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Surely the Simpsons require no introduction? After all they have been one of the top animated sitcoms both in America and around the world for around two decades, winning 23 Emmy Awards and 26 Annie Awards while bringing fun and laughter to millions of households worldwide. No other animated sitcom has come close in terms of popularity as almost anyone will immediately recognise the yellow skinned family. Thus, it’s surprising that they waited till the 20th anniversary of the show before they finally brought the Simpsons to the silverscreen in the very aptly titled “The Simpsons Movie“.

While the show was brought from a 20 odd minute long TV episode to a full length film of 3 times the length, the very essence of The Simpsons still hasn’t changed. The same family made up of Homer, Marge, Maggie, Bart and Lisa Simpson go on a wild adventure in this feature-length film unlike any other episode of The Simpsons. Once again sticking with the tradition of other Simpsons episodes, the plot makes no sense. It starts off with Green Day performing on a makeshift stage, and then dying when the polluted lake they are on errodes their makeshift stage till they themselves go underwater (yeah, that’s really how wild the plot can get). After which, Homer adopts a pig (dubbing it spider-pig) and dumps all its waste in a silo which he eventually dumps into the already polluted lake. The water then causes animals who touch it to morph into wild monsters, hence “President Schwarzenegger” randomly chooses a plan to cover Springfield with a dome to prevent the problem from spreading. From then on, hilarity ensues as the entire town is after Homer’s head for causing such a problem after they realise the silo belonged to him.

Don’t ask any questions about the plot, it’s supposed to be this illogical, as most other Simpson plots are. Yet this completely weird plot makes way for some downright hilarious moments which I won’t spoil for you here. Anyone who’s a big fan of the Simpsons TV series and loves the humor found in the hundreds of episodes thus far won’t be disappointed here. The writers have stuck with the tried-and-true formula of Simpson TV episodes and provide similar jokes throughout the entire film that will undoubtedly have you laughing. For example in the usual opening of any Simpsons episode, the camera will show Bart writing lines on a board through a window, in the movie, he’s writing “I will not download this movie” or something to that effect, obviously showing how the movie will have you laughing from the very moment it begins, not to mention how Homer laughs at us for paying to watch the film when it’s something we could watch for free at home.

Despite becoming a feature-length film, the filmmakers didn’t take any chances with the art, which is a good thing. You can see some improvements made to the show as a whole as the colours seem a lot more vivid as compared to the usual TV episodes. Other than that however, nothing’s changed in terms of how the film looks. None of the animations are overdone and everything just looks and feels the same, as if none of it would feel out of place in any other Simpsons TV episode. It’s a good thing they didn’t decide to do something radical for the film in terms of its art style or else it might have caused a few people to be turned off.

Also, all the brilliant voice acting is back to voice the various characters obviously. From Nancy Cartwright voicing Bart and Yeardly Smith voicing Lisa, the family is sitll voiced by the brilliant cast who have been doing their job for 2 decades. Knowing this, there’s obviously nothing to complain about the voice acting, after all these people have been at it for 20 years, how could they screw up now? The fact that they’re producing a movie now instead of the usual TV episode, all of them manage to inject the same life and energy into their characters that allow them to exude the same amount of charm as they always have been.

Still, this film isn’t perfect, while the voice acting and animation might be great, no one ever expected a Simpsons movie to be perfect. The plot really gets too outrages at times, and while the writers tried to include some form of “moral dilemna” into the film, it just doesn’t fit well. In the end, all this movie was meant to do is to provide us with a Simpsons TV episode that’s 3 times as long, and that’s exactly what it does. Packing in more humour than ever possible in the past, The Simpsons Movie is a great comedy since practically everyone is already familiar with the characters. If you miss out on this film, I only have one thing to say: D’Oh!

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