The Simpsons: Movie Review (2007)

8/30/2007 Posted by Admin

Good times and global warming

In "The Simpsons Movie," Earth is at stake--nevermind just Springfield--and who better than Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie to come to its rescue?

Okay, so it's best not to answer that question, particularly since it's Homer and his new pet pig, Spider-Pig, who ignite the crisis in the first place.

Wearing its environmental heart on its sleeve, "The Simpsons Movie" arrives in theaters with a timely message in hand--the world is choking on our fumes, trash and pig poop, folks, and the future looks grim. Given its subject matter, some might think the movie was directed by Al Gore, perhaps after stopping by for a smoke on the set of "Weeds," but no.

In fact, the film's director is David Silverman, who works from a script written by no fewer than 11 writers, among them creator Matt Groening, whose Fox television series on which the movie is based is one of pop culture's great success stories.

Now, after 18 years on television and 400-plus episodes in the can, it's safe to say that Groening and his team got most of the kinks out before heading to the cineplex. It's the kinks they've retained that makes the movie as fun as it is.

In its most streamlined form, the film, which begins with the ingenious inclusion of an "Itchy and Scratchy" short, finds Lake Springfield in a state of toxic disarray. Lisa (voice of Yeardley Smith) is on a campaign to raise awareness about how the careless actions of many are ruining the lake and, by extension, the planet itself. As she sees it, we're all faced with "An Irritating Truth" and it's time to do something about it.

With the exception of her new beau, a young Irish lad whose father, he insists, is not Bono, nobody listens to Lisa, least of all Homer (Dan Castellaneta), whose relationship with his new pet pig borders on the questionable, if not the obscene.

When Marge (Julie Kavner) asks what he's doing with the pig's droppings, he takes her to the huge silo he constructed in the back yard, in which molders the answer. Charged to get rid of it, Homer takes the silo to the lake, dumps it in spite of the countless warning signs not to do so, and unwittingly unleashes the sort of ecological blunder that changes fish into mutants, and which also catches the attention of the EPA.

Now quarantined beneath a glass dome, Springfield is in a state of chaos, with Homer the hapless target of the townspeople's wrath. The rest of the movie becomes about the Simpsons' efforts to break free from the dome (they go to Alaska) and then, in an effort to save Springfield, to break back in and make things right.

What ensues is a good movie that doesn't best the series' best episodes, but moments do come close. Silverman and company have crafted a careful balancing act designed to give audiences what they want--Homer making a fool of himself, Bart (Nancy Cartwright) up to no good, Marge overwhelmed, Lisa bulldozing forward for a good cause--while also working in favorite characters from the past.

It's all just enough--just enough for most fans, who likely will dig seeing Bart nude, and just enough for the casually curious, who now might be tempted to do what Fox really wants them to do--buy all those boxed sets of the television series awaiting them on DVD.

Grade: B+