---

Quotes

[TV show "Tea with Titans"]
Morbo: Morbo the Annihilator here, sitting down to a delightful tea in this fake living-room set.
[shouts angrily]
Morbo: Thank you for joining us, Mom!
Mom: My pleasure, Sugar Plum.
Morbo: Mom, you control the world's only dark-matter mine. Why are fuel prices so high?
Mom: Oh, it's terrible, isn't it? Dark matter is just so rare nowadays, but we'll keep pinching loaf after loaf from the bowels of the Earth, even if I lose money on every log.

---

Crazy Credits

OPENING SUBTITLE: The flames in your TV are not part of the show. OPENING CARTOON: A parody of 'Yellow Submarine (1968)'.

---

Connections

Followed by Futurama: Rebirth (2010)

---

Soundtracks

Rocket Ship
Performed by Kathy McCarty
Album: Dead Dog's Eyeball
Original by Daniel Johnston
Released by Bar None Records

User Reviews

It starts as a refreshing character comedy but when the "Game" portion kicks in the movie just curls up and dies under it's own nerdy indulgences

Direct-to-DVD movie; Genre: Animated Comedy, Science Fiction; Content Rating: Not Rated (contains animated violence and gore and pervasive scatological humor); Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 – 4);

In the first DVD movie outing the folks at "Futurama" took on internet scammers and time travel. In the 2nd, dating and religion through an intergalactic monster movie. Now in the third feature-length film, "Bender's Game", they cobble together the energy crisis and Dungeons and Dragons. It's a melding that this time could have used a few more trips to the writing table to get it to solidify.

In this self-contained adventure, the Planet Express crew suffers from the escalating price of rocket fuel dark matter, provoking Professor Farnsworth (Billy West) to go up against the maniacal head of Mom Corp (Tress MacNeille) who single-handedly controls the supply. Meanwhile, Leela (Katy Sagal) is disciplined for her violent temper and Bender (John DiMaggio) is accused of not having an imagination by the players of Dungeons and Dragons and is driven to robot madness by the game.

The first act of "Game" is something of a dream come true. For the first time the crew headed by David X. Cohen, Matt Groening and director Dwayne Carey-Hill ("Bender's Big Score") take advantage of the feature-length running time to slow things down a bit. The first act is a refreshing turn of a character comedy for this normally lightning-fast sci-fi satire in which details set-up in the series are brought to a head, notably some repressed anger from Leela toward Zoidburg and her appropriately hilarious reaction to a shock collar, a somewhat clever flashback to Nibbler's first meeting with the crew and the long promised next epic confrontation with Mom. As possibly the show's best villain, it's welcome to see this Mom story finally realized and MacNeille is something of a powerhouse in the voice performance. This is her time to shine. This section of the movie is in flashes some of the best work the show has done.

While D&D is established early and often, it still doesn't help cushion the wild, hard left turn the movie takes from its energy/Mom story to randomly and literally (and I do mean literally) dropping the characters into a D&D fantasy world. In this section the moderately funny, full of potential story is completely abandoned and the movie curls up and dies. Cohen, Carey-Hill and company totally indulge in their nerdiest impulses and to hell with the story. More disappointingly, they choose to parody some of the most obvious and mainstream fantasy sources – mostly "Lord of the Rings". The characters are put into a mix-&-match parody blender. All of a sudden Leela is a centaur, Fry is Frydo who acts like Gollum, the Professor is Gandolf who takes a "Star Wars" turn and Zoidburg is a giant cave monster. "Futurama's" strength has always been that it isn't mainstream. "Game" is a broad, easily accessible palette cleanser of toilet humor and forced gags after the sharp, iconoclastic and surreal "Beast With A Billion Backs" - which for my money is still the triumph of the movie series so far.

The D&D section of the film didn't have to be a mindless lost cause. But the "Futurama" crew doesn't in any way make an attempt to resolve the first and 2nd acts of the movie with it. As randomly as our heroes entered the world, they leave it just in time for a quick wrap-up. The Game portion of "Game" is head-slappingly obvious filler that will probably send most viewers to the show's famously great commentary tracks for an explanation (Cohen and Groening give nothing). Instead of the creative or scientific explanation we've come to expect from Futurama, "Bender's Game" leaves us with the classically disappointing "It was All a Dream" ending. It's a punch in the face.

The movie is randomly entertaining and I do love the extended mix of the show's theme that plays over the credits, but this is a hard one to recommend even to hardcore fans of the show.

* * ½ / 4