Arts A Few Words About The Simpsons
posted by July 31 at 14:40 PM
onWe can all agree that The Simpsons is the greatest TV show of all time. No show has maximized all the potential of the medium as thouroughly or intelligently, appealing to an immensely broad audience while maintaining an astonishingly high standard of humor. True, after 18 seasons and over 400 episodes, it has recently waned in quality, no longer consistently delivering genius-level pop critique and Dickensian plotlines. As The Simpsons Movie explodes at the box office (last week grossing $71.8 million in the U.S.), it’s worth asking the question: Is it worth it?
Fortunately for all of us of the Simpsons Generation, the answer is a resounding yes.
Several highlights come through in the film, which I’m already planning on seeing again. One is a psychedelic escapade involving a large-breasted Inuit shaman, an evil-looking psychotropic potion, and throat singing. The TV show has sent Homer on several vision quests, most memorably after his ingestion of the Guatemalan Insanity Pepper (“Sun goes up, sun goes down…”, Johnny Cash as Homer’s coyote spirit guide) which led Homer back to the waiting arms of Marge as well as an offshore spill of a shipload of hot pants. This one finds Homer’s reality deconstructed—flashing back to an earlier scene in the movie involving a pet pig and the Spider-Man theme song—before deconstructing Homer himself.
Through his vision quest, Homer arrives at an epiphany: Other people are important because without them he’s nothing. Such a drastic realization is never allowed in the TV show, where every episode begins and ends with exactly the same circumstances (excepting the permanent removal of Ned Flanders’ wife Maude). Here Homer’s very character actually evolves; he understands his wrongdoing and sets about to change it.
Lisa Simpson, always unlucky in love, finds a lasting soulmate. Maggie utters her first word (stay through the credits to catch it). A snippet of Homer and Marge’s wedding video is shown with Burt Bacharach’s “Close to You” as its soundtrack. The entire family moves to Alaska. Seattle features prominently, if briefly—a cause for whoops to go up through the theater. And the entire massive cast of the show makes appearances throughout—you have to have a keen eye and a knowledge of the show to catch them all.
In typical meta-self-referential brilliance, the movie starts off with the Simpson family at the movies, watching Itchy & Scratchy on the big screen. “Why do we have to pay money for something we can get for free on TV at home?” Homer asks.
One complaint: I could’ve used a musical number, a la “Monorail,” “Maison Derriere,” or “Who Needs the Kwik-E-Mart.”
Still, the movie is funnier than anything to hit the screen so far this year; it’s the writers—many of whom hail from the show’s Year 3-Year 10 heyday—that deliver. The script was in development since 2003, with creator Matt Groening maintaining a clause that if he or was in any way unsatisfied with the project’s direction, he could scrap it entirely. He, and the rest of the writers, knew they had a hit, though, and that’s what you’ll end up enjoying in the theater.
I’m amazed to read reviews that reference 1999’s South Park movie. There’s never been an apt comparison between South Park and The Simpsons; even the South Park creators know it. Where is South Park coming from? Somewhere cruel and snarky and occassionaly funny because of its spite. The Simpsons comes from somewhere far more empathetic and loving, proven year after year, episode after episode. After all these years, it’s almost unbelievable it was once castigated as anti-family. The Simpsons is about nothing more than the importance of family values, in all their guises.
Comments
Actually, Arrested Development is the greatest television show of all time. FACT
I say thee nay! I was fairly underwhelmed by the Simpsons movie. The film replicated the series' unfortunate drift into "wacky-situation/plot driven" rather than character driven. The jokes feel forced, and the characters have become parodies of themselves. It's time to end the Simpsons. Impeach Matt Groening!
Does anyone have an image of downtown Seattle from the movie? I wanted to put it on my wall.
Yeah, Arrested Development rules, but it cannot be considered greater than the Simpsons. That's like saying XTC is greater than the Beatles.
Ari, come on! Agreed with DS @4.
And I loved the movie as well; it made me happy.
I haven't seen the movie yet, but Elizabeth Taylor voiced Maggie's first word in an episode years ago. No one was around to hear it. Unclear why Maggie has never spoken since; she should be entering college by now.
