FILMBRATS - REVIEWS

When the city of Springfield’s water supply is overrun with pollution, the Environmental Protection Agency encases the entire city in a giant bubble. After the town finds out their newfound troubles are due to bumbling idiot Homer Simpson, the revolt and form a mob to get him. Well, somehow he and the rest of his family are able to escape from the revenge-hungry masses and from the encasement. Now, it’s up to the man who got them into this mess to get them out of it again, or else they could all die.

The longest running sitcom on television finally gets its long-awaited movie. If you live in the United States and you speak English, there’s a good chance you’ve seen “The Simpsons” at some point in your life. That also means you probably already have a good idea as to what to expect from the movie. So, does the film actually meet the expectations of its fan base, or are the more cynical people (who don’t really watch the show anymore because they feel its no longer funny) right in thinking it’ll just be an extension of these later, crappier episodes? The answer: Well…a little of both.

The movie is essentially a glorified episode. Whether or not that’s a bad thing or a good thing, I can’t really say. I haven’t been watching the show regularly for quite some time. Not because I’m one of the jaded who feel the show has gone down the drain, but rather I don’t watch much TV at all these days. All I know is that it made me laugh. Clocking in at 87 minutes, it’s like getting a four-part episode all rolled into one. And I don’t mean multi-part in the way the “Family Guy” movie was actually just three unused episodes pieced together. This is a legitimate long form story that’s told. This isn’t a plot that can be wrapped up well in twenty minutes, which is good. But it also seems to stray from the three plots per episode rhythm I remember the show falling into.

The scale is grander than the television show only because they changed the animation style a little bit and put more weight into the story. Remember the really old days of the cartoon (meaning the first couple seasons) when they added lighting effects and shading to the cartoons to aid the appropriate mood and atmosphere? Well that’s all being done here again, except this time it’s not as effective. For one, it’s all computer assisted, which takes away a little something intangible. Also, it’s being done more so to differentiate the movie from the series. There are a couple other big computer organized shots that you wouldn’t see in the show, but otherwise, it’s the look and feel that you’re used to. If you were to watch this on TV instead of in the movie theaters, you wouldn’t really be losing much of the experience, which is a shame.

But what you really want to know is if the movie is funny or not. Yes it is. Surprisingly so. It certainly won’t contend for funniest movie of the year, but the humor here is more hit than miss. Plus, it can come at you from every direction you can think of, and that’s always been a great asset of “The Simpsons.” Some of you may be disappointed that your favorite peripheral characters don’t have any lines (even major ones like Skinner or Patty and Selma), but the overall experience paired with the fact that this long awaited feature has actually arrived should make up for it. It may not be nearly as good as “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut,” but it beats the pants off of “Stewie Griffin – The Untold Story.”

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