The Simpsons Movie

There really is not much to say about The Simpsons Movie. I have already watched 400+ episodes of the show over the last 2 decades. Although it was nice to not only get a Simpsons movie but to get a Simpsons movie that was actually funny. 15 years ago the quality of a big-screen version would never have been questioned, but as the years have gone by the batting average for the show has dropped to where this movie was not a sure thing. This may not have been the Stonecutters but it was well worth the price of admission.

As is the case with the vast majority of The Simpsons episodes, the starting point is Homer is retarded. For the movie you get Homer falling in love with a pig, hanging naked Bart out to dry, ignoring Lisa’s pleas to keep the lake clean, and all that before the movie kicks into gear. The Homer and Bart dare contest that lead to Bart skating naked through Springfield was hilarious. I have no idea why they thought the movie needed full frontal Bart nudity, but there you go. Homer’s mistreatment of Bart led to the even better scenes between Bart and Flanders. These were some of the best jokes of the movie; Ned preparing the greatest hot chocolate ever, Bart going into the being throttled pose after losing Ned’s fishing pole, and all of Bart’s taunting of Homer with the picture of Homer drawn to look like Flanders. That doesn’t even include my favorite Bart scene in the whole movie where he is cocked out of his mind off of an airplane liquor bottle. Drunk children are always comedy gold. Back to Homer, of course he gets the vast majority of the jokes. There were definitely more hits than misses. All the pig jokes were funny, Homer versus the lynching mob, his escape plan out of America to Alaska, his hallucinations leading to his epiphany, and his opposite of ingenious plan to get back into the dome. Lisa and Marge get their own little subplots, which play out like all of their stories over the years. Lisa’s is superfluous and not that funny and Marge’s storyline is heartfelt and also not that funny. One of the bad things about the movie is that the creators wanted to include every single secondary character that has ever been in the show, so none of them get really more than the occasional one liner. Obviously the one liners are great, especially Ralph saying he likes men now after seeing Bart skate by naked, but come on Burns’ best line doesn’t happen until the credits. So much wasted talent. Still it was nice that they didn’t take up any space with celebrity guest stars. Albert Brooks doesn’t count because he is awesome and should always be a part of the show whenever possible. And the Tom Hanks scene was splendid. I loved that when he brushed the kid’s hair little stars popped up. All in all a really good extended episode.

Hey, I’m not complaining here. I will always love The Simpsons. It just may be my favorite television show of all time. But that is working against it here. I have hundreds of nearly perfect half-hour shows to remind me of its greatness. So the movie shows up and it is good but it had no chance of being more than a worthwhile hour and a half version of the show. There is always a chance that this could lead to a resurgence in show’s quality but I won’t hold my breath.

7 out of 10