Futurama: Bender's Game | |
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Directed by | Dwayne Carey-Hill |
Written by | Eric Horsted (Parts One and Two) Michael Rowe Eric Kaplan (Part Three) David X. Cohen Patric M. Verrone (Part Four) |
Story by | Eric Horsted David X. Cohen |
Produced by | Lee Supercinski Claudia Katz |
Starring | Billy West Katey Sagal John DiMaggio Tress MacNeille Maurice LaMarche Phil LaMarr Lauren Tom David Herman |
Edited by | Paul D. Calder |
Music by | Christopher Tyng |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment |
Release date |
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Running time | 87 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Futurama: Bender's Game is a 2008 American direct-to-video adult animated science fantasy comedy film and the third of the four Futurama films that make up the show's fifth season. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 4, 2008.
According to the Beast with a Billion Backs DVD commentary, the film, which spoofs Dungeons & Dragons , was in production when Dungeons & Dragons creator, Gary Gygax, died. The film contains a post-credits tribute to Gygax in the form of a title card and a clip of him from the episode "Anthology of Interest I". Elements of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and George Lucas' Star Wars are also parodied. The title of the film is a pun on the book Ender's Game , [1] by Orson Scott Card, though the Futurama film has "very little to do with the subject material" of the book. [2] Conversely, the 1985 book also used "Bender" as a mocking pun for "Ender", but Matt Groening stated [3] this is not the original inspiration for Bender's name.
Bender finds Cubert and Dwight playing Dungeons & Dragons , but cannot join in since, as a robot, he has no imagination. Bender manages to imagine himself as a medieval knight named "Titanius Anglesmith, fancy man of Cornwood" and enters the game. He becomes lost in his fantasy and goes on a rampage, resulting in his being committed to the Hal Institute for Criminally Insane Robots.
The crew learns that Mom, who controls the world's only dark matter mine, is restricting the supply to drive up profits. The Professor reveals that while working for Mom, he discovered how to turn dark matter into fuel. The process created two crystals, with Mom keeping one for herself and Farnsworth hiding the other, "anti-backwards" crystal. If the crystals are brought together, they will render dark matter useless. Farnsworth, Fry, and Leela fly to Mom's mine with the crystal to neutralize the dark matter. When the crew sneak in, they discover it is actually a farm harvesting the dark matter feces from Nibblonians, including a captured Nibbler. When Nibbler asks why they are not surprised he can talk, they tell him that he forgot to erase their memories the last time.
Encountering Mom and her three sons, Leela fends off Walt, Larry and Igner, while Farnsworth tries to bring his and Mom's crystals together; when Farnsworth is at risk of losing the anti-backwards crystal, he swallows it. The closeness of the crystals triggers a resonance in all dark matter and catapults the characters into Cornwood, the realm Bender imagines himself to be from.
"Frydo" (Fry) and "Leegola" (Leela, now a centaur) encounter "Titanius" (Bender); no one in Cornwood has any memory of their real lives except for Fry and Leela. The three are attacked by "Waltazar" (Walt), "Larius" (Larry) and "Ignus" (Igner), who are trying to recover the anti-backwards crystal. While fighting them off, Frydo drops the crystal, which rolls like a die and magically banishes the sons. Frydo and company meet the wizard "Greyfarn" (Farnsworth), who explains that in this world, the anti-backwards crystal is known as the Die of Power. The evil sorceress "Momon" (Mom) molded a set of powerful dice, but lost this one and has been trying to locate it so she can tap its immense potential. The only way to stop Momon is to enter her lair at the Geysers of Gygax and throw the Die into the lake of molten plastic from which it was formed.
As the group sets out, the intersex, pacifist centaur Hermaphrodite (Hermes) bars their passage; the centaurs oppose the violence that Frydo and company intend to do. Leela easily pushes past Hermaphrodite and leads the group to the Cave of Hopelessness. As they approach, "Gynecaladriel" (Amy), Queen of the Water Nymphos, joins their quest and seduces the guard, enabling them to enter the Cave. Inside the Cave, a horde of "Morcs" attacks, followed by a gigantic lobster creature (Zoidberg) which Leegola cuts to pieces in a rage, and the wormlike Tunneling Horror which Frydo defeats using the Die. As Frydo becomes obsessed with the Die, Leegola renounces violence and takes refuge among the centaurs. Frydo attempts to murder the other members of the party; when foiled, he flees with the die.
