Press - Rough Draft Studios

Reruns and DVD sales don't just add a few bucks to a studio's coffers. Sometimes, they can resurrect a show from the dead.

That's the fan-driven story behind the release next week of Futurama: Bender's Big Score (20th Century Fox, $29.99), a feature-length, direct-to-DVD film. "Futurama," the Emmy Award-winning animated series created by "Simpsons" mind Matt Groening about a pizza delivery boy who is accidentally cryogenically frozen and wakes up in the year 3000, ran on Fox from 1999 to 2003.

But while the network gave up on the clever show, its fans never did — they followed it to the Cartoon Network, which made it a centerpiece of its Adult Swim late-night programming block

"They aired it shockingly in the same time slot on the same night so people could actually find it," wryly notes Claudia Katz, an Emmy Award-winning producer and senior vice president at Rough Draft Studios, the company that animates both "Futurama" and "The Simpsons." (Fox notoriously moved the show around and frequently pre-empted it for sporting events.) "It really kept the series alive and fueled the DVD sales as well," she says.

Those ratings and DVD sales got the attention of 20th Century Fox Home Video, which commissioned four new feature-length films. Comedy Central, which bought the right to air reruns when Cartoon Network's contract ends next year, will eventually air each film.

"Bender's Big Score" packs a lot into its 88 minutes — just about every character from the series, including minor ones, makes an appearance. Alien Internet scammers take over the Professor's delivery business and, ultimately, the Earth when they take command of a time travel portal.

Those wondering if a short and sharp show can make the transition to feature length need not worry. "Bender's Big Score" is as good as the best "Futurama" episodes. The writers, animators and voice actors are all on their game; it feels like the show never left the air.

In the first few minutes, the writers poke fun at the network that cancelled them — never mind that it's owned by the same company that's producing the new films. "Bender's Big Score" is, unlike the television episodes, in the 16:9 ratio.

It looks great, but then "Futurama" has always been in a more cinematic style than, say, "The Simpsons." Rough Draft also worked on the movie version of that series, which required more work to get to the big screen — the movie looks a lot different from the TV show.

" 'The Simpsons' television show visually is a lot simpler than 'Futurama,' " Miss Katz notes. "A lot of the things we did in the ['Simpsons'] movie to make it bigger visually were things we were already doing on 'Futurama,' like painting backgrounds and adding cell-shaded 3-D. ... It's a swanky-looking show."

One cameo character from the TV series shows up in the film, but he's won the Nobel Peace Prize since his previous appearance: former vice president Al Gore, unveiling some heretofore hidden talents. "Finally, I get to save the Earth with deadly lasers instead of deadly slide shows," he jokes before letting off a series of screams worthy of Janet Leigh.

There's also a nod to another resurrected Fox show, in the form of a "Family Guy" calendar on Fry's wall. Miss Katz says the world of animation is a lot less competitive than the rest of Hollywood. "Ultimately to me from a studio perspective, the more successful animation out there, the better for everyone," she says. "In some ways, 'Family Guy' paved the way for our return."

Miss Katz says that Rough Draft is already in production on the remaining three films; expect the next one in stores in about six months. "There's a lot here for the fans, which I think is great and well deserved. Fans are the reason we're back," she concludes.

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