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Review: The Simpsons Movie

<IMG src=”http://pages.sbcglobal.net/bluealbino/SYP/images/bart-skate.gif” align=left>So here’s the skinny kids: shut the hell up! I’m tired of hearing it’s going to suck and the eponymous “I’ll see it on DVD”. Go to the theater for goodness sake! You’ve been watching The Simpsons on TV for nearly 2 decades now, why simply watch it again on the small screen when you’ve been given this gift, this different and special opportunity to watch the show with hundreds of other people on a giant screen!?<BR><BR>Will you be disappointed? Of course. These are not the Simpsons of the early 90s, nor the rest of that wondrous decade. Homer’s dumber and less sympathetic than ever, Bart’s without an emotional curve anymore and not pulling off the neighborhood badboy, and the plot twists and turns at dizzying paces between attempted political rants and gay jokes (never lesbian jokes). But that’s what The Simpsons are in 2007. It’s been an odd ride for the show over the years, but nothing can stay the same after 17 years (even Law & Order got sexier of late). In an alternate universe, I wonder if any of us would be any happier if the Simpsons had continued down the same staid path.<BR><BR>This doesn’t mean I didn’t like the movie, which feels a lot more like 3 episodes. I had a handful of decent laughs, and like I said, it was a real treat to see the yellow family finally up on the big screen in glorious 35mm. It looks like the animators had some trouble getting used to printing their colors back to film again, but after a bit you get used to the slight color shift from the small screen version. And as tends to happen with any hand drawn 2D skein that goes to theaters in the computer age, the animators have a ball with all the tools at their disposal trying to make it more cinematic: often to the detriment of the experience. Take a look at the Rugrats Movie for a reference.<BR><BR>Vector based 2D animation running through 3D camera software always causes confusing things to happen. The camera will dolly in and the character outlines will become exaggerated, or they’ll lose detail as you move past them closely. For large sweeping movements you feel quite out of place. What’s so odd is that one can in fact acheive the same effects with hand drawn animation, and Fox would cough up the scratch for such an endeavor. But for some reason they choose to go the quickest and cheapest route. I don’t know enough about Matt Groening to go pointing fingers, but in many ways I wish he had the heart of Mike Judge, that great defender of animated arts.<BR><BR>As for the plot…Just like the show, part of the reason the emotional curves don’t develop is because the plot is so improbable. Back in the olden days of the show, the conflicts were real and the actions were, shall we say, “cartoonish”. Take “Bart the Genius”. The conflict is that Bart can’t keep up in his new school because he lied on an IQ test. The action is he mixes the wrong chemicals in science and turns himself green. the film’s plot, I kid you not, is that the family must save Springfield from destruction after a dome has been placed around the town by the EPA after homer dumps a silo of pig crap in Lake Springfield. The animators don’t even give us a chance to believe this improbable plotline, as the dome doesn’t seem to make a real circle if you consider where in Sprinfield it intersects (The Simpsons backyard is the edge of Springfield?)<BR><BR>The diehard Simpsons have been waiting a long time for this, but we know that it’s a show for a different generation now. Many of us had hoped the film would be a rebirth, but knew that it would have to stick to the show’s current formula. The good news is that all of Springfield makes it into the film. Still, it’s hard to resist the allure of the film. I mean, it is The Simpsons, probably the second greatest export the US has next to computers. Look, there was always going to be a Simpsons movie. Would you rather it be now or in 30 years when it’s lost its signicance completely.<BR><BR>The potential is clear even when the film falls short. So you writers out there working on spec scripts, maybe, just maybe the show’ll be on long enough for you to join the long list of writers. The gauntlet is laid down between Law & Order and The Simpsons to see who will become the longest running TV show in history (Gunsmoke’s 1 with 20 years, but Simpsons is 1 Sitcom). I’d say Bart’s probably got more lead in his pencil than E.A.D.A. Jack McCoy. only time will tell.