For those that aren't yet fans of the brilliant but underappreciated animated TV show Futurama, I pity you. For those that are fans, some good news - Futurama is back! Sort of... I just caught Futurama: Bender's Big Score, a straight-to-DVD return to the Futurama universe (although, it won't technically be released for a few more days yet).

If you're not familiar with it, Futurama, which ran from 1999-2003, is basically a distant cousin to The Simpsons, made by the same guys and often described as what The Jetsons was to The Flintstones. The show follows the adventures of Phillip J. Fry, a pizza delivery boy frozen on New Year's Eve 1999 and thawed out 1,000 years later. When it aired, the show struggled with shifting schedules and a lack of advertising that eventually killed it.

For my money, I think it was often even better than The Simpsons. Razor-sharp writing, silly but endearing characters and, since it took place in the year 3000, often poked biting, brilliant fun at contemporary problems today, and was easily one of the most quotable shows of the era.

A quote from Roswell That Ends Well, one of my favourite episodes:

President Truman: "Take this to Area 51."
Soldier: "But sir, that's where we're building the fake moon landing set."
President Truman: "Then we'll have to REALLY land on the Moon! Invent NASA and tell them to get off their fannies!"

The new 88-minute movie delivers on what we've come to love from the show - in that way, it's a lot like The Simpsons Movie - if it ain't broke, don't fix it. There are tons of in-jokes that will only be recognizable to fans of the series who have seen every episode. I laughed out loud for most of its entirety.

However, the main plot device is a time travel gimmick, and those can end up messy. The writers are either totally loopy or brilliant, as the show ends up doubling back on itself several times, which ends up being a bit confusing at times and (in a few instances) gets to be too much. However, the writers know that they have some leeway, so they have a lot of fun with it.

Glad to see it back. The entire series is available on DVD, and if you have the means, I highly suggest you get into it - you'll be glad you did.

And just for fun, check out this collage of the characters of Dr Zoidberg, Bender, Fry, the Professor, Leela and Nibbler as they appear in the show: