Futurama - Bender's Big Score

[4.5
stars] [IMDb Link]

[Amazon Link]
(paid link)

I scored this DVD as a Christmas gift from my wonderful family. For those who don't obsessively follow all things Futurama: it's a movie-length feature, and a continuation of the stories from the animated Fox TV show that ran from 1999 until 2003. I gather that it will be (eventually) chopped up into 30-minute episodes and shown on Comedy Central. Fans, however, won't want to wait.

You probably need to have at least a nodding familiarity with the TV show to appreciate the movie. It involves naked alien scam artists, and a hefty amount of time travel between the 21st and 31st centuries, in which the usual paradoxes are parodied.

Al Gore, voicing his own character, has a number of funny self-deprecating bits throughout. Although he comes in for a lot of well-deserved grief at this blog, this blog must admit that it found itself liking Al a little bit more.

There are a few bonuses. One is a lecture from (non-animated) Dr. Sarah J. Greenwald of Appalachian State University to the (non-animated) Futurama staff on the mathematics seen in the show and the movie. Dr. Greenwald has a website dedicated to appearances of math jokes in the series. Hypnotoad!

There's also a complete episode of Everybody Loves Hypnotoad. All glory to the Hypnotoad!


Last Modified 2024-02-02 6:36 AM EDT