Fans of Matt Groening’s erstwhile FOX series Futurama can now pick up Futurama: Bender’s Big Score, the first new production since the show was canceled back in 2003. The 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment release arrived on home video today and will be followed by three more direct-to-DVD feature films in 2008. The unrated movie features some cartoon nudity and adult themes, so parents looking for a gift for the kiddies may want to consider Universal Home Entertainment’s new direct-to-DVD movie The Land Before Time: The Wisdom of Friends, which also debuts today.
Bender’s Big Score has the Planet Express crew on a mission to save Earth from nudist alien Internet scammers. Bender gets brainwashed by the extraterrestrials and is sent back in time to wreak havoc, meeting Al Gore in a cameo role. Mark Hamill, Coolio and Sarah Silverman are also among the celebs making guest spots alongside the reunited voice cast from the series. The show’s main writers also came back to continue the adventures of Fry, Bender, Leela and the rest of the gang.
In the December issue of Animation Magazine, Groening and co-creator David X. Cohen tell us that they had been begging to do a Futurama movie since the show went off the air. Fox Home Entertainment apparently gave in after Family Guy Presents: Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story raked in more than $41 million during its first two weeks at retail.
Bender’s Big Score includes feature-length commentary, an actually math lecture based on Futurama, an animated promo for Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth with commentary, deleted scenes in animatic form and more. The DVD carries a suggested retail price of $29.99.
The billion-dollar animated home video franchise rolls on with The Land Before Time: The Wisdom of Friends, a new movie featuring the voices of Academy Award winner Cuba Gooding, Jr. (Jerry Maguire) and Golden Globe winner Sandra Oh (Grey’s Anatomy). In the film, Littlefoot and his friends try to guide two goofy and seemingly inept yellow-bellied dinos, Loofah and Doofah (voiced by Gooding Jr. and Oh), back to their herd. Along the way, Littlefoot realizes that their comically strange survival techniques demonstrate a different kind of wisdom.
DVD extras include an exclusive episode from the Land Before Time TV series titled ‘The Hidden Canyon,’ sing-alongs, printable coloring pages and the interactive games Yellow Bellies on the Loose! and Yellow Belly Challenge. The G-rated disc carries a suggested retail price of $19.98. Also available today is The Land Before Time: Good Times & Good Friends, a set of four episodes from the TV series that lists for $16.98.
