The Simpsons Movie - Review

As Babe and Charlotte's Web demonstrated before it, The Simpsons Movie proves once again that a movie cannot go wrong if it throws in a pig. True, Homer's (Dan Castellaneta) new pet porker is the inadvertent, would-be agent of Springfield's doom, but it is awfully cute and comes with its own irresistible theme song, "Spider-Pig," that, naturally, Homer warbles to the theme of Spider-Man. There is not a lot that is new in this big-screen iteration of the long-running cartoon series—unless one wants to count the quick glimpse of Bart's (Nancy Cartwright) genitalia, but it delivers plenty of laughs.

After an excellent "Itchy & Scratchy" cartoon that serves as a prologue, the movie plunges into its main plot as the band Green Day finds themselves performing on a barge amidst Springfield's polluted lake. The body of water is a toxic cesspool where Krusty the Clown (Castellaneta) dumps his flop sweat and Moe the barkeep (Hank Azaria) throws his empty bottles. And that is some of the cleaner garbage that finds its way into the drink. When Homer disposes of the pig's waste there, Springfield becomes the most toxic place on the planet. Environmental Protection Agency head Russ Cargill (Albert Brooks) orders the entire town sealed under a giant dome.

As in the TV series, Homer is an inattentive father and husband whose first impulse is to do exactly the wrong thing, while wife Marge (Julie Kavner) does her best to look past his faults and stand by her man. Lisa (Yeardley Smith) is as earnest, politically correct, and as ignored as always, although at least the movie gives her a cute boyfriend in Irish musician Colin (Tress MacNeille), who swears he's not Bono's son, despite the evident similarities. Bart does rebel in an offbeat way when he answers Homer's indifference by bonding with nerdy neighbor Ned Flanders (Harry Shearer).

What is perhaps most surprising after Fox went all out partnering with 7-11 to convert several stores into temporary Kwik-E-Marts, stocked with Krusty'Os cereal, Buzz Cola, and Squishies is that the store does not even figure into the story and store owner Apu (Azaria) is little more than an extra. That is true of many of the regular characters including Mr. Burns (Shearer) and Smithers (Shearer), who both figure prominently only in one short scene. Instead, the movie concentrates on the Simpson family and the conflict with the increasingly crazed Cargill.

The Simpsons Movie does not lose anything in the transformation to multiplex screens, but it does not gain anything either. Instead, it plays like an extended episode of the series or maybe a sweeps month three-parter, something the movie more or less acknowledges when at one point two intertitles appear in succession, "To be continued …" and "Immediately." That is not a bad thing; it is the cinematic equivalent of comfort food, satisfying in its very familiarity. The long list of writers involved, including series creator Matt Groening and producer/developer James L. Brooks, can be justifiably proud of their work. The movie is never dull and like the best episodes of the series, it is frequently hilarious, rich in visual humor and verbal wit. After the last few indifferent seasons on TV, it proves there is a lot of life (and a lot of laughs) left in Springfield.