Last weekend we headed out to catch The Simpsons Movie that opened on circuit. Just a nice heads up, Nu Metro have dropped their prices to R25 for a ticket (and this was at the fancy Canal Walk complex) thanks to the fact that their deal with Edgars is not being renewed, meaning the Edgars Club Card cheap movie deal will be discontinued from September onwards.
The Simpsons have been running for well over 18 seasons already, with more that 400 episodes being released, a cultural icon that enjoys recognition across the globe. Humorous, extremely satirical and downright obnoxious sometimes, youll be hard-pressed to find someone who hasnt heard of the Simpsons yet. Honestly, I’ve never been a real fan of the show though, mainly because I find their satire generally more offensive than humorous, but in small doses it isnt that bad, and I have been known to catch the odd episode or so.
Now the previews to the movie looked pretty hilarious, so I was prompted to watch this movie, and to be honest I’m glad I did. Thoroughly enjoyable with a good bit of laughs :)
The plot for the movie runs like this: Springfields lake is reaching a critical level of pollution, so much so that it is in danger of turning mutagenic/radioactive. After being prompted to clean up their act, the citizens of Springfield decide to turn it into a no-dumping zone. Unfortunately, Homer decides to take a shortcut in disposing some waste and his actions directly lead to the EPA clamping down on Springfield by encasing the entire town under a giant glass dome.
When the towns folk realise that Homer is behind their predicament, things become nasty and the Simpsons family is forced to run for their lives but just where does one run to in a glass bubble?
The movie contains all the usual Simpsons fair of humour loads of satire and political/ social commentary oozes throughout the movie and really, a person feels perfectly at home in this movie adaptation of the series. Though the writers do up it a notch and you can feel the big budget movie storyline creeping in, elevating this movie to that of a movie status and not just an extended television episode. The writers tried to cram every single character every created into this movie, showing a total of 320 different characters, 98 with speaking parts. This is truly a movie for every Simpsons fan out there!
The animation follows the traditional flat Simpsons exaggerated animation style, though the colouring and cell shading has been touched up a notch, making the animation come through extremely bright and vibrant and moves slickly along, especially the action sequences.
The music pays homage to classic Simpsons tunes, with Hans Zimmer being behind the composition of the score. Also, in addition to their appearance in the film, Green Day recorded their own version of the theme song of The Simpsons which is used in the closing credits of the movie. The continuity between the series and the television series is helped along by the fact that all the original cast from the television series lend their voices to the movie obviously to great effect as we have come to know and enjoy them over the years.
Overall, this movie is best enjoyed by Simpsons fans, but its big movie storyline and easy to understand characters makes it an ideal entry point into the Simpsons universe for any person. If you can take satire in good humour and want a little bit of a laugh, then Simpsons will definitely please.
