Good for Fans of the Series, but Needed More Springfield

Rating: 8/10 (20 November 2012)

I have been a fan of the Simpsons for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, I'd fight for the chance to stay up on Sunday nights to watch the latest episode and I caught up later when I found it on syndication. There was a time when I was sure to watch every episode, usually multiple times. Not so much anymore. Some time in the last ten years, I just started losing interest. By the time THE SIMPSONS MOVIE came out in 2007, I'd all but stopped watching the series but I was still there opening night. The thought of catching the prime-time powerhouse animated family on the big screen was enough to grab my interest, and I suppose the result was about what I expected. It's about the same as watching an extra long episode of the series. The movie opens when Lisa Simpson begins a crusade to clean up the pollution and end the dumping in Lake Springfield; meanwhile, Homer adopts a pig from a Krusty Burger commercial. These two seemingly separate plot lines collide when Homer ditches a silo full of pig crap in the lake, sending pollution levels through the roof and alerting the Environmental Protection Agency. The new head of the EPA, conniving businessman Russ Cargill (recurring Simpsons guest star Albert Brooks), convinces the President to isolate Springfield in a giant glass dome, angering the town residents and sending the Simpson family on the run as fugitives. Can the Simpsons save Springfield? Well, the show's still on the air, isn't it?
When this movie came out in 2007, the television series had pretty much passed its prime. The newer episodes were good for a few laughs but, for the most part, the show had lost its spark. The movie was a few years too late and probably should've hit theaters sooner while the Simpsons were still a hot commodity. The show is one of the longest running in television history so I guess, as long as they've been pumping out episodes, it was only a matter of time before it ran out of steam. The movie feels like nothing more than a ninety- minute episode of the show, so I guess that's a good thing. I don't really see how a Simpsons movie can be all that cinematic but the colors are sharp and the animation looks wonderful. The movie is actually really funny for the first half hour or so but loses a lot of momentum when the Simpsons leave Springfield. Fans of the show will generally agree that the town of Springfield is just as much a character in the series as anyone. So when the family hightails it out of there and lands in Alaska, it's not as fun. The entire middle of the movie drags when the family goes through its fugitive stage and tries to make a new life. It doesn't pick back up again until the final act when they return to Springfield to make their stand.
The movie's still pretty funny, even at it's weakest moments. It plays a lot off the current obsession with environmentalism and going green, going so far as to satirize the government a bit with it's tendency to overreact in some situations. There are also a lot of nods to fans of the show; for example, there's a point later in the movie where we briefly visit Springfield Gorge and find the crashed ambulance from the second season episode "Bart the Daredevil". It's little things that like that made me smile while watching the movie in the theater. Everyone's favorite character will get a moment in the spotlight here with all of Springfield's citizens getting their moment, whether it be Comic Book Guy celebrating a life well spent or Otto getting high while the world crumbles around him. THE SIMPSONS MOVIE does a great job of catering to the fans and giving us what we want (Itchy and Scratchy on the big screen!) but it never really rises above the novelty of a feature length Simpsons movie. I don't know, I suppose I just wish a) the movie had been kept confined within the town of Springfield and utilized the supporting characters more and b) the movie felt a little more epic. The series has some fantastic writers on staff and I wish the movie had hit a little harder (and a little earlier). Overall, THE SIMPSONS MOVIE is a fun time but, just as with the later seasons of the show, isn't as good as the classic early episodes.