Brilliant! The Simpsons are back at the top!

Rating: 8/10 (25 July 2007)

The Simpsons Movie exceeded my expectations. I knew right from the start that this wasn't going to disappoint. Sure, some might have said different things because of the later episodes of the show, but the movie manages to give the viewer a feeling of how and why The Simpsons is one of the greatest animation and comedy achievements of all-time. You'll recognise and laugh as much as you would with the TV show.
OK, some BIG spoilers now. The movie starts off with Itchy and Scratchy, and then is introduced with an Simpsons intro with Green Day, and things start to pick up fast. Though most of the first 20 minutes is pure comedy, it slowly builds up to the main plot. Lisa complains about the pollution in Springfield and meets up with a boy she likes, and during a church morning Grampa goes out of control and Marge gets concerned with the words he speaks. At the same time Homer adopts a pig but Marge keeps telling him to remove it and when he ignores her words it causes total disaster in Springfield and forces The Simpsons to move away from the town.
I was surprised to see how many of the characters were seen in the whole movie. The whole film felt it was going at a steady pace and all of the comedy moments never felt flat-out. The moments with president Arnold and Tom Hanks are just top and fell right in place. All of the Simpsons family had their share of the movie so none of the characters felt left out, except for Homer of course he gets the larger part! The animation is amazing and well done. It had that movie feel and didn't feel like 4 episodes put together. You could tell it was definitely designed as a movie from the start. It is highly watchable and entertaining from start to finish. I noticed a few good Simpsons references in the movie that referred to older episodes, but you probably won't spot them all straight away but either way you'd probably want to see the movie again since its so good.
The Simpsons still has its comedy, as the movie has proved and will definitely be loved by many people out there. As the show is almost heading for its 20th anniversary, the movie showed me that there is still some great comedy left in The Simpsons. All hope hasn't gone yet, but The Simpsons Movie will be a hit to pretty much all the audience and many will remember it as a top summer movie of the year, and perhaps one of the greatest animation movies ever. Don't be fooled into thinking a TV show to a movie sucks, this one is a BIG exception!