There wasn’t that much pressure for "The Simpsons Movie" (Rated PG, Running Time: 87 min.) to be good. Once you look past the almost two decades worth of fans; the college and high-school students who quote the show mercilessly; and the people with their fingers crossed hoping the film would not be as abysmal as some of the more recent seasons of the show, there really isn’t any pressure on the film at all.
So it's not a big deal that the movie is hilarious, full of the humor and comedy that made "The Simpsons" TV show the epitome of funny in the 90’s and keeps it running — though not as flawlessly — today. It’s no big deal that the writers brought back at least a resemblance of the character development the original seasons had and it’s far from important that this film could hopefully revitalize a now cliché franchise.
What is important, or maybe just incredible, is that this movie has a plot at all. Over the past 19 years the Simpson family has been involved in almost every conceivable plot line ever. It was hard to imagine how this film would do anything original story-wise at all. With the same sort of strange logic that functions in the plot of the show the consequences of Homer getting a pig spiral out of control into all of Springfield being covered by a giant glass dome. Fill in some side stories that the show has definitely used like Marge leaving Homer, the family being thrown out of Springfield and Bart thinking Flanders might be a better father than Homer. But them together, and the movie has a refreshingly funny, if not entirely original, storyline.
The entire voice cast is in the film, including Dan Castellaneta and Hank Azaria, who literally voice half the town of Springfield. With their voices comes at least a fleeting glance of almost every character that has ever appeared in the show. The film is a cornucopia of references to its 19 years of history (check out the ambulance crashed into the tree at Springfield Gorge) with winks and nods reaching all the way back to the first season. But, much like the show, the comedy is easily accessible ranging from fart jokes to political commentary and back again, with even a brief musical number by Homer titled "Spider-Pig."
Funny, in the end, is what was really is important here. The storyline and humor may not be on par with the truly classic seasons but there is no denying that the humor still stands up.
So all those fans can breath a sigh of relief, "The Simpsons Movie" is here and it’s far from the worst-movie-ever.
<1b>— Matthew Razak