Springfieldians
Posted by SupSuper on 29th July , 2007So I went off to watch the Simpsons movie today. Now, we’ve all seen Simpsons. The TV show. The moral start. The golden middle. The declining present… so clearly, expectations for the movie were mixed. Though FOX has been pimping the crap out of the movie with tons of trailers, photos, videos, games, popular character creator, elaborate site and what not.
So, is the Simpsons Movie good? Yes. It’s good. Possibly even really good. It’s not really good movie-wise, but it’s really good Simpsons-wise. It’s enjoyable. It’s funny. It looks good. It definitely shows what Simpsons is (or at least, should be) all about.
One thing I think is that they really took a risk was at making the movie focused at the Simpsons audience. I mean, the movie might still be good if you’ve never watched Simpsons, but there’s definitely a lot more to be earned if you have. A lot more jokes that’ll seem a lot funnier or make a lot more sense. Though given the extent of the movie, it’s probably a good thing that they did. That way they could spend all the time they wanted making the movie funny. They also took the time to make sure all the known Springfield characters make a joke (or show up) at least once, showing they didn’t forget any. It also makes you realize just how huge Springfield really is.
Now, the main point of the movie is, of course, the humour. It’s Simpsons. It’s all about the funny. And the humour is definitely much better than the one from the TV series as of late. It’s a mix of crude, unexpected, clever, sophisticated, political, american and mindless humour. So they’ll be sure to please everyone even if not everyone will get all the jokes. As an example of this is one of the jokes in the beginning which you’ve probably seen in the trailer. Homer is trying to hammer a nail in the roof and puts his finger over it, so you immediately expect him to hit his finger as tradition dictates. Yet, PLOT TWIST, he hits his eye instead! Also followed by Homer’s retort “I’ll teach you to laugh at something that’s funny” as opposed to the traditional “I’ll show you funny”. There’s a lot of this kind of thing throughout the movie and it’s lovely.
I might as well warn you that if you’ve seen the trailer, you’ll already have seen most of the jokes from the first half of the movie. They might be out of context and not have the full set-up so they’ll still be funny, but it’ll still feel odd. Though at least the trailer made sure to not give away the plot or anything like that so you’ll still enjoy it.
The production values are also very good. They’re obviously better than the TV show, but they’re still damn good. At first I was a bit warey of the 2D/3D mesh they did to keep the Simpsons style in a more modern setting, which seemed a bit tacky at first. But they make full use of it with all sorts of camera angles, special effects and make all of Springfield (and more!) look much nicer. The sound is also very nice, with the music keeping in with the Simpsons style and still changing according to the setting, with the theme still everlasting. The voice acting is also as good as always, with all of the original cast having done their best to make the characters in the movie seem that bit more lively than in the TV series.
Now, for the rest. It obviously can’t be all that good. The story is nothing extraordinary. It fills its role of having all the movie requirements like action, drama, humour, romance, suspense, etc. But it’s nothing breathtaking. But then again, plots were never the Simpsons’ strongpoint. Without spoiling anything, the plot and characterization focus more on the Simpons. Obviously, it’s their movie. But Springfield and extras all still do what they’re supposed to, each having a role in the movie either plot-dependent or just comic-relief. Luckily the show isn’t all about Homer, with every Simpsons character having an important role and Homer, while still his stupid loafy self, still manages to surprise us all.The first half of the movie will be mostly lots of humour and set up of the plot, while the second half will have all the unveiling, drama, romance, twists and whatever’s left, still with the occasional humour.
In the end, it’s no classic, but it’s got tons of humour, characters, guest characters and a fitting plot. It’s Simpsons any way you look at it, and you should enjoy it as such.
Protip: It only ends after the Credits.