December 28, 2007
The Simpsons Movie
Robin Kavanagh READ TIME: 2 MIN.
For over 20 years The Simpsons have been TV's leading funny family; first as shorts in between skits on The Tracey Ullman Show, then in their own series for the past 18 years. Their domain has been limited exclusively on the small screen, though there had been talks about a Simpsons movie going as far back as 1992. Well, Simpsons fans finally got to see Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie and the whole Springfield gang in all of their wide screen glory this summer with The Simpsons Movie - and now at home with the release of the DVD.
The movie begins with Homer adopting a pig (as seen in the now infamous Spider-Pig scene shown all over the movie promos), a seemingly harmless act that turns into a disastrous environmental incident, which causes Springfield to become the most polluted city on the planet. The EPA soon seals off the town with a giant dome, cutting off from the rest of the world and causing the population to riot and call for Homer's blood. Homer is then faced with a fairly common Simpsons dilemma: stay and face the mob, or flee and worry about it later.
The Simpsons Movie was produced for theater-sized screening, and it shows as the animation is noticeably better than that of the weekly episodes. I was also pleased to see that this was a full-fledged movie, and not a string of interrelated episodes blended to make one "very special episode" or something like that. This movie has a beginning, middle and end with a satisfying conclusion, and I wasn't left feeling that this should have just been done on TV.
The Simpsons Movie is a bigger and better version of its TV counterpart: it's funny, smart, and pokes fun at organized religion, big business, and the audience itself, just as it's done for years.
And if the lure of the movie isn't enough, the DVD also has some cool extras, as well:
The Simpsons Movie isn't just for fans of the show or animation. Stellar box office totals proved that the world still loves The Simpsons. During the closing credits, Maggie asks, "Sequel?" and I hope the answer is a resounding yes - and that it doesn't take another 18 years for it to come around.
Robin Kavanagh is a freelance writer based in NJ. She has written for numerous publications, including The New York Times, Asbury Park Press, Bergen Record, Parenting magazine, The Aquarian, North Jersey Media Group, and Blogcritics.org among others.
