The Movie Blog

First Simpsons Screening Review

By John Campea - March 28, 2007 - 18:50 America/Montreal

The Simpsons movie has long been something I have wanted to see. It was rumoured years ago that they were planning one, and then it seemed to bob in and out of the news for a long time until real work on it was done and the finally announced some solid plans.

Now unlike the trendy “Simpsons just isnt as funny as it used to be” sentiments going around, I love the Simpsons just as much as I did 5 years ago. To me its still as good. Its been a long ride, and I hope it never ends. I just hope the movie is good too.

Cinematical says:

And now we have our first test screening review. Apparently, The Simpsons Movie recently screened in Portland, Oregon (because series creator Matt Groening either went to college there or is a huge, overly-obsessive Blazers fan … or both) and — whaddya know — one of the people in attendance decided to write in and tell AICN all about it. According to said scooper, the film is far from done — with only about 30% of the animation in tip top shape. Though all the voice acting was complete, the score (provided by Danny, er, Hanz Zimmer???) was not. But is it good? Here’s a juicy quote for ya: “It’s funny, charming, exciting, familiar and is peppered with delightfully loving references to all our favorite events in the Simpsons family history (one in particular will have you whooping with joy in your seat if you’re a Simpsons fan).”

The largest problem this scooper had was that the film was too short, and that a lot of our favorite secondary characters were given very little screen time. He said he felt like he was watching back-to-back-to-back episodes, with the first giving us comedy, the second giving us plot and the third giving us an ending … which he calls “exciting, clever and extremely satisfying.” All in all it seems like a pretty positive review, coming from someone who says they’re a “pretty big” Simpsons fan. Keep in mind, the powers that be still have some time to whip this puppy into shape; The Simpsons Movie doesn’t arrive in theaters until July 27.

Now granted this scooper did see a first draft of the movie, and I am sure some of the reactions and criticisms are going to be considered before polishing this baby up for its midsummer release.

I think the secondary characters do have real value in this show, but I don’t mind that they gloss over some of them. Its likely that they just included a lot of them so they can say they were all in the movie, and I hope they don’t include them just for that purpose. I would sooner see them NOT in the movie than useless cameos.

The review was mostly positive, so I hope we start getting some more buzz around this film.