thefilmguru reviews: The Simpson's Movie

Rating: 6/10 (9 August 2007)

The Simpson's Movie has had movie critics dribbling at the prospect of it being the new movie to bash. It's perfect bait. With this much of a fan base and this much hype surrounding its release, even the public were waiting to hate it. But alas. Not even the critics are pretending to hate this film.
In a summer of hyped movies that have been major disappointments, (Pirates 3, Spiderman 3) The Simpson's Movie is a welcome injection of solid fulfilment and humour into this years solid blockbusting rubbish.
The creators have strived to adapt a fast paced television show into something audiences need to stay with for an hour and a half. With all the writers being used to making a passable, easy storyline for the TV show, it seems they thought the only way they can keep people interested is to see the relatable town in extraordinary situations. It sort-of works, but a lot of people may be disappointed by the change in pace and style from the TV show.
Scenes are able to stretch their legs in a longer running time, this aiming to make it not feel just like a long episode, but as you are still watching a 2D cartoon, it seems odd that it's subjected to such a mature structure. This does test the concentration as your brain instinctively expects a flicky, snappy, choppy, quick-scened riot.
But, the creators have been very wise, because while they have upped the running time and therefore the scene length, they have also upped the gag count. All the above criticism is all forgotten in the array of chuckle-worthy jokes flying at you every 30 seconds. Unlike the structure and pacing, they manage to keep the style of jokes loyal to the TV show. Homer repeatedly hurting himself and Homer strangling Bart are just some of the old favourites that have made it to the big screen. And these well known ones are mingled in with some genuinely strong and funny new material. This silencing some that say that The Simpson's has run out of steam. But, people who are new to The Simpson's (who aren't many), will not get the inside jokes which clog up quite a lot of the scenes. This is because the film sets off expecting everyone to know the characters already, therefore the people who don't, may not get some gags which are related to certain character traits.
But it never overstays its welcome. After all I've said about The Simpson's relishing the chance at breathable scenes, they still never forget that at its core, it's a TV show, and usually we only intend to stay with these characters for half an hour. Therefore they clearly and nicely round it off at one and a half hours.
All in all I believe that The Simpson's hasn't disappointed, but while its humour isn't an acquired taste, I still believe this is mostly only going to entertain the lovers of the TV show, due to the many nudge-nudge-wink-wink styled inside jokes. However, in a cinematic age of action movies and things blowing up, The Simpson's Movie is welcome as the only real intelligent thing aroundÂ…with a few things blowing up to top it off.