The Simpsons Movie

I saw the Simpsons Movie this week. Its been a long time coming - I remember people talking about them doing a movie over ten years ago. Maybe its best that they waited, since animation has improved dramatically since the mid-90s. Overall, I thought the movie was really funny and definitely worth seeing in the theaters. They really took advantage of CGI and other technical animation programs, as well as the big screen, to make a really slick animated movie. Its still the simpsons animation, but being on the big screen allowed the animators to do a lot that they could not have done on the show - huge crowd shots and wide angles that were used to make scenes more dramatic and interesting.

The movie was really funny, though it can't compete with an episode of the simpsons from the golden age (mid-1990s). The shows been on for almost 20 years, so may its remarkable that they can still do anything with it! The humour wasmore slap-sticky than the show usually is. Thats fine because it allowed the animators to take advantage of the production techniques available in the movies. Still, I was hoping for a little more of the satirical humour that's made the Simpsons so popular over the years. There were the usual satirical themes in the movie, but a little less of the really biting, intellectual humour that hard-core fans really like. More political humour would have been interesting, though it might have quickly dated the movie.

The movie feels like a long episode. Thats good and bad. Good that they stuck with a formula that works. Bad because it would have been interesting to see a more complicated plot than the one they came up with.

Most of the story focused on the Simpsons family. It would have been great to see more from the supporting characters like Professor Frink, Moe, Milhouse, and Groundskeeper Willie (perhaps these folks can be the focus of the next simpsons movie...). There were a lot of subtle references to past episodes (like when Moe calls Marge "midge" and other small things) that reward hard-core fans.

So it was great. See it on the big screen to get the full effect.