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</script></div>{/googleAds}When explaining why it took18 years to bring America's premier dysfunctional family to the big screen, The Simpsons creator Matt Groening and the movie's writer/producer Al Jean, offer the following: "We wanted to create a story that demanded the scope offered by a film." In other words, they wanted to give us something on the big screen that we don't get from the TV series. If I correctly interpret the intended meaning of those words, then the film is not particularly successful. But if we look at the film as just another episode of the TV show, only longer, then The Simpson's Movie succeeds on a grand scale. After all, the Simpsons are still the Simpsons and the film's writers (made up of an all-star team from the TV show) remain true to what we've all come to expect throughout the years. Having said that, there are a few differences that'll catch you off guard as the filmmakers clearly take the PG-13 rating seriously. It's initially a bit startling to see Bart's penis, to watch Homer flip the bird (a two-handed, double-barreled bird in fact) and to hear Marge drop the GD bomb. But then again, when we watch The Simpsons, we expect edginess. And with The Simpson's Movie, that's what we get.

The premise of The Simpsons Movie is really nothing new either, as we watch Homer get in trouble due to another of his bone-headed decisions. But he does end up in much bigger trouble than ever before as he dumps a silo full of pig crap (don't ask) into a Springfield lake resulting in an ecological disaster big enough to call in an EPA environmental czar (voiced by Albert Brooks) who reports directly to president Schwarzenegger (voiced by show regular Harry Shearer). The entire city is subsequently placed under quarantine and encased in a giant glass dome to prevent the contamination from spreading.

The themes of the environment, political activism, parental neglect, and child misbehavior all things we've come to expect from The Simpsons - are tempered by equal bits of comedy, action and emotion. James L. Brooks, executive producer of the TV series, was adamant about maintaining a balance and setting a tone for the film. An 87-minute barrage of joke after joke would eventually wear thin. So as the writer/director of Spanglish, As Good as it Gets, and others, Brooks realizes the need for human emotion yes, even in a cartoon - which we get from a subplot that involves Bart and his search for fatherly love and affection that leads him to Bible-thumping neighbor, Ned Flanders.

The filmmakers resisted the urge to soup up the quality of the visuals and animation. Though still of the 2-dimensional hand-drawn variety, the animation has a slightly polished and updated look. With just one level of shading to the characters, everyone looks ever-so-slightly gussied up for the big screen, but not far enough away from their original iterations to become a distraction or to lose their charm. The canvas is bigger and wider allowing the animators to always have something going on in the background. You'll miss most of it upon first viewing, but little things like sports blimps with "binge responsibly" emblazoned on their sides make the viewing always fun.

It's not a stretch to proclaim that the TV series has shown a bit of fatigue and laziness over the last few seasons. Every good show experiences it. But the original TV show writing team appropriately brings their A-game for The Simpson's Movie. The jokes are sharp, timely and as biting as ever. As we watch, we notice we're seeing a finely tuned version of not only the cartoon itself, but the characters as well. The writers and animators clearly feel for the personas they helped shape throughout the years, and the tender loving care shows. The Simpsons Movie is a mile-a-minute laugh fest filled with irreverent humor, clever voice cameos, oddball pop culture references and edgy political satire. In other words, everything we love about the series is here, but really nothing more and nothing less. If you're not a follower of the series, there's little here to change that. But long-time fans will enjoy wallowing in 87-minutes of all things Springfield - which we now know is bordered by the four states of Kentucky, Maine, Ohio and Nevada.


DVD

DVD Details:

Screen formats: Widescreen Anamorphic 2.35:1, and Full Screen 1.33:1

Subtitles: English, Spanish

Language and Sound: English: Dolby Digital 5.1; English: DTS 5.1 Surround; French: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo

Other Features: Color; interactive menus; scene access; audio commentary; deleted scenes.

* Commentary
o 1- With Matt Groening, James L. Brooks, Al Jean, Yeardley Smith, Dan Castellaneta, Mike Scully and David Silverman
o 2- With David Silverman, Rich Moore, Steven Dean Moore and Mike Anderson
* Deleted Scenes - 7 clips that didn't make the final cut
* Featurettes -
o Special Stuff - Includes Simpson appearances on Leno and American Idol.
o Let's All Go to the Lobby

Number of discs: - 1- Keepcase Packaging

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