Bender's back, baby!

Futurama creators Matt Groening and David X. Cohen made the announcement at the series' Comic-Con panel to much cheering and hollering. And a nifty pocket-sized comic filled to the brim with meta references (their Box Network primetime episodes have been canceled) that was read aloud by the cast. Like I said, nifty.

Futurama will be returning with a feature-length direct-to-DVD high definition film, due to be released on November 27th. The title? Bender's Big Score. The plot? Something to do with a sinister coven of nudist aliens who gain the secret to time travel thanks to a birthmark on Fry's, er, posterior and "an alien controls Bender with cosmic repercussions."

That film will be followed by three additional direct-to-DVD Futurama films. The four films will then be chopped up into sixteen episodes (and slightly reconfigured for commercial breaks), which will then be aired on Comedy Central sometime in 2008.

Now would be the time when you rub your hands together with unabashed glee.