NO WAY. Arrested Development will come out on top. I'm really excited to be able to say "I Told You So!" in like 15 years after the Simpsons ends. The pile of crap produced by that show will change it's legacy, I swear to God. It's been unwatchable since I was a sophmore in high school.
You can't say a show is the best show of all time unless every episode is gold. . .Every episode of Arrested Development is 23 minutes of sheer brilliance.
That was Maggie's second spoken word. Elizabeth Taylor voiced Maggie's first word. The movie is funny from start to finish, and the whole audience sang "Spiderpig" with Homer. It's already an audience participation film - in its first week. See it, already.
In regards to Seattle being featured in the film: that had to be the most hilarious part of the film for me. Not because they made any Seattle-centric jokes (they didn't) or because it was anything more than a footnote in the film (it wasn't).
Mostly because of the reaction it got in the theater and how it related to the scene that opens the film where Green Day is playing a rock concert in Springfield. When Billy Joe shouts out Springfield's name, some no-name hick (maybe it was Cletus) gives a hoot and a holler and generally appears to be a retarded yokel.
And when the film itself name-drops Seattle, it was as if the seats were all populated by Cletus The Slack-Jawed Yokel's family. And at that point I was sort of embarrassed to be there.
I just realized that in the movie, Marge says that Maggie is going to say her first word because to Marge and family, it IS Maggie's first word. Here I thought it was a blunder, but no, it was intentional.
Maggie's first word was "daddah", but as mentioned by #6, no one was around to hear it.
Ari @ 7 -- either you've kept watching The Simpsons since high school, in which case it's clearly not unwatchable, or you haven't seen any episodes in a few years, in which case you're in no position to judge.
AD was great, but it went way downhill in the Charlize Theron period. And judging a show by the ratio of perfect to imperfect episodes leads one to the inescapable conclusion that "Andy Barker, PI" is the best show of all time, which clearly proves too much.
Also, I'm starting to think Freaks & Geeks might have been better than Arrested Development, but it's not fair to compare either with the Simpsons, as they didn't have time to turn into crap. Which the Simpsons has not done, despite all the time in the world, I might add.
@10--holy shit thats brilliant. layers upon layers!
I like the later "'wacky-situation/plot driven' rather than character driven" episodes much better. They are funnier. In the last few years, I feel like the show has begun to make too many current pop-culture references, which date the show a bit, but I would still much rather watch an episode from the 18th season than any of the episodes from the earlier seasons that were more Bart-centric.
Granted, I do see where some of the complaints about the newer (i.e., last TEN YEARS) episodes come from, but I feel like the movie had enough earnest bits to satisfy those critics.
Which is better, The Simpsons or Arrested Development, or anything else? The fact is that television is a limited medium with many constraints (COMMERCIALS! CENSORSHIP! REPEATS!) . Which television show has been able to do the most within these constraints, push the boundaries of what is shown on television, and still reach a wide, large audience, without pandering, and still producing a quality product?
South Park
J/K
The Simpsons!
The other thing is, while it is great to rent a DVD of Arrested Development and sit and watch the whole season, no one watched it because if you were sitting at home and happened to come across one random episode in the middle of the season, it didn't make any damn sense.
also, the second-best TV show of all time was certainly twin peaks.
arrested development is somewhere in the middle of the pack.
Nat @ 12: I am stunned by your words. The Charlize Theron Arrested Development plot line is one of the funniest things I've ever seen on television.
JZ, get out of my brain!
Firefly > Simpsons > Twin Peaks > Arrested Development.
excellent use of bold, jza.
and ^twin peaks^ is, in fact, the greatest tv show of all time. second is freaks & geeks.
The reason for all the SOUTH PARK comparisons?
Very simple: when Messers Parker and Stone had the chance to make their movie, they didn't play it safe. They took chances, and indeed made their movie "Bigger, Longer, and Uncut". The end result? A brilliant movie that works as a a) satire, b) parody, and c) an awesome musical.
THE SIMPSONS MOVIE played it too safe. It's a mediocre extended episode of a now mediocre show that only hits the heights of the past a) during Halloween and b) when it does "theme" shows playing around with history, literature, etc.
Safe = dull. This movie was nothing more than a shameless grab for my money. And for my $10.75, I want more. A lot more.
The Simpsons are at best second rate.
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