After 18 hilarious seasons, The Simpsons Movie makes it to the big screen and is chock full of its traditional television humor and some rather amusing pig jokes.
When the band “Green Day” (voicing themselves) performs on a barge on Lake Springfield, the barge is eaten away by the pollution. The entire town, including the Simpson’s family, attends the band’s funeral. Abe “Grandpa” Simpson (Dan Castellaneta) has a vision in church about a coming evil, so Lisa (Yeardley Smith) and a young Irish boy, Colin (Tress MacNeille), go door to door to clean up the lake and succeed.
That same day, Homer (Dan Castellaneta) takes Bart (Nancy Cartwright) to Krusty Burger to cheer him after Bart was involved in an accident where Homer dared him to skateboard naked through town. Homer rescues a pig from the Krusty Burger after they finish shooting a commercial with the pig and Homer leaves Bart behind at the restaurant. Ned Flanders (Harry Shearer) and Bart become friendly and Ned appears to Bart as a more caring father figure.
Homer builds a giant metal cylinder and stores all of the pig’s waste inside, but when it gets too full, he dumps it in Lake Springfield. At this point, the Environment Protection Agency declares Springfield the most polluted city in America and places a giant dome over the entire town. D’oh!
With 18 seasons under creator Matt Groening’s belt, I am very impressed that they managed to come up with an epic story. The Simpsons have done everything in their 18 seasons and yet every new episode is always a creative surprise, while most other sitcoms are going in circles by their sixth year. The story is simple, yet big – so it’s a perfect fit. It really does feel like one big episode, except rather than sitting in your home, you have over a hundred other people laughing with you.
The humor in the screenplay by James L. Brooks and his great team of Simpsons episode writers include many pop-culture references, odd humor, and jokes regarding the idiotic members of Springfield. David Silverman is at the wheel as director and has a huge history of directing episodes including the pilot and was also one of the chief animators of the shorts on “The Tracey Ullman Show.” The screenplay also carries themes about the environment, religion, and family, but explores all sides of these themes, the good, the bad, and the funny.
The voices of the few cast members have made a place in history and their character’s voices are no longer the voice of the actor, but truly belong to their animated home.
I can only imagine how hard it must have been trying to do justice for a history of 18 seasons and compress it into only 85 minutes. You don’t want to go to over the top with the humor and lose your family audience. However, it does do the show justice; and it may be the best film to take the entire family to see. Whoo-hoo!
Rated PG-13 for irreverent humor throughout.
Running time 87 minutes.