Movie Review: The Simpsons Movie

The Simpsons Movie, Cert. PG, 87 minutes, dir: David Silverman.

The Simpsons finally make the leap to the silver screen...or should that be the YELLOW screen (as they are yellow)?

No, you're probably right.

Anyway, The Simpsons Movie is here at last, is the general gist of what I'm trying to say, and happily I can also add to that the following: it's good. Very good.

When Lake Springfield's levels of pollution reach alarmingly dangerous heights, Springield is put on 'Code Black' . ("Code black? Oh, man. Black's the worst colour," says Lennny, before turning to Karl and adding, "...no offence.") This means that the lake is out of bounds as a dumping ground for the town's inhabitants, but of course, while the townsfolk adhere to this new rule, it only takes one certain Homer J. Simpson to shun the new rule, leaving Springfield to be ruled as an environmental danger and placed under a large dome....cue antics.

This film is a slender 87 minutes long, and rolls along at a fair old pace, never once letting up with it's barrage of visual comedy (especially Bart's nude skateboarding scene), well-written gags, satire and downright stupidity. While it is true to say that it does pretty much feel like a feature-length episode, it's a GOOD full-length episode, thanks to the writers being largely those responsible for penning the show during it's 'golden period', as opposed to those pushing the pens as it gradually declined. So, we get a more emotional story, with a strong, family theme, as opposed to a wacky 'What'll Homer do next???'- type tale that has plagued the later series'. Although, having said that, he does get up to plenty of ker-azy shenanigans.

The animation is excellent, largely eschewing fancy CGI for the rough-and-ready 2D style of the TV series, occasionally enlivened with some 3D effects in a manner similar to Futurama. It looks lovely, and is never overbearing or poorly executed.

The film is not perfect, however and some characters - such as Lisa's love interest - seem superfluous, but then again creator Matt Groening has hinted that events in the film will lead into the next season of the show, so maybe more will become of them then. Also, some of the supporting cast are rather noticeable by their absence. Mr. Burns, for example, is not used as much as I'd have liked, but with such an extensive repertoire of minor players to choose from, there's always going to be someone's favourite who has been sidelined.

Overall then, this does pretty much exactly what you'd expect from a Simpsons Movie: it's The Simpsons, in a movie, and it's top-quality Simpsons at that, with many genuine laugh-out-loud moments. If the movie is anything to go by, The Simpsons have rediscovered their mojo, which is good news for the future of the series.

Best Bit of the Internet Rate-O-Matic: 8/10.

The Best Bit of the Internet reserves the right to change our opinions after further views of the movie, or if it seems everyone else disagrees, and we decide to change our mind to fit in better with the cool kids.