Reviewed by Stuart O'Connor
Stars the voices of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner,
Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria,
Harry Shearer, Albert Brooks, Tom Hanks
Written by Matt Groening, James Brooks et al
UK certification PG | UK RRP £19.99
DVD Region 2 | Runtime 83 minutes
Directed by David Silverman
The Simpsons Movie is good. Very, very good. And, not surprisingly, it's better on the small screen than it was on the big one. But is it great? Sadly, no. In short, it certainly isn’t D’oh!, but it’s not quite Woo Hoo! either. While I did sit there and laugh — an awful lot, I will admit — through the entire film, there was something lacking, something that’s hard to define. The South Park movie had it — I can watch that again now, and I’ll still laugh myself sick at it. I guess it’s an edge. I expected the Simpsons to be a little more in your face on the big screen; they had the chance to be a bit naughtier, to take it to the next level. But they didn’t. And that let me down a little.
Clocking in at 83 minutes, The Simpsons Movie is like four really good episodes of the TV show, back to back — although the plot this time has more of a flow to it and is not as scattershot as we’ve come to expect. The film takes well-aimed potshots at government (particularly a certain stupid president), bureaucracy, environmentalism, religion (Homer flicks through the Bible and declares: “This book doesn’t have any answers!"), the hand that feeds it (ie, Fox) and some brilliant swipes at the Disney monolith. The jokes come at a steady pace, and pretty much all of them hit the mark. My favourite? Little Ralphy Wiggum, on seeing Bart skateboarding past naked, says: “I like men now.”
OK, look away if you don’t want to know any of the plot. But I’ll try not to give too much away. According to exec producer Al Jean, the general theme of the film is “what happens when a man doesn’t listen to his wife”. So basically, Homer ignores Marge and gets in trouble. This time, bigger trouble than usual. By adopting a pet pig (and I’m still giggling at the joyful sillyness of the “spider-pig” song) and then dumping a silo full of its crap into the already over-polluted Lake Springfield, Homer enrages the Environmental Protection Agency so much that Springfield is sealed under a glass dome to stop the contamination spreading. All with the approval of President Schwarzenegger, of course — cleverly played here by Rainier Wolfcastle. Long story short: townsfolk get pissed off with Homer and the Simpsons flee to a new life in Alaska. More stuff happens after that, but I guess you’ll have to either buy it or rent it, and then watch it, to find out. Just make sure you watch the closing credits to catch baby Maggie’s first word.
EXTRAS * A poor effort, especially when you consider the amount of stuff you get on the box sets of the TV show. For a start, after being told of the "hours and hours" of stuff that got cut from the film, we only get half a dozen deleted scenes. About a couple of minutes' worth. Then there are two commentary tracks — the first by director David Silverman and a bunch of assistant directors; the second is by creator Matt Groening, producers Al Jean and James Brooks, writer Mike Scully and cast members Dan Castellaneta and Yeardley Smith (but it would have been nice to have all the cast in). And then there are a few clips from such things as The Tonight Show and American Idol. That's it, really. Can anyone see a Simpsons Movie "special editon" coming along in the next year or so? Yes, me too.