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Review

The Simpsons Movie

Director

David Silverman

Year

2007

Rating

Reviewed by

Gon C Curiel a.k.a. Groucho

Review date

Thursday, August 23, 2007

I used to be nuts about “The Simpsons” TV show, and I do mean nuts, but I’m one of the ones who grew increasingly disappointed by the decaying quality of the show’s scripts, relying less and less in character interaction, clever, complex jokes, and fine satire, and more and more in very basic visual puns and two-bit sense of humor. So I was scared about the movie, fearing it would be a lot like the later episodes and nothing like the originals. I went for it and was pleasantly surprised, though it’s never as clever as the show’s greatest moments, but never as hollow as the worst. It’s a good mixture of the near two decades of the show, and a fine big screen foray.

The story has Homer Simpson getting more and more selfish and careless to the point where he prefers a pig (the hilarious Spider-Pig) over his own family. Grampa had a mystical experience at church where he burbled incoherent stuff that nonetheless worried Marge. Little by little, her worries come true, as disaster hits Springfield: the pollution of its lake becomes unsustainable to the ecology and extreme measures are taken. Since it’s mostly Homer’s fault, he’s to blame, and the Simpsons become outcasts. Soon enough, they’re on a quest of their own where they’ll discover what’s really important.

Just writing this review is hard enough, because I feel like I should do justice to the series, mention a lot of things, some of which were brilliantly included while others were sadly excluded, and I think that’s a tribute to the hard work they must’ve put into making a movie. How do you sum up so many years of a TV show and make a worthwhile hour-and-a-half movie? The fact that dozens of famous characters were included, with lines and all, is outstanding.

The jokes never stop coming, even from the FOX logo featuring little Ralph Wiggum singing the fanfare. They make sure to keep the laughs coming but what I liked is that the story was intriguing and often compelling. I can’t imagine how many good scenes and jokes John Carnochan must’ve had to painstakingly edit out; his work is excellent. There’s some sentiment sprinkled throughout which, as was the case in some great episodes, really works and moves. Homer’s epiphany is an excellent segment—somewhat reminiscent of Dumbo (1941)’s pink elephants on parade—with a fantastic musical arrangement by Hans Zimmer, who composed the score (somewhat based on other tunes though, including Danny Elfman’s classic Simpsons theme). The animation is nothing spectacular but it’s fancier than the show’s, which is appreciated.

The characters don’t change much from the show, except Bart who goes through a weird phase where he seems to prefer his nerdy neighbor Ned Flanders’ ways instead of Homer’s, which doesn’t go well with the character if you ask me, but I think that’s a trend from the last few years: making Homer the star. That’s not too bad, but I miss old rascal Bart. New characters featured rather prominently include Arnold Schwarzenegger, voiced by Harry Shearer, who also voiced Schwarzenegger’s parody Rainier Wolfcastle in the series; Tom Hanks, voiced by himself; and Russ Cargill, the villain, voiced by Albert Brooks. It’s all in good fun and works like wonders. All the voice work is perfect, as expected, from such people as Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Harry Shearer, Hank Azaria, Marcia Wallace, Pamela Hayden, Joe Mantegna, etc.

Many of the original writers of the series teamed up to write this adventure, and it’s a proud entry in the Simpsons phenomena. I never stopped laughing.

“Oh, why does everything I whip leave me?”

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