This had been sitting in my DVR ever
since July 22nd, 2017. It was
taped as part of an HBO free preview that also included Mike and Dave Need
Wedding Dates. I’m not sure why I even
bothered since I haven’t watched The Simpsons on a regular basis since the
early ‘90s. I was a big fan when it
first came on. I bought the cassette
tape, said “Don’t have a cow” a lot, and wore the t-shirts (which were banned
in school because they had the word “hell” on it).
The appeal of The Simpsons when I was younger
was that it was more adult that your average cartoon. However, once Beavis and Butt-Head and South
Park came along, it began to look a little lightweight in comparison, so I
stopped watching. (I was always a bigger
fan of Matt Groening’s Life is Hell, anyway.) Aside from a handful of cinematic
looking animation sequences, it just feels like an overlong episode than a
full-length movie. The plot (which
involves a dome being placed over Springfield) doesn’t really feel like it’s
big enough to sustain a theatrical movie either. The various subplots likewise fall a little
short. The idea of Flanders becoming a
father figure to Bart might’ve worked, but it feels like deleted scenes from an
episode that were crammed in there to pad the running time. The same could be said about the stuff with
Lisa finding a boyfriend.
That’s not to say there aren’t a few
laughs here. I liked Homer’s reaction to
the Itchy and Scratchy movie, and Bart’s nude skateboard ride allows them to
get away with a shot that wouldn’t fly on network TV. It’s just the laughs kind of dry up once the
“A” plot takes hold. Another
disappointing thing is the fact that the usually great Albert Brooks is pretty
much wasted as the villain. While the
casting is inspired, he isn’t given much to do.
I mean if you’re going to do a movie of one of the most popular TV shows
of all time, you should probably go big or go home.
I guess for Simpsons die-hards, none
of the above will matter as they probably already saw this thirteen years ago. I'm sure it hit all the notes they were
expecting it to hit. If it didn’t win
back this fallen fan, it definitely won’t convert any new ones to the fold.
Eh I always thought South Park was vastly inferior to the Simpsons and nowhere near as funny or clever. I think the show is still damn good and i'd easily give this movie three stars no question. I feel like this film did go big.
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