As long as there have been those on the creative side of the entertainment industry, the long-standing question -- and for many, worry -- is whether creativity has an expiration date and/or how much one person can possess. It's different in other fields, such as sports, where as long as a player keeps scoring touchdowns or hitting home runs, their bosses and fans are happy. Age, injury, and competition are their biggest concerns.
Creative folks, on the other hand, can't just keep repeating what they've been doing. Okay, they can, and do, but both they and their fans are always hoping for something that will top their last or even their best offering. The problem lies with staying with a certain project for a longer than expected amount of time. The result can and often is a case of the well running dry, simply because all of the ideas have been used up.
That's a common worry among the legions of fans of TV's animated comedy, "The Simpsons." With 18 seasons and 400 episodes under its belt, it still has the ability to make viewers laugh, but let's be honest. The writing over the past several years hasn't been on par with the earlier glory years that made the sitcom -- the longest running in TV history -- the smartest and funniest program on the air.
Accordingly, and despite a fervent desire among hardcore fans to see it, many have been concerned about the long-rumored and now finally delivered big screen version of the show, appropriately titled "The Simpsons Movie." For not only has the running-dry well been spitting out some misses along with its hits over the past year or so, but there's also the concern about who'd make the movie, and what would be changed to transfer it onto the big screen.
While it's not the final installment of the beloved characters from Springfield (they're coming back for a 19th season), it has sort of the same issues that affected the last episode of "Seinfeld." That goes beyond the question of how to take a 24 or so minute show (the full amount minus the commercials) and stretch it out to feature length. After all, what does one do with all of the characters that have been carefully developed over the years, where full episodes could be devoted to each of them? And what sort of plot will be utilized, and on what scale?
Series director David Silverman is helming the project, but truth be told, the screenplay by, count 'em, eleven returning writers, simply feels like a standard show storyline stretched out to accommodate the 90-some minute runtime, with the need to include so many supporting and smaller characters that many aren't much more than extended or even just brief cameo appearances.
All of that said, the important issue is whether the show is true to its origins (it is, albeit with slightly better animation and, of course, a viewable screen that's just a tiny bit bigger than one's TV set back home), and if it's funny or not. I'm happy to report that it is, although more on the scale of the show's more recent offerings rather than the highly imaginative and often hilarious storylines and material that fueled the various, now classic episodes.
The basic plot isn't anything particularly remarkable or memorable since it pretty much follows the same that fueled many an episode over the years. In short, Homer makes a mess and has to clean it up, Bart looks up to others as better father figures, Marge becomes obsessed with something, Lisa continues with her intelligent, tree hugging lifestyle, and little Maggie silently observes it all, save for the sound of sucking on her pacifier as well as mentioning her first word, which, in true Simpsons style, is a funny bit.
In fact, those smaller moments and fine details are what make the film fairly entertaining and enjoyable. From Bart's opening credits blackboard writing (now involving movie piracy) to his Austin Powers/Benny Hill inspired romp in the buff (with accompaniment from various foreground objects that mostly block the "naughty bits" from view) and various signs, brief cultural references and more, the devil might be in the details, as they say, but they certainly provide the lion's share of the humor.
To give any of them away would be to ruin their effect, so there won't be any spoilers here.
That said, fans of the show will get the usual offering of irreverent humor (which, oddly enough, is the MPAA's sole reason for the PG-13 rating), an Itchy and Scratchy cartoon, Moe, Barney, and much of the rest of the crowd (although we still miss the late, great Phil Hartman). Albert Brooks joins the terrific vocal cast as a power-hungry EPA official, but the jokes stemming from that and his vocal delivery are of the hit or miss variety.
Not close to the insanely imaginative material from the show's heyday but still funny its own right, the pic should delight fans of the series, even if various characters get shortchanged in terms of screen time and the overall experience isn't much beyond a stretched out episode. Even so, "The Simpsons Movie" is fun and funny enough to score a 6 out of 10 rating.
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