Press - Rough Draft Studios

‘Futurama’ makes a triumphant return in direct-to-DVD film returns - Good news, everyone!
After a long, long four-year wait, “Futurama,” the black sheep of Matt Groening’s animation family, finally returns with a feature-length, direct-to-DVD film, “Bender’s Big Score!”
The crew of Planet Express, relegated to nightly syndication on Adult Swim, makes its triumphant return Tuesday with an adventure that picks up right where the series abruptly ended, taking a similar path as its Adult Swim brethren “The Family Guy” – canceled, and then miraculously uncanceled.

“It feels like finding an old friend,” said director Dwayne Carey-Hill. “It was a lot of fun to jump back in and draw familiar characters, getting back into that same kind of sense of humor.”
Longtime fans of the show can expect to be reunited with the entire group, from the time-displaced Fry to the crustacean Dr. Zoidberg to the lovable robot Bender. In between episode references that will make the “Futurama” faithful swoon is a yarn about con artists, time travel and a viral robot pilfering the civilization’s riches. The intelligent humor mixed with clever pop culture references (The head of Al Gore returns!) results in a welcomed return from a lost classic.

The road to resurrection presented some complications for Rough Draft Studios, the animation house responsible for “Bender’s Big Score!” as well as work on “The Simpsons Movie” and Comedy Central’s “Drawn Together.”

With animation technology developing at a rapid pace, the studio had to update the show for current standards, as well as introduce wide-screen aspect ratio and HD resolution. In its original run, “Futurama” was one of the first productions to blend 2-D and 3-D animation. With the new technology, the studio had to return to ground zero.
“We actually had to rebuild everything in 3-D – all the models, everything for the new DVD movie,” said Claudia Katz, producer and senior vice president of Rough Draft. “We had to go back and replicate the original title sequence shot for shot, both in wide-screen and HD, which was actually a bit of a challenge.

All that hard work paid off with this movie, the first of four scheduled “Futurama” features and a brilliant successor to a revered series. For all “Futurama” fans everywhere pending for a bending, this is your big score.

PRESS/NEWS