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Simpsons on the Silver Screen
An anonymous reader writes "It looks like Matt Groening is going to actually go through with it. This article
says that the cast of the Simpsons has signed on for at least 3 feature films. Hooray!" I hope they call them Episodes 4, 5 and 6.
I don't think that the Simpsons translate well to a feature film. Like the article said, they don't even fill a 22 minute show with quality. Even some of the best episodes were of the form BAA, where there was a five-minute substory to hook into the next two acts. So that's about a fifteen minute episode.
Can they make a coherent movie eight times that long?
I don't think so; let's not forget that the show started as 1 min shorts. I think that if they do make a movie, it should be in the form of "22 Short Films about Springfield," which (in an homage to Bach and a wonderful movie about Glen Gould) passed a semi-coherent theme back and forth between subplots. I think that The Simpsons could really do something creative and kinda tweak with traditional notions of film, linearity, etc.
It would be like their sendup of Lola Rennt with three stories told from different perspectives (a later episode that was actually quality, even though the story itself was about seven minutes long).
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Let's hope that the writers of the feature films are those that wrote during the Golden Age of The Simpsons (Seasons 3 - 7 give or take). Honestly, if the style and quality of the movie is at all similar to the show in the past few years, I'm not sure I'd be able to sit through the whole thing. Even the writers and producers admit on the Season 2 DVD commentary tracks that Simpsons today is a little bit more low brow, hyperactive and random, and with a lot less character and plot.
Maybe some of you like this Family Guy-like style, but I think it has degraded an amazingly intelligent funny show to just an occasional funny show (I won't be a jerk and try to state that it's not funny anymore). Nevertheless, I hope the producers and writers consider these films more seriously than the show as it now stands, as I would love a great Simpsons movie. Otherwise, I'll just have to stick with Futurama (almost as good as the Simpsons when they were great, but not quite).
The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone else when we're uncool. -Crowe
Can they make a coherent movie eight times that long?
Probably they can. And while this may not be the best example, look at Beavis and Butthead do America. While it wasn't anything that could be called great film, it was amusing and true to the original show.
I think Simpsons can do something similar and be just fine.
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I'm beginning to think all the producers have to do to find ideas for taglines and commercials for a Simpsons movie are read this thread.
In mathematics, one does not understand things, one merely gets used to them.
--VonNeumann
I have watched the simpsons for years, how long have they been on exactly? I can remember seeing episodes even when I was a kid.
If you can't remember when The Simpsons started, then you still are a kid.
Cheers!
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If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.
If you read Slashdot, you'd know that no one reads the articles. Sheesh. :)