Stupid Flanders!

Rating: 8/10 (26 July 2007)

Spiderpig! How do I just know that's gonna be the thing all summer. And people are going to annoy me by getting the words all wrong. Does it stop me from driving my girlfriend mad with it though? Nope! Other than the Spiderpig song though, I have to say that there's a distinct lack of quality quotes in it. Especially considering the dream-team of Simpsons writers assembled to make the movie. In 20 or 30 years, if I'm still alive, I'm pretty sure I'll still be quoting lines from Marge Versus the Monorail or King Size Homer. But I imagine I'll tire of Spiderpig after a week, maybe.
Will the rest of the movie stand the test of time however? I actually think it will. In fact I think its probably going to save the franchise which, regrettably, has taken a nosedive in terms of quality, but, as this movie shows, still has a good few years of laughter left.
The first half hour in Springfield is pure gold. Some of the best Simpsons laughs I've had in a long, long time. And their effortless transition to the big screen is evident right from the moment Ralf Wiggum appears, dwarfed by the 20th Century Fox logo, singing along to the fanfare. From here on in its a visual treat, the animation is really impressive, with lots of panoramic shots, "camera" angles and other eye candy as is Hans Zimmer's music.
The gags are brilliant, with some wonderful slapstick moments, further augmented by the magic of silver screen. A brilliant Bambi homage that's sickeningly cute, surreal and downright disturbing and of course the sort of humor the Simpsons does best, subversive humor, aimed at religion, at society in general, at the US government, and of course, at Fox.
The pacing isn't always the best, however, and sometimes it seems as though the writers weren't sure whether to emulate the older style; the dysfunctional family who eventually resolves problems through mushy sentimentality, or to go for the newer, Homer the boundless buffoon/unapologetic jerk route. Case in point being the subplot where Bart finds a new father figure in (stupid) Flanders, but thankfully we've got a hilarious scene with Bart drinking whiskey to cut through the treacle. (Just try getting *that* shown on TV!) With many of these movies though, it can be very difficult to figure out how, exactly, to turn a half-hour animated show into a full feature. They can play it safe, as in the case of the Family Guy and South Park movies, by simply making an extra-long episode and taking advantage by doing and saying things they couldn't get away with on TV, or they can decide to take the characters outside their limited environment, as was done with the Beavis and Butthead movie. The Simpsons movie does push beyond what it could do on TV but overall took the latter approach, taking the characters we all know and love, and placing them in a new environment and in situations we've never seen them in before.
Of course that's a tall order with the Simpsons. Homer's had such a colourful resume over the past years, not to mention going into space, meeting God and traveling through time for some reason. I think maybe the writers felt that a movie audience would expect something new in the movie so they decided to take a lot of the action outside of Springfield. Pity that. I'd have loved to have seen more action inside Springfield, especially about the collapse of the town in anarchy, and so on. (And, for that matter, to see whatever happened to Spider Pig) Instead a good chunk of the movie takes place when the Simpsons relocate to Alaska. I like a good "the Simpsons are going to" (Australia, China, Brazil, India... {though not the England one that was just terrible} episode as much as the next guy, but I would have liked to have seen a lot more Springfield on the big screen.
However, from what I've been reading, there's a vast abundance of unused footage in the movie, including a few cut celebrity cameos. Most notably Kelsey Grammar. He's on the credits for Sideshow Bob but wasn't in the movie. Actually he'd have made a far better villain than the villain in the movie. And speaking of villains, Mister Burns is hardly on-screen for a minute. Something tells me, though, that a feature-packed DVD release by is on the cards, full of deleted scenes hopefully by Christmas time, so I can drop the hint to my girlfriend. Perhaps a director's cut, of sorts, now *that* would be something special!!! As for the plot. Well the Simpsons always had plots within plots within plots. It would start off as one thing, and then go off someplace completely different and who knew where it would end up. The Simpsons Movie takes this formula to new extremes. The plot itself is terrible. But then who cares? In the Simpsons the plot was always secondary to the gags anyway, so I guess the best thing is to stop being all Jeff Albertson about the plot and enjoy the laughs.
Overall, well, it's not perfect and with something as big as the Simpsons is, expectations were always going to be high. Mine, I'm glad to say, were more than met though I'm sure there'll be plenty of would-be Jeff Albertsons out there "on the internet within seconds registering their disgust throughout the world"  ignore them. If you love the Simpsons as much as I do, then you'll love this movie. Plus it also offers plenty for people who are unfamiliar with (if such people actually exist) or those who wish to reacquaint themselves with the funniest family in television history, and now, cinematic history.
Looking forward to the DVD release and really, really hoping for a sequel!