Starring Dan Castellaneta, Nancy Cartwright, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Julie Kavner, Yeardley Smith, Pamela Hayden, Marcia Wallace, Albert Brooks, Tress MacNeille
Written By: James L. Brooks, Mike Reiss, Al Jean, David Mirkin, Ian Maxtone-Graham, George Meyer, Mike Scully, M
Directed By: David Silverman
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Buy on Amazon.com link

I was a bit cynical with the Simpsons Movie until I finally got to see it. I’ve been a hard critic of the long running animated TV show for the last few years now; but I thought the movie was a strong comeback to their older days. While the movie still could have been better, it certainly made me want to watch the show again.

The Simpsons Movie is just like any other episode, just a lot longer. Like Homer puts it in the beginning of the movie, “why pay for something when you can get it for free?” Just like an episode, the movie starts out with everything going well and everyone going about their daily lives. Homer is still choking Bart, Chief Wiggum is still dumb, Lisa is still annoying, Nelson is still laughing at people, and the Simpsons still dread going to church. Then Grandpa has a religious experience and everyone brushes it off. After that Homer adopts a pig who he dresses up like Spiderman and Harry Potter. Meanwhile, environmental issues arise and the town decides to clean up everything. But of course Homer ruins everything with his endless amounts of pig poop. Springfield becomes a hazard town and the Environmental Protection Agency puts a dome over the town. The town riots (like they usually do) and blame Homer & the rest of the family for their impending deaths. Somehow Maggie finds a portal to the outside world and the Simpsons flee to Alaska. They find out that the Simpsons town is going to be erased off the map, so they decide to go back and help out the town before it’s too late.

When I saw the Simpsons Movie back in July, I liked the film a lot and thought the jokes have gone back to the good old days of the Simpsons. After seeing it a second time, I still think the same thing a little but also think it could have been a tad funnier in parts. Just like an episode, the beginning is always the funniest to me. Towards the end is when things get dull and I think once the Simpsons got to Alaska, it wasn’t that great. I always like the Simpsons when they were in the town because all the secondary characters were a lot funnier than the main ones (well besides Homer). If the Simpsons Movie was just all about the secondary characters, I think it would be the funniest thing ever but obviously people won’t want to see that. There are a lot of funny things in this movie, and not just the overplayed Spiderpig thing you saw in all the commercials. I thought it was funny to have Arnold Schwarzenegger be president but I think it would have been funnier if Rainer Wolfcastle be president; since that’s character is spoofing Arnold anyway. When Bart was skateboarding throughout the town naked was a good moment, and definitely a hilarious one when we see “little Bart.” There are lots of little moments that make this movie quite funny, but one can’t help but wonder how much more funnier this movie could have been if it was made 10 years ago.

I’m really disappointed in the bonus material. Sure, there’s two commentaries and some deleted scenes but in the end, it’s just not that special. The Simpsons creators make a movie and we only get some sub-par extras, just doesn’t seem right. There could have been a lot of featurettes on the MAKING of the movie for one, maybe some featurettes about the animation, scoring, writing, voice over acting, etc…They really dropped the ball with this one, UNLESS there’s going to be some special edition in the future. But who knows if that will happen.

If you’re a fan of the Simpsons (the newer & older years), you’ll at least find parts of the movie funny. Some people still might not like the Simpsons Movie but as far as I’m concerned; I thought it was ten times better than any new episode in the last 5 years.

Features:
Commentary
Directors Commentary
Deleted Scenes and Slightly Alternate Ending
Special Stuff
A Lot of Trailers

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 CC
ENGLISH: DTS ES 5.1 CC
SPANISH: Dolby Digital Surround
FRENCH: Dolby Digital Surround

Video:
Standard 1.33:1 Color

Subtitles:
English, Spanish

Favorite Scenes: The nude skateboard scene, Homer at the carnival, all the scenes with Albert Brooks
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 87 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: