Is The Simpsons Movie a decade too late? Big screen adaptations of TV programs almost always arrive during surges of popularity (South Park, Reno 911!) or many years after the program has finished (Bewitched, Starsky and Hutch). The Simpsons Movie is something of an anomaly: it arrives while the show is still kicking, eighteen years after Matt Groening's four-fingered Springfieldian family first inhabited the small screen. Nostalgia seems to have hit us awfully quick - it feels just yesterday "aye carumba!" and "don't have a cow man!" were spanking fresh catch phrases.
In many ways 2007 is a risky time for The Simpsons Movie's release. Nowadays the show's novelty value has worn away (it is, after all, America's longest running sitcom) and audiences today are deeply familiar with the style of its writers, who over the years have mined an apparently endless reserve of plotlines and story concepts. By now many of the show's periphery characters have had multiple episodes centered around them. What stories - short of an apocalypse - are there left to tell about Springfield and its yellow-skinned populace? To inflate the show from half hour to feature length an apocalypse is exactly what we get. In line with the parochial spirit of the show, the apocalypse is relegated exclusively to Springfield and once more a loud, balding fatso is somehow responsible for it all.
The Simpsons Movie reiterates a familiar plot riff: Homer must win back the love and support of his family after spectacularly disgracing them. Springfield is yet to be illuminated by An Inconvenient Truth; the town's pollution levels are so high and the water so astronomically noxious that a three-eyed fish would now be considered an example of evolutionary restraint. The powers that be put measures in place to prevent further escalation but Homer and a very large container of pig poop put an end to any hope for a clean-up. The U.S. government, led by President Arnold Schwarzenegger (the Presidentinator?), take drastic action - his job "is to lead, not to read." The Simpsons get ostracised, the township quarantined, and the story takes inspiration from unlikely sources including Outbreak, Stephen King's The Stand and Pauly Shore's Biodome. Stick around for the credits because you'll hear Maggie's first word, and it’s a pearler - industry-savvy, and suggestive of wisdom well beyond her years.
A large team of writers - presumably those who've chipped in over the years - maintain TV animation's blistering pace, shooting for a dozen gags a minute and just about landing on par. The Simpsons Movie is sharp, fast and funny, embodying many of the qualities that helped turned the show into a cultural institution. Puns spring from familiar places - Flanders is still a dag, Otto is still martyring his lungs for the dope community, etc. - but every once in a while the humour will catch you off guard. There is for example one truly inspired penis joke - the best of its kind since Jay poised like a (badly) fallen angel and unveiled his man-gina to the audience of Kevin Smith's Clerks II.
To the credit of director David Silverman and his team of zinger-makers The Simpsons Movie feels like one long episode rather than having a plot that feels episodic within its own episodic structure (like The Family Guy Movie). Though the story waxes apocalyptical the movie carries a sense of restraint: there are no big music numbers, no major plot detours and no upheaval of the traditional Simpsons animation style. The Simpsons Movie's sleight, DVD-ready appeal also works against it, because fans don't have any ingenuities to get excited about. It won't inspire young and old to flock around the proverbial water-cooler and gab passionately about the latest inventions in the Simpsons universe, like Homer's foray into the third dimension did once upon a time, ditto for the Who Shot Mr. Burns? episodes. Outside of its own formula The Simpsons Movie feels disappointingly formulaic. It is however still absolutely satisfying, like a cool glass of Duff on a hot summer afternoon or the kinds of frosted pink donuts Melbourne's media gobbled before the preview screening (for the sequel, both would be nice). On one hand 2007 may be odd timing for the Simpsons's cinematic debut, but that also means the writers have had plenty of late nights to get it right. The end result - safe but fulfilling - lands somewhere between "d'oh" and "woohoo!," erring towards the latter.
- Review by Luke Buckmaster
