All Hail the Simpsons: a Review of "The Simpsons Movie"

Ever since I saw "The Simpsons Movie" on opening weekend I have been hearing from fans of the television show. Almost universally they have been critical of the movie. They say it broke no new ground. One even dared compare it to the South Park movie and said that it was not up to par when compared to that movie. I am here to say, this is not true. This movie is good and it is funny and it is a worthy attempt to bring one of the funniest television shows to the big screen.

The thing about the Simpsons is that it is NOT South Park or Family Guy or American Dad. The Simpsons came first, trodding down roads originally paved by the Flintstones so many years before. There are those fans who say the show has lost its edge of late. I say, a bad episode of the Simpsons is still a hundred times better than just about anything else on television, especially on a Sunday night. I'd rather watch two of the worst episodes of the Simpsons than a single episode of Desperate Housewives, thank you very much.

So, the Simpsons people have done an interesting thing for the movie. Essentially they invited back just about everyone who has ever written for the show to come and lend a hand with this movie. It took months and months to bring this movie together. Huge pieces were left on the cutting room floor. Jokes were adjusted, dropped, added and changed right up until release time.

The story revolves around Homer, the hapless and dimwitted head of the Simpsons family. He somehow manages to become the owner of a pig. What he does with that pig's waste leads to a catastrophe for Springfield. The Simpsons clan ends up fleeing to Alaska. Once there, however, they learn there is an even more dire fate in store for Springfield. Can the Simpsons make it back to save the town? What do you think?

That plot is just the merest hint of how rich with humor and pop-culture references this movie is. The movie opens with Homer accusing people of paying to watch something they can watch on television for free every day of being suckers. This is a movie acutely aware of what it is and the people in it seem to be aware of what is going on.

In the middle of all of this you also get just enough outrageousness that you just could not do on television. Granted, it does not approach the outrageousness of the South Park movie, but you do get a bit of nudity, a bit of swearing and at least one person flipping off several other people. Each time, the result is utterly hilarious.

There are cameo voices throughout. Watch for America's favorite movie star to make an appearance as himself in the middle of the movie and, again, at the end to hilarious results. Also, Albert Brooks once again turns in a hilarious voice performance as the weasely EPA director working for a President Schwarzenegger.

I like the fact that this movie stayed true to the television show. I liked the fact that the characters behaved in this movie much like they have always behaved on television. They did just enough more to justify making this into a movie, but it wasn't enough to make them different from how you have come to know and love them.

Let's not forget that this show has been on the air for eighteen years. These are characters that people know and love. We know how they will act. We have an idea of what they will say. We even might have an idea of what jokes they will make. The joy of this movie is that it lives up to those expectations and still managed to leave me laughing.

Some of the jokes just caught me off guard. There is an entirely visual joke between Bart and the vandalism of a wanted poster that had a pay off that left me laughing to the point of tears. It was a very simply, downright silly, joke, but it hit me just right. Then, of course, there is the joke about Bart skateboarding naked that needs to be seen to be believed.

In short, South Park can be South Park and do everything bigger, longer and uncut when they come to the big screen. If they ever bring Family Guy to the big screen, I am sure it will be almost as outrageous as South Park. For me, I want my Simpsons movie to be like the television show except longer. That's what I got and I had a blast.