Rating: 3 Pulses
Featuring the voices of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith
Directed by David Silverman
Rated PG
It’s taken eighteen years for the Simpsons Family to transition from the small screen to the big screen.
Was it worth the wait? Not really.
Working with an assortment of co-writers and co-producers, creator Matt Groening has delivered the longest-running, and widely considered the best, animated series of our time onto the screen in a big way. The digital quality of the production enhances it so much you might actually forget you’re not home watching the flick on Fox.
But not for long.
You know what it’s like when you’re watching “Family Guy” reruns on Comedy Central for forty-five minutes before you realize it’s the direct-to-DVD film version? How you kind of feel robbed once you realize it’s way more of a commitment than you’d anticipated?
The Simpsons Movie is much like that, without the commercial breaks to run to the bathroom or to the fridge.
Though it’s not as easily segmented as Stewie’s story, the jokes are stretched out in a manner that makes it feel so drawn out that it borders on tiresome.
The keen plot is entertaining, though, with Homer screwing things up as usual. He dumps (the now-infamous) Spider Pig’s droppings into Lake Springfield, creating a toxic disaster that causes the EPA to cover the town with an impenetrable dome. Maggie finds a hidden outlet to the other side and the family finds itself on the run.
Expect lots of smart pop culture references and over 200 of Springfield’s residents to appear here and there and all of the other things we’ve come to love from one of the most functional dysfunctional families in TV history.
The movie lacks a freshness that we’ve come to expect from “The Simpsons,” though. While the filmmakers were busy trying to work in all of the characters and poke fun at itself and Fox, its parent company, they should have added more jokes to the equation so it feels more worth your eight bucks.
