BEFORE: It might seem like an odd way to close out the week, but what family is more dysfunctional than the Simpsons? I wanted a big, important film for Movie #500 - plus I really need some laughs after watching "Ordinary People" and "The Prince of Tides".
THE PLOT: After Homer accidentally pollutes the town's water supply, Springfield is encased in a gigantic dome by the EPA and the Simpsons family are declared fugitives.
AFTER: Well, it was big, and sort of important (several Simpsons characters make what are, I assume, their final appearances...) but best of all, it was funny. Maybe I was still feeling the effects of the previous films - but I chuckled out loud quite a few times.
There were at least as many gags as one would expect from, say, three episodes of the long-running Fox animated show - but also a significant message about environmental concerns. Lisa Simpson, of course, has been a long-time animated advocate for vegetarianism and other green concerns - so she's front and center as Lake Springfield is determined to be just one more dumping away from becoming a toxic wasteland. She hosts her own Al Gore-style Powerpoint session, and for once the town residents actually listen to her.
However, Homer does not, and before long the town is encased in a dome, and the Simpsons family is attacked by a mob with torches and pitchforks. I couldn't help but think of the similarities to the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and wonder if the BP executives came up with the "solution" to their problem by watching this film.
Albert Brooks voices the head of the EPA (Brooks always seems to elevate the material when he guests on a Simpsons episode), who presents President Schwarzenegger (that's right, in the cartoon universe this could happen...) with solutions for how to deal with the "Springfield problem", and the Simpsons family, which has relocated to the paradise of Alaska, has to decide whether to return and help save their town.
My wife, a long-time Simpsons fan who sort of gave up on the show two seasons ago, watched this film with me, and although she chuckled a few times, mostly at the physical gags, offered this as her two-word review: "Enough already."
I have a differing opinion - the show can run for another 20 seasons, provided they keep coming up with fresh material, and keep bringing the funny. I'm glad that they went big for this film, and tried to make some real changes in the characters - Homer really seems to learn his lesson, for example.
However, I feel I need to say a word or two about "cartoon physics". Sure, we all know those old Looney Tunes moments where a character would run off of a cliff and NOT fall, at least not until they realize that they're not standing on anything. But the Simpsons characters appear to live in a world where the laws of gravity are similar to our own. Homer falls down, because it's FUNNY to see Homer fall down. I have to take umbrage with the climax of the film, a motorcycle stunt that defies the rules of physics in ANY universe, and the law of gravity in particular. There HAS to have been a way to end this film without openly defying these rules, (despite the fact that I personally can't think of one) and in addition, so blatantly setting it up earlier in the film.
With references to (or digs at) Disney, Star Wars, Spider-Man, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Twins, Erin Brockovich, Titanic, Alive, The Truman Show, Happy Feet, An Inconvenient Truth, and many more...
Starring: The Simpsons voice cast (do I really need to list them at this point?) plus Albert Brooks, Tom Hanks, and Green Day.
RATING: 8 out of 10 squirrel eyeballs
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