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| Cast and Credits |
| Cast: |
Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille, Albert Brooks |
| Director: |
David Silverman |
| Writer: |
Matt Groening, James L. Brooks, Al Jean, Mike Scully, Ian Maxtone-Graham, George Meyer, David Mirkin, Mike Reiss, Matt Selman, John Swartzwelder, Jon Vitti |
| Rating: |
Rated PG-13 for irreverent humor throughout. |
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Reviewed By: Erin Cullin
Rating: 7/10
Several years ago a disturbing trend developed in Hollywood, as screenwriters apparently lost their ability to develop new ideas and instead decided to pilfer the successful ideas of others. One result - scores of remakes - some successful ("Cape Fear", "Ocean's Eleven"), but most not ("Psycho", "Alfie", "All the King's Men"....I could write a whole column on this subject). Another result - television shows adapted for the big screen.
Now, I do not know about the rest of you, but it has generally been my opinion that what is made for the small screen should stay on the small screen. Think about it. "The Brady Bunch Movie". "Bewitched". "The Dukes of Hazzard". "The Mod Squad". Some of the worst films in recent memory have been based upon television shows. There have been exceptions. "The Fugitive", "Charlie's Angels" and "Mission Impossible" come to mind. But, by and large, film and television should stay as far away from one another as possible.
With this in mind, I approached "The Simpsons Movie" with a healthy dose of skepticism. Although I no longer have time to watch The Simpsons, it enjoyed the elevated status of "Must-See TV" when I was in university. I always enjoyed the witty pop culture references, the amusing double-entendres and the thinly veiled political statements. Sure, it was inappropriate at times (I still remember the episode in which Homer announced, "Marge, send the kids to the neighbours, I'm coming back loaded"), but it was always wickedly amusing. But a feature-length film? It seemed to me that the show's creators were tempting fate by tampering with a winning formula.
The Simpsons Movie finds the town of Springfield in crisis after Homer disposes of a silo of pig droppings into Lake Springfield notwithstanding the town's "No Dumping" policy. His decision is the final straw for the lake's fragile ecosystem, causing it to become an environmental disaster site. The U.S. President, Arnold Schwarzenegger, responds by quarantining Springfield under a glass dome. The townsfolk revolt, and Homer, Marge and the children narrowly escape a lynching by finding a way to exit the Dome. The family manages to make their way to Alaska, where they are living an idyllic life until they receive news that the President plans to destroy Springfield and its residents. Will the Simpsons clan save Springfield or has the careless, selfish Homer finally sent the town to its doom?
The Simpsons Movie delivers everything that its audience has come to expect from this long-running television program: witty pop culture references, amusing double-entendres and thinly veiled insults and political statements. It is well-written and well-paced. Those who enjoy the television show will, without a doubt, enjoy the film. There are no surprises.
As I watched this film, however, I could not help but wonder how it ever made its way to the big screen. There is no reason that this should not have been a made-for-television movie. Well, there is one reason. The show's creators, Matt Groening and James Brooks, and the show's distributor, Twentieth Century Fox, would not have been the beneficiaries of the film's enormous box office windfall (the film earned $71 million during its opening weekend) had it gone directly to television. Was it possible that the film was simply a huge cash grab?
But, then, one other possibility came to mind. It occurred to me that The Simpsons Movie is a film about how unfettered greed and careless overconsumption is destroying the planet. What better way to make that point than with an unnecessary big-screen blockbuster whose sole purpose is to line the pockets of corporate America? Perhaps the fact that it was sent to the theatre rather than relegated to the small screen was its biggest irony of all.
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