Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
When Leela is insulted by a group of space-rednecks (like regular rednecks, but in space), she enters the Planet Express ship in a demolition derby. Leela emerges victorious, but when she brings the damaged ship home, and the Professor sees the fuel gauge, he's enraged by the hit he's going to take at the Dark Matter pump. Now the crew have to find a way to break Mom's stranglehold on starship fuel, even if they have to wade through a Lord of the Rings-inspired fantasy-land to do it!
Bender's Game is a feature-length Futurama special built around an extended Lord of the Rings parody, which is reasonably fun but feels thin stretched across a full runtime. The plot is loosely structured and the fantasy-world segue, while amusing in stretches, lacks the tight comedic construction of the series' best episodes. Voice acting is characteristically sharp from the regular cast. Animation quality is solid for the era without being especially cinematic. The LOTR pastiche gives it some novelty as a genre-parody vehicle, but parody itself is a well-worn form and this entry doesn't transcend it. The ending resolves the dark matter storyline somewhat abruptly and unsatisfyingly, relying on convenient plot mechanics rather than earned payoff.