dwayne carey-hill's BENDER'S GAME (2008)

sad news from last week: Fox has announced that Mike Judge's quietly superb King Of The Hill will end its thirteen-season run this spring, carving their Sunday night schedule a gaping hole of character-driven comedy and humanism into which they will toss a third (count 'em) weekly half hour of Seth MacFarlane's insipid comedic panhandling. the good news? noted programming scavenger ABC may be in talks to bankroll a fourteenth season of the show to keep Judge's newest animated effort, The Goode Family, company.

hopeful, yes. but necessary? there are at the very least lessons to be learned from fellow Fox cancelee Futurama, which debuted its third feature-length effort Bender's Game early this month. like King Of The Hill, Matt Groening's goofily literate sci-fi cartoon was treated to aggressive negligence by the network over the course of five staggeringly consistent seasons, and though it proved far less fortunate when it was axed unceremoniously in 2003, cable reruns and DVD eventually brought the show the audience it deserved. the unlikely result: a series of four straight-to-video features, eventually to be chopped up for use as a sixth "season" on Comedy Central.

but, alas, there is the Pet Sematary factor: resurrections aren't always what they're cracked up to be. last year's time-travel caper Bender's Big Score kicked the series off on a confident high note, but June's The Beast With A Billion Backs was somewhat less encouraging, and the latest effort does little to best it. As evidenced by the title's Orson Scott Card nod, Bender's Game still traffics in Futurama's immersive wit, and the film is surely good for 87 minutes of laughs from the faithful; from the characteristically clever fuel crisis topicality to a third act that dumps our 30th Century heroes into a Middle Earth-esque alternate reality, there is plenty of story to go around, and most of the series' expansive, beloved cast is given face time.

the keys to Futurama's unique excellence, though, remain conspicuously absent from most of Bender's Game. The conceptual heft and disarming emotional resonance that mark the show's best moments (both on healthy display in Bender's Big Score) here take a decided backseat to broader, less ambitious gags, and the writers' obvious struggle with the demands of their feature-length canvas only enhances the sour taste of missed opportunities. it's still damn good to have you back, Futurama, but let's hope February's Into The Wild Green Yonder does a little more to really earn that second chance.

(from the KNOXVILLE VOICE)