The Simpsons: Bigger, Longer and unbelievably: Uncut!

Rating: 7/10 (26 July 2007)

So here it is then; The Simpsons finally do a film. I've been a big fan for years and years; frequently watching repeats on television of old episodes I know inside out yet haven't seen for ages. Usually, I don't watch animated films beyond Disney although the South Park film (1999) was a refreshing alternative. It took the makers of South Park a mere two years to adapt their characters into a film, something that took everything great about the series but moved up a level in the fact it didn't censor out any swearing, profanity or violence. Bearing everything else in mind, how does the Simpson's film shape up? Pretty damn good, on the whole.
You get the feeling that the creators are trying to grow the series up a little bit  South Park and Japanese animation as a whole helped move that tag 'cartoons are for kids' away from animation and The Simpsons are also following suit as there are several things in this you'd never get in an episode on TV. These would include but probably aren't limited to: nudity, drug taking and swearing using hand gestures; Marge even refers to Lisa as a 'woman' about a fifth of the way through.
Along with this, the film manages to capture what actually made the series so great and adapt it in a friendly and satisfactory way; there is no plot to start out with (in fact there is no real plot come the end) and thus it plays out like 'just another day in Springfield' as Homer carries out his chores, Lisa goes from door to door telling people about the environment and Bart gets involved in a game of 'truth or dare'. In all honesty, the opening twenty minutes was brilliant  laugh after laugh to any Simpsons fan who has been following the show for the duration I have as the film covers an array of characters and deals with a string of funny situations. Certain people who have certain favourite characters will be disappointed theirs didn't get enough screen time but from memory; Chief Wiggum, Cletus and Ned Flanders get the bulk of the screen time. This is not to be frowned at though as pretty much every character gets at least one joke to themselves, Moe's being particularly funny.
When it comes to the famous family themselves, Maggie seems to get more screen time than Lisa which although sounds rather daft is actually genius as Maggie can't speak and thus, has to rely on her actions to act as the comedy which she does to very good effect. Lisa's time is more dedicated to a romance story which I will not spoil.
The film gets going through an extremely unfortunate event that only really highlights Homer's stupidity and lack of thinking, thus making him look more like a buffoon than anything else; but once this happens you can feel it going down an extremely alternate route to that of the cartoon series. For reasons I shall not say, the rest of Springfield's characters are merely tossed aside meaning the bulk consists of The Simpsons so prepare yourself for that. This is a shame as with so many colourful characters to work with, dismissing them seemed rather ruthless but it is 'The Simpsons Movie' after all, not 'Springfield: The Movie'.
Like I mentioned, the plot as a whole is weak and numerous little occurrences merely kick-start the film once again after it hits a groove it could so easily fall into and stay in. This includes but again, is not limited to Marge discovering something on the news about Springfield resulting in them having to travel back once they bed down in Alaska; something that didn't really seem to contain anything of note plot wise. Also, the humour once in Alaska is limited to things like avalanches, Bart taking up drinking and spoofs of Disney characters from films made 60 years ago.
Once the film beds into its final third, the familiar Hollywood routine kicks in but I think the makers only wanted to finish on a strong, positive note and what better way to do so than using the familiar 'Happy, Hollywood ending'. This isn't a criticism but it does leave you with an odd feeling in the pit of your stomach  maybe it's just the fact that The Simpsons are actually in a film and are thus able to even HAVE a happy, Hollywood ending. It's difficult to say too many bad things about something I love so dear (The TV series) but despite really trying to love it (maybe too much), the film was only so much as a funny, big screen outing for the family of five that are: The Simpsons.