CRS
Chandler, Arizona, United States

There's an old saying. If you don't want someone to join a crowd, you ask them, "If everyone were jumping off of a cliff, would you?" Well, I have. So my answer would be "Yes". True story.
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Review of The Simpsons Movie

Saturday, July 28, 2007

this entry brought to you by the white stripes, "rag and bone"





There was a fellow that sat a few rows behind us during the first showing on the first day of The Simpsons Movie that spent the whole time groaning and muttering to himself. I actually didn't hear him; my wife told me about him. But while the credits rolled and Maggie said her first word, "Sequel," this fellow, incredulous, said aloud to his girlfriend, obviously not getting the joke, "A sequel? You've got to be kidding! What's the point? That fucking sucked!"

When South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut was released, the show had only been on for five years. When Beavis and Butthead Do America was released, the show had been on for a similar amount of years. They were also on cable, so while they were pop culture phenomenon for their times, it was possible that you'd escaped their respective shows, and it's possible you went into the theater, perhaps out of curiosity, perhaps with a friend, knowing nothing about what you were getting yourself into. The Simpsons, on the other hand, have been around for more than 18 years, and is the most popular prime time show of all time. There is no reason anyone should go into the theater and not be delivered exactly what they wanted. Either you like the show or you don't, and likes are you do. If you don't like the show, and there's no way you haven't been exposed to them by now, why did you spend your money?

There is no way I could imagine anyone in the packed theater-- other than that guy-- that was anything but completely satisfied. For the record, as a hardcore Simpsons nerd, there are still episodes from the show's heyday that are better than the movie-- anyone who has watched the show since the beginning will be able to think of one off the top of their head. And for my tastes, I felt they played it safe with the social satire-- oh, there's still plenty of it, but it's nothing Simpsons fans aren't used to. With that said, anyone with any complaints would have to be one of those obnoxious, obsessive nerds, much like Comic Book Guy, who are never satisfied with anything. And frankly, nobody cares what Comic Book Guy thinks.

On TV, The Simpsons is only afforded 21-24 minutes, and the writers shove as many jokes into that half-hour time slot as humanly possible. With 87 minutes to work with, one might expect that they'd have trouble shoving in as many jokes per minute and that the movie might be slower paced because of it. To the contrary, the jokes are delivered with the furor of its source material (and, like its source material, deftly weaves its way into some surprisingly moving material-- Marge has contemplated leaving Homer before, but this particular time it's possible to unwittingly give up a tear or two, and extra nods go to the Julie Kavner for delivering the scene of her voice acting career-- you'll know when you get to it), to the point where it's inevitable that you'll miss jokes during the initial viewing-- just like the show. The Simpsons Movie has more jokes in it than essentially any comedy ever, and as any fan already expected, the jokes are quality, and it seems like it would be impossible to not get your money's worth in laughs, even if you're just a casual fan. Ordinarily, an army of writers scrolling past during the credits is a bad sign-- it normally means rewrite after rewrite until a script is a homogenized mass of shapeless blob. With The Simpsons it means a Herculean amount of laughter-- I'm not sure I've ever laughed so much during a movie ever, even if I ultimately felt like it wasn't quite as good as the series' best episodes. But comparing it to the series' best isn't a bad thing-- this is the longest running sitcom of all time, and its best episodes are in the upper pantheon of all time best television, and the movie is right up there as well.

It's also worth noting that the quality of the animation is absolutely impeccable-- I've actually been dissatisfied with the show's animation over the past five years or so compared to its heyday; the characters feel a little cookie-cutter. Here they feel loose and vibrant, full of life, not to mention the gorgeously deep color pallette. If you, like me, are a big fan of the look of The Simpsons and notice the subtle difference between, say, the 8th season and the 18th season, this movie will be a feast. Even if you just like animation in general, The Simpsons Movie is a treat.

There's a criticism that could be given to the movie that it's just like having a long episode, but I disagree with this sentimentality. South Park had the ability to push a hard R rating, whereas this is something that The Simpsons couldn't do and remain faithful to the show. Beavis and Butthead was only an 8 minute show to begin with, so it had all the room in the world to be stretched to movie length. The Simpsons is left, then, with the obligation of going a bit past what they're able to do on TV involving content, and going bigger and longer than its television version. But on a show that already has the sky as the limit, where the town has been destroyed (and relocated), and on Halloween episodes there are no rules, the only thing The Simpsons Movie has is to go bigger and pushed forward-- and that's exactly what the movie does, and I feel like it goes beyond what it was obligated to do. And even if it doesn't, even if this is just the perspective of a worshipful fan, the movie has laughter to go for it-- more laughter than most comedies can even dream of, and the constant explosions of joy from the audience around me clearly agreed, and really, that's all that matters.
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on this day last year george jetson was ahead of his time. and i mean more than just a literal way.
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with love from CRS @ 11:45 AM 

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