Futurama: Bender's Big Score (2007)
Directed by Dwayne Carey-Hill
No — Futurama: Bender's Big Score is not woke, scoring 18 out of 100 on our wokeness meter.
Futurama: Bender's Big Score arrives as a direct-to-video resurrection of a canceled series, and it behaves like a reunion party with a time-travel budget.
Consciousness Markers
Corporate greed drives the plot: alien scammers plunder the company and seize Earth, and the recurring 'Torgo's Executive Powder' (ground-up network executives) is an extended anti-corporate jab at Fox.
Al Gore guest-stars as himself and the DVD ships with 'A Terrifying Message From Al Gore' promoting An Inconvenient Truth, plus a carbon-neutral release, but the film's own plot is not climate-focused.
The established Futurama ensemble includes characters of varied ethnic backgrounds (Hermes, Amy, LaBarbara) voiced by a reasonably diverse cast, but this is the show's baseline, not a casting statement.
Leela is a competent one-eyed captain and the crew's moral center, but the film never frames her role as a feminist argument; she spends much of the plot as a romantic prize.
The film is a gag-driven comedy with almost no preaching; the only faint sermonizing is the attached Al Gore climate short.
Kwanzaa-bot appears as a holiday mascot gag, but the film contains no racial commentary or consciousness.
No LGBTQ+ characters, themes, or subtext of any kind appear in the film.
Hermes is decapitated and his body repaired for comedy; there is no body-positivity messaging.
No neurodivergent characters or themes are present.
The time-travel plot ransacks historical artifacts for heist comedy, but it offers no revisionist reading of history.
Why it received this score
Futurama: Bender's Big Score arrives as a direct-to-video resurrection of a canceled series, and it behaves like a reunion party with a time-travel budget. The social consciousness on display is mostly inherited from the show's baseline. The ensemble includes Hermes Conrad, Amy Wong, LaBarbara, and a cast that reflects a reasonably varied future. That fact is unremarkable here. It is not a casting statement. LGBTQ concerns are absent. Leela remains capable and central, a one-eyed captain with moral authority, but the plot reduces her to romantic prize for Fry and Lars. Her competence is not framed as an argument. It simply exists.
Racial commentary is negligible. Kwanzaa-bot appears as a holiday mascot for a musical number, and the film moves on. Climate awareness arrives via Al Gore as himself and the DVD's carbon-neutral release and attached short promoting An Inconvenient Truth. The film's own story is about alien scammers, time travel, and stolen treasure. Corporate greed, however, is a genuine engine. The nude beach scammers seize Planet Express and then Earth. Torgo's Executive Powder, ground-up network executives, becomes an extended retaliation against Fox. That anti-corporate bite is the sharpest ideological tooth in the mouth. It is also a very old show-business grudge dressed in sci-fi clothing.
Body positivity and neurodivergence have no presence. Hermes is decapitated for comedy, his body repaired as a running gag. No messaging about bodies or minds follows. History is ransacked for heist comedy, not revised. The time-travel plot treats the past as a warehouse of artifacts and celebrity heads. Lecture energy is minimal. This is a gag-driven comedy that wants us to laugh at paradoxes and corporate revenge. The only faint sermonizing comes from the Al Gore bonus short, which sits outside the narrative proper. As a cultural artifact, the film is a curiosity: a canceled series revived by DVD sales, scoring points against its network while mostly keeping its progressive instincts in the background. It is amiable, clever, and only occasionally inclined to preach.
Analysis generated by our Consciousness Algorithm
Part of
Synopsis
The Planet Express crew return from cancellation, only to be robbed blind by hideous "sprunging" scam artists. Things go from bad to worse when the scammers hack Bender, start traveling through time, and take Earth over entirely! Will the crew be able to save the day, or will Bender's larcenous tendencies and their general incompetence doom them all?
Questions about Futurama: Bender's Big Score
Is Futurama: Bender's Big Score woke?
No — Futurama: Bender's Big Score is not woke, scoring 18 out of 100 on our wokeness meter. That earns it a verdict of Ultra Based.
Does Futurama: Bender's Big Score have any woke elements?
1 of the 10 markers register at 30 or above, led by Eat the Rich (42). On Eat the Rich: Corporate greed drives the plot: alien scammers plunder the company and seize Earth, and the recurring 'Torgo's Executive Powder' (ground-up network executives) is an extended anti-corporate jab at Fox.
How does Futurama: Bender's Big Score compare to other 2007 movies?
It ranks #40 of the 201 films from 2007 we've scored; their average is 12. The wokest is Like Stars on Earth (92).
Is Futurama: Bender's Big Score the most woke Futurama movie?
No. It ranks #3 of the 4 Futurama films we've scored; the wokest is Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder (62).