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After nearly twenty years on the air, nearly 400 episodes, and thousands of quotable quotes, there was almost no need to advertise the release of The Simpsons Movie. But, as omnipresent as the show has become in our culture, so too was the aggressive marketing for the first movie featuring America’s favorite yellow family. The challenge, then, was not only to justify a Simpsons adventure thrice as long as the normal dosage but also to live up to the hype it built for itself. Fortunately, these stumbling blocks are, more often than not in the movie, no obstacle for the cultural juggernaut.
The fifteen-person writing team follows a simple formula in making the transition from TV to film: make it bigger and better. The Simpsons Movie sees one of Homer’s biggest blunders: dumping waste from his pet pig into an overpolluted lake in Springfield, causing a toxic nightmare and forcing the EPA (led by a corporate bully voiced by show favorite Albert Brooks) to cover the town in a protective dome. The family escapes from the dome – and a growing mob of angry villagers – to Alaska, where Homer and Marge have one of their biggest marital spats, from which Homer must recover in time to travel back to Springfield before the EPA nukes the town and everyone in it.
Homer’s infatuation with the pig and the Spider-Pig gag, for as often as it was repeated in trailers, still draws laughs on the big screen. In fact, scene for scene, from an opening jab directed at fools who would pay to see what they get for free on television to a hilarious guest appearance by Tom Hanks, The Simpsons movie is the funniest movie of the summer so far that doesn’t involve Judd Apatow. In true Simpsons form, it’s also remarkably touching, adding stories about Lisa’s boyfriend and Bart’s temptation to defect to the Flanders clan to the traditional Homer/Marge tiff. All the extra plot points let the movie avoid the feeling of an overstuffed episode and allow it to be an entity unto itself.
As South Park noted a few years ago, it’s all been done before on The Simpsons, and so not all of the jokes or situations are fresh (Flanders temporarily adopted the Simpson children at one point, the show’s 200th episode covered environmentalism, and Brooks’ power-crazed character is reminiscent of Hank Scorpio…who Brooks voiced). As such, The Simpsons Movie isn’t as great as some of the episodes from the mid-90s heyday. But the social criticism is sharp, the animation is crisp, the humor is plentiful, and it’s far better than the last several years of the series and one of the surer bets at the theatre this summer.
Rating: * * * 1/2 of 5
Hey, Jeff. I know it’s old news, but I thought I’d let you know that I linked to your review in my own. Thanks!