It’s “bigger” than the TV show—it’s a story they couldn’t have told in twenty-some minutes, and with more subplots and threads, although if they couldn’t have made the movie, I guess they could have found some way to use all the gags, plot elements, etc. in various episodes of the TV show. Springfield is in danger of being destroyed—but actually, we’ve more-or-less seen that before (and a lot worse, if you count Treehouse Of Horror episodes).
All in all, I’d say the difference is only one of quantity, not one of quality.
I started typing a long plot summary, but I think Thudlow is right: the stakes are arguably bigger, but the main difference in the plot is that things feel more momentous because they were able to take more time developing the main plot and the subplots. Springfield has been threatened with supervillainy and total destruction before, I suppose.
Havne’t seen it, but is there anyone here who honestly thinks its deserving of its current 8.8 (49th all time) on IMDB? I know big fans usually flood IMDB on release dates, but an 8.8?
Happens to a lot of movies at their opening. I see Return of the King has finally exited the top ten - considering it’s only the third best LOTR movie, no way was it the third best movie or wherever it came in…
I enjoyed the movie, although it was basically just a long episode (which they even admit to, seeing as how "to be continued’ appears about half way through).
Hearing Marge say “god damned” was funny, to me, as was seeing Otto take a bong hit.
Martin’s revenge against the bullies was also great.
I do wish there had been more involvemet from other characters, though (I don’t recall much, if anything, from Principal Skinner or Super Nintendo Chalmers, for example. and I think that Mr. Smithers and Mr. Burns got short changed).
And, with a PG13 rating, we get a glimpse of Bart’s yellow doodle, but no gratuitous tit shot of Marge, who’s surely the hottest blue haired, animated mom on television…WTF??
Hopefully, Maggie is being prescient when she speaks of a sequel (or is this the end of the series, as I’ve heard rumored?).
There wasn’t much of Burns and Smithers, but what we did get was good.
Season 19 starts September 23, so there is at least one year left. I think it takes about nine months to do an episode - I know animation requires about six months - so whenever the show ends, I think we will all know way ahead of time.
Just got back, and I loved it. Just recently, I wrote a movie script based on a favorite television series, so it was interesting to compare and try to watch from a screenwriter’s eye, as it were. Everything came together really well I think… the grampa foreshadowing, homer and the pig, bart’s plot with Flanders, Lisa and her eco-friend… I could go on and on, but I won’t 'cause I’m tired.
Want to make a list later of the details that they breadcrumbed without looking like they were obviously breadcrumbs… though interpretation might vary in some cases.
If I were The Simpsons, I’d put it to bed now- 400 episodes and a really great movie is nothing to sneeze at. But remember what Bart said when The Cosby Show went off the air: “If I had a TV show, I’d run it into the ground!” Now that the movie is done, hopefully the veteran writers that were working on it will come back to the show and we’ll see some more good episodes- this most recent season had some of the best in recent memory.
A most enjoyable way to spend 87 minutes on a summer afternoon. I snickered along with the rest of the audience though the whole thing. The jaunt to Alaska didn’t do much for me, but overall, an enthusiastic thumbs up.
The family watched the credits, Bart said something about “I’ve been holding it in since they put the dome on the town.” Then Homer has his line about memorizing everyone’s names, Maggie says “sequel?”… and later, the cast sings the song about how Springfield doesn’t have an anthem.
It was pretty good. I thought the beginning was a little forced, but it could have been me. Can’t believe I just walked out right when the credits started. :smack:
Best reaction shot of the year: Disney’s animals watching Homer and Marge get it on.
“I have done things no dog should ever do. They will haunt me forever.”
This movie was a lot like Airplane!: it threw a lot of jokes at you and if some of them fell flat, well, another one was on its way.
and at the very end, whiny voiced teenager comes out, as the assistant theatre manager, sweeping the seats, bitching about “three years of film school for this?” (that’s a paraphrase, by the way).
Apparently, Kang was originally to complain about the film during the credits. Even though this was taken out after a test screening, his credit was not removed.
There were two other quick gags in the credits: something about Tom Hanks asking you to ignore him if you see him on the street, and Lisa being relieved that no animals were harmed in the making of this film.
[spoiler]I did like the ‘motorbike all the way around inside a sphere’ thing, and how it was used not just as a plot device to get them to Alaska, and a nice moment of Lisa supporting Homer and him believing in her intelligence - but as a cartoon ‘explanation’ of how they can throw the bomb out the hole in the dome. Explanation being meant loosely - of course it couldn’t work in real life, even if the original sphere trick could work, because there’s no big gentle upslope to the dome, and because it’s MUCH larger than the original sphere. But physics never had that much to do with the Simpsons world, and it fit in.
Probably I should have guessed that when Homer used the ‘Everybody gets to say this to their spouse once, and they have to go along with it’ trick to get Marge to Alaska, that she’d use it to get him back to Springfield, or try - but I didn’t until after the Tom Hanks ad.
Also - Springfielders really are stupid. After they realized that the Simpsons were getting away through the sinkhole, wouldn’t you think that SOMEBODY in that mob would think, “Hey - lynching Homer is fun and all, but wouldn’t it be great to escape the dome ourselves?” [/spoiler]
