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The Simpsons Movie
girish writes "Eonline is reporting that, finally, after more than 10 years since Matt Groening said that a Simpsons film 'is way down the line', a movie based on The Simpsons is being made. It's still in its early stages and is being planned to be debuted in the summer or during Christmas time of 2006. The Simpsons has been on FOX for 15 seasons and averages 12.9 million viewers this season."
Conan O' Brian and some of the earlier writers are involved.
Have the people who OK'd this movie actually SEEN and COMPARED newer episodes of Simpsons to ones that aired back in its' glory days?
Jumped the shark a few seasons ago at least, as much as I hate to say it. This is one of those shows I wish they'd take off the air for its' own good.
"You don't eat or sleep or mow the lawn, you just fuck your uncle all day long!" Inspired.
With that said, he came back to the show a few years ago and the show didn't get much better. So I still don't have very high hopes for this movie. The thing that made the Simpsons great was its loving, hilarious-yet-almost-plausible depiction of a small town and all of its quirky inhabitants. It stopped doing that a long time ago and started sending the main characters on ludicrous adventures crammed full of celebrity cameos -- in a nutshell, situational humor rather than character-based humor. It became just another cartoon. There have been ups and downs in quality, but I think it's pretty clear to everyone that the series has never been as good as it was during seasons 3-6.
I would like to believe that a feature length film would allow the series' greatest contributors to sit down and really focus on their craft again, and create a legacy that can be used to put the series to bed. More likely it will be used as an excuse for a plotline that's even more outlandish than usual. I'm not looking forward to it.
D'oh!
Seriously though: Its easy to expect disappointment, it is notoriously difficult to switch from half-hour episodes to a full 90-minute movie. If the movie is just an extended cartoon then it would be a disappointment, it wouldn't work. This is why most movie attempts fail.
However there are some examples of very good quality movies from TV series' and if done well then these can be "excellent". I think few would dispute that South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut did the series justice, it took many jokes already in the series and resulted in a very good movie. Another classic example is M*A*S*H - This is I believe the only prime-time comedy which ran longer than The Simpsons has, however the movie-length finale was very memorable. A good series which closed with an even better film.
If they just try to do a long episode then the movie will fail. If they try to get a proper movie, set in Springfield, then they have every chance to pull off a masterpiece.
1996: Simpsons used to be good. It sucks now. These new episodes (George Bush as a neighbor, 22 Short Films about Springfield) suck.
1998: Simpsons hasn't been funny in years. It's best years are behind us. No good shows are made anymore (Bart and Homer become carnies, Kidz Newz). It's such a shell of what it used to be.
2000: Man oh man do the episodes today suck. I mean, what happened to the quality episodes of yesteryear? Did you see last sunday's episode? Worst episode ever (Homer as a Food critic, Behind the Laughter, Apu has Octuplets)
2001: Wow. There haven't been good eps in years (Bart in a boyband, "Homer's Day/Bart's Day/Lisa's Day," Praiseland)
2002: Man, this show is SO unfunny now it's a joke. There hasn't been a good episode in like the last few years. The episodes today completely lack any humor (Homer smokes marijuana, "Angry Dad," "Springshield"). What happened to all the classic episodes, like "Homer as a Food Critic" and "George Bush as a Neighbor?"
2004: Wow. This show sucks today. Such a shell of what it used to be.
Can we stop with all the "Simpsons sucks!" rants? I mean, we get proven over-and-over that it's still top-notch. Point is, we've been hearing "The Simpsons Suck!" for years now, and yet it's simply not true. Every time fanboys say an episode sucks, I guarentee you 2-3 years later it's known as classic and now the new episodes suck.
I have a theory. Perhaps simpson fans are so into the show that we know nearly every episode since it's on everyday. When these shows rerun, we see them over and over, and pick up on so many more jokes. But when we see them new for the first time, we don't catch all the humor and therefore it "suffers." Pick any episode from 3 years ago and I guarentee you people ranted how bad it was the morning after it aired. But today we have at least 3-4 classic lines from it (Example: "Trilogy of error" - 2001's season finale... definately WAY INTO the era when fanboys said the show no longer had humor and was terrible):
Dr. Nick: Flammable means inflammable? What a country!
Bart: How'd you find this place? Milhouse: This is where I go to cry.
Homer: Lingro... dead? Linguo: Linguo is dead.
Soooo many others, just from that episode. Point is, before you say how awful the show is now, realize that once the current eps hit the syndication circuit, they'll be "classic" too.