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This image released by Futurama TM and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp shows the cast of Futurama in ""Futurama: Bender's Big Score!", set for a straight-to-DVD release on Tuesday Nov. 27, 2007, is as much of an animation accomplishment as the series that spawned it. (Matt Groening, Futurama TM/Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp)

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Cancellation is no longer TV show death. Maybe its just the DVD obsessed culture we live in, but Family Guy, for example, has returned after a hiatus due to their DVD sales and the huge amount of viewers watching on Adult Swim and TBS. It should be no surprise then that Futurama is getting the same phoenix-like treatment.

When it aired its last season, FOX gave it the slot of death ­— 6 p.m. on Sundays, where it always got squashed out by baseball. So maybe that’s why the crew uses ground up TV executive powder on their skin irritations in Futurama’s new straight-to-DVD movie Bender’s Big Score.

Released Nov. 27, this film is one of four DVD movies designed and voiced by the same people that worked on the show prior to cancellation. And you can tell. All of your favorite characters are back in Bender’s Big Score, from Hermes Conrad to Bender Bending Rodriguez.

Not only are the regular cast members back, like Scruffy (the janitor) and intern Ami, but also this movie acts like a Futurama mix-tape, bringing together all your favorite small time characters. The effect is something similar to the last episode of the Seinfeld, except good.

Unlike series creator Matt Groening’s other show, The Simpsons, where time and continuity are relative (the characters don’t age and it’s hard to pin down what should be taken seriously), Futurama has always been like Star Trek, where the background characters and little jokes are all part of a unique animated universe. Bender’s Big Score features representatives from The Globetrotters Planet, the Nibblonians, Santa Claus, Leela’s parents, Al Gore, Fry’s family, Seymour the dog and the rest of the bizarre characters that live in the Futuramaverse. Even the Chanukah Zombie, who was originally only referenced to in passing by Kwanzaa Bot, gets to sing a song.

This movie is integral to the mythology of Futurama and takes the characters throughout time, weaving together a comedic tapestry of one-line jokes, cultural references, and pseudo-scientific mumbo jumbo.

Bender’s Big Score was a good movie, and if you ask me, I would have to tell you to go out and buy yourself a copy ... or at least rent it when it becomes available at your rental store. Watching it will be a good way to kill time while awaiting Comedy Central’s new 2008 episodes of Futurama.