Well, I got my hands on an advance copy of Bender's Big Score as I was very eager to watch it. It took calling in a couple of favours so I could do so, but it was completely worth it. I love Futurama, it is my favourite show. I own all of the seasons in the complete collection and the Monster Maniac DVD that basically contains episodes I already own. I don't care that I've rebought them, I love Futurama that much. So much that I will be returning the advance copy to where it came one and purchasing my own one as soon as it's in the stores.


First, the Spoiler free section.

Bender's Big Score - a quick, almost spoiler free summary. (Slightly edited from wikipedia)

"The Planet Express crew fights to save the world from nudist alien internet scammers, who place Bender under their control and send him back into the past to steal the world's greatest treasures. Leela finds true love, and Fry learns a terrible secret about his destiny and his buttocks."

It's an excellent watch and while some of the voices sound slightly different to previously - Billy West as Fry for example is slightly deeper and older - you soon get used to the changes and things run off into the funny zone.

The simple truth is, David Cohen, Ken Keeler, Matt Groening and Rough Draft have put together a fantastic movie that is funny, touching and gripping. It's also amusingly confusing and best of all Carbon neutral in it's production. Enviromentally friendly entertainment!

9/10

And following this wonderful picture comes the spoiler zone:

[This will contain spoilers - do not read on if you have not seen the film yet... seriously]





Don't!





You've been warned!





Ok, so the episode opens with an almost fourth wall breaking set of jokes poking fun at the show's cancellation and return. While a variation on this has been pulled by Family Guy already it was still amusing.

The pace of the show is blistering and it effortlessly moves from one scene to the next. I did find the sheer number of returning cameos of various characters a little forced originally, but then I decided to just sit back and enjoy it. While I might have watched all of Futurama last season, there has been a serious hiatus in new material so it's nice they make a return. But I do hope that Zapp and Kiff get a larger role in one of the later movies.

As you can see on the image of the DVD box, Hermes is in a jar. At first I was wondering if they were going to open up with him in a jar and make reference (or not) to some horrible accident. Hermes doesn't really need his body to be funny anyway. All it does is get naked, limbo and drop manwiches. Hmm, that's 50% of his funny right there... Maybe it's best that they didn't permanently remove it.

I'm still not entirely sure about the decision to have Nibbler "out" himself in front of everyone. But, he did eat himself at the end of the film so it remains to be seen what happens next. The second film following directly on from the events at the end of the first.

I wasn't suprised by the Lars = Fry reveal. Part way through the film I noticed that Fry and Lars had the same nose and head shape. Something that is avoided where any non-background characters are concerned. Seeing past Fry with a beard and then the film following his life were the final clues to make it all click. But it was still fantastic to watch and exceedingly moving.

Any of the minor doubts will get pushed aside the more I watch the film. Something I will do as it has tremendous rewatch value. Especially in working out the continuity of the various time clones - the writers are such geeks that I know it'll all work out correctly, but it'll still be fun trying to follow them. It's also fun seeing all the various previous episodes being joined up, unexplained events like the destruction of humanity, the fast fossilisation of Semour the dog and more linked up by the common thread of 'Bender did it'.

I loved it and I can't wait for the next one. Until it arrives I'll watch this one again a few times and play spot the references/jokes.