The Simpsons

Movie distributors are obviously making money smooth-saillingly with majority of imported products hit the blockbusters or something just less than that a feel inches. Less of horror movies and more of stuff that viewers least expect to risk their money over.

Set aside "The Girl who leapt through time" and "Paprika" which garnish the Wide screen with the new spicy delicacies of Asian philosophy, "The Simpson's" is truly a couch-potatoes'-all-time-favourite popcorn with a lots of silly gags that add in the "pop" and pinch of satire salt that makes the the "corn" sound nothing like its similarly spelt in the "corny". Everything is so original and ultimate entertaining that I'm sure no one is disappointed even though the cold-blooded Cathay had charged them 1.5 bucks more expensive than usual for early Friday slots.

How long has it been since a flattened drawings were last seen taking the theatre by the storm (leaving the Japanese aside...they are said to having taken the arts of animation to the moon whereas US filmmakers are still bluffing around in a sandbox...Yeah..so let's just assume we are having this discussion in a sandbox)...not since Tarzan, i guess, which had already stealthily cheated its way to success with tid bits of 3D technology spotted here and there in the movie. For years, Quintessentially intrinsic 2D animation has abdicated in the favour of modern human-simulated 3D and had its tranquil retirement at household TV.

But no one could ever anticipate a subversive plot going on under those free-of-charge normal TV channels...an empire have been established with its very own underground culture which is then later made popular by it increasingly strong fan-base. That empire is called "The Simpsons". Being ranked as one of the most influential TV series, somewhat, promoted to higher level called Pop-culture, "The Simpsons" stand out from the rest of its peers with its amazing ability to amuse viewers regardless of times and places they are in with the right amount of cruelty, silliness as well as moral lessons which seem optional at first but turn out to be taken seriously after the audience has done their routine of "ROLLING ON THE FLOOR LAUGHING".



Back to the movie...Here are some reasons that I think people should starve themselves even until all strength that has been left is just enough to crawl to the cinema (any more extreme is against the purpose) to watch the Simpsons:

1) Script and plot were well-prepared with a lot of subtle meaning and implication of current social issues in it as typical as a Simpsons show has ever been. In every sentence, scenario, scene, viewers shuttle shudders with thrill and admiration on how daring the show could be...No need to resort to any clever cover, The Simpsons scream out implicitly what it intends to criticize and make fun of just like the way Homer screeched in horror after he found out he's done something really stupid (of course with everybody else knowing it already). The funniest line I could remember is when Homer flipped his Bible and saying "There is no answer in this book" when he was finding a way to save its father from being possessed. Uhm, the meaning...you yourself can just derive it.

2) One of the most common worries among Simpsons' fans is they are scared that the movie could lose its pleasing saturated colour, signature yellowish tone and likable puppet-size of the characters as seen in the modest TV screen but fortunately the movie pulled it off so well that wide screen did no damage to original visual but rather, provides a much larger playground for these yellowish creatures creating their own epic. Bravo! Animators were also brave enough to try out different takes that require tons of details (The signature ANGRY MOB scene was expanded to 320 cameos) and handful of innovative experiment i.e. simulation of 3D spin and emblematic swift shift of various angles in a racing scene in any action movie. Yet, the quirkiness is still preserved, keeping The Simpsons both children and adult friendly.

3) Randomness and Silliness. Watch them yourself because gags are not fun to told.

4) Obscenity: as to prevent its adult audience from being disturbed by boredom and light-hearted childishness, producers give The Simpsons bonus points with some obscenities that no censorship board could rule them out but have to laugh away. The sub-climax was when Bart skateboarded naked with his winnie covered by sheer coincident objects appearing in the set...Viewer wooed in anticipation of his winnie being exposed but immediately after they heave a breath of relief and let their guard down, they are pushed back to track of raging adrenaline as...the winnie is 100%..uhm...stop there please....it's children stuff...haha

and tons and tons of other gags...Don't forget the Spider Pig and Harry Plumper...oh, and the traditional romance between Lisa and a frigging genius Mr Perfect

There are still things needed to improve...but it still scores hard even when nothing would be done about it

1)Homer's dumbness is exaggerated. Normally, it lasts for only half of the show (10 mins) and another half is for him to redeem it. But in the movie, it was extended to uhm...5/6 of the movie...Maybe it's just proportional to the length of the movie which is already so much longer than one normal episode that I could not get used to....Or because it's just not common to see him at that gigantic scale...so producers just made the best use time and labour to put him onscreen as long as possible.

2)Interesting character like Mr Burn was put out of focus. Maybe he just could not fit anywhere into the plot and having him appear in the movie is already a mercy.

Phew..that's it...Buy your friend/girlfriend/boyfriend a Simpsons ticket and spend your day laughing your ass off with a valid reason.

Seriously, watching Simpsons was the first time I experienced laughing, talking out loud, shouting, banging my head against the seat and doing tons of other things I could not get to do in any other movie (If I did, they would just as well kick me out of the cinema)..and not only I did those things. So did others...that's the magic on how the Simpsons had succeeded connecting people together. That's the value some should witness after admiring the amount of $$$ the Simpsons have already managed to put into their pocket.