A mixture of "D'oh" and "Whoo-hoo"

Rating: 6/10 (27 July 2007)

Has any movie this summer been met with more fan pressure than The Simpsons Movie? When you consider that viewers have been clamoring for a theatrical film for over 10 years, you certainly have to admire creator Matt Groening's guts for not rushing a movie out into theaters just to make money. I walked into the film with mixed emotions. On one hand, this was a moment I had been waiting for since I was literally 13-years-old. On the other, given the dip in quality on the show during the past few years, I was desperately trying not to set my hopes up too high. Now that I have seen it, I can safely say that the movie combines both the best and worst aspects of the show itself into an uneven, but still highly entertaining, film.
The Simpson family's beloved town of Springfield is slowly being turned into a hazardous waste dump after years of dumping garbage and sludge into the local lake. After rock group Green Day have an untimely demise sinking into the murky depths of the lake, 8-year-old Simpson daughter Lisa (voice by Yeardley Smith) makes it her mission to wake up the local townspeople to what's happening. Unfortunately, her father Homer (Dan Castellaneta) has never been one to listen to sense or reason. Due to reasons too complicated to summarize here, Homer winds up dumping a silo full of pig feces into the lake, officially turning the town into the most polluted place on Earth. The Government decides to get involved, and President Arnold Schwarzenegger (Harry Shearer) is talked into sealing the entire town within a dome in order to protect the rest of the world by the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (Albert Brooks). Along with loving wife Marge (Julie Kavner), hell-raising son Bart (Nancy Cartwright), and baby Maggie, Homer must find a way to escape from the town after the people of Springfield turn against him for dooming them all.
Like many TV-to-film adaptations, The Simpsons Movie struggles to adapt itself to its new format. After a fairly strong opening 40 minutes, the movie slows down quite a bit, and becomes mired in an environmental-themed plot that avoids being too preachy, but still seems somewhat out of place for the characters. I understand that this is a movie, and Groening and his team are trying to not just make a retread of the show. And yet, the movie still seems padded. There are numerous subplots to fill in time, but these either have disappointing or no resolution at all, or they are good as they currently are, but could have been even better if the film focused on them a little bit more. A good example is the plot concerning son Bart feeling he doesn't get enough attention from his father, and starts seeking solace in overly kind neighbor Ned Flanders. What's up there on the screen is good, but watching it, I felt like it never builds the way it should, and the pay off is pretty much non-existent and overly rushed. Only the plot concerning young Lisa finding her soul mate with a new boy named Colin seems to hit the right mark when it comes to a close.
For every bit of weakness contained within The Simpsons Movie, there are at least two moments to make up for it at least. I laughed quite a bit throughout the film, and smiled even more, especially during the first half of the film. The film is at its best before the proper "save the town" plot kicks in, and tries to be just as irrelevant as the show can often be. There is a sense of free-spirited anarchy and fun that is curiously missing from the later half of the film. While the plot-driven part of the film does have its moments of brilliance, it never quite lives up to everything that came before it. I'm proud to say that the commercials have for once not ruined the best jokes in the film. Given the decline in the writing on the TV show the past couple seasons, it seriously felt good to laugh out loud at the characters again.
I strongly believe that your reaction to The Simpsons Movie will depend greatly on your reaction to The Simpsons themselves. If you never got into the show, this movie will do absolutely nothing to change your mind. The movie knows its audience, and unless you're a member of the converted, you can give this a pass. But, for those who have literally been waiting years for this movie, it may not be perfect, but you won't be let down overall. Be sure to stick around for the end credits as well, to hear Maggie learn an important "first word" when it comes to Hollywood. The quality of The Simpsons Movie doesn't quite make me long for what she hopes for, but at the same time, I wouldn't mind it.