The remaining travelers journey to Wipe Castle to raise an army against Momon, only to find that Roberto, its insane king, has sent his men on a suicide mission. The heroes defend the kingdom as Waltazar and Larius lay siege to it until Leegola regains her violent nature and rallies the centaurs to help her friends. Frydo makes his way into Momon's lair, aided by Zoidberg's still-living head; Frydo cannot bring himself to destroy the Die, so Zoidberg bites him to force him to drop it. Momon becomes a dragon and goes after the Die, but when it stops rolling, it turns Frydo into a dragon as well. The rest of the party arrives, along with Ignus, who reveals that he is Greyfarn's son. Overwhelmed by this revelation, Greyfarn inadvertently allows Momon to seize the Die.
Cornwood collapses in on itself, hurling the characters back into the real world. The Professor requests a hug from Igner. As the Professor theorized, Igner swallowed Mom's crystal in defiance, and the hug brings the crystals in the two men's stomachs close enough to render dark matter useless. The crew harnesses dozens of Nibblonians to pull their ship home.
The opening subtitle of the DVD and the first part of the broadcast version is "The flames in your TV are not part of the show". The cartoon on the Jumbotron is Quasi at the Quackadero . Similar to the previous film, instead of the ship crashing into the Jumbotron as in a regular episode, it gets absorbed through the screen, whereupon the opening sequence becomes a parody of the 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine . The crew flies by bits of the number e then smashes back out through the screen and into the real world.
The DVD features an Audio Commentary, Storyboard Animatic, Futurama Genetics Lab, Dungeons & Dragons and Futurama featurette, How to draw Futurama in 83 easy steps Featurette, Deleted scene, 3D Model with Animator Discussion, Outtakes, Bender's Anti-Piracy Warning and sneak peek at Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder . Easter Eggs show David X. Cohen displaying a collection of different Polyhedrons, and extra outtakes of Billy West.
The Blu-ray also exclusively features Picture-in-Picture video footage of the commentary.
Dr. John A. Zoidberg, often referred to mononymously as Zoidberg, is a fictional character from the animated series Futurama and is the series' comic relief. He is a Decapodian, a crustacean-like species of alien, who works as the staff doctor for Planet Express, despite his woeful understanding of human physiology and allusions to his questionable credentials. His character parodies the supposed wealth and automatic respect of modern doctors—for example, his incompetence at human medicine makes him extremely poor despite his profession, and he is implied to be frequently homeless when not at work. The Decapod are an extended parody on Jewish culture—the bigger joke being that shellfish are not kosher.
Bender Bending Rodríguez is one of the main characters in the animated television series Futurama. He was conceived by the series' creators Matt Groening and David X. Cohen, and is voiced by John DiMaggio. He fulfills a comic, antihero-type role in the show, and is described by fellow character Leela as an "alcoholic, whore-mongering, chain-smoking gambler".
Philip J. Fry, commonly known mononymously by his surname Fry, is a fictional character and the protagonist of the animated series Futurama. He is voiced by Billy West using a version of his own voice as he sounded when he was 25. He is a delivery boy from the 20th century who becomes cryogenically frozen and reawakens in the 30th century to become a delivery boy there with an intergalactic delivery company run by his 30th great-grandnephew, Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth. He is the best friend and roommate of Bender and the boyfriend and later fiancé of Leela.
Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, commonly referred to in-show as either Professor Farnsworth or simply Professor, is a fictional character in the American animated television series Futurama. The mad scientist proprietor of the Planet Express delivery service for whom the main characters work, he is the great (×30) grandnephew and the great (×30) grandson of series protagonist Philip J. Fry because of a time paradox. He alternates between intelligence and amoral senility due to his greatly advanced age of 175. He demonstrates a mastery of any field of science necessary for the series' plots and is suggested to be one of the most brilliant inventors on Earth. However, he falls asleep constantly, and he routinely sends his crews on suicide missions.
The animated science fiction television program Futurama makes a number of satirical and humorous references to religion, including inventing several fictional religions which are explored in certain episodes of the series.
Futurama is a 3D platform video game based on the science fiction animated series of the same name. It was developed by Unique Development Studios for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, both of which use cel-shading technology. The cutscenes of the game are presented as an entire "lost episode" of Futurama on the DVD of The Beast with a Billion Backs.
"A Fishful of Dollars" is the sixth episode in the first season of the American animated television series Futurama. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 27, 1999. The title of the episode is a play on name of the film A Fistful of Dollars. The episode was written by Patric Verrone and directed by Ron Hughart and Gregg Vanzo. Pamela Anderson guest stars as her own preserved head in a jar. This episode marks the first appearance of the character Mom, the series' recurring antagonist.
