Futurama: Bender's Big Score (open spoilers)

Cafe Society
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I just saw this last night, played back on my DVR from the airing on Comedy Central this past Sunday. I came away feeling that Futurama works best as a 22-minute show, rather than a 90-ish minute show.

I agree that too much of the humor value derived from references to first-run Futurama episodes: seeing Barbados Slim, the Harlem Globetrotters, the Evil Santa Robot, the Hypnotoad, Fry’s ex-girlfriend, etc., all got me to laugh mainly because of remembrance of episodes past and not because of the gag or plotline they were actually a part of. And on the sentimental side, seeing Fry playing basketball with his brother (with his four-leaf clover) and patting his dog outside the pizza shop.

The initial joke about F – no, (B)OX – executives getting fired and ultimately made into “Torgo’s Executive Powder” was pretty funny the first time, but the continuing recurrence of the stuff felt increasingly heavy-handed. And I found the musical numbers terrible, beyond campy-funny to actually grating.

Also surprising was the lack of a reset at the end. For example, now everybody knows “the truth” about Nibbler, even if for most of the episode they just ignore him completely, aside from Leela’s initial exclamation “You can talk?!”. It was rather more dodgy than I expect from a show like Futurama. Though I guess a way out would be to say that since the segment ends with Bender destroying the Universe with a time paradox, the whole storyline was an “alternate reality” split with an unhappy (for them) ending. (Stop me before I totally geek out here, if it’s not too late.)

All that said, I did get a couple of classic Futurama LOL moments, such as the sudden gruesome deaths of various time-travel duplicates, or when Zoidberg demonstrated how one could get “even more naked” at the nude beach by shedding his exoskeleton. Ewwww. :smiley:

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I saw this on DVD a few days before Comedy Central aired it, and I was pleased. I thought the film was very well-done, and I enjoyed the various time-travel adventures, no matter how ridiculous the end results were. At first, I thought it was ridiculous that everyone on Earth fell for the scammer aliens, but I soon realized that one of the recurring themes of Futurama is that society as a whole is getting dumber over the years, so it all checks out. Although I’m disappointed no one here has yet mentioned one of my favorite lines, which I will rectify here:

“I thought you were happy- your tail was wagging!”

For those interested, here’s a very-well-put-together Futurama timeline covering all 72 episodes and Bender’s Big Score.

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Which can easily be mended with a dab of glue, & a dash of Torgo’s Executive Powder.

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“I miss Morbo.”

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So was this actually visualized (somehow), or was it simply implied because Nibbler’s prediction apppeared to be coming true?

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Big purply-pink gash in the sky and Bender said, “Well, we’re boned.”

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Here’s my own transcription of the final scene. This is not the actual script (which appears as a bonus feature on the DVD), but my own personal attempt at doing it, which involves lame attempts at humor by capitalizing inanimate objects as if they were characters.
EXTERIOR- PLANET EXPRESS BUILDING- DAY

INTERIOR- PLANET EXPRESS BUILDING

BENDER, wearing a TUXEDO, emerges from a DOOR underneath the floor. ZOIDBERG, HERMES, FRY, FARNSWORTH, LEELA, AMY, and NIBBLER are also in the room.

BENDER
Mission accomplished!

FRY
You put the time code on my ass?

BENDER
Eh, someone’s ass. Oh, and guess what- I met all these really cool guys with treasure down in the limestone cavern. So I invited them to stick around instead of coming out when they were logically supposed to.

Multiple BENDERS- each one holding an INVALUABLE TREASURE- emerge from the DOOR. NIBBLER looks on in fear.

NIBBLER
No. No! Everyone out of the universe- quick!

NIBBLER eats himself and disappears from this UNIVERSE.

TUXEDO BENDER
Ah, what’s the worst that could happen?

A large RUMBLING occurs. The excess, paradoxical BENDERS begin to explode.

EXTERIOR- EARTH FROM SPACE

A large CRACK appears in the sky.

EXTERIOR- A GALAXY FROM SPACE

A different shot of the CRACK

EXTERIOR- PLANET EXPRESS BUILDING- DAY?

The sky is now darkened, with clouds and a CRACK.

INTERIOR- PLANET EXPRESS BUILDING

The CRACK can be seen from the open roof.

TUXEDO BENDER
Welp, we’re boned.

CREDITS.

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Thanks! :slight_smile:

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The HYPNO-TOAD never gets stale or hackneyed.

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The Beast With a Billion Backs is out today on DVD. I’ll probably give it a rental after work. $20 for a blind buy at Best Buy seems excessive, particularly since I did that with Bender’s Big Score and it was kind of a disappointment. Has anyone seen this yet?

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One or two people managed to see it about a week ago and there was a thread - since most of us had to wait for today, it was short-lived.

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I’ll bump that thread back up - but first, I’ll lock this one so the zombie thread doesn’t rupture the space-time continuum or something.