Yes gentle readers. I adore the Simpsons. I have watched the show for years. Imagine that this cartoon has been around for 18 years - there is a reason - because it is sophisticated, adult humour brilliantly disguised as slapstick humour so the kiddies can appreciate it as well. It appeals to adults and to kids.
Other primetime cartoons have come around which push the envelope to a greater extent than the Simpsons. I'm not sure that I enjoy them as much - I like to think about my humour, not be smacked in the face with it!
I have wanted to see this movie for awhile but Paul was holding out. Yesterday while we were eating dinner he decided that he wanted to go see it today. Works for me.
So was the movie good?
18 years after the TV Series creation, The Simpsons hit the big screen. And it shows why it still has the legs to run for more years to come.
There are those who argue that Matt Groening's phenomenal yellow-skinned family have seen better days. A decline in the laugh quota has been noticeable in recent years, with nothing to rival classic episodes like Mr. Plow or Who Shot Mr. Burns? Add to that the consistency of shows like South Park and Family Guy and TV's most successful animated series of all time has challengers to its throne.
Setting the scattershot tone of its jokes early by having crayon-eating kid Ralph Wiggum emerge from the 20th Century
As you'd expect everyone's favourite icon of loveable stupidity Homer Simpson, has got himself, along with the inhabitants of his hometown, in a whole heap of trouble. Adopting a pig ("Spider-Pig, Spider-Pig"), ignoring long-suffering blue-haired wife Marge and neglecting his own son Bart, the plot takes a topically environmental twist—although being The Simpsons, Lisa's pollution lecture is titled "An Irritating Truth" and proceedings are kept firmly tongue in cheek—that results in Springfield being quarantined and removed from the map. Understandably everyone from Chief Wiggum to Groundskeeper Willie are unhappy so it's down to our "DOH-ting" father to win back his family and save the town.
The need to accommodate the larger canvas, however, does mean that the plot veers into an enjoyable action-based finale that, although impressive, dilutes the film's laugh ratio.
What the leap to the big screen allows, though, are sequences such as the tracking shot through an angry mob that features every single character that has appeared in the cartoon since its conception. The successful aesthetics go a long way to proving that 2-D animation can still survive in this CGI world, a point not lost on the makers when Homer plays an arcade game that features a walrus shooting a dancing penguin, poking fun at the lamentable Happy Feet .
Fans of the long-running animated television show should be delighted in seeing their small-screen idols given the big screen treatment, and with a PG-13 rating, getting a bit more ribald in the level of humor than they could with the stringent censorship on TV. We get to see Bart nude, Homer use his middle finger, Otto take a hit off of a bong, etc. For those who have followed "The Simpsons" over the nearly 20 years of its existence, I suppose it's worth the expense to see the characters, who haven't changed very much since their inception, in a different light.
I was slightly surprised that they didn’t go overboard with the freedom that being away from television censors allows. There were a couple of bigger curse words and a funny, if inappropriate moment where Bart shows more than his famous naked tooshie. But they could have done much more, but showed some surprising restraint in that front.
Lots of main characters were left out, and while I can’t blame them for not trying to throw every single character in for a one liner, I still wish Moe and Principal Skinner had more of a presence. Using Arnold Schwarzenegger as President may be a better gag, but I think it would have been more fitting to have used Rainier Wolfcastle for the part (as he’s the Simpsons parody of Arnold anyway.)
The Simpsons Movie is funny, clever and at times even hilarious (Bart skate-boarding naked through Springfield has to be the sight-gag of the summer).
The Simpsons - trailer
The Simpsons - trailer
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