I’m back baby! That’s right, after a most likely completely unnoticed absence, I, one of your resident Inept Owl movie reviewers, have returned. And what better way to mark my triumphant comeback than with a review of another returning here, the much more sadly missed TV series, Futurama, as it roars into your TV with the direct to video movie, Futurama – Bender’s Big Score
Good news everyone! The movie is the first of four made-for-DVD Futurama movies due to hit shelves sometime during the next year, and according to the most assuredly never inaccurate source Wikipedia, the eventual plan is to then split them up into episodes comprising a fifth “season” of the show to air on Comedy Central.
While eventual episodic viewing may be planned, BBS is an actual movie in scope and narrative, and is not, as in the case of Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, simply three episodes spliced together and sold on a disc. It is a full arc, telling a tale of betrayal, time travel, and epic love. Ok, maybe that is exaggerating, but it’s Futurama.
The brains behind the show couldn’t resist taking the opportunity to throw a few VERY thinly veiled attacks on the Fox Network for canceling the series to begin with, plenty of in-jokes to please the faithful fans. What works so well for Futurama has always been its ability to combine low-brow slapstick and silly humor with extremely sophisticated satire and even a little bit of science, and the movie is no exception.
There is a level of absurdity displayed in the show and the corresponding movie that borders on genius, and yet the writers are capable of bringing what could be just a series of random jokes together into a well-constructed plot, with sight-gags aimed to reward those who really pay attention. It quite frankly works better as a whole than the theatrical Simpsons Movie, and is certainly light years ahead of the always far inferior, over-rated, emperor has no clothes Family Guy (that’s right, I said it!)
To put it bluntly and to avoid spoiling any of the good jokes or plot points, Bender’s Big Score is exactly what fans of the series have been waiting years for, and hopefully is just the first of many such reunions.
Bender’s Big Score: B+