Groening with laughter.

Rating: 9/10 (21 January 2012)

Matt Groening and his creative team really took their approach to 'The Simpsons Movie' out of the box, from the pre-release marketing to the finished product. Having only paid attention to the show's early seasons (I consider it of a good calibre, even though I am hardly an avid fan), I find the big screen version proves to be a great companion. Eighteen years of diminishing returns, this isn't.
The animation is 2D bliss, with plenty of modern day trickery and effects to elevate its theatricality. Early trailers billed it as the film that 'dared to be ugly', so proud of its medium that it should have had Disney executives hanging their heads in shame; what should have been their own trend setting return to animation eventually came a full two years later with 'The Princess and the Frog'.
While the eco-friendly plot and moral are hard to ignore for the casual viewer, it is worth appreciating that this direction was clearly chosen as an opportunity to mock the current issues that were prominent in the year of the film's release. While there are obvious spoofs and jokes of the topic circa 2007, the underlying social commentary is not so much on global warming, but on our reaction to it. Rather than capture the implications of the phenomenon, the movie instead essentially epitomises the mass hysteria that surrounds the subject, creating a story full of chaos and stupidity that befits the craziest of 'Simpsons' episodes.
The laughs are thick and furiously fast, with the enormous cast from the show utilised very well indeed, as are several quirky cameos. With an arsenal of jokes loaded to last a good ninety minutes, there are obviously some misfires that don't quite hit the target; I couldn't, however detract from the praise that the sheer effort on show here truly deserves. The critics who dismiss 'The Simpsons Movie' as one long, bloated episode are entirely right. But it's a mighty fine episode.
9/10