Something we could see on TV for free!
The Simpsons Movie, then
I snuck off work and saw this at lunchtime, on my own. It made me chuckle on more than one occasion, but on points, it didn't really deliver. I'm not one of these Simpsons nuts who can tell you when the programme started to go downhill - I have absorbed that information by osmosis - but as someone who always finds something to enjoy in whatever episode I happen upon on Sky, I wanted more from an 87-minute-long episode than, well, an 87-minute-long episode. The animation was very good - defiantly 2-D but with some nice computerised touches, such as the whole town with burning torches - and there were one or two bits of business worthy of the brand: I liked it when President Schwarzenegger was given five options - the exchange between him and the Environmental Protection Agency's Russ Cargill (Albert Brooks) was nicely honed and delivered. But at the end of the day, there wasn't enough story for an hour and a half (Springfield placed under a dome due to pollution, Homer takes family to Alaska, family leave Homer, Homer follows them home), and none of the subplots really paid off. Bart's were particularly ragged - the drinking? The move towards Flanders? Even the naked skateboarding sequence, while technically brilliant, was a bit odd. Who wants to see Bart's penis? Condensed, this might have worked as a single episode. All told, I'm glad I went, as I needed to see it, but The Simpsons Movie wasn't much of a moviegoing experience. The South Park movie, oddly, worked. Perhaps that's because it was made very early on, before expectations rose to unmanageable levels, and while the show itself was still on fire. Full marks for self-awareness: the film starts with The Itchy & Scratchy Movie which Homer stands up and complains about, asking why go to the cinema to see "something we could see on TV for free"? The question still remains, in this case.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 3:21 PM
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12 Comments:
I agree that The Simpsons movie wasn't what it could be. I am one of the people who prefer the earlier episodes. South Park is still a great show though. I've just found your blog recently it's very good.
This is one of those films I have no desire to see. I like the TV show when I catch it, but a whole film of it? Like The X-Files or The League Of Gentelmen, these things don't really do it for me.
On The Buses films though - now you're talking.
I thought it was funny at the start when they were just making gags. Once it got to the point where the narrative kicks in it just got a bit dull. like you about five or six laughs.
The biggest laugh ? Bart's willy. Nearly fell off my chair at that bit. Thats not a spoiler by the way folks.
best tv to film experience is Porridge and possibly the Likely Lads but that is the genius of Clement & Le Frenais for you.
just re-read the blog again !
I would like to add I did not want to see his penis. I just laughed because it was just so...unexpected.
Do agree that it was just a long episode, but I saw it on the same day I saw Shrek 3 and I have to say the audience laughed more in the Simpsons. So while it was just a long episode, perhaps it filled the need to entertain.
Loved Spider Pig though....
AnonoNick
For the record, I don't want to see Bart's penis.
I agree completely, Andrew. It was fine... but the story wasn't one that could only be told on the big screen. It felt like an funnier, extended episode of one of the more recent seasons. I must admit I was hoping for a big Mr. Burns-themed plot.
[spoiler alert] I admit I am a big Simpsons fan but, given the quality in recent years, went in with low expectations. The marketing here in the States did help convince me to see it on the big screen. (Did you hear that a handful of convenience stores over here were converted into Kwik-E-Marts?) And like the Mighty Pierre said, there were a lot of funny bits in the beginning. But better choices could have been made later on. The whole story of the polluted lake seemed like it was written decades ago. Why oh why wasn't global warming the issue? Why seal off the town if it was the lake that was so toxically polluted? Why was the Enviromental Protection Agency so well financed and evil? What was the deal with the Inuit woman and throat singing? Why didn't all the side characters have more lines? And what happened to the pig??? Glad I saw it, wish it had been fantastic, but will settle for decent.
After all the time they have been on the TV it was hard for them to live up to the hype. I feel they could have gone that extra yard to make it amazing...
...But (you knew there was a but, the three full stops were an indication) I did really enjoy it. It felt like watching a three length classic episode, in Super Wide Screen, and that was good enough for me.
Fair play to them for doing it, I think the initial reason South Park the movie worked so well was that we were used to hearing bleeps and insinuations on the TV, but when they made the film they just went for it. No bleeps. No TV cosiness, just what Matt & Trey love to do best. Swear, and comment on how very stupid this world can be at times (I include myself in this statement!)
The Simpsons didn't do much in the way of difference from the TV show, ok, you saw Barts penis (it was animated, not real, it's not gay to admit you looked), Maggie talked and Spider Pig was great.
I for one will be buying it on DVD when it comes out, and I don't own any other Simpsons junk before you put me down as a fanatic.
No, really, I don't.
I do have a nodding Cartman, but who in their right mind doesn't?
It's two good episodes and one bad one.
I think I might wait until it's on telly.
Meanwhile, in this week-or-so of deaths, Tony Wilson's gone and joined them, just in time for the Joy Division film. I'm hoping Andrew will post something about AHW, because I think he was a very interesting figure in late 20th Century popular culture, and I'd like to hear AC's take on the whole thing. This is a request show, right?
I think the point about South Park Bigger Longer & Uncut is right - I remember when I saw it, and the "they can't do that...can they?!" factor gave it a huge kick. I nearly asphyxiated when "Kyle's Mom Is A Bitch" went all 'world music'.
That, and seeing three young kids being kicked out for being underage at the precise moment that Kyle, Cartman et al were facing the same fate. Life imitating art...
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