The Simpsons Movie
(PG-13)

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Lisa, Homer, Bart, Marge, Maggie and the residents of Springfield look up in fear as disaster looms.

"I can't believe I paid to see something I can see for free on TV," groans Homer Simpson (voice of Dan Castellaneta) after a crowded showing of "The Itchy & Scratchy Movie." Our initial concern, too, but Homer and co. assuage any such fears by seizing advantage of the big screen format in The Simpsons Movie. And it's not by virtue of adult excess -- a fleeting glimpse of Bart's yellow twig & berries; a borderline expletive uttered by Marge (Julie Kavner) that may or may not have incurred a fine from the FCC. Rather, it's by the filmmakers toying with the very cinematic medium they've infiltrated. From weird Ralph Wiggum (Nancy Cartwright) trumpeting the familiar Fox anthem (finger up his nose) atop the opening Twentieth Century Fox logo and Bart's timely scribblings on the chalkboard in the title sequence, to the final moments where Maggie, MST3K-style in front of the movie screen, utters her first word in the movie, the filmmakers up-end movie tradition and TV familiarity. In the middle of the feature, invasive plugs for Fox network TV shows crawl across the bottom of the movie screen.

The Simpsons make a narrow escape from angry townsfolk.

The Simpsons Movie plot derives from the fallout surrounding Homer's illegal dumping in Lake Springfield. His trash turns the town toxic, and President Schwarzenegger's EPA henchman Russ Cargill (Albert Brooks) -- instead of turning it into a Superfund site -- quarantines Springfield inside a giant, hermetically sealed superdome. The Simpson clan manages to escape the bubble and flee from the angry townsfolk to start a new life in Alaska where Homer downs beer at Eski Moe's Tavern and plays Grand Theft Walrus. But when they learn the EPA plans to blow up Springfield and all its residents, it's a race against time to save their hometown. Co-written by Simpsons creator Matt Groening, series producer James L. Brooks and a team of staff scribes, the laugh-a-second script skewers the social hypocrisy and political excess of American culture. When the government stormtroopers arrive by air and cast an apocalyptic shadow over the town, the panicked citizens take to the streets. In the chaos, the regulars of Moe's Tavern take refuge in Springfield Church, while the parishioners of the church seek sanctuary at Moe's. It's a hilarious sight gag and a shrewd statement on the state of the union. Then there are the naughty pot shots, as when Bart hangs upside down with a bra on his head, the cups forming black mouse ears. "I'm the mascot of an evil corporation!"

Naked Bart "hangs eleven" in an FCC-defying skateboarding streak.

The pros of seeing The Simpsons in the theater are the experience of basking in its richly colored and multidimensional animation and the exhilaration of laughing aloud with a simpatico audience. There's just one big con: You can't rewind your TiVo to see all the visual gags you might have missed.

By Rob. Walton

photo credit: Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox