The Simpsons Movie (Lost #2 of 5)

Genre: Summer Blockbuster Cartoon

Premise: There is a plot, kind of, about Homer's pollution of a lake in Springfield, which brings down the federal government's wrath and leads to the Springfield being trapped under a large plastic dome. There's a subplot about a love interest for Lisa, Marge and Homer's marriage, and Bart's relationship with Homer. And then there's Spider Pig, but I'll trust you've seen the Burger King ads and leave it at that.

Writer: The Simpsons Staff (James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Al Jean, Ian Maxtone-Graham, George Meyer, David Mirkin, Mike Reiss, Mike Scully, Matt Selman, John Swartzwelder, Jon Vitti)

About: The script was very slow in development. Originally, the film was to be based around the Camp Krusty story (there's a third season, I think? episode with the same plot), but as time went on and the staff faced being undermanned to handle both a movie and a tv show, production crept along until the film's eventual release in 2006. Also of course because it's an animated film production was expanded, which means it was in development several years before that. The actually story about pollution came from a newspaper clipping Matt Groening happened to stumble upon.

I saw this film in a dive theater in New Castle, Pennsylvania shortly before making the cross coutnry drive to New Castle, Pennsylvania. It's a very deceptive film. At first, I was just bowled over by the visuals. But upon a second and third glance, I started actually breaking down the story. And, in what must be some kind of record, there are something like 11 credited writers on the script. There's an old Hollywood adage that as the number of writers increases the quality of the film decreases proportionately. This isn't true with the Simpsons film, though. And on top of that, we're working with a spinoff of an animated film. (Hard pressed, all I can think of are TMNT, The Flintstones and The Jetsons films, none of which I can say affected much of an emotional response.) And surprisingly, the film isn't that structured at all, which is surprising because I'm sure we all know how tightly paked the TV shows are (odd inciting incident, trouble begins, the funny seque, and then the unconventional conclusion). But despite, all this, the film is good. Not great, but good. And enjoyable.

It's very quite hard to detach any reviews from the television series, but that being said the story line is very simple and begs the question did we really wait all this time to see a Simpson's film with these events? Well yes, yes we did. And despite some truly awe inspiring cinematic moments, the film doesn't have much of a thrust to prevent it from being nothing more than an extended episode.

Nothing more that is, except for Homer's journey. And this is truly a lost weekend from Homer due to the dreamlike, Eskimo drug sequence one finds halfway through the second act. (Furthermore, Homer's venture into Alaska is little more than a surreal trip into lost time). Although Marge has threatened to leave him plenty of times, this is the first case where she actually does. And while Homer has certainly angered plenty of people before, never has the whole town been out to get him. It's dramatic on a whole other plane than the TV series. But, itis as funny? No. And Yes. Not nearly as funny as the Simpsons' golden era, but there's humor in this film that definitely rivals the comedy found in the later seasons which will not laugh out loud hysterial will certainly make you grin.

So was it any good? That's a hard question. Yes, it was. But like many of The Simpsons episodes, this film is destined to fall into the good but not exceptionally memorable category whih sadly includes so many of the later era Simpsons shows.

Scooby Doo (Complete Crap)
Atilla (Poor, Few Redeeming Qualities)
[X] Wedding Crashers (Mediocre)
Hot Rod (Good)
Definitely Maybe (Pretty Darn Good)

Isla Roles: Isla had a bit part here, but ultimately got caught during editing. Why was this footage never released? I missed out on the combination of two of my favorite things, The Simpsons and Isla Fisher.

Tip: Homer has the best obstacles in this whole thing, and it definitely draws interest into the film. Not only does the town hate him so does his family by the midpoint. I know we've all heard this thousands of times before, but really, you need to create enormous obstacles for your hero or the reader is going to check out. This film survives by the mere fact that Homer has almost insurmountable odds. (Also, it's a Simpson's film and there are great visual gags, but still).