Futurama: Bender's Game

Introduction

When Futurama was cancelled after four seasons, fans were desperate for more and, due to the massive DVD sales, Matt Groening and co. were able to continue the show. There was to be no fifth season, but four feature-length movies, each to be split into four episodes and broadcast on Comedy Central and simultaneously released intact to the home video market.

The first two, Bender's Big Score and The Beast With a Billion Backs came out on DVD, but this one, Benders' Game, is also available on Blu-ray Disc.

Bender discovers the kids playing Dungeons & Dragons but, much to his dismay, cannot join in because he has no imagination. He tries so hard that he creates an alternate personality, Titanius Anglesmith, that he believes is real and begins living in a fantasy world. Committed to the HAL Institute for Criminally Insane Robots he is reunited with Roberto, Mad Hatter-bot and Nurse Ratchet.

Meanwhile, dear old evil Mom is in control of the dark matter market, forcing up prices at the pumps and Professor Farnsworth reminisces about how he accidentally discovered it as a power source. This experiment created two crystals, one that maintains the power of dark matter and the other that is pure anti-backwards energy. Mom has the first, Farnsworth the second and if they were brought together, they would cancel each other out, causing dark matter to become inert.

The Planet Express crew set off to find Mom's dark matter mine, only to find its dark secret and end up trapped in Bender's fantasy world.

Video

Does Futurama need a high-bitrate Blu-ray picture? Probably not, but it looks fantastic anyway and is as clear as 2D animation gets! The character designs in Bender's fantasy are superb, especially Hermes' alter-ego - a busty centaur called 'Hermaphrodite' and the Yellow Submarine-inspired opening sequence is a visual treat.

Just comparing the Blu-ray screenshots to those from the DVD shows there is a massive difference.

Audio

The is only a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack available which is outstanding and will 'downgrade' to the level of your AV equipment. It has good separation and uses the surrounds well; the voice acting is, as always, superb and is delivered very clearly.

Extra Features

The audio commentary has an optional picture-in-picture feature and, as there are six speakers including David X. Cohen, Matt Groening and John DiMaggio, I found it quite useful. They chat amiably throughout, imparting some interesting information whilst the actors occasionally show off their vocal talents.

Part One of the story is available as a storyboard animatic; in the Futurama Genetics Lab you can select two characters to create a weird hybrid. In the D&D&F featurette, the writers talk about how Dungeons & Dragons influenced Futurama; How to Draw Futurama In 83 Easy Steps shows you how to draw most of the characters - looks easy, probably isn't; there's a brief look at the use of 3D models; a deleted scene called 'Cup or Nozzle?', which is quite funny; Blooperama 2: outtakes from Bender's Game shows the actors fluffing their lines - normally the same one repeatedly!; Bender's anti-piracy warning, which is a parody of those annoying 'You wouldn't steal a...' anti-piracy warnings that appear only on legitimate DVDs and, last but not least, a trailer for the Next Futurama movie: Into the Wild Green Yonder.

This is a nice extras package with plenty of interesting material and it was good to see it making use of the PiP facility of Blu-ray.

Conclusion

I was less than thrilled with the first two Futurama films, almost wishing they hadn't bothered, as Season Four finished so perfectly. Fortunately, Bender's Game is a return to form, blowing the previous efforts out of the water.

Full of laugh-out-loud moments, this is a gem of a cartoon, despite being utterly confusing even after two viewings! I've never played D&D, yet it doesn't affect my enjoyment of the film - maybe if you have played, you'll get even more out of it.

I wasn't expecting much from Bender's Game and was completely caught off-guard when it turned out to be as funny and satirical as it was. Wondering if I enjoyed this because of my low expectations, I watched it again and found it just as good second time around.

With all the extras and AV quality that Blu-ray offers, this is a great disc for Futurama fans everywhere - unusually and, as an added bonus, it's released in the UK before the US, albeit by a single day!