Bender's Big Score

Bender's Big Score is the first of the four Direct-to-DVD films, and was released on 27 November, 2007 in North America, 5 March, 2008 in Australia and 7 April, 2008 in Europe. The film is set in 3006 and early 3007, three years after "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings".

The film was recut into four episodes and aired on Comedy Central in March 2008. A teaser for the films were shown at Comic-Con 2007 as part of the "Futurama Returns" reading.

The film was produced in 1080p high definition, but has yet to be announced for a release in this format.

Production
The production of the films began in early 2006, when the writing team were assembled and started to conduct the writing for the films.

By June, 2007, the voice acting of the films were finished.

Some parts of the plot for Bender's Big Score was actually old ideas lying around from during the original run, which had never made into airing, such as the Nude Beach Planet.

Reception
Bender's Big Score was released on 27 November, 2007 in North America, and later in March and April in 2008 in Australia and Europe, respectively.

Generally, the film was well received, and was nominated and won the Annie Award for "Best Home Entertainment Production". Dan Iverson from IGN scored it a 8 out of 10, and attributed it to the film's ability to live up to the legacy of the show during its original run, but also criticised heavy Fry-Leela relationship subplot. In addition, he praised the guest star performances of Mark Hamill and Coolio as the Chanukah Zombie and Kwanzaa-bot, respectively during the secondary musical performance, but also felt that the two musical stages were not at the same level as the Bureaucrat Song in "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back".

On UGN, Brooke Tarnoff also felt that the film lived up to the quality level of the original run, but praised the musical numbers as "hilarious" and gave the film an "A" rating.

As of June, 2009, the film have sold 808,165 copies with a income of $14,675,554, and sold 222,036 copies during its first week, making it the best selling of the four films, with The Beast with a Billion Backs as the runner up with little more than a quarter of Bender's Big Score's sales; 226,575.

However, the DVD sales may not be an obvious remark as to the film's quality over the others, but rather an attempt by the fans of Futurama to convince the production companies and networks willing to consider it, here being 20th Century Fox and Comedy Central as the serious parties, whom the fans wanted to send a justification for renewing the show as a TV season. The mere fact that Bender's Big Score sold better in its first week than any of the two last films did in total could indicate people's initial disappointment with the purchase of the film and that they were not convinced enough to purchase the follow up, The Beast with a Billion Backs.

Miscellany
for trivia, quotes, etc.

Characters

 * Headless body of Agnew
 * Al Gore
 * Amy
 * Barbados Slim
 * Bender
 * Bubblegum Tate
 * Debut: Dr. Cahill
 * Calculon
 * Debut: Chanukah Zombie
 * Debut: Charles de Gaulle's head
 * Cubert Farnsworth
 * Curly Joe
 * Dwight Conrad
 * Elzar
 * Father Changstein el Gamahl
 * Fly Mutant
 * Fry
 * Hattie McDoogal
 * Hedonism Bot
 * Hermes
 * Horrible Gelatinous Blob
 * Hypnotoad
 * Ipgee
 * Jackie Anderson
 * Kif Kroker
 * Kwanzaa-bot
 * LaBarbara Conrad
 * Lars Fillmore
 * Leela
 * Debut: Leelu
 * Debut: Leroy
 * Linda
 * Michelle
 * Monique
 * Morbo
 * Narrator
 * Nibbler
 * Nibblonians
 * Nudar
 * Debut: Nude Bartender
 * Number 9 Man
 * Mr. Panucci
 * Petunia
 * Philip J. Fry, II
 * Debut: Philip Joshua Fry
 * Debut: Phillip Fry
 * Professor Farnsworth
 * The Galactic Entity
 * Richard Nixon's head
 * Robot Mafia
 * Robot Santa
 * Sal
 * Debut: Scammer Aliens
 * Scruffy
 * Seymour
 * Smitty and URL
 * 'Sweet' Clyde
 * Turanga Morris and Munda
 * Terry
 * Debut: Dr. Schlovinowitz
 * Tinny Tim
 * Yancy Fry, Jr.
 * Yancy and Mrs. Fry
 * Zapp Brannigan
 * Dr. Zoidberg
 * Debut: Zylex

Cast

 * Billy West as Philip J. Fry, Doctor John Zoidberg, Professor Hubert Farnsworth, Lars Fillmore, Zapp Brannigan, Earth President Richard Nixon, God Entity, Inuit #1, Phillip Fry, and Silly Willy Video Will Guy
 * Katey Sagal as Turanga Leela
 * John DiMaggio as Bender Bending Rodríguez, Robot Santa, Sal, Mr. Panucci, Barbados Slim, Elzar, Curly Joe, Constantine and BOX Executive #1
 * Tress MacNeille as Linda, Dr. Cahill, Dr. Schlovinowitz, Turanga Munda, Tinny Tim, Hattie McDoogal, Leela's Wrist Thingy, Bender's Computer and BOX Executive #2
 * Maurice LaMarche as Kif Kroker, Hedonismbot, Schlump, Morbo, Horrible Gelatinous Blob, Donbot, Clamps, Charles de Gaulle's head, Headless body of Agnew, Leelu, Cryogenicist, Leroy, Inuit #2, Transition Announcer, Box Executive #3, "Hi, How Are You?" Voice, Spam Voice, Nibblonian #1, Nibblonian #2, Nobel Prize Presenter, Late Cute Animal News Presenter, and Male Narwhal
 * Phil LaMarr as Hermes Conrad, Ethan "Bubblegum" Tate, Philip Joshua Fry, and Dwight Conrad
 * Lauren Tom as Amy Wong and Philip J. Fry, II
 * David Herman as Nudar, Scruffy, Turanga Morris, Terry, Father Changstein El-Gamal, Nude Bartender, Sweet Clyde,and Everybody Loves Hypnotoad Announcer
 * Kath Soucie as Cubert Farnsworth
 * Dawnn Lewis as LaBarbara Conrad
 * Frank Welker as Nibbler, Fleb, Seymour Asses, Zylex, and Pandas
 * Coolio as Kwanzaabot
 * Al Gore as Himself
 * Mark Hamill as Chanukah Zombie
 * Tom Kenny as Yancy Fry, Jr.
 * Sarah Silverman as Michelle

Episode Credits

 * Writers
 * David X. Cohen
 * Ken Keeler
 * Director
 * Dwayne Carey-Hill
 * Voices
 * Billy West
 * Katey Sagal
 * John DiMaggio
 * Phil LaMarr
 * Lauren Tom
 * Maurice LaMarche
 * Tress MacNeille
 * Dave Herman
 * Frank Welker
 * Special Guests
 * Al Gore
 * Sarah Silverman
 * Coolio
 * Tom Kenny
 * Mark Hamil

The DVD
The DVD contains the following:
 * The film itself.
 * Commentary track
 * The reading of "Futurama Returns" from Comic-Con
 * A 22 minute episode of Everybody Loves Hypnotoad.
 * Deleted storyboard scenes.
 * A Terrifying Message from Al Gore.
 * Commentary track with Gore, Matt Groening and David X. Cohen
 * Bite my shiny metal X &mdash; a math lecture about math inside Futurama.
 * 3D models
 * The original first draft of the script
 * New character - design sketch
 * Original 5-minute Comic-Con promo

Additional

 * The release with Best Buy in region 1 included an animatic teaser for the upcoming film, The Beast with a Billion Backs.
 * Region 2 discs include the same teaser regardless of retailer.
 * The German version is missing the holography cover albeit the German rental version was issued with the holography cover.