And on such a momentous occasion, one anticipated since forever, I feel obliged to emerge from my hyperbaric chamber, dust off the ubiquitious Ruri-chan avatar (although I see Scotty topped it with Nagato), do my usual "hi, I'm Adam, co-founder of this website" speech to the newbies and, of course, give my review. Be warned- it is
long. I don't post often, so I'm gonna make this one count!
From the very first trailer, I wanted to like this movie. I've long-since hung my "Simpsons fanatic" hat up for good, but I wanted to step back into the days when I could anticipate a new episode, absorb it, and revel in everything it offered. For fans who take that "oh, please be good" attitude into new episodes, they are left disappointed so often. My years of fanaticism ensured that if it was lacking, I would recognize it and voice my opinion on the internet. Yet, my mentality going into the theater remained- Please Be Good.
It did not disappoint.
This was not, I should say, a fanboy revelation of years gone by. "Last Exit to Springfield," "Lisa's Wedding/Substitute," and all those poignant classics are still distant memories. Make no mistake- this is 21st century Simpsons. It has plenty of the stuff that sends us all driving to internet forums complaining until we get carpal tunnel- inconsistent characterization, dated cultural references, blatant disregard for established continuity, etc. In fact, a skeptical fanatic walking in expecting more of the same will come away wanting their money back. I was not this person. Neither should you be.
As mentioned above, one of the highlights of the movie is its pacing. Not too fast, not too slow, just enough to move things along without feeling rushed or stalled. So good, in fact, that it shows just how much of a problem bad pacing has been in recent years. You get the feeling that if the show's writers just stopped and carefully managed one story through an episode, half the show's problems would disappear. Whether that's true or not, I can't say, but man this story flowed nicely.
As far as the humor goes, I only had one true LOL moment, but I'm not an LOL guy (that's right, I've been lying on my IM chats all these years!). The one true LOL moment wasn't even a showstopping joke, just one of those little throwaway extras that made early seasons so good. But I smiled throughout. Most of the jokes worked, most of the lines were clever, and the stuff that didn't work was forgotten soon enough. The packed house I watched the movie with laughed their butts off, but then again they laughed at the pre-movie Pepsi commercials so I'm not going on their judgement.
I liked what they did with the character focus. Guest appearances were limited and among the supporting characters, all our favorites (and Martin Prince) got their short moments- curtain calls, if you will. I liked the decision not to give the critical story roles to the supporting cast (only Flanders had anything serious to contribute). Two hours of scenes stolen by other Springfieldians would not have made a good movie. The rest of the town gets their fifteen minutes but the message is resounding- this movie was about the Simpson family.
Because of this decision, all five family members were well-represented. These five were the stars of the show, all five "saved the day" at some point, and therefore all five get their own paragraphs. We'll go from least to greatest:
That's right, of the five, Lisa got the shortest end of the stick. For once, that's not a slight. The other four were just that fun. Lisa's role diminished as the movie went on, but we got to see that beloved duality between a mature, responsible youth and a silly little girl. It took me a bit to figure out the point of Colin. He had such a distinctive "Gregory of Yardale" vibe (complete with Milhouse as his clumsy Stan), and it's easy to wonder why Lisa needed a love interest when she wasn't the center of the movie. The answer, of course, is to bring out that adorable aspect of Lisa- where she can be a politically-active citizen speaking against pollution and hopelessly love-struck at the same time. And let's face it- Colin and Lisa's farewell midway through the movie was so geekishly cute. Not much beyond that, but little things like her reaction to Homer's big misdeed, more helpless frustration than pitchfork-wielding anger, were nicely done.
The fact that the writers remembered Maggie existed was almost enough. But not only do they give her a few token scenes, she actually plays a vital role in the story by saving the family at two separate critical moments (one genuinely suspense-filled). She was the hero when Homer couldn't be counted on. This is all in addition to standard cute Maggie moments like the three girls reaming Homer after they skip town, and joining Lisa in shooting Marge that "No Mom, not this time" look.
You really have to ignore previous continuity and stretch the character a little bit to buy the Bart/Flanders subplot. But if you just accept the idea and go with it, it's a really strong counterpoint. The story shows Homer and Bart at their collectively mischievous best. Bart is still a brat- point established. Yet he falls victim to the recurring jerkass Homer that is analyzed and criticized heavily throughout. Bart's still mischievous, but he still needs a responsible father figure that Ned suddenly seems fit to be. Bart's whisky-fueled rant against Homer (one of my favorite scenes, BTW), and subsequent return to his father sustain the movie's themes while keeping Bart a class act. Add a few clever, immature pranks akin to the stuff that gave him such notoriety in 1990, and we get a nice cross-section of the boy.
Despite being the obvious star of the show I'm making Homer runner-up and it's due to an observation I've made through my years of watching anime. It's very prominent among shounen anime (particularly harem and mecha series), something I toy with in the
story I'm currently publishing, and couldn't have a more appropos name here- the Donut Phenomenon. The notion is that the main character is a hole- generally predictable, uninteresting and/or bearing little to no persona. The tasty treat of the series is what surrounds the main character, revolves around the main character, and often dictates what happens to the character. The key notation here is "predictable." We knew Homer was going to screw up in a disastrously comic way and knew Homer was going to redeem himself in a disastrously comic way. His role is steadily bumpy- the slapstick comedy, the big epiphany, and the heroic redemption. Homer never truly changes- he's still reckless and crazy and I don't recall him ever sincerely apologizing for a whole lot. So it's predictable. Entertaining, fun, certainly worth the $8.50- but predictable. The true focus of the movie is the heightened awareness on the emotional toll of Homer's actions on those surrounding him. Which brings me to the sprinkled goodness of the donut:
We have to lay to rest the notion that Marge was once a strong, independent woman. We've seen glimpses of it before and we all love kickass Marge, but this movie lives on the premise that this side of Marge is either dead or an insignificant remnant of a couple fluke episodes. The Marge Simpson that exists now is eternally-patient, eternally-doting, and will stand by her husband come hell or high water (literally, as the case is here). At one very telling (and undoubtedly teeth-grating for some) point in the movie, she tells Lisa, "You're a woman, you can suppress anger forever." Flawed as this thinking is, and annoyed as we may be with it in both recent episodes and certain points in the movie- it's a necessary part of the story. Because Marge reaches her breaking point, and what happens after that is so pure that it drew an emotional response from me that I hadn't had from The Simpsons since Homer's speech to Lisa on her wedding day. It's a scenario that's been done several (and for some- too many) times in past episodes. But the setting of it, the method of it, and Julie Kavner's execution of it was the pinnacle of the movie for me. Kavner took the performance to a new level as a clearly choked-up Marge pouring her heart out in a manner so diabolically tragic. What follows is a major continuity error that will be all-but ignored because they remembered
the song, echoing through a sequence only accessible to animation. Yes, it's been done before, but never with such bold strokes.
I won't bother giving it a grade, or even harken back to 1999 and use my much-maligned star ratings. That's too subjective for this. There are major flaws, but the sight of the family on the big screen, retaining their contemporary personas while still making them work, is enough. Whether or not it changes your life and whether or not it renews your faith in the state of the current show, it's a movie that any fan of the show must see. Just as long as they go in with the thought of "Please Be Good."
And in case you were wondering where I've been all this time, I'm publishing a webnovel (it's a webcomic without pictures!). It's use the manga-style of plot and character development and makes perfectly clear that I read way too much Douglas Adams: It's at
http://mst.firstagent.net and all comments are appreciated.
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