The cancellation of Futurama to this day is still one of the biggest crimes in televisual history. Dropped in 2003,  Matt Groening's sci-fi animation comedyorama was a loss for many fans of the show and animation enthusiasts alike, with the show a penchant for being more adult, intelligent and funny than that of the Simpsons. After it's cancellation the reccuring question was if the show would ever return, and after being announced  last year that the show would indeed come back in the form of four direct-to-DVD movies, fans, finally have something to celebrate.

I saw the first two -Bender's Big Score & The Beast With a Billion Backs respectively- on release, but as part of a huge cleanup on the DVD backlog they've both been given a second viewing along with the extras.

Bender's Big Score

The first new Futurama material in five years, and things start off incredibly promising. Opening with a number of jokes about the cancellation of Futurama -loosely hidden behind a story strand explaining that Planet Express has been shut down by the "Box Network"- the film gets going pretty quickly with the funny. They're far from subtle, and the connections are made increasingly obvious, but they make for a great start- after all, how else was the show going to resume without some reminder or explanation regarding it's absence of the last half-decade?

These opening minutes and the first half hour is the best bit of the film. All too quickly the film begins getting underway with the plot, and while normally this wouldn't be a bad thing, the story present is there at the expense of funny throughout the ninety minutes. Fans will love it though, because it's an adventure that goes back to the very series start, dishing out the explanations and confusing regularly with time travel hyperbole. It's fun, rather than funny, but there's lots of cameos of characters past, and it's from them that many of the film's greatest moment's come, as well as the subplots throughout, particularly the one starring Hermes.

The truth is, it's all too narrative driven, and while the return of Futurama is "good news everyone" no matter what, Bender's Big Score still could've been so much more.

The Beast with a Billion Backs

Picking up exactly where Bender's Big Score left off (spoiler: a giant rip in the universe), The Beast with The Billion Backs provides the funny while still supplying an interesting and diverse plot. There's no time-travel lark at all here, and while there's maybe less references to the show's past as a result,  the story is strong enough to carry the film forward without appeasing to the fans via cameos. That said, characters who were left out last time have more of a starring role with this film. Zapp and Kif get a lot more screentime, as does Amy, while Bender is thankfully relegated to starring in his own sub plot for the most part rather than dominating the story. Yes, yes, he's great, he's funny, but he's overused far too much.

The new characters present too are a lot stronger than those introduced in the film's predecessor. while they're perhaps just as throwaway as that of Nudar et al from the previous epic, they're a lot more developed and seemingly integral, not to the film, but to the actual Futurama universe. Brittany Murphy voices Coleen, the new love interest for Fry, while David Cross is the voice of Yivo, the beast that the title refers to. 'Course, there's cameos and special guest stars too, with Stephen Hawking reprising his role as himself (and being great in all his scenes) and Dan 'Homer Simpson' Castellaneta as a very subdued Robot Devil. Show regular Tress MacNeille voices plenty of returning characters, while additionally on the character front, there's plenty more Richard Nixon- a good thing.

Of the two, 'Beast is definitely my favourite. Bender's Big Score seemed so confident in it's story and time-travel antics that I didn't find it all that funny, and it felt, on more than one occassion, as an attempt to drive the Futurama canon forward rather than amuse and entertain. With two films left, (and then...what?) i'll pretty much take whatever Futurama I can get, but there has been disappointment by many, myself included. Perhaps, like The Simpsons, this is one show that should've ended a long time. Or maybe, and more realistically, the only reason this show exists and continues to provide new material is because of and for the hardcore fanbase, that not only made the show a success, but ensured more than anything that Futurama would return eventually. Eitherway, Futurama is here, at least for the time being, and perhaps sadly not for the future that the show is so fond of.