The divine bender
| Episode of the series Futurama | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| title | The divine bender | ||
| Original title | Godfellas | ||
| subtitle | Please turn off all cell phones and Tricorder (Please turn off all cell phones and tricorders) |
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| Country of production | United States | ||
| original language | English | ||
| length | 22 minutes | ||
| classification | Season 3, episode 20 52nd episode overall ( list ) |
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| First broadcast | March 17th, 2002 on FOX | ||
| German-language first broadcast |
January 4, 2003 on ProSieben | ||
| Rod | |||
| Director | Susie Dietter | ||
| script | Ken Keeler | ||
| synchronization | |||
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► Main article: Dubbing Futurama | |||
| chronology | |||
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The divine Bender (Original title: Godfellas ) is an episode of the American science fiction - animated series Futurama . It was first broadcast on March 17, 2002 on FOX as the eighth episode of the fourth season; this makes it the 52nd episode overall in the order in which it was first broadcast. The German dubbed version was first seen on January 4, 2003 on ProSieben . The work received mostly recognition. The Writers Guild of America recognized it with a WGA Award in the animation category .
action
The Planet Express spaceship is attacked by space pirates. When the robot Bender lies down in one of the torpedo tubes for a nap , he is shot down at a speed that makes it impossible to catch up with him. He is therefore doomed to drift through space forever.
After Bender is hit by a mini- asteroid , his chest becomes home to a civilization of tiny humanoids , the “shrimpkins,” who worship Bender as god . Bender obliges them by a religious command to produce alcohol for him. Building a brewery leads to accidents at work , pollution and organized crime . Bender's attempts to fulfill individual prayers of the shrimpkins also always have catastrophic results; For example, when he wants to supply a field with more sunlight, he sets it on fire. Thereupon some of the shrimpkins become incredulous and settle on Bender's back. A nuclear war breaks out between the two societies, which wipes out the shrimpkins.
A little later, Bender meets a being in space who has divine characteristics. Bender discusses his experiences with the shrimpkins with him. The essence gives Bender the advice that, as God, one can only carefully influence the fate of those who worship one: "If you do something right, people don't know whether you have done anything at all."
Meanwhile, Fry does everything possible to save his best friend Bender. Together with Leela he sets off to a monastery in the Himalayas, from where a fraternity of monks has been searching for God with a radio telescope for 700 years . Fry and Leela overpower the nonviolent monks, take over the telescope, and use it to search for Bender. After a few unsuccessful days, Fry gives up the search. As he leaves, he randomly turns the telescope to Bender's position. The god-being hears Fry's request to get Bender back and hurls the robot towards Earth, where it comes up near Fry and Leela. Fry describes it as a " miracle " , Leela as "the most unusual thing that has ever happened" . The camera zooms back, away from the earth, through space to the God being. Repeatedly laughing: "If you do something right, people don't know whether you have done anything at all."
background
The episode covers religious topics such as predestination , prayer, and salvation . In conversation with Bender's God Being, Mark Pinsky recognizes “ one of those moments […] when the viewer needs to be reminded that this is a cartoon and not a divinity school class ” (German: “one of those moments […] in which one must remind the viewer that this is a cartoon and not a lesson on divinity ”) . At the end of the conversation, some of Bender's questions remain unanswered, much like people's biblical conversations with God. Pinsky also points out that the monastery is named "Thesuvah", Hebrew for ' repentance '.
production
The Divine Bender was produced as the 20th episode of the third production season and thus the 52nd Futurama episode overall. The screenplay was written by Ken Keeler and directed by Susie Dietter . In addition to the speakers for the main characters , Tress MacNeille , Maurice LaMarche and David Herman can be heard in supporting roles. All three had already lent their voices to characters in the series several times and were later taken over into the main cast.
publication
The episode was released on March 17, 2002 by the US television station FOX . When the series was first broadcast, FOX deviated from the order and seasons of the production (see first broadcast of Futurama ), so that the episode was shown as the eighth of the fourth broadcast season and is therefore the 52nd Futurama episode overall in the order of the first publication .
The German dubbed version was first broadcast on January 4, 2003 on ProSieben .
Awards and reception
Screenwriter Ken Keeler received a WGA Award in the animation category for this episode in 2003. The British magazine Empire voted Futurama in 2008 as # 25 of the best television series of all time and named The Divine Bender as the best episode of the series. The Futurama creator Matt Groening also sees the episode as one of the best in the series.
See also
literature
- Mark Pinsky: The gospel according to the Simpsons . 2nd Edition. Westminster John Knox Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-664-23160-6 , pp. 233-235 .
Web links
- The divine Bender in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Godfellas in the Futurama Wiki The Infosphere (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Mark Pinsky: The gospel according to the Simpsons . 2nd Edition. Westminster John Knox Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-664-23160-6 , pp. 234 .
- ^ Mark Pinsky: The gospel according to the Simpsons . 2nd Edition. Westminster John Knox Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-664-23160-6 , pp. 235 .
- ↑ List of WGA Award Winners since 1996. (No longer available online.) Writers Guild of America , archived from the original April 12, 2006 ; accessed on June 17, 2010 (English).
- ↑ The 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. 25: Futurama. In: Empire website . Retrieved April 26, 2011 .
- ^ Nathan Rabin: Interview: Matt Groening. In: The AV Club . April 26, 2006, accessed on April 27, 2011 (English): "In one of our best episodes, we had a conversation between Bender and what apparently was God."