The Simpsons Movie (2007)
Directed by David Silverman
Written by James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Al Jean
Starring Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Albert Brooks, Tom Hanks, Harry Shearer
Release Date July 27th, 2007
Published July 27th, 2007
20 years in the making, America's funniest TV family is now on the big screen and funnier than ever. The Simpsons, Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie, have been a dominant force in American pop culture for years now. With the release of their first movie, their place in our cultural history grows in proportion. The Simpsons Movie transcends the small screen not by leaving behind the aspects that made it such a wonderful television enterprise but rather by blowing it up to a new size for a different screen.
That the transfer is so amazingly successful is a testament to the brilliance of the material and the creative minds who have made it so.
The Simpsons Movie finds our hero family in more jeopardy than they have ever faced this side of a Halloween episode. Lake Springfield has been so badly polluted that just one more dumping of chemicals could make it completely toxic. Naturally, that one last dumping would come from Homer Simpson, defying a new city ban on dumping in the lake, Homer drops off a silo full of pig droppings, courtesy of his new pet pig, into the lake and thus sets off an environmental disaster.
The situation in Springfield Lake is so bad that it reaches all the way to Washington D.C where President Arnold Schwarzenegger conspires with the head of the EPA Russ Cargill (the blessed Albert Brooks), to deal with the Springfield problem in ways the President doesn't have to read about. Thus, Springfield is cut off from the outside world by a giant dome dropped over the city. Soon the EPA will launch a plan to destroy the city whole, that is unless the Simpsons can save the day.
That is a very simple description of a plot far more rich than my description. The Simpsons Movie, like the TV show, is rarely about its plot. Rather, the Simpsons thrives on what can be done in and around a particular plot. In this case, the environmental destruction plot offers the opportunity for political humor aimed at both sides of the political spectrum.
Both environmental activists and the political hacks and contractors who thrive on environmental destruction are painted with the same skeptical brush. Admittedly, the creators of The Simpsons Movie have a more liberal perspective, but they do go out of their way to try and be fair and balanced, in the tradition of their sister news network.
The real source of humor in The Simpsons Movie is the Simpson family themselves. The love and exasperation of being a family is what has always been at the heart of America's favorite family and the writers of the Simpsons and now The Simpsons Movie, know how to tap that for big laughs. The deep abiding love the Simpsons have for each other binds them together and opens up wide avenues of humor.
Little moments like Lisa decking Bart after he mocks her crush on an Irish heartthrob or bigger moments like Homer's entreaties to get the family to follow him to a new home in Alaska and the line "I've come to really like you guys", are the kind of familial grace notes that the series has built over the years. There really is nothing they can do that they won't forgive, no matter how outlandish. It is the cartoon's most human and yet broad element.
The Simpsons have made a nearly flawless move from the small screen to the big screen and have begun, what I hope, is a renaissance for america's favorite family. The TV's show's ratings have slipped in the past few years and many long time fans have said the show has lost a step. The Simpsons Movie is proof, that simply isn't the case.
The Simpsons are funnier than ever in The Simpsons Movie. You've got to see it for yourself.
