"The movie is funny, sassy and intelligent in that moronic Simpsons' way." - Roger Ebert
Remember my suspicions with EMPIRE Magazine that Paragon of Virtue probed me about?
No? Nevermind.
THE SIMPSONS MOVIE might very well be the most all-around enjoyable movie out of the expected-blockbuster pictures of this summer. If anything, this might be the first since those vaunted Golden Era of Seasons 3 through 8 where I actually laughed at a SIMPSONS joke.
So as a fan of way back in the day during its legendary prime-time top TV run in smarts and cracks, I am very pleased. People hate the stupid jokes, but SIMPSONS always mixed its intelligent gags with their stupid jokes but it works.
Take a favorite that Conan O'Brien* penned, "Marge vs the Monorail." Inbetween all that stuff about the town being swindled by a naughty contractor, you had Homey name the Possums that have nested in his new monorail-conducting job: "I named the big one Bitey!"
If anything, the movie "works" just because the best of the SIMPSONS scripters of the past were brought back into the fold, and they actually seemed to have tried taking time to make decent jokes (instead of this assembly-line process of blandness we've had for at least 10 years with the TV series) and we're rewarded. Truely guys like John Schwartzwelder (who probably wrote the ITCHY & SCRATCHY toon that started this film) never should have left, or been kicked out of, THE SIMPSONS.**
The crowd laughing at Itchy stabbing Scratchy with a flagpole convinced me early on that this will be a winner, and will own this weekend at the box-office at least. Who knows, with its good-laugh time, the show's global fandom, and the movie's short running time....it might challenge SPIDER-MAN 3, HARRY POTTER, PIRATES 3, SHREK 3, and TRANSFORMERS for the summer box-office belt. It just might.
You know what interests me though? I remembered all the rumored-plots of the movie over the years, but the one thing that carried over from first hearing about it 8 years ago to today is this: There was always a plan to permanently kill off a character in the film....and they carried through with it.***
*=Conan O'Brien had shot/voiced a cameo for the movie, but he was cut out. Pity.
**=Hey SIMPSONS TV writing staff, I know Schwartzwelder has anti-authoritarian views compared to your head writers' leftist views, but he's the man and YOU ARE NOT! Hire him back.
***=I won't say exactly who, but Springfield will miss its best botch-doctor in town!
