I've been a Simpsons fan since the days of the Tracey Ullman show - I was probably too young at that time to really understand some of the more irreverent humor but somehow I knew that this four fingered yellow family was going to turn into something very special. I lived through Simpsons mania (when everyone was wearing "Underachiever and Proud of it" t-shirts and singing along to "Do the Bartman") and came out the other side of it more intrigued by the show than ever.

Seasons 4-6 were absolutely brilliant and took the characters into bold new directions, stretching the medium of cartoons into a clever and delightfully sardonic societal critique. Many say that the series began to go downhill as soon as season 7 but I do not agree. The first 10 seasons were more than worth the price of admission (or should I say the price of the DVD box sets) and even in the aftermath of the highest level of creativity the show still entertained. No episode has been completely without merit and to have gone for 400 episodes without having even 1 worthless episode is an amazing achievement. And now, after years of discussion, a feature length movie has been released.

I am widely regarded as a Simpsons fanatic. I've got all of the box sets, many of the toys and various other collectibles, the comic books, etc. I still watch the reruns almost every day at 6 and 11 and there probably isn't a 24 hour time period that passes without my making a Simpsons reference. Somehow, though, the opening weekend of The Simpsons movie came and went without my sitting in the audience. It's true that I was working a lot and had a lot on my mind and that none of my friends are as into The Simpsons as I am but this still would not normally have been enough to keep from being there on opening night. I've given this some thought and I've decided that the reason I delayed seeing it was because after all of these years I was afraid that I would be disappointed by the feature release.

Today I finally went to see the movie and I was more than happy with it. It wasn't as brilliant as the best episodes from seasons 4-6 but it was much better than many of the episodes from the last several seasons. It also wasn't too long. At an hour and a half I had some concerns that the creative team would not be able to sustain the madcap pace without burning out but they paced the movie very well and I was never aware of the passage of time. The best parts of the movie were, of course, the little things - the signs in the background, the throwaway jokes and the freedom of a PG-13 rating. I was not, however, impressed with the Spider-Pig bit. I am as big of a Spider-Man fan as I am a Simpsons fan but this joke fell flat in my opinion. The more casual fans in the audience loved it but to me it was one of the few examples of the creative team trying too hard for a few feeble laughs.

Overall, though, I was very pleased and I recommend this movie to any of my fellow Simpsons fans. Don't listen to the jaded so called fans that are filling the message boards with comments about how much it "sucks." It's still better than almost anything else you're going to see in a movie theater or on TV this year.

Recommended: Yes

Movie Mood: Funny Movie
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Nothing