JPDVD: Futurama Back on TV! Kinda!

TWENTIETH-CENTURY FOX

Nearly five years after its cancellation by Fox, Futurama returns today with the release of Bender's Big Score, a straight-to-DVD movie. Although intended to ultimately be sliced and diced into half-hour episodes for rerun by Comedy Central (which acquired the reruns of the series), it actually hangs together well as a full-length feature, with a time-travel plot that's at least more ingenious than anything Heroes has done with the premise this season. The real reason to watch, though, is the welcome reappearance, after too long, of Futurama's vast cast of peripheral characters—including, just in time for the holidays, a musical number with Robot Santa, Chanukah Zombie and Kwanzaabot.

Special features include Everybody Loves Hypnotoad, 22 minutes of the Hypnotoad staring, interrupted by commercials from the future. Question: Does anyone actually want to spent 22 minutes being stared at by a giant mesmerizing amphibian? Answer: YES. ALL... GLORY... TO... THE... HYPNOTOAD.