Recommended

Rating: 7/10 (28 October 2017)

'THE SIMPSONS MOVIE' - 2007
Directed by David Silverman{Directorial Debut}
Starring Dan Castellaneta{The Pursuit of Happiness; The Cat in the Hat}, Nancy Cartwright{The Little Mermaid; Rugrats Go Wild} and Julie Kavner{Doctor Dolitle; Click}.
Plot Overview: After Springfield becomes the most polluted city in the USA, government employee Russ Cargill(Albert Brooks{Finding Nemo; Lost in America}) decided to place a large dome around Springfield, trapping the inhabitants. When the townsfolk uncover that it was Homer(Dan Castellaneta) who sentenced them to this fate, Homer and co must flee Springfield and try to evade the government.
It would probably be fitting for me to voice my thoughts on the show before I review this film. I don't mind the show. I think that I respect it more than I like it. It did a lot to Television, namely animated shows so I highly commend it for what it contributed to entertainment. But as a show, I think it's fine. And as a whole, I think this movie is fine also. I liked it. I don't think it even holds a candle to South Park BL&U(if comparisons are gonna annoy you then you may wish to turn back now) but it succeeds as a family friendly piece of entertainment. Which is what The Simpsons has always been.
What things did I like about this movie, for a start. Similar to the TV show, the voice acting is great. Dan Castellaneta does a great job at voicing all his roles, particularly Homer and Grandpa. Nancy Cartwright voiced my favourite character from the show, Bart, and does it excellently. She also voiced a couple other characters but Bart is her main piece of meat to play with. Julie Kavner was great at voicing Marge as well as others. I thought that every voice actor did a good job and provided a decent amount of range for all the characters.
Another thing that I can praise highly is the animation and cinematography. Having a bigger budget(I presume) would definitely give them greater freedom to make the animation stand out and they certainly did that. 'The Simpsons Movie' looks great from an animation standpoint, and even the cinematography/editing are great too. It is a very nice looking movie.
And now there is something that may sound controversial but hear me out. I don't find The Simpsons funny. It's never been my style of comedy. It's fine for what it is but I really don't think it's this titan of comedic genius that many people claim it as. It's fine. That's were it begins and ends for me. It is fine. That is also a similar opinion to the comedy in this movie. I think the longer run time probably helped because there was more time to pack in jokes and gags, and quite a few of them did hit for me. Few of the jokes definitively FAILED but by the same merit virtually none made me laugh out loud. I smiled consistently and once or twice elicited a mild chuckle but there wasn't really a point that I fully lost control and laughed.
And now for some issues! Yay! I cannot stand their attempt at satire. Similarly to how BL&U tried to satirise censorship and people's backwards opinion on what is and isn't allowed, The Simpsons Movie tries to satirise the US government's inability to do anything remotely useful. I really don't see the point in doing this. Maybe a simple moral or two here or there but basing the ENTIRE plot of the movie on this intricate attempt at a 'BRILLIANT!' satire just didn't work. BL&U did this excellently, but then again that was what South Park was known for. Mocking culture, religion, law and politics. The Simpsons has always been, as far as I know, a basic family show that is fun to watch, so their dry attempt at getting into the 'greater meaning' game was rather pointless and stupid, in my honest opinion.
I was also annoyed at certain things to do with charters. Firstly, all the 'good' non-main characters were COMPLETELY sidelined. Flanders barely has a role, Krusty doesn't, Ralph Wiggum doesn't, Willie doesn't, Millhouse doesn't, Mr Burns doesn't. Instead, we get a very dull and uninteresting antagonist, and an Irish twerp. Colin was a very uninteresting love interest for Lisa and I seriously do not understand what role he actually played in this movie. And then there is the villain; he was SUCH a disappointment. He wasn't funny, he wasn't smart; his one and only role was to satirise the government, and even then he failed miserably. The GOOD characters we all know and love should have remained, and in doing so drop the utterly ridiculous satire of the government. I really like the dome idea but maybe have Mr Burns or someone do it and make him go FULL evil. That'd be funny, or even do a mild mannered character and make them snap. That'd be funny. But no. We get a very boring story about how the government is evil and useless(I'm not disagreeing with that statement but it didn't need to be in The Simpsons).
As a whole, I do like this movie. It's fun and entertaining to an extent but it does lack a solid villain and plot, as well as some of the best characters in the show. But, if you do like the show, I can recommend it. A fair percent of the jokes hit and it's by now means a chore to sit through. But the flaws do really stand out, for me at least. Despite this, I recommend this film. I'll rate 'The Simpsons Movie' 7 'Spiderpigs' out of 10!