The Simpsons Movie

Forgive this forward, but I literally watched all 31 seasons because I was sick and have never understood what the fuss was about the Simpsons. I really have to conclude that the appeal of the Simpsons was a simple lack of options when it first came out, and then it just grew in power by simply existing for so long. For this movie: Uninspired watch, probably won't watch again, and can't recommend, unless you're already a Simpsons fan. It's really just a lot of the Simpsons being Simpsons, but that also means that the overall story writing is actually pretty good, even if the character writing is rather repetitive. I did enjoy the introduction of Ploppers, Spider-Pig, but it doesn't really even out everything else. The big adversity is an "under the dome" scenario, which is actually interesting enough to explore, but because it's the Simpsons, we know that nothing ultimately interesting is going to happen, and that everything is going to resolve like its TV counterpart. Now, that said, the TV show does drop unexpected, unexplainable shifts, like the death of characters. I don't think Fox was brave enough to put such a thing in the movie, which would have completely changed the gravity of the movie. It's fine, it's well produced, it's just not very interesting, and I don't think I'd ever watch it again unless I was binging the Simpsons again, and wanted to watch it in order.

I might be the only person on this planet who has never seen an edition of 'Friends' or 'The Simpsons' ! The former didn't ever make a movie and the latter - well, it has taken me twenty years to get around to watching it, and I found it all a bit tame. With the townsfolk of 'Springfield' constantly abusing their environment, it falls to 'Lisa' and the other kids to force the mayor to take steps! A grand-scale tidy up ensues and everyone obeys the new dumping ordnances, all except 'Homer' whose need for cheap donuts is greater than his care for the lake. When he deposits his vat of toxic pig manure into the thing, the fish start thinking they belong in 'Pirhana' and President Schwarzenegger orders his EPA to endome the entire town for public safety. When the citizens discover just whom the cause of their newfound misery actually is, well they become akin to an army of vengeful zombies and the 'Simpson' family might well end up with their days numbered. I can't compare this with the television series, and it is always much more difficult to take a tried and tested short-term comedy format and turn it into a full length feature, but what this doesn't really do it make you laugh. It takes some low hanging fruit from the 'Janet and John' basket of politically correct topics and then writes some vaguely humorous jibes that take few risks or push any boundaries of satire, irony or even sarcasm. It's too light-hearted to make much impact and so we are largely left with a scene-stealing pig and some typical family dysfunctionality as I felt it really struggled along for ninety minutes. There are also too few opportunities for the engaging array of supporting characters to get in on the act, and by the conclusion I felt more the recipient of some well-meant school philosophising than some hard and gritty comedy. It is watchable enough, and there are a few one-liners that do raise a smile, but my first visit to 'Simpson'-land left me wondering what much of the fuss was about.