Commentary:Bender's Big Score

Topics of Discussion

 * The return of Futurama, how they finally got the movie deal.
 * They thought they were lying all those times that they said it was coming back.
 * The jokes aimed at executives are towards the Fox Network, not the studio or home video departments.
 * Changes required to make the films in HD widescreen.
 * Discussions about using a HD format started during development of season one.
 * Clips from old episodes had to be re-done for multiple of the films to get the high-def quality and the extra edges, and old clips were traced by the animators before having edges added and being captured in HD.
 * The character Lars Fillmore.
 * The various clues put in about his history, and the method of disguising him.
 * The pens in the pocket are apparently a sign of maturity.
 * The Nude Beach Planet, which was an idea that had been hanging around for years.
 * The nudists' voices.
 * The ilovebender.com website.
 * At the time of recording it had been registered but was not yet set up. The site now exists.
 * Trying to make it more obvious that Bender was being controlled.
 * This is the most complicated of the four stories.
 * They had previously avoided time travel, with one exception, due to the big mess it can create.
 * David and Ken originally wrote the "paradox-free" time travel as joke and a way to avoid the need to make perfect sense, but the errors started to annoy them so they went back and fixed them.
 * Bender can live for hundreds or thousands of years, not hundreds of thousands of years. because "steel is actually a liquid that over time will eventually go to its full liquid state".
 * The nudists' folds of fat we intended to cover the parts you don't want to see, but the folds are still very disturbing
 * This commentary is done earlier than usual, using an incomplete black-and-white version of the movie.
 * Some of the actors did have a little difficulty remembering the right voices.
 * The time code used to have a meaning until script changes required it to be altered.
 * It used to be the six wining numbers on a lotto ticket from 2000-something. This was part of a subplot involving Bender using it to win the lottery, but this was cut for time.
 * The code was later changed when the writers realised it needed to be symmetrical so Fry could read it in a mirror.
 * Whether some numbers are funnier or more interesting than others.
 * Deciding the most valuable treasures to steal was left to the designers after Ken kept putting it off.
 * The equation of time is a real equation, used for correcting the time given by a sundial. There is an extra piece added here for the doom field.
 * There's going to be more, elaborate, mini golf in
 * Gleisner is actually Ken's mother's maiden name.
 * They made rub-on tattoos of the Bender tattoo, which were given out at Comic-Con.
 * The "19 seconds earlier" had said 10 seconds until they realised there were no cuts so they could go back and count it up.
 * Difficulties of having multiple of the same characters on screen at once and the need to have diagrams.
 * Continuity, such as the cryogenicist in who was hung over, is drunk in the film on the previous night.
 * Deletion of a scene involving an aristocrat named Fillipo Frei, which was apparently very funny. The scene almost made it into also.
 * The DVD is carbon-neutral, this is indicated on the box.
 * It should be noted, however, that this may not apply to international versions, the Australian release's box, for instance, does not indicate carbon-neutrality.
 * The sad story of Seymour, fans regularly tell Matt about crying during Jurassic Bark.
 * Even some of the crew did.
 * "Brief" de-rail into Sopranos imitations.
 * Scruffy was named after a bar in Venice called Scruffy O'Shea's
 * The narwhal was chosen as they have one horn, similar to Leela's one eye, however female narwhals usually don't have the horn. They then changed the line to include the word "rare".
 * Additionally, the colouring of Leelu and her male companion was chosen to reflect Leela (purple) and Fry (orange).
 * The first song is intended to be a '30s or '20s-style depression era song. These songs are very difficult for the cast
 * Zylex was designed to infuriate the viewer due to his brief appearance.
 * Ken wanted Leroy to be standing in frame behind Fry and Mr. Panucci.
 * Discussing the various attendees at the wedding and the number of weddings Leela has had at this point (4).
 * The Number 9 Guy, who's been in the background since the pilot, will have a significant speaking role in, apparently he's the "grand curate-. Whatever"
 * Noting that at the North Pole in 2012 there is just icebergs rather than solid ice.
 * Mention of the episode of on the DVD.
 * Billy West makes electronic noises in the studio that make the engineers think the equipment is malfunctioning.
 * Headless body of Agnew is in
 * The Yetis were to be eaten by Snow Behemoths.
 * The Chanukah Zombie's ship is Chanukah legal, but previously had not enough candles.
 * Influences for the second musical number.
 * Coolio suggested multi tracking the audio on his rapping.
 * Santa beatboxing was part of the continued attempts throughout the series to showcase John DiMaggio's beatboxing talent. Brief beatboxing performance on the commentary track.
 * How they do the lighting
 * Better technology doesn't necessarily mean better animation.
 * Designing ships.
 * When David heard 30th Century Man he wished he'd used it in the series.
 * The song was the only reason Charles de Gaulle's head appears in the film.

Highlights / Quotes

 * Billy West: I don't know why you're sayin' you're back, I've been in this room for four and a half years.
 * Billy West: You might have noticed I'm dehydrated from excessive crying.
 * David X. Cohen: Whenever you watch a sci-fi movie or TV show with time travel generally as a sci-fi fan, you get mad. Something happens that makes you mad.
 * David X. Cohen: This is a reference to another episode Ken Keeler wrote also. Ken Keeler: I did?
 * Matt Groening:This whole series has many amputations and decapitations. Claudia Katz: Not enough as far as I'm concerned.
 * Ken Keeler: You gotta write the stuff before you can cut it!
 * John DiMaggio [on seeing Robot Santa]: Thanks John Goodman.
 * Ken Keeler: I'm funkier than people realise.
 * [when Fry reads the code to travel back to an hour ago on January 1, 2000] Billy West: Mirror, mirror on my ass...

Related DVD Features

 * They mention Professor Greenwald who lectures about math in The Simpsons and Futurama and is in one of the special features of the film's DVD.

Commentators

 * Matt Groening
 * Executive Producer
 * David X. Cohen
 * Executive Producer
 * Writer
 * Billy West
 * Actor (Fry, The Professor, miscellaneous)
 * John DiMaggio
 * Actor (Bender, miscellaneous)
 * Phil LaMarr
 * Actor (Hermes, miscellaneous)
 * Claudia Katz
 * Animation Director
 * Dwayne Carey-Hill
 * Director
 * Ken Keeler
 * Writer