Futurama: Bender's Big Score

I must admit i had huge fears about the reincarnating Futurama...in retrospective, i don't know why. It hasn't been that long after all, and the team has stayed pretty much the same. From the very first scene i felt right at home. No neat hyper modern animation tricks, no bullet time camera spins, just the familiar Futurama, which is all i wanted.

Bender's big score is a surprisingly plot-driven movie, reminiscent of the few more serious episodes. Have no fear, though, the gross humour is still present. Even with the horrid singing numbers (i was looking for anti-depressants) and the obsessive re-introduction of nearly every character that ever appeared on the original series, this is a rewarding event for sure, especially for us die hard fans who waited so long. It could have been better as a movie, but i don't want to get too critical, i'm just glad futurama is back! It just won't die!

Managed to see an advance copy of the DVD Screener of this flick. As an original futurama fan, I was eager to see how the TV genre translated as a feature-length.

It's hard not to draw parallels to the Simpsons movie - both are epic, and amusing, with the futurama film being arguably more so.

We're treated with references to all major characters and events past and present from the series, and similar gags that fans will appreciate, but I couldn't help but take the feeling that it was overly ambitious, perhaps sprawling.

The best part of the series is arguably that the episodes were compact, neat, quick witted and very well packaged. Although it's a solid production, it still feels a little confused. 8/10.

It was a sad day in 2003 when I learned that Futurama had ended. I remember watching the first episode and being hooked straight away. It's not very often humour and genuine sci-fi have been balanced so expertly. But thankfully, like Family Guy before it, Futurama has now been given a new lease of life in the form of 4 direct to DVD movies (to be split into 16 episodes to make up a new season).

When something this great is brought back, there is always the lingering fear that it won't retain the "magic" of the original. But I can confidently say that the magic is back! When Family Guy released Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, I feel it suffered the problem of seeming too much like an over-long episode, a problem I think that the Simpson's movie also suffered (though both were not without their fair share of laughs). However,Benders Big Score, the first of these new Futurama features FEELS like a movie.

I feel it should appeal to old fans (who will be spoilt by many in-jokes and call backs, as subtle as they may be) and those (and shame on them) who have never encountered Futurama before. The story kicks off with a quick introduction of the characters, and within 5 minutes, old fans will be in familiar territory, and newcomers will be brought up to date. What follows is nearly an hour and a half of laughs, sci-fi action, and romance.

This is a film I would definitely have paid to see at the cinema over the Simpson's movie. I hope that the DVD sales of this and the next 3 films do well, as it was sorely missed.

Welcome back Futurama!

This movie is just great. It proves again that cancelling the TV show was a big mistake. In the world of Futurama there are simply much more possibilities and ideas than in the Simpsons world, which has gotten a little bit too boring over the last years. That's probably because you can bring more ideas to life in the future, where practically everything is possible. Even for people who didn't like the TV show it's a fun ride, it's worth watching it just to hear Bender's remarks. Sure, The Simpsons Movie was funny at some parts, but I've just watched too many episodes of this show to go to the cinema only to see another, longer, episode. Anyways, Bender's Big Score is a great movie, and thanks to the developers for their effort to bring us Futurama back! I give it a good 9 out of 10.

I have just watched this, and was a fan of the original show and am being completely honest here when I say this is not just one of the best animated movies I have ever seen but in fact one of the best movies of any genre I have ever seen.

Unlike the previous Family Guy and Simpsons films (both shows I am a fan of by the way) Benders Big Score seemed to have something extra in it separating it from these two films.

The jokes are great, the music and songs are great, the animation is absolutely superb (the 3d animation looking much better than when the show originally aired) and the story is very smart and also quite touching.

The writing was absolutely superb, cramming in a lot of past characters but not in a way that it felt they had been thrown in for the sake of them being there (as can be noticed Mom does not make an appearance at all) and also adding new call-backs to well known parts from the series.

All in, just superb and make sure you see it one way or another.