'Futurama' Returns

This short film on the DVD of the first Futurama movie is essentially a reading of the comic book in front of an audience of fans. Serving as an introduction bed to a series of clips and favourite moments, this offers limited value to the casual viewer – even if that casual viewer happens to be a Futurama fan. The problem with it is the same problem I had with the early moments of the proper film, that is that it is too knowing and clumsy in its humour. It does have one or two funny moments but mostly it doesn't quite cut the mustard. I imagine a lot of the fun is in seeing the people do the reading but on this short we don't get that – instead we only see the pages of the comic go by as it is read out. This is an OK idea but unfortunately it is too small to really appreciate the drawing and the effort going into it.

Overall then this is quite a disappointing short film that has some novelty value but nothing special and certainly not one you'll watch again after ticking it off as "seen".