The Simpson's Movie Confirmed

bagsc writes "BBC News reports Twentieth Centruy Fox confirms The Simpsons are going to the movies! Should hit theatres in 2007." From the article: "A 25-second trailer for the film has been shown to US audiences at screenings of Ice Age: The Meltdown, promising to introduce 'the greatest hero in American history'. It then cut to Homer Simpson, wearing only his underwear, who admitted: 'I forgot what I was supposed to say.'"

Comments

Quickest way to Jump the Shark

[Hao Wu]

... is to make a movie. Especially for cartoons. (Recall how suddenly Bevis & Butthead crashed?)

Re:Tagging?

[Anonymous Coward]

On a related note, I'm waiting for the tag spamming. I'm surprised that neither of these has become a real problem yet.

Oh wait, maybe I shouldn't post this but instead create a new company that focuses on the latter.

Re:Movie Traditions

[evilviper]

To tell a Really Big story that just wouldn't fit in one episode, and to spend more money on special effects than you could on one episode.

Bah! This is what you would call a vast over-generalization, being poorly applied.

Really, the reason to have a movie, is because the studio makes a lot more money that way. It has to be BETTER than any old TV show to do that, of course, but there's no reason it can only be made because of time or special effects constraints.

Any story, no matter how big, can be spread across multiple episodes quite easily. In-fact, that's pretty much the model of many recent TV shows, from Lexx, to Lost.

Money doesn't just apply to special effects. It applies to writing as well. And The Simpsons could sure as hell use some very good writing right now (actually, they could have used it 2 years ago, but I digress).

Re:April Fools?

[scum-e-bag]

that is the clip with *real live* actors. its not the cartoon... before anyone wastes bandwidth.

Yes this is real

[BobSutan]

Just saw the ad last night. It starts out like a Superman trailer and then zooms out being Homer's shirt, with him sitting on the couch. Then he says he forgot his line.

The trailer says it should be July 2007. So, is this the last season of the Simpsons on Fox? They previously stated that the movie would be after the show ends.

Re:"gay" tag?

[GnomeChompsky]

K, this is one of those things that really gets me. I am very, very tired of it.

I am a dyke (one might say, cunning linguist) and the use of the term "gay" as meaning "lame" does not bother me. Plenty of words have more than one meaning. Frankly, it's kind of too bad that "gay" no longer means "happy, spirited," but, well, that seems to be the way the cookie's crumbled.

There's a large contingent of people who believe in a Whorfian fallacy of the sort that ones use of language has a causal link with ones cognition. But I don't really think that their views are justified in this case. No one is saying that this article has sexual relations with articles of the same gender, nor are they judging it for doing so.

In fact, the people in my life who use the term "gay" to mean lame are, themselves, queer people. And even when teenage boys (the other large demographic of lame-"gay" utterers) use the term that way, it does not bother me. Maybe it's ignorant, but I think I and the "community" are strong enough to deal.

What I do object to, with regards to the term "gay" is when it is used in the substantive -- as in, "Those gays are always out to recruit your children." It's an adjective. It should be used to describe people, not to define them.

A non-cartoon would be interesting, not this!

[Jugalator]

It would actually be interesting to see the whole thing as a movie, with all characters and their personalities, acted in the real world, and not as a cartoon. Here's a bit how it could look like, from the trailer for the latest Simpsons series season.

That would sure be more interesting to me than just MORE and MORE of the same, but now as a movie. *yaawn*

Re:"gay" tag?

[Trillian_1138]

From Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyke_(lesbian) (where else)

The word dike appeared in 1710 in British newspaper stories about cross-dressing pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read. One editorial ephemistically referred to their cross dressing with a French word, dike, which refers to men's clothing.

In the 1920s the terms "bulldyker" and "bulldyking" were popular in the sub-culture of Harlem Renaissance. In his 1928 novel, "Home to Harlem", Claude McKay wrote:

        "[Lesbians are] what we calls bulldyker in Harlem. ... I don't understan' ... a bulldyking woman."

From the context of the novel, the word was considered crude and pejorative at the time. "Dyke" is a later abbreviation of bulldyke.

There are several theories of the origin of "bulldyker" One is that it arose as an abbreviation of "morphadike", a dialect variant of "hermaphrodite", a common term for homosexuals in the early twentieth century. This in turn may be related the late nineteenth century use of "dyke" (meaning "ditch") as slang for the vulva. [1] "Bull" is also a common expression for "masculine" or "aggressive" (as in "bullish"), so bulldyke may have implied "masculine woman". According to another theory, bulldyker was a term used for bulls whose purpose it was to impregnate cows. Just as the word "stud" was first used for such a purpose and was later used for men who used it to brag about themselves or for others in reference to a man who was successful with women, the terms "bulldyker" and "bulldagger" were also taken from their original context and used for the same purpose. A man who was a great lover or successful with women was called a "bulldyker." "Bulldyking woman" and "bulldyker" became terms for women who looked like a "bulldyker", a male stud, and were assumed to perform the role, as well.

Not surprisingly, this is without citation, so take with a grain of salt...anyone who can speak french and confirm/deny 'dike' would be appreciated.

Trillian