A good extended episode

Rating: 7/10 (25 February 2020)

It's widely regarded that 'The Simpsons' TV show has been long past its prime of the early through late nineties. Nowadays it's still watched, but it doesn't look like it will ever regain its prestige. However, that didn't stop them trying to make a movie out of the long-running series in 2007 - roughly a decade after people thought it had peaked.
Perhaps one thing that's normally commonplace when a TV show makes the jump onto the big screen, is that everything is bigger and on more of a grander scale. Yet, due to 'The Simpsons' being on the air for so long and because it's animated, therefore not bound by the limitations of special effects and budget etc, pretty much everything has already been seen and done (ala that episode of 'South Park' that made the same point!). Therefore there's very little that's fresh to see by watching 'The Simpsons Movie.' I know there's a certain amount of 'meta' humour poking fun at the audience for going to the cinema to watch something they could view for free on the television, but it's a point that's kind of on the nose.
Although, saying all that (and speaking as a fan of 'The Simpson' - in their heyday) I have to say that the film is an enjoyable enough romp. There's literally nothing here to distinguish it from an episode (well, a good one) besides its extended runtime. All the characters are there, although most are only on screen for a few seconds to throw a line or two in there. The film focuses in on the central family and recycles many old plots from various episodes to create something that appears new (if you don't look too closely).
If you like the show then you should definitely like this. It's one of those movies that you probably shouldn't pay to see (especially at cinema prices), but if you get the chance to watch it for free then there are definitely worse ways to spend an hour and a half. It's just a pity today's episodes can't even match the quality of the film.
Plus did any future episode ever say what happened to the stand-out star of this film, i.e. 'Spider-pig?' He definitely deserves his own spin-off series!