Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 11/27/2007

Proving that you just can't keep a good animated series down, Bender's Big Score revives the Futurama crew in a full-length feature (reportedly, the first of four which will later be broken down into individual episodes for television broadcast) chock full of the satiric touches that made the Matt Groening series a cult favorite among sci-fi and animation fans. In true Futurama form, the plot of Big Score is proudly ridiculous: At its core, it's about alien telemarketers with a plan to steal Earth's most valuable historical objects, who use e-mail viruses to cripple Planet Express and take control of belligerent robot Bender; the latter carries out their scheme via a time-travel code tattooed on Fry's backside. This allows for all manner of subplots involving Fry's return to the 20 th century, romantic confusion between Fry and Leela (Katey Sagal), and a host of cameos ranging from Kwaanza-bot (Coolio) and Zapp Brannigan to Al Gore (voiced by the real former vice-president, who once again displays an offbeat sense of humor).

Bender's Big Score also features a staggering amount of extras that reflect the show's sense of playful anarchy. Most valuable to longtime fans is the feature-length commentary by Groening, writers Ken Keeler and David X. Cohen, director Dwayne Carey-Hill, and cast members Billy West (Fry), DiMaggio, and Phil LaMarr, which provides a wealth of information on the film's production as well as plenty of laughs from the voice actors. "Futurama Returns!" is a live comic book reading by the cast in front of an enthusiastic convention audience, while "A Terrifying Message from Al Gore" is a short animated promo featuring the ex-veep in an animated promo for his Inconvenient Truth documentary (Gore's commentary for this short is worth the DVD's sale price alone), and "Bite My Shiny Metal X" is an amusing, tongue-in-cheek lesson on the mathematics used to deliver the show's futuristic touches. Perhaps the oddest extra is a full-length episode of Everybody Loves Hypnotoad, a sitcom based around the bizarre title creature that will provoke equal amounts of laughter and exasperation. A small battery of deleted scenes, new character design sketches, and a five-minute promo shot for Comic-Con round out the extras. --Paul Gaita

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When Futurama first came out, I was convinced it would never last. Unlike the Simpsons, Futurama makes you feel a bit like a moron when you watch it, with perpetual in-jokes to science fiction and fact that you may only catch years later. To my delight, Futurama had a very successful run.

One of the last episodes involved the Robot Devil, a favorite character of mine, and the burgeoning romantic subplot between Fry and Leela. Fry, having traded his hands in for the Robot Devil's hands so that he could play the hypnoflute ultimately has to give the hands back and the episode ends with a sweet but sad little tune imagining Fry and Leela together. Filled with clever banter, excellent music and choreography, plot twists, and a bittersweet ending, this was Futurama at its finest.

Bender's Big Score is not Futurama at its finest. All of those plots have been discarded.

Mind you, it's not bad. It's just not fantastic. Bender's Big Score is a series of muddled plot points, pointless cameos, and a lot of "hey, look, we gave you what you wanted!" fan service. It's great to have a DVD comeback of a great show, but I expected better from a feature-length movie. I mean, Internet scams? That's so ten years ago!

That said, I'm a huge fan of Hypnotoad. Twenty minutes of Hypnotoad. TWENTY. MINUTES. That's right, twenty glorious minutes of HYPNOTOAD. ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD!

So for that, it gets an extra star. But only because Hypnotoad compels me.

I am a massive fan of the Futurama series, but this movie was a big disappointment. It wasn't very funny and rather forced. I thought a few aspects of this movie were really great, but I didn't like it overall. I own all three of the movies - but the second and especially the third installment trumped this one. This has a very wimpy and awkward segway into the second movie, but only as an afterthought. I only bought it because I am a true Futurama fan and own every episode from their series and all three movies.

I have casually watched the series in the past. Recently, I casually watched a few reruns and started really getting into Futurama. I saw some of Bender's Big Score on TV and then watched the whole movie on DVD.

Of the three, I loved BBS the best. There were a lot of funny jokes and I love how they complexly interwove time travel into the movie. When you watch the commentary on, you learn of all the thought that went behind this movie (e.g. numbers in the background) which they didn't do in the subsequent two movies. Couldn't watch the whole Hypnotoad episode. Zzzzzz. 5 stars.

The Beast of a Billion Backs was an interesting story but I personally didn't think it was that funny. 3 and half stars.

Bender's Game was funnier than BBB but I'm not crazy about parodies because if you've missed the parodied movie.... In this case, it was the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy. 4 stars.

Still, I am great fan and will purchase the 4 season episodes.

This can't be the same writters from the TV show. It's not witty or even funny. The writing is very lazy. I loved the TV show and I didn't laugh once at this movie. The voices are the same and the animation is really good but the writters didn't get what was funny about the characters. I heard The Beast with a Billion Backs is worse but I can't imagine thats possible. I hope they make a good one but it doesn't look like these writters understand the series.

The Beast with a Billion Backs pales in comparison to Bender's Score. After having seen the Beast, I have a much deeper and pleased appreciation of Bender's Big Score. And if you just let yourself go into the story, DON'T analyze it, it's a very pleasant story line that will aim to please and even surprise a little.