Doh!

Rating: 8/10 (9 September 2007)

Doh! We all had such high expectations from a Simpsons movie. How could we possibly have hoped that it would meet them? As many reviewers have already commented, the movie plays out like a very long episode of the hugely successful and influential TV show. I still relished the opportunity to see this movie on a large cinema screen. The movie provided me with an opportunity to really enjoy and appreciate the vibrancy of the animation on the big screen and to laugh along to (many) jokes out loud with an audience that I would never be able to fit on my sofa back at home while watching the show on TV. The writers make the right choice of focusing on Homer and his immediate family during the movie although this is at the expense of the many wonderful characters which give the show its identity. Here's hoping the next movie focuses more on Mr Burns, Ned Flanders, Ralph Wiggum and Snowball II. The movie delivers its finest moment very early on with the much quoted 'Spider-Pig' sequence - pure genius. And there is no doubt that as the film seeks to resolve the story line in the third act, the joke quota drops considerably. I had hoped the film would have at least one large musical number, a feature of many episodes that seems ideal for a theatrical version. The breathing space that the movie's running time brings, allows considerable emotional depth - most notably during Marge's video message to Homer. I am looking forward to reliving this movie on DVD so that I can appreciate all the side jokes / background jokes that I surely missed on first viewing. My stand out joke of the film though has to be Ralph Wiggum's reaction to seeing Bart skateboarding naked through Springfield. Hilarious!!