Futurama: Bender’s Game DVD review

Tomorrow, Fox Home Entertainment will release an all-new feature-length film based on Matt Groening’s cult animated series Futurama, called Futurama: Bender’s Game. The film is the third of four all-new feature-length adventures, which began with Bender’s Big Score, and the follow-up effort, The Beast With A Billion Backs.

Futurama: Bender’s Game follows Bender, Fry, Leela, and crew on their latest dangerous inter-stellar mission to infiltrate the world’s only dark-matter mine, source of all spaceship fuel. Bender’s Game is a markedly different story than the first two. Much closer in tone to Beast With A Billion Backs than the time-travelling love story Bender’s Big Score, Bender’s Game is much funnier than the previous two films. Determined to act even less logically than before, Bender’s wacky new imagination quickly lands him in a mental institution. Meanwhile, dark matter prices are on the rise, thanks to Mom’s monopoly on the fuel market. Then somewhere along the way, we end up inside Bender’s imagination, which has subconsciously brought together Professor Farnsworth and Mom in a fantasy-fueled adventure.

Fans who didn’t care for the last movie should be pleased with the laughs and especially enjoy the extras in this one.

The DVD presentation of Bender’s Game is certainly up to par with the previous efforts and the bonus features are entertaining and detailed, creating a solid one-disc release that Futurama fans will enjoy.

• Audio Commentary – Featuring Futurama creator Matt Groening, executive producer David X. Cohen, voice actors Billy West, John DiMaggio and Tress MacNeille, director Dwayne Carey-Hill, co-writer Mike Rowe and producer Claudia Katz. This is a lively and fun track filled with introspective remarks, and great trivial bits.
• Storyboard Animatic: Bender’s Game, Part One – This is a complete Story Animatic for Part One of Bender’s Game. We get to see early sketches of the segment presented in order, as well as a rough version of final audio. The alternate dialogue is funny and interesting to hear against the final dialogue choices.
• Futurama Genetics Lab – A menu-based game, where viewers can choose two Futurama characters and click a mutate button, which displays a piece of full-color art with a hideous new character’s name.
• D&D&F a.k.a. Dungeons & Dragons & Futurama – This feaurette includes a chat with David X. Cohen, writer Mike Kaplan and Mike Rowe, as they discuss nostalgic memories of the game, while sharing a handful of Dungeons & Dragons-influenced scenes from Futurama episodes.
• How To Draw Futurama In 83 Easy Steps – Features several members of the Rough Draft crew and their sketches of Zoidberg, Leela and Bender.
• 3D Models – A featurette with commentary from several animators, where a number of ships from the film’s Demolition Derby sequence are put on rotating display.
• A number of short extras follow, including a deleted scene entitled Cup or Nozzle?. This short sequence involves the kids at a treat stand. Next is Blooperama 2, featuring key voice actors playing around with their lines. There’s also an Anti-Piracy Warning featuring Bender that spoofs PSAs, as well as a sneak peekof the Next Futurama movie, called Futurama: Into The Wild Green Yonder.