They may be yellow, but they sure aren’t scared.
In their first feature film — as in their sitcom, the longest running in TV history — the Simpsons use their platform as a staple of mainstream culture to skewer it.
With even more bite and abandon than in their landmark 18-season run on the tube, Springfield’s most dysfunctional family and friends barbeque every sacred cow in the American firmament, this time including the Kennedy family, the Disney Corporation, the American flag and the Holy Bible. But demonstrating from the outset that this supersized version of the animated show would retain its beloved brazen impertinence, “The Simpsons Movie” even has the self-aware chutzpah to go after itself.
In the opening sequence, Homer (voice of Dan Castellaneta), Marge (Julie Kavner) and the kids are in a multiplex theater watching an “Itchy and Scratchy” feature film. Homer stands up in his seat, faces “the camera,” and breaks the fourth wall to address us in the audience watching him. He basically rants at us, declaring that anyone who would pay money to watch something they could see for free at home is an idiot.
Alas, even as he so cleverly acknowledges what we are secretly pondering, he has a point.
Because even though this 87-minute romp is jam-packed with dozens of hilarious, unseemly sight gags and piquant throwaway one-liners – which make it a must-see for dedicated fans — the typically absurdist Simpsonian plotting doesn’t especially suit the extended full-length movie medium. That crazed, non sequitur storytelling style works better in short form.
Under the supervision of creator Matt Groening, original executive producer James L. Brooks, director David Silverman and an all-star team of other past and present “Simpsons” contributors, the environmentalist theme of today’s cartoon satire returns the franchise to the series’ early seasons. (Remember the three-eyed fish swimming near Homer’s nuclear power plant workplace then?) Homer adopts a pet pig. He collects the swine’s ca-ca in a silo which he dumps in the town lake. This sets off an ecological meltdown that compels clueless U.S. President Arnold Schwarzenegger (Harry Shearer) to allow his corrupt E.P.A. chief to condemn and then destroy Springfield.
Can Homer save the day?
In the subplots, Bart (Nancy Cartwright) gets naked — and, yes, we get an actual gander at his teeny-tiny boy package — and considers if goody-goody neighbor Flanders might make a better dad than Homer. Meanwhile, Lisa (Yeardley Smith) gets an Irish, very politically correct, new beau.
Would you have just as much fun at home viewing any three of the TV episodes now airing in perpetual daily reruns as you would at this “Simpsons Movie”? Yup.
But is it worth the extra “D’oh” anyway? Probably.
‘The Simpsons Movie’
***
Voice stars: Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Harry Shearer
Director: David Silverman
Running time: 87 minutes
Rated PG-13 for irreverent humor throughout