"I Second That Emotion" is the first episode in the second season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 14th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 21, 1999. The episode was written by Patric M. Verrone and directed by Mark Ervin. The episode introduces the recurring sewer mutants, a society of humans who have been mutated by years of exposure to pollution and radioactive waste poured into the sewers from New New York.
"Anthology of Interest I" is the sixteenth episode in the second season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 29th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on May 21, 2000. This episode, as well as the later "Anthology of Interest II", serves to showcase three "imaginary" stories, in a manner similar to the "Treehouse of Horror" episodes of Matt Groening's other animated series The Simpsons.
"The Day the Earth Stood Stupid" is the seventh episode in the third season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 39th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 18, 2001. The title of this episode is a play on the title of the 1951 science fiction film, The Day the Earth Stood Still.
"Anthology of Interest II" is the eighteenth episode in the third season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 50th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on January 6, 2002. This episode, as well as the earlier "Anthology of Interest I", serves to showcase three "imaginary" stories.
Futurama: Bender's Big Score is a 2007 American animated science fiction comedy film based on the animated series Futurama. It was released in the United States on November 27, 2007. It was the first Futurama production since the original series finale "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings". Bender's Big Score, along with the three follow-up films, comprise season five of Futurama, with each film being separated into four episodes of the broadcast season. Bender's Big Score made its broadcast premiere on Comedy Central on March 23, 2008. The film was written by Ken Keeler, based on a story by Keeler and David X. Cohen, and directed by Dwayne Carey-Hill.
Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs is a 2008 American direct-to-video adult animated science-fiction comedy-adventure film based on the animated series Futurama, and the second of four straight-to-DVD films that make up the show's fifth season. The film was released in the United States and Canada on June 24, 2008, followed by a UK release on June 30, 2008 and an Australian release on August 6, 2008. The title refers to a euphemism for sexual intercourse—"the beast with two backs". Comedy Central aired the film as a "four-part epic" on October 19, 2008. The movie won an Annie Award for "Best Animated Home Entertainment Production".
Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder is a 2009 American direct-to-video adult animated science fiction comedy-adventure film based on the animated series Futurama, and the fourth and final of the direct-to-DVD films that make up the show's fifth season. The film was written by Ken Keeler, based on a story by Keeler and David X. Cohen, and directed by Peter Avanzino. Guest stars include Phil Hendrie, Penn Jillette, Snoop Dogg, and Seth MacFarlane, who sings the theme song. In the movie, Leela becomes an outlaw when she and a group of ecologically-minded feminists attempt to save an asteroid of primitive life forms and the Violet Dwarf star from being destroyed, while Fry joins a secret society and attempts to stop a mysterious species known as the "Dark Ones" from destroying all life in the universe. The title itself is a reference to the U.S. Air Force Song, the main chorus of which describes reaching "Into the wild blue yonder".
The animated science fiction show Futurama presents a satirical look at politics and current affairs in a number of its episodes. Series creator Matt Groening intended from the outset that Futurama would lampoon not only the conventions of science fiction, but elements of present-day life, serving as a form of political and social satire.
"Fry Am the Egg Man" is the twenty-second episode in the sixth season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 110th episode of the series overall. It originally aired August 11, 2011 on Comedy Central. The episode was written by Michael Rowe and directed by Dwayne Carey-Hill. In the episode Fry nurtures an egg purchased at a farmers' market, which later hatches into a living creature, which he names Mr. Peppy. However, upon learning of Mr. Peppy's identity and dangerous nature, Fry and the Planet Express crew decide to set him free into its home planet. They do this, only to discover that the planet's inhabitants experienced problems with Mr. Peppy's species, hunting them to extinction and intending to do the same with Mr. Peppy. The episode's title is a reference from the Beatles song "I Am the Walrus".
"Naturama" is the thirteenth episode in the seventh season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 127th episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Comedy Central on August 29, 2012. The episode was written by Eric Rogers, Michael Saikin and Neil Mukhopadhyay, and directed by Crystal Chesney-Thompson.
"Love's Labours Lost in Space" is the fourth episode in the first season of the American animated television series Futurama. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on April 13, 1999. The episode was written by Brian Kelley and directed by Brian Sheesley. This episode introduces the recurring character Zapp Brannigan when he attempts to prevent the Planet Express crew from completing their mission. It also introduces the characters of Kif Kroker, Brannigan's aide, and Nibbler, whom Leela adopts as a pet.
"Fry and Leela's Big Fling" is the seventeenth episode in the seventh season of the American animated television series Futurama, and the 131st episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Comedy Central on June 19, 2013. The episode was written by Eric Rogers and directed by Edmund Fong. Fry and Leela attempt to have a romantic time together, but with everyone around they cannot get time alone.