Dir. David Silverman, US, 2007, 87mins
Cast: (voice) Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Harry Shearer, Hank Azaria
Review by Matthew Rodgers
Starting life as crudely drawn sketches on The Tracy Ullman Show and spanning 18 seasons there are those that would argue Matt Groening’s phenomenal yellow skinned family have seen better days. A decline in the laugh quota has been noticeable in latter years with nothing to rival “Mr Plow” or “Who Shot Mr Burns?” in the classic episode hall of fame. Add to that the consistency of South Park and the emergence of Seth Macfarlane’s hilarious cult cartoon Family Guy and TV lands most successful animated series of all time has challengers to its throne. So is The Simpsons Movie a long overdue offering that has gestated on the drawing board in the search for creative perfection, or like Homer attempting to avert a meltdown at the nuclear power plant are the makers just pushing the panic button?
Setting the scattershot tone of jokes early by having crayon eating kid Ralph Wiggum emerge from the 20th Century Fox logo and sing along, the audience are dropped straight into a world that has been their second home for the last 20 years, Springfield. As you’d expect everyone’s favourite icon of loveable stupidity Homer J. Simpson has gotten himself along with all of the inhabitants of his 2-D hometown in a whole heap of trouble. Adopting a pig (“Spider-Pig, Spider-Pig” is guaranteed to be THE phrase of the summer), ignoring suffering blue haired wife Marge, and neglecting his own son Bart the plot takes a topically environmental twist – although being The Simpsons Lisa’s pollution lecture is titled “An Irritating Truth” and proceedings are kept firmly tongue in cheek – that results in Homer getting Springfield quarantined and removed from the map. Understandably everyone from Chief Wiggum to Groundskeeper Willie is unhappy so it’s down to our “DOH-ting” father to win back his family and save the town.
The biggest challenge for the large writing team was trying to sustain the format beyond the half hour television slot. For comparison The South Park Movie lost its comedy momentum about half way through. In this department The Simpsons Movie has decidedly mixed results. The first half excels to a level Principal Skinner would be proud of and includes moments that rank amongst some of the shows best; never better than the aforementioned relationship between Homer and his porker pal “Harry Plopper” or countless throwaway lines (non worth spoiling in this review). The Shelbyville (Springfield’s rival neighbors) side of the movie comes from the need to accommodate the larger canvas as the plot veers into an enjoyable action based finale that although impressive does dilute the films belly laugh ratio.
What the leap to the big screen does allow are sequences such as the tracking shot through an angry mob that features every single character that has appeared in the cartoon since conception and is sure to satisfy every fan of the four fingered family. The successful aesthetics go a long way to proving that 2-D animation can still survive in this CGI world, a point not lost on the makers as Homer plays an arcade game that features a Walrus shooting a dancing penguin, poking fun at the lamentable Happy Feet.
The Simpsons Movie is not afraid to laugh at itself (Fox ads during the movie) as you spend plenty of time laughing along with it. It is 86minutes of hilarious familiarity, Spider-Pig, drama (a character death!), action, and enough Homer to suggest that The Simpsons are back. Woo Hoo!!
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