It has now been two decades since The Simpsons were first seen on TV, featured in animated shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, and nearly 18 years since the full episodes started screening, but it has only been two months since the world-renowned cartoon family finally made it to the big screen!
Personally, I think the groundbreaking series used to be incredible – but no matter how good a show is, it can’t likely maintain its quality for 18 seasons. So I also believe that since the show’s heyday it has gradually gone downhill, and I don’t watch new episodes anymore.
When Green Day perform on a vessel in Lake Springfield, they begin to talk about the environment, but receive a negative response from the audience of Springfield citizens. Garbage thrown at the band damages the vessel, causing it to sink and kill the band members. After this incident, as Lisa tries to warn other Springfield residents about pollution, nobody listens – until she meets an Irish boy named Colin. Together, these two manage to convince the town that the lake should be cleaned up. However, after Homer adopts a pig, he must somehow dispose of its waste, and decides to depose of it in the lake, causing heavy pollution. After President Arnold Schwarzenegger is informed, a giant dome is placed over Springfield, trapping the city’s residents inside!
I laughed pretty hard during the intro of the movie with Itchy & Scratchy, which made me think that the movie might turn out to be excellent. But it didn’t. Not all the gags in the movie are as funny as the one at the beginning (though some are). I was also bothered by the animation. With the backgrounds (more enhanced than the ones we expect to see in the series), it’s not quite the same. Fortunately, the Simpsons do go on a reasonable adventure in the movie, and there are some very funny moments. All this is far from enough to make this long-awaited movie perfect, but it is enough to make it pretty good.
DAVID SILVERMAN