The Simpsons Movie

Posted by Nathan Deen (nathan@filmschoolrejects.com) on July 27, 2007

Now I get it. Now I see why every episode of “The Simpsons” for the past eight years have been so lame. They were just a set up for the movie. Every good joke they could’ve used for the TV show was put on a shelf until now. Or at least that’s what I would like to believe.

Where do I stand on “The Simpsons”? I’m an old-school fan. I own seasons 4-8 on DVD and I’m still working on seasons 1-3. To me, the show got old a long time ago. So naturally, I wasn’t really expecting much out of “The Simpsons Movie.” However if there is one thing to be said about “The Simpsons,” they can still surprise you.

“The Simpsons Movie” has to be the equivalent of someone like Tom Jones (a former guest star) making his last performance the best of his career. If this is their way of going out in a blaze of glory, mission accomplished. The worst thing the franchise can do is go for another season. End it now while you still have dignity.

The script was consulted by a total of 15 writers including creator Matt Groening, producer James L. Brooks, and a number of veteran writers including the best of them all, John Swartzwelder. The plot isn’t all that original, at least from a fan’s point of view, because it seems like the plots of major episodes recycled and packed together. The movie has to have a big plot and what could be bigger than the potential destruction of Springfield. That’s happened before. Then there’s the subplot of Homer potentially losing his family. That’s happened before on multiple occasions.

It’s to no surprise that the movie opens with the ultimate Itchy and Scratchy episode. Is there anyone else that thinks Fox should do a spin off and give Itchy and Scratchy their own show? During a scene with Green Day, Springfield discovers that their lake is over-polluted. Mayor Quimby orders that there will be no more dumping of any kind into the lake. Leave it to Homer to ruin everything with his love for donuts.

After the Environmental Protection Agency makes an assessment of Springfield they find that the town is the most polluted in the world. The EPA creates a giant dome to put around Springfield to prevent them from doing any more damage and at the same time trapping the town citizens like rats. Stupid? Definitely. Hilarious? Absolutely.

The movie carries with it the same charm, humor and intelligence it had during the first eight seasons. One thing that’s always fascinated me about this series is how much cleverness there is to be found beneath the stupidity. The plot is as dumb as ever but most of the jokes are as brilliant as any one you’ll in your favorite episode. It’s that kind of so stupid it’s funny (and smart).

By all means the movie is ‘excellent’ and worth 90 minutes of your time, but it could have been an absolute triumph. What it needed was more celebrity guests. There are many episodes that contain more celebrities than the movie does. We get Green Day and Tom Hanks, but that is it. Albert Brooks doesn’t count because he’s actually quite the regular on the show.

If I remember correctly, in season 4 there was an episode called “Krusty gets Kancelled” and the plot was very similar to the reality of the impact of the movie. Krusty getting kicked off TV and then making a comeback with a bunch of big stars (Bette Midler, Luke Perry, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Johnny Carson, Hugh Hefner, etc.). But in the movie all we can find is today’s (arguably) greatest actor and (arguably) biggest rock band? They could’ve at least got Kelsey Grammer back to play Sideshow Bob.

Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself by discussing improvements. I’m just glad it didn’t suck. I laughed throughout, quite hard at times, and was overall pretty satisfied. It’s one of the better summer movies and one of the funniest films of the year. I think we’re looking at an Oscar nomination for best animated feature (it can’t beat “Ratatouille”). Hey, if it we’re released last year, a year that saw only “Cars,” “Happy Feet,” “Monster House,” and “Flushed Away,” it definitely would have won.

If this movie had sucked, I might’ve had trouble watching even the old episodes, wondering where it all went wrong. This is an opportunity for the show’s creator, producers and writers to go out with a bang. Hopefully, they won’t ‘pull a Homer’ and screw it up.

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