Fox releases first of four ‘Futurama’ movies

Long-cancelled cult favorite returns on DVD

Alex Paterno

Mast A&E Reporter

After a few years of cancellation, “Futurama” has finally returned. Nov. 27, Fox released “Futurama: Bender’s Big Score.” For longtime fans it should be a welcome addition to the “Futurama” universe.

As a diehard fan of the show and proud owner of the DVD box sets, my expectations were definitely fixed. Luckily, Matt Groening, David X. Cohen and the gang pulled it together for a fantastic comeback movie.

The first two scenes were pretty rough. Each character was introduced twice before the opening credits, which rolled immediately after a limbo contest, ended by a decapitation.

The opening felt a little bit sluggish in general, but soon enough everyone was warmed up and ready to go. In hindsight, the opening scenes seemed to be more a celebration that “Futurama” was indeed back in production, with “Bender’s Big Score,” being only the first of four movies.

After a few minutes of jabbing at Fox, the story begins with a delivery made to a nude beach planet. Everyone strips down and the package is delivered. Leela, ship captain, spots a tattoo on the butt of Fry, the delivery boy. A good portion of the plot centers on this tattoo. It holds the secret of non-paradoxical time travel. This essentially means that one can time travel and do as her or she pleases with no consequence.

Throughout the movie we see a myriad of nods to the original series and countless characters return. To be truthful, there are too many to list. For those who have watched the series since the beginning, the references are almost overwhelming.

The plot is something else, too. In the audio commentary, the creators say it is the most complex storyline they have ever done, including the three other movies.

To be brief and save the twists and turns for when you watch the movie yourself, the plot is essentially this: Bender has been given a virus called iObey and is now running through history with the information on Fry’s butt to steal the world’s greatest artifacts for three greedy aliens, who are also scamming and spamming all of Earth.

Guest appearances include Mark Hamill as the Chanukah Zombie and Al Gore as himself. The bonus features section of the DVD contains quite a bit more than I thought it would, too. Al Gore is seen in a promo for “An Inconvenient Truth.” You can also see the original five-minute trailer for “Bender’s Big Score” from Comic-Con.

All I can say is “20 bucks well spent.” We can expect three more movies out of theses guys (all of which are post-production, according to the Internet Movie Database) and if “Bender’s Big Score” is any indicator, they will be fantastic.

“FUTURAMA: BENDER’S BIG SCORE”

Directed by Dwayne Carry-Hill
Starring Billy West, John Di Maggio

Unrated, 88 mins