well done

Rating: 8/10 (10 September 2007)

They didn't screw it up.
It might sound like I'm damning the movie with faint praise, but I'm not. You have to realize that the creators of The Simpsons faced a very daunting task. How do you honour the legacy of a show that's been using up plot ideas and jokes for almost 18 years? How do you not disappoint your very demanding fans? Well it turns out you start by acknowledging what those fans have been saying all along - that the show's golden age ended about ten years ago. You acknowledge this by hiring the writers who worked on the show during its heyday, and you refuse to put out a movie until it's been lovingly crafted into the best Simpsons movie that can possibly be made.
The effort has paid off. The movie deftly side-steps the many traps it could have fallen into (too many guest stars, too much self-consciousness about being on the big screen, relying too much on past glory, catering to the masses, etc.). Quality, edgy laughs are plentiful. The plot takes over a bit too much by the second half, but not to a disconcerting degree.
So how come I don't rate the movie higher? Because The Simpsons belongs on TV (or at least it did, back when it was a great show), in 22-minute chunks. It's out of its element as a 90-minute movie. It's a small miracle that the result turned out as good as it has.