Well, I do think it is a mixed message to give it a teenage rating and offer younger kid previews- what’s so irrational about that? Parents can do what they want- they can bring little ones to an R rated movie if they want.
However, I didn’t realize I was irrational to suggest that a family that brought 4 and 5 years old and left half way through shouldn’t have been surprised that maybe it’s not appropriate for pre-schoolers. The fact that it’s PG-13 is information that parents can use to judge a movie.
We went to see the movie and based on what I saw I will bring my 9 and 12 year olds. However, I don’t think it would be irrational to think it wouldn’t be OK for my younger daughter.
I don’t want to hijack this thread- My sole point was that I was just awfully surprised how many really young kids were at my showing and that parents shouldn’t have been surprised that it may not be appropriate for the kindergarten set.
Anyhoo- I thought it was a hoot for the 40 year-old set anyway…
The winky bit may not have been for kids, but if they’ve ever seen a male baby getting its diaper changed it’s no worse than that.
Actually I thought the movie was more kid-friendly than a lot of the regular episodes, like the one where Homer and Marge are farking all over town and get caught naked in the windmill on the mini-golf course.
I liked it, but didn’t love it. I’d give it a 6 or 7. As someone upthread said, it was packed with jokes and gags. If one of them fell flat, you didn’t have to wait long for a good one.
It was great to see on the big screen. There were a lot of scenes where my head was jumping around trying to catch all the details and sight-gags. It was also cool to see the show tread in PG-13 waters. I thought the Cargill character was great. And was relieved that the writers restrained themselves from squeezing every character into the film (ala the Seinfeld finale).
My only disappointment with the movie was the overall plot. I don’t feel it held up to movie-quality. The first half is paced really well and is interesting, but the second half loses its way – especially the Alaska part. The plot was definitely bigger than a single epsiode, but it wasn’t really 4 times bigger. Also, each plot turn reminded me of a previous epsiode. I guess the downside to doing 400 episodes is that they have covered a lot of ground.
I wish they did the typical Seinfeld technique: ‘three seemingly unrelated sub-plots that converge by the end’ with a few side skits sprinkled in as needed. But now that I think about it, that isn’t really typical for the Simpsons. In the movie and the TV show, the sub-plots are pretty linear; one sub-plot ends by opening up the door for the next one.
Put me down in the “Started laughing at Ralph in the Fox logo and didn’t stop until about 2/3 of the way through the list of Korean animators” camp. I think I even went a little loopy with laughter, as I couldn’t stop laughing at the armored car driver, chiding Bart in a deathly serious tone, “You’ll scratch your shackles!” (Even now I giggle. How ridiculously sublime.)
That said, I don’t know why the writers thought it was a good idea to take the Simpsons out of Springfield for a significant portion of the movie. The Simpsons is great because of its supporting cast! By going to Alaska, you let the likes of Disco Stu, Professor Frink, Duffman, Chalmers, Jasper, and all the other wacky bit characters do absolutely dickall. For shame.
To me, only the very first season is bad, and although perhaps the Simpsons hit its zenith a few years ago, the show is still very watchable. The movie was great fun, I enjoyed it.
Loved it. Loved the big yellow people on the big screen.
Loved Ralph in the 20th.
Favorite bit was seeing Bart’s bit. The extended “hide the doodle gag” was a classic of that theme.
I liked how they DIDN’T reference show stuff barely at all. For instance, “the Simpson’s are going to Alaska.” would have been nonsense in the context of the movie. It’s not a joke except as part of a long-running joke and they wisely avoided almost all of that (cf. the lack of Scorpio and the lack of Rainer Wolfcastle – both correct decisions). Also wise to leave out Kang and Kodos – they’re part of an alternate universe, not the “real world” of the Simpsons.
Why would aliens have been in this movie? No reason at all.
The one “show” thing they did toss in was jumping the canyon. One nice nod right at the end. (yeah, there were some other minor things, but nothing too big.)
I thought the use of the surrounding characters was done in the perfect amount. You basically had one Krusty gag, one Mel gag, one Lenny/Carl gag, one Martin gag, one Apu gag, etc. Yet, the movie was completely focussed on the family.
They used the big screen well. Several great wide-screen shots. Very nicely animated, and mostly hand-drawn, a rarity these days.
The showing I went to (last Fri at 1:30pm) was moving along smoothly and got as far as the part where the dome was destroyed when the entire multiplex had a power outage. They threw us all out and gave us passes for readmittance.
Now I have to sit through the whole damn movie again for the last 10 minutes; or I have to time it right and I go see another movie and sneak in for the Simpsons’ ending.
That’d be me - I absolutely cannot stand the new episodes of the Simpsons, don’t remember the last time I laughed at one and usually leave the room when the husband feels the need to tune into them. That said, I enjoyed the movie. It didn’t BLOW ME AWAY or anything, but it was cute, amusing, and better than I expected honestly. I actually chuckled out loud a couple times, which hasn’t happened for me with the Simpsons for many years, sadly.
My only complaint would be the absence of some of my favourite characters, but I agree it would have been far too busy if they’d included everyone. Still…no lines for Duffman?
Good flick, worth seeing. Good for them, it could have been bloody awful but they pulled it off.
Count me as one who hasn’t watched the Simpsons on TV in years in protest, but loved the movie. I was definitely skeptical, but it kept me laughing pretty much the whole way through. Even though the plot was outrageous, it still felt like the episodes from the golden years.
I liked how the movie set itself up as a regular (if a bit longer) episode of the series, with an extended opening theme (complete with chalkboard gag), the scrolling Fox advertisement, and even the Gracie Films jingle after the credits (“Ssh!” do do do do do do dooo).
