The Simpsons Movie Review

by Homer Yen (homer_yen AT yahoo DOT com)
July 31st, 2007
"The Simpsons Movie" - D'oh! is for Dopey
by Homer Yen
(c) 2007

It's been 18 years in the making and here they
come to put the FUN in dys-fun-ctional! The
Simpson family from Springfield (which, by the
way, borders Ohio, Nevada, Maine and Kentucky)
has graduated from the small screen to the big
screen and brings with them all of the totally
ridiculous and yet completely enjoyable trappings
of the long-running, animated television show.
And yet, even if you have never watched Homer and
Bart spoil the best intentions of others while
Marge/Lisa/Maggie try to undo their moronic
deeds, all you have to do is to walk into any of
the 7-11s nationwide that have been temporarily
turned into Kwik-E Marts to know that there's
something big going on here.

Without a doubt, "The Simpsons Movie" provides
the funniest and dopiest 30 minutes to have
kicked off a film this year. It features a wild
game called "Dare" between father and son that
responsible PTA members would find ghastly. It
starts with a climb up a rickety antenna pole
atop their house, and ends with a wild journey on
skateboard through town. To give you more
details would be blasphemous, but it will put a
permanent smile on your face. Subversive yet
innocent, let's just say that Homer will probably
never win Parent of the Year Award. Other
hilarious parts for me (without giving anything
away) was a segment that spoofs the film
"Titanic" and Homer wondering aloud if the movie
audience is actually dumber than Homer himself.

In the film, Grandpa Simpson foretells of a
horrible fate that is about to befall the beloved
town of Springfield. Well, it's beloved if you
can overlook the fact that the most polluted lake
in the world is there. His ramblings are
incomprehensible at first, but then events begin
to unfold that starts to pull the tapestry of his
disjointed comments together. It involves a pig,
a shoot-first-ask-questions-later government, and
Alaska (where it gets grinningly Disney-esque).
Yup, I admit...I can't explain on paper how it all
relates. The randomness is part of the charm.
And that the film somehow manages to stay
together is wonderfully surprising.

The film preserves much of the show's classic
charm. As always, somehow Homer finds a way to
either: a) put his family in danger, b) put
himself in danger, c) put his community in
danger. And here, it's all of the above. The
film is hand-drawn, and the renderings are as
crude as Homer and Bart themselves. However,
there are a few scenes where the animation is
slightly modernized without sacrificing its
old-fashioned 2-d look.

As far as drawbacks, the film peaks too early.
The later third couldn't keep up with the
breakneck comedic pace of the first third. I
wished that the narcissistic tyrant Montgomery
Burns had a bigger role. And, I wished that
there was room for those bickering aliens, Kang
and Kodos. The film is jam-packed with 99% of
the characters from the TV show and even had room
to fit in Tom Hanks. Where did that idea come
from?

On the big screen, the Simpson's are bigger,
badder, and definitely better. And you just have
to sit through the end credits to here the
philharmonic version of a song called Spider-Pig
and even hear baby Maggie perhaps utter her first
words. As Homer would say, "woo-hoo!"

Grade: B

S: 1 out of 3
L: 1 out of 3
V: 1 out of 3

   
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