In a sentenceEleven writers, eighty-seven minutes, one pig walking on the ceiling, and that is the bit everyone remembers
Springfield. A rock band’s barge dissolves in the filth of the town’s lake, and Lisa Simpson (Yeardley Smith) starts a campaign to clean it, helped by Colin (Tress MacNeille), a new boy at school. Marge Simpson (Julie Kavner) gets the town to ban dumping. Homer Simpson (Dan Castellaneta) adopts a pig from Krusty Burger, calls it Spider Pig, and fills a silo with its droppings. Told to dispose of it, he tips the lot into the lake. The water turns black, and Russ Cargill (Albert Brooks) of the EPA persuades President Arnold Schwarzenegger (Harry Shearer) to seal Springfield under a dome. Bart Simpson (Nancy Cartwright) is finding Ned Flanders (Harry Shearer) a more reliable father than his own.
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Springfield gets the big screen and does almost exactly what it does on the small one, which is mostly a compliment. The jokes come thick for an hour; the family plot that fills the last half-hour is thinner than the series once allowed.
Springfield comes to the cinema, and the film knows what you are thinking about that. It opens with Homer standing up in a picture house to call everyone present a sucker for paying to see something they get at home for nothing. David Silverman directs, eleven writers share the screenplay credit, and what they have made is 87 minutes that behave like a good episode stretched to four times its length. For most of its first hour it is as dense with jokes as the series was in its best years.
The story is an environmental fable with a pig in it. Homer (Dan Castellaneta) tips a silo of pig waste into the town’s lake, the water turns black, and Russ Cargill (Albert Brooks) of the EPA has the town sealed under a glass dome. The dome gives the animators one enormous object to draw, and the shots of townspeople pressed against the inside of it are the kind of thing the television budget never ran to. Brooks plays Cargill with the mild voice of a man who has never been told no, and he has the sharpest lines in the film.
We laughed hardest at the pig. Homer walks it upside down across the ceiling, singing the Spider-Man theme with the words changed, and Hans Zimmer later hands that song to a full choir as if it were a hymn, which is the best joke in the film. We also laughed, and then felt slightly ashamed of ourselves, at the sequence in which Bart (Nancy Cartwright) skateboards naked through town on a dare and the animators find a hedge, a cyclist and a passing hat to cover him for one more shot each, until the shot that does not. It is two minutes of careful planning in the service of a child’s bottom.
Harry Shearer’s Ned Flanders is given more to do than usual, as the neighbour Bart drifts towards when Homer lets him down once too often, and that thread is the film’s steadiest; it would work with the jokes taken off. Julie Kavner’s Marge has one scene in the second half, which we will not describe, that is played entirely straight and stopped us; it is the moment the film is about something. Yeardley Smith’s Lisa gets a cause and a boy, Colin (Tress MacNeille), and the film treats both with more affection than wit.
The second half is where the trouble is. For a long stretch the plot takes the family out of Springfield, and Springfield is the engine. Take Homer away from Moe, Mr. Burns and Chief Wiggum and he has to carry scenes alone, and Homer alone is a man who does something stupid and then feels bad about it. He is crueller here than the series usually lets him be, to Marge and to Bart in particular, and the film asks us to forgive him in a hurry, with a vision and a montage, because there are twenty minutes left. We noticed we were checking the time in a comedy that runs 87 minutes, which should not be possible. The environmental message is laid on thick, and the film’s jokes about that do not make it any thinner.
John Carnochan cuts it at the speed of an episode, and for an hour that is a pleasure; by the end it is a habit the film cannot break even when a scene wants a pause. The animation keeps the flat look of the series with the shading turned up and the frame opened out, and the lake, the dome and a church sequence use the extra room well.
Against the series’ own standard, this is a good episode and not a great one: busier, less surprising, softer at the centre. Watch it with children, who will like the pig, or with anyone who gave up on the series years ago and would be glad to find the timing still there. It carries a PG and has the manners to stop before you wish it would.
Most critics like it, and the praise is consistent. The reviews agree the film keeps what made the series funny: the jokes come fast, the small throwaway gags land hardest, and the voice cast is on form. Several single out the same set pieces, Bart’s naked skateboard ride and Homer’s attachment to a pig among them. A few add that the longer running time lets the story slow down and return to the family.
The reservations are mostly about whether it was needed. Several critics say the film gains little from the bigger screen beyond its size, that it drags in places, and that it does nothing to win over anyone who does not already watch the programme. Vulture objects to Homer’s cruelty and a redemption it finds unearned. The spread is narrow, with one outlier: Empire dismisses the film as lumbering, faulting a heavy-handed environmental message and a shortage of memorable gags.
Mackie finds the film a lively, finely honed success that preserves what made the series so funny. He especially praises the animation and the way the large cast gets a moment to shine.
Read the full review →Honeycutt finds the film an enjoyable, caustic return to the series’ vintage strengths, with little gained beyond the larger screen. He praises the frequent laughs and the voice cast’s strong performances.
Read the full review →Russell gives the film a positive verdict, praising its ambitious script and inventive visual gags. He singles out Bart’s naked skateboarding as a highlight.
Read the full review →The review is favorable, awarding the film four stars. The article text is unavailable, so its specific praise or complaint cannot be established.
Read the full review →The review is strongly positive, calling the film a brilliant, laugh-packed success. It praises the relentless jokes and inventive writing, while noting that some beloved characters are left out.
Read the full review →The critic finds the feature-length version entertaining enough to justify its running time. He praises its abundance of jokes, satire, nonsense, and sentiment, especially Homer’s comic bond with a pig.
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South Park: Bigger, Longer & UncutThe other television cartoon that went to cinemas, and it went a great deal further.
The IncrediblesFamily animation with a real marriage in the middle and jokes that still land.
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-RabbitA small town, a pest and a daft hero, done in plasticine with more care than haste.
Airplane!For anyone who liked the gag density; a joke every few seconds, most of them good.
The Triplets of BellevilleNearly wordless French animation about a grandmother and a dog; the opposite temperament, same affection.
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