It pains me to have to say so, but Bender's Big Score makes a disappointing return for the Futurama series.
One of the great appeals of Futurama was the respect it showed for its own continuity. With Bender's Big Score, that's out the window. Here's the best example: Nibbler's secret life as a powerful sentient being, a subplot the original show spent four seasons building up to, is revealed 15 minutes into this production -- and for no reason; all it leads to is a futile attack on the alien scammers.
Not that this movie doesn't like pointing out Futurama continuity. At times the story looks like a contest to see how many obscure characters it can work in. There are loads of tacked-on and unnecessary cameos; Santabot is probably the most egregious. Meanwhile, important secondary characters like Dr. Zoidberg, The Professor, Zapp Branigan, Kif, and Amy Wong have very small roles.
And the main characters disappoint as well. The Fry-Lars-Leela love triangle is shallow, and lacks any of the poignancy we saw in "The Sting" and other Season 4 episodes. The lambasting of Fox for cancelling the show is heavy-handed; Family Guy did a much better job of this (and if you didn't like it, at least it was short). The alien scammers, while they did have some gross-out appeal with their "sprunging", weren't nearly powerful enough to take over the earth. Leela could have killed all three of them with one kick. And the whole time-travel story (which were once verboten in Futurama) was convoluted and nonsensical.
And above all else... it just isn't funny. I can't think of one funny thing that happens in the whole movie, or any memorable moments.
I can only hope that this disappointing effort was the result of trying to write a feature-length film for the first time, and that it indulged whatever need the creators have to reference themselves.
One of the great appeals of Futurama was the respect it showed for its own continuity. With Bender's Big Score, that's out the window. Here's the best example: Nibbler's secret life as a powerful sentient being, a subplot the original show spent four seasons building up to, is revealed 15 minutes into this production -- and for no reason; all it leads to is a futile attack on the alien scammers.
Not that this movie doesn't like pointing out Futurama continuity. At times the story looks like a contest to see how many obscure characters it can work in. There are loads of tacked-on and unnecessary cameos; Santabot is probably the most egregious. Meanwhile, important secondary characters like Dr. Zoidberg, The Professor, Zapp Branigan, Kif, and Amy Wong have very small roles.
And the main characters disappoint as well. The Fry-Lars-Leela love triangle is shallow, and lacks any of the poignancy we saw in "The Sting" and other Season 4 episodes. The lambasting of Fox for cancelling the show is heavy-handed; Family Guy did a much better job of this (and if you didn't like it, at least it was short). The alien scammers, while they did have some gross-out appeal with their "sprunging", weren't nearly powerful enough to take over the earth. Leela could have killed all three of them with one kick. And the whole time-travel story (which were once verboten in Futurama) was convoluted and nonsensical.
And above all else... it just isn't funny. I can't think of one funny thing that happens in the whole movie, or any memorable moments.
I can only hope that this disappointing effort was the result of trying to write a feature-length film for the first time, and that it indulged whatever need the creators have to reference themselves.