FUTURAMA
BENDER'S BIG SCORE

"We're back Baby"

After been cancelled by the Box network Professor Hubert Farnsworth receives some good news for everyone because Planet Express is back. Unfortunately just as Leela, Fry and Bender get back on their delivery routes, the Professor is scammed out of the business by a trio of unscrupulous aliens who have used the internet to take ownership of most of the Earth. To complete their plan however, they are going to use time travel to own everything and they know just the robot to do their stealing and his name is Bender.

Five years after been cancelled by the buffoons at Fox, 'Futurama' is back and bigger than ever.

One rule of science fiction is that no one is ever dead and in Futurama's case that was definitely true. After been cancelled by Fox, much to the annoyance of series creators David X. Cohen and 'Simpsons' mastermind Matt Groening and the millions of fans around the world, high audience numbers for their reruns on the Cartoon Network and huge DVD sales meant that the futuristic animation became viable again. Now we have four feature length specials to look forward to and 'Bender's Big Score' is the first.

Picking up from were we left off, the crew of Planet Express start out delivering across the universe again only to be stopped in their tracks by a hostile take over of everything by a trio of evil, nudist scammers. Add to this the discovery of the formula for time travel of Fry's butt, Leela finding true love, Hermes loses his head, Bender going on a cross time crime spree like to one has ever seen and an intergalactic battle to save the universe from been completely scammed and you have one hell of a Futurama adventure.

What makes Futurama such a hit with fans is the way it pays homage to all things science fiction and mixes it with popular culture by making it relevant for the year 3000. The first direct to DVD feature re-ignites this style and runs with it for almost ninety minutes but unfortunately it doesn't keep the momentum up for the full duration. Similar to watch happened with 'The Simpsons Movie', 'Bender's Big Score' is a mixture of extremely funny sequences and some that are not so funny but what the first 'Futurama' feature does have going for it is a much better overall story that pushes the film to a conclusion and then opens it up for the next big adventure.

With all the original cast returning and some fun celebrity cameos, 'Futurama: Bender's Big Score' is a great start for the promised four feature length adventures. Fans should rejoice in seeing the return of the Planet Express crew and the rest of your favourite characters from the original show but lets hope more of the jokes hit next time or they will really have to kiss some shiny metal ass.