Not a stunning movie based on the groundbreaking TV series, but still has some good laughs

Rating: 7/10 (1 August 2007)

It has now been two decades since the Simpsons were first seen on TV, featured in animated shorts on "The Tracey Ullman Show", and nearly eighteen years since the full episodes started coming, but it has only been a few days since the world-renowned cartoon family finally made it to the big screen! Personally, I think the groundbreaking series used to be incredible, but no matter how good a show is, it can't likely maintain its quality for eighteen seasons, so I also believe that since the show's heyday, it has gradually gone downhill, and I don't watch new episodes anymore. However, I still planned to go and see this movie when it came into theatres, and certainly wasn't as disappointed as I could have been!
While Green Day performs on a vessel in Lake Springfield, they begin to talk about the environment, but receive a negative response from the audience of Springfield citizens. Garbage thrown at the band damages the vessel, causing it to sink and kill the band members! After this incident, as Lisa tries to warn other Springfield residents about pollution, nobody listens, until she meets an Irish boy named Colin. Together, these two manage to convince the town that the lake should be cleaned up. However, after Homer adopts a pig, he must somehow dispose of its waste, and decides to depose of it in the lake, causing heavy pollution! After President Arnold Schwarzenegger is informed about this by Russ Cargill, the head of the EPA, a giant dome is placed over Springfield, trapping the city's residents inside! Homer finds himself in a lot of trouble when the town learns that he is responsible for the lake's pollution!
I laughed pretty hard during the intro of the movie, with Itchy & Scratchy, which made me think that the movie might turn out to be excellent, but it didn't. Not all the gags in the movie are as funny as the one at the beginning (though some are), and some parts are not so amusing. I was also bothered by the animation. With the backgrounds (more enhanced than the ones we expect to see in the series), it's not quite the same. Fortunatly, the Simpsons do go on a reasonable adventure in the movie, there are some very funny moments after the Itchy & Scratchy intro, including the part where Homer dares Bart to skateboard naked to Krusty Burger and back, and Bart decides to do it, as well as several moments made funny by Homer's stupidity. All this is far from enough to make this long-awaited movie perfect, but it is enough to make it pretty good.
It appears the idea of a "Simpsons" movie first came up long ago, and the plot for the 1992 episode, "Kamp Krusty" was originally intended to be for a movie, but the show's writing staff just couldn't make it long enough, so instead, the plot was used for the first episode of Season 4. It has been fifteen years since that episode first aired, and "The Simpsons Movie" has finally come! Unfortunately, it probably would have been better if it was made during the TV show's days of glory in the 1990s. In fact, it could have turned out to be as good as all the classic episodes! However, although it sadly wasn't made until those days were long over, it could have turned out worse. The movie may show the declining quality of "The Simpsons" to SOME degree, but not completely. Unless you're a big fan of the recent seasons of the show, I wouldn't consider "The Simpsons Movie" a must-see, but if you don't like the way the show has been going lately, you still might find SOME entertainment value in it.