Simpsons Movie, The DVD Review

The Simpsons Movie reviews

DVD

The Simpsons Movie

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2007-12-07 17:08:10

Provider

MRIB

DVD Review

The Simpsons debut feature length film was eagerly awaited and proved successful at the box office. Many of those who've been fans from the early episodes feel that Simpsons magic had been lost in more recent series' but hoped it would be recaptured in the movie.

It starts promisingly enough with Homer being reliably and endearingly stupid. He brings home a new pet pig which he saves from the fate of Krusty Burger, thinking it'd be a good idea to store the animal's droppings in a silo in the garden. When it fills up, he despatches it into the local lake, ignoring the dangers highlighted in an environmental campaign (including Lisa's Al Gore-style An Irritating Truth), creating a toxic disaster. D'oh! A state of emergency is declared and President Arnold Schwarzenegger decrees that the town should be covered by a huge see-through dome. The town's residents want Homer's head when they discover he's to blame, so, after baby Maggie leads the family to a way out of the dome, the Simpsons head to Alaska.

Sub plots include Bart wishing Flanders was his dad and Lisa falling for an equally enthusiastic environmentalist. There are a fair amount of visual gags - Homer on a wrecking ball, playing with 'Spider Pig', hammering a nail etc.

While it doesn't quite reach the heights of comedy that numerous TV episodes did, it's still one of the better comedies around with Homer featuring in many visual gags and Bart looking to Christian neighbour Flanders as a substitute father. And, as usual, there are several new things that you will pick up with repeat viewings making it ideal for DVD.

There are some entertaining special features here too. The cast and director commentaries and quite interesting and amusing, there are some good deleted scenes and even an alternative ending. Needless to say Homer gets the best of the extras with his Tonight Show monologue and American Idol introduction. Also includes the The Simpsons judging American Idol, Alternate character designs by the directors and creator Matt Groening and more.

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