The Simpsons Movie

Now I don't want to rag on the Simpsons movie. The Simpsons is one of my all time favorite show. I have seen every episode, most more than once, and own every season that is available on DVD.

I waited a long time for this movie. Ever since the preview/trailer last Superbowl I have been counting down the days until it's release. I hate to say, it wasn't worth the anticipation.

Homer saves Springfield after causing the trouble in the first place. Nothing we haven't seen before (ie. the Garbage Commissioner episode). I was really hoping they would do something outrageous to make it worth my $10, but other than 3 seconds of Bart's "unit" there was nothing here to offer.

If you are a fan, you should see this movie. If you only having a passing interest, wait for the DVD.

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Unfortunately i did not think the movie lived up to the hype. probably the most successful TV series/cartoon ever made, but not one of the greatest movies. I did think before watching the movie that the writers would struggle to find the perfect storyline to ice the proverbial cake that they have spent so many years 'baking', and they did. not the most original story line in history with some very random plot twists, and some very out of character decisions. A lot of the gags played on previous jokes from the TV show, which being a watcher i understood, but didn't find all that funny, but left the first timer guessing a bit. the movie as a whole had a surrealism about it, as though it had not been written by the same people who had previously provided me with hours of entertainment. very predictable in places, but awkwardly random in others. i must say i did find parts of the movie funny, and didn't wish i hadn't seen it, but that does not save the film. i feel this film has come 5 years too late, they should have made it in the shows prime.

The Simpsons Movie (2007), directed by David Silverman, is definitely not the Simpsons at their best. Most of the things that make the Simpsons great on TV--the throwaway gags, the multiple plots, the zingers sent at the Fox network and at the U.S. government, and the incredible cast of supporting characters--are missing from the movie.

It's discouraging to realize how little David Silverman accomplished in the 87 minutes (basically four TV shows) with which he was able to work. Instead of giving us four times the fun, he gave us one quarter the fun. OK--the movie was overdue, and I guess any Simpsons movie is better than none, but this was an opportunity wasted.

After watching the film, I tried to understand what went wrong. The biggest single problem, in my opinion, is that the plot was too linear. The director and screenwriters forgot that we don't want the Simpsons plot to go from A to B to C. We want it to start at A and go to Q and W before it gets to C, if it ever gets to C at all.

Moreover, the movie makers chickened out. On TV they will take on any government institution. Here, the villainous government agency is the EPA. Plenty of government agencies are doing terrible things to the U.S., but I wouldn't exactly put the EPA at the top of the villain's list. As U.S. President, they chose a character meant to be Arnold Schwartzenegger. Now, there are plenty of ways to make fun of the Governor, but no one has suggested he's stupid and, furthermore, he's the one public character that can't become President. No real fun there.

So, if you're a Simpsons fan, and you have to see the movie, be warned. If you're not a Simpsons fan, buy the Season I DVD. Then, once you're hooked, you can safely see the film.

The simpsons movie is witty,fast paced, touching, hugely entertaining and most importantly: laugh out loud funny.And if your a simpsons fan who's loved every episode , thats all you'll need from it.

However if , like me , your an obsessive fan who's noticed a drop in quality on the show from the late nineties onwards you'll see some problems. You'll see that structure wise the movie is basically an extended episode.You'll notice that the villain is a Hank Scorpio rip off. You'll feel that a lot of the plot points and character drama seem all too familiar.But in spite of all this , in spite of being a film based on a show that exhausted its best gags long ago, the simpsons movie is still absolutely hilarious and i take my hat off to the creators for managing to make it so.

A simpsons movie in the early nineties (when the show was in its prime) would have been better, but the very , very , very funny one we have here in '07 works just fine. Funny stuff.

For all the creativity crammed into one half-hour episode of "The Simpsons," I am probably not alone in saying that the show's creative apex bottomed out when it stopped being a "funny sitcom" and became a "cultural phenomenon"--it's been years since I've sat in front of the TV on a Sunday night with the primary interest of being wowed by Matt Groening's brainchild. When the show first began in 1989, the Bart-friendly T-shirts and pins seemed borne out of uncertainty over the show's staying power; these days, with the show's position in the TV canon firmly established, your Xbox games are designed for little more than feeding the "Simpsons" cash cow. That being said, I revisit the show every once in a while (via taped weekday-afternoon reruns of earlier seasons), and very much appreciate it--the sense of satire is sly, incendiary, and often very funny. Some critics cite horror films as being able to express social concerns that would be difficult to convey in other genres; "The Simpsons" would be another arena (and easily the more critically acclaimed).

So, after years of hype, this cultural phenomenon has spawned a film (aptly titled "The Simpsons Movie") that most fans will no doubt consider 'belated.' As a laid-back viewer with an appreciation of the show, the end result is frequently "LOL" hilarious, but not very endearing (honestly, I had forgotten most of the gags by the time I was out of the theater and walking to my car). The best I can say is, "it's like a really good episode of the TV show" rather than "a great film," though I guess that's complimentary enough. I will pick up the DVD once it's released, and be reminded all over of why the film succeeded in its primary goal of clever laughs.

It begins with an excellent jab at the film's own existence, courtesy of Homer ("Why pay for something we can watch on TV for free?" indeed!), then delves into a plot that is as incendiary as anything the yellow-tinged family has tackled: an environmental crisis strikes Springfield when Homer dumps a silo a pig feces in a lake that's been recently de-contaminated, inspiring outrage from the citizens and the government (headed by President Schwarzenegger, though I kept thinking "President McBain"), whose EPA liaison (voiced by Albert Brooks, who also guest-voiced the similar "Hal Scorpio" years ago) covers the contaminated city in a huge Plexiglas dome. Before you can say "Al Gore eats yellow snow," the Simpsons escape through a literal sinkhole and make tracks for Alaska as renegades from the law, only to find themselves returning to rescue their idyllic American home.

Which ultimately isn't much different than what you would find in an average episode of "The Simpsons." This is a film that knows its audience, but also successfully provides an initiation for those who (for some strange reason) have never seen the show. The animation is fluid, colorful, and uber-glossy, and the writing is on par with the better episodes (the mantra remains "anything goes" in "Simpson"-world); some intriguing character twists aside, the film overall neither exceeds nor diminishes the expectations of those who expect everything and those who expect nothing. It's a fun summer film, but not an outstanding blockbuster of endearing quality...you'll laugh heartily and maybe feel moved, but the relatively short running time is both a blessing and a curse--while you will be sufficiently guffawed-out by the end credits, "The Simpsons Movie" leaves a viewer yearning for more. I suppose that's as good an indication as any to go back to the tapes.