The big question on everyone’s mind was, “can they transfer the essence of The Simpsons from the TV screen to the theater screen?” The answer is a resounding yes. The amusing thing about it is that they kept it very true to the series, in terms of story and style. While it can’t help but recycle a few themes from the show (I mean really, the show has been on 18 years and over 400 episodes - what are the chances of them not having to do that?), it’s still a great entry to the franchise. I saw the movie in digital projection with great audio/video quality, and with a sold out audience that was a perfect audience - totally into the movie and along for the ride, but not annoying in any way (a rarity). From start to finish, the movie is a lot of fun, chock full of good laughs. It deviously likes to poke fun at itself, including some subtle and hilarious digs at the TV network, and the very idea of going to the theater and paying to see this movie while the TV series is still running (in a brilliant opening sequence).

Writing: I didn’t notice how many writers were credited on screen, but you can be sure there were at least a dozen contributing writers to this thing, for as long as the feature film has been kicking around and the number of constant writers the show has. I imagine there’s been a jar of “movie ideas” where writers tossed jokes and ideas that they wanted to save for a special occasion. The jokes just keep on coming in this movie, and most of them are quite clever. They do a good job at not only taking a common type of joke and making it work, but adding a new punch at the end of it (for instance, Bart’s skateboard ride). They also have fun with one of their typical styles - taking a funny joke and making it funnier by obsessing over it. The Spider Pig material is just such an example - the Spider Pig theme song in particular. It’s also one of the few franchises around that can do physical comedy (typically injury) frequently and always make it funny. The plot is fairly simple and obvious, which actually works in favor of the film, as it’s kinda a joke in and of itself. Overall, a very fun and clever script. It’s impressive just how many regular characters they managed to cram in, too.

Production: Though they spruced up much of the animation and ambition, this movie feels VERY much like the TV series in look and style. It borrows a bit of the more flashy animation style of the sister series, Futurama (which I actually prefer a bit to The Simpsons). One thing that I loved is not only their use of full scope widescreen, but the way they play with it (I love movies that change their aspect ratio for dramatic effect). They also play with other bits to sneak in some extra jokes, like Ralph’s hilarious bit standing in the 0 of the 20th Century Fox logo at the beginning singing along with the theme. I always picture the writers room of this show/movie as a bunch of guys sitting around, tossing out ideas and trying to figure out how to make it better than the person who came up with it to begin with. Or, them just tossing out totally random ideas and the rest latching onto it as brilliant - like stupid little jokes of Ralph singing along with the studio logo theme. For as much as the show makes fun of Fox on a regular basis (a network that deserves every last bit of it), they also pull it off in a way that’s lovingly joking. Besides, the amount of money that The Simpsons have made Fox (the network and the studio) is so astronomical that they can get away with whatever they want.

Cast: What in the world can I possibly say about the cast? These people know their jobs and characters inside, outside, upside, downside, diagonalside, invertedside and sidelessly. Their comedic timing has been sharpened to absolute perfection. By this point, they couldn’t possibly be any better at it, and this is no exception.

Music: Hans Zimmer and his gang at Remote Control Productions take over the reigns from mainstay series composer Alf Clausen. While it’s a bit sad, nostalgically, for Clausen to not get to do it, it makes a bit of sense to hand it over to somebody else. If for no other reason, almost everything about this movie is being done by all the same people that do the series, and giving over a foundational piece like the music score to somebody who’s used to working on a bigger scale helps give it that little extra flourish. Zimmer has collaborated a number of times with producer James Brooks, so he was a natural choice for the job. I suppose Danny Elfman would have been the ideal choice, but Zimmer was a fine alternative. He does an excellent job at both making the score feel like and extension of Clausen’s work over the decades on the show but also a bit different. It’s got a bit of a bigger orchestra at work, and walks the line of scale and comedy quite well. It’s one of those great scores for people who don’t like Zimmer’s common action music style to appreciate. Zimmer is a more talented composer than most people give credit, and it’s these departure from the norms where he truly gets to shine. If for no other reason than that hilarious and fantastic Spider Pig choral arrangement (and the hilarious “American Idiot: Funeral Arrangement” bit).

The end credits contain a cute sequel setup. I sure hope they continue to do more of them.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 27th, 2007 at 11:22 pm and is filed under Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.