The Simpsons Movie review thread (Spoilers)

Cafe Society
1

I’m back from a 12:01 screening. The movie isn’t perfect, and I’m sure I’ll see some flaws after a couple of viewings - right now I’m a little too blissed out and overwhelmed by finally seeing the movie itself. Wow wow wow.

Some thoughts, with spoilered ones [unblocked] further down, to avoid Mr. Mouse-Over:

The characters honestly looked a little weird on the big screen. I don’t know if it was the different aspect ratio or what appeared to be a larger number of close-ups, but it just looked different. It took me out of the action a few times.

They used each of the family members very well and the plots, by and large, worked. Considering how many times Homer has been a jerk, Marge’s video speech was very affecting - and in its own way it even seemed to comment on Homer’s increasingly selfish behavior in recent years. Bart’s interactions with Flanders were good, the plot moved along better than it has in recent episodes, and they blended the humor and pathos very well. They punctured major moments with jokes but didn’t cheapen them, which was something the show did very well once upon a time.

There were a lot of hard laughs in there. I’m still singing the Spider-Pig song, and they made some nice callbacks to it throughout the movie.
I think my favorite joke was the churchgoers running into Moe’s bar, and the barflies simultaneously running ino the church. But Burns’ suicide joke and the whole Homer and Marge Disney spoof was funny.

A. Brooks was a great guest villain, although I was really hoping Hank Scorpio would return. I guessed right about the other ‘guest voice.’ Green Day did a nice job, too, with the Titanic spoof.

On the downside, I was a little let down that Sideshow Bob’s part got left on the cutting room floor. He might be my favorite character outside of the family itself.

Last and not least… they really showed us Bart’s wang? Jeez. I didn’t need that - it doesn’t bother me much and the sequence was very fast, but it took me out of the movie for a minute or two.

2

And (the million dollar question) how do you feel about the last few seasons of the series?

-FrL-

3

Spider pig, spider pig, doing whatever a spider pig does.

Was Kang and Kodos in this movie either? I expected a cameo from them. I stayed through the very end, but alas, twas not to be. There were a ton of credits, though. I think they could have shortened it by listing the people that had nothing to do with the movie.

Great movie though. Well worth the decade long wait.

4

I’d say the last two years have been good - not as good as the show’s peak years, and different, but good - and the six years before that were hit and miss, with way more misses than there used to be. I never stopped watching, but I do think there’s been a return to form.

Let me elaborate on something I mentioned in the OP: in the last… I don’t know, half-decade or so, the show has come to rely more on physical gags, references that weren’t jokes and outrageous stuff (Homer getting raped by a panda, alas, springs to mind) that was very different from the wacky-but-somehow-grounded material that made the show great in the first place. And in that sense, the movie was more like an older episode. There were references, but they went somewhere, and there were some big action sequences - hey, they basically found a way to use the Simpsons in an action movie, that’s pretty impressive - but the emotions of the family played a central role, which remind me more of the great episodes of the distant past.

5

No. I heard that they originally heckled the movie during the end credits. There were definitely some characters credit that got cut. They credit Julie Kavner with doing Patty and Selma’s voices, but I don’t remember them appearing either.

6

I used to love the show, but I have pretty much universaly disliked every Simpsons episode since Seymour Skinner was found to be Armond Tamzerian. Will I like the movie, or be happier not having seen it?

7

I just don’t know how to answer that question; I hope my descriptions of what I liked about it are helpful. I’ve never pretended to be objective about the Simpsons, you know? I don’t like every single episode, but I enjoy the act of watching it and sharing it with family, friends and (sometimes ;)) Dopers. I usually focus on what I do like instead of what I didn’t.

Look at it this way: stripping all the fanboy stuff for a minute, it’s a good movie with some really funny jokes, a strong emotional core and a very good combination of action, comedy and feeling. Nobody should be happier not having seen it, although I imagine some very hard-to-please fans will be.

8

If I haven’t watched an episode since the X-files stopped running, will I find the movie confusing?

9

No. There aren’t any long-running plot arcs or new characters or anything.

10

Just got back from seeing it with some coworkers.

I’m not a huge Simpsons fan. I’ve seen the show regularly over the past 93 years but it isn’t destination viewing for me. So I’m aware of the humor and characters.

The movie was fine but to me it just felt like a long TV episode. It was amusing but I don’t think I ever laughed (and then there were people in the audience rolling in the aisle at the first appearance if Itchy)…

11

And I thought I’ve been watching for a long time… :smiley:

12

The movie had a positive rating of 88% on Rotton Tomatoes this morning, so it looks like the vast majority of critics are digging it.

13

I have not seen an episode for more than two years, but I saw the movie on opening day. It was great. The funniest movie that I’ve seen in several years, maybe the funniest that I’ve ever seen in theaters. They recaptured the emotional element that we associate with the first few seasons. And there were some huge laughs. My favorite moments:

-Mr. Burns: “For once a rich, white man is in charge.”

-Martin getting his long-sought revenge.

-Flanders preparing hot chocolate.

-Lisa starring in An Irritating Truth.

The only thing I didn’t understand is why they didn’t just make Rainier Wolfcastle the President; that would’ve been funnier.

14

Well, they had shadows, for one. The characters on TV don’t regularly have shadows. Also, there was a lot of computer-generated animation using a cel shader, like every episode of Futurama. I don’t think that the series uses it quite so much.

15

Saw it this afternoon.
It was inbetween blah and brilliant.
BEST moment for me-the look of stunned horror on the animals faces when they see Homer naked.
I would pay good money for a poster of that.
Brilliant artist who drew that.

16

So… What happened to the pig? It was at the root of all the trouble, then after it pushes Flanders’ “rescue plank” off the window ledge, it’s never seen again? I guess it was in the house when it got sucked into the sinkhole, and if not, consumed as food supplies ran low inside the dome, but still, you’d think some further reference to it might have come up again.

And I agree Rainier Wolfcastle might as well have been POTUS instead of the real-life Arnold Schwarzenegger. Also, as long as Al Brooks was doing the voice of the “mastermind villain” in charge of EPA (and whose company happens to manufacture things like giant domes), why not have him reprise the role of Hank Scorpio?

Overall I quite enjoyed the movie. Yes it was basically a much longer “episode” writ large on the widescreen format, but hey, that works for me!

17

When did Edna Krabappel get so stacked? She looked great in that t-shirt!

18

I said in some other threads that I wanted Scorpio to come back. Maybe they thought it would confuse non-hardcore fans if they reused a character from a 10-year-old episode.

19

They were in the Wedding Video, I do not think they had any line though.

I was disappointed a little by no sideshow Bob, but I thought the Tom Hanks appearances made up for it.

I really enjoyed the movie, more than I thought I would.

I loved the tribute to season one, this time they made it over the ‘Gorge’.

Jim

20

First of all, I was a hardcore fan going back to season 1, and like most of us, turned my back to the show around season 10 and never looked back. I was really worried that this movie was going to be the same crap that the show has been for the last 10 years or so…and I was partially right, but there were so many Schwartzwelderish jokes (when’s the last time HE wrote an episode?) and callbacks to the golden age that I found it to be the funniest movie I’ve seen since Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. And lots of Captain McAllister, my favorite character on the show! If you loved the Simpsons in the 90s but hate it now, go see it! If you love the Simpsons now, I don’t even need to tell you to see it…if you always hated the show, you’ll probably hate the movie too.

And yeah, the animation reminded me a lot more of Futurama than The Simpsons. And Kang was in the credits, but I can’t remember seeing him in the movie, let alone a speaking role.