I've seen better episodes...

Rating: 4/10 (9 August 2007)

Okay. I consider myself a die-hard Simpsons junkie, ever since I got cheesed off that they interrupted an episode (the one where Mr Burns hits Bart with his car, as I recall) with the news that the first Persian Gulf war had started. I'm also apparently one of the few people who doesn't think that the show sucks now, though I do agree it's not as consistent since about season 8 or so. Really, there are only maybe a dozen episodes or so that I truly detest. Unfortunately, if "The Simpsons Movie" was an episode of the TV show, it would probably make #13 on my list. The plot -evil EPA puts Springfield under a dome because of the toxicity of its lake- was just ridiculous. Homer and Marge having marital difficulties...sorry, that's been done just about to death. Ah, yes, Homer. In "TSM" Homer is at his quintessential moronic worst pretty much for the duration (his antics of adopting a pig -against the family's wishes- and dumping the piggy poop in the lake causing the pollution and aforementioned EPA reaction)to the point where you just want to shoot him...and I love Homer; can forgive him almost anything! But in the movie his stunts are just annoying, and that is my biggest complaint. Sure, there's a good amount of typical Simpsons political tweaking (such as Lisa's "An Irritating Truth" seminar, an obvious parody of Al Gore) but been as the whole premise of the plot is so over the top I found myself merely smirking rather than LMAO, which is my usual response to the subversive humour found on the show. I understand the producers brought together the best of the show's writers to write the movie- could have fooled me. And, considering that they probably had a big enough budget I noticed more then a few lapses in the animation, especially in the scenes where the whole town of Springfield has formed (yet another) lynch mob to go after Homer: for a few brief seconds you can tell that it is CGI 3D rather than normal animation. I found myself going "Tsk, tsk" at this shabby production. All told, I was very disappointed. Granted, I was not expecting "Last Exit To Springfield" caliber greatness with the Simpsons movie (I think we all knew better than that) but I was expecting it to be better than it was, and ultimately I'd be tempted to put the final product in the ballpark of "The Principal And The Pauper", which even the show's writers and voice actors consider one of the worst episodes. In the end, I'd say "The Simpsons Movie" is worth seeing once, but I can only hope that they do better with the inevitable "Simpsons Movie II".