The Simpsons Movie is the long awaited trip to the big screen for everyone’s favorite American family. Matt Groening the creator of The Simpsons television series has been talking of making a movie since the shows fourth season and it has now just been released. Production on the movie started in 2001, with many of the shows best writers from the earlier season signing on. As a fan of television series I was very pleased that the movie was much more like earlier seasons with its irreverent humour. When I first heard of the idea of making a feature length film out of the show I thought they might want to take the CGI route. I was very happy that they stuck with regular animation; there is something about the imperfection of it that adds character to the
show.

As the movie opens with another of the shows classic Itchy and Scratchy cartoons, the first thing you are going to notice is how crisp, clean, and detailed the animation looks. It is far better looking than the TV show; they even have shadows which are normally missing. The next scene opens with Green Day playing a concert on Lake Springfield; the people in the crowd sink their barge after they attempt to talk about the poor state of their lake. After a series of events which involve Homer coming into possession of his very own pig, Bart wondering how life would be with Flanders and Marge trying to decipher a prophecy, Lisa turns the town green. The town makes every effort to improve the environment in their town, even making a blockade around their lake to stop people from dumping pollution and garbage into it. This is shown in a funny scene where they test to see if it?s ?idiot proof?. Homer?s pig presents him with a new problem, how to deal with it?s excrement. When it ends up in the lake, it puts the pollution level too high and the federal government is forced to step in and deal with Springfield. The story goes on from there, I won?t go any further into the plot but there is a lot more to enjoy.

After watching the movie I was left very impressed by all aspects of the film, the animation was top notch and the writing was as clever and funny as it ever has been during the shows glory days. This is definitely a must buy for any Simpson?s fan, or even any fan of comedy or animation. There is something here for everyone with laugh out loud moments as well as the clever little things that point out the absurdity in the American way of life, which tend to be my favorite parts of the movie and show.

Video

The Simpsons Movie makes its way onto Blu ray in 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 video, and the results are strictly positive. I think it goes without saying that The Simpsons movie won?t quite reach the standards set forth by Pixar, but it certainly is quite a step of from the animations were used to on Sunday nights. Hands down the most impressive aspect here are the colors, brilliantly sharp and penetrating. There?s a certain richness about every scene in the film whether it be in daylight or moonlight the transfer is solid throughout. Fans of the film will be completely overjoyed with how the transfer has turned out.

Audio

Fox offers a 5.1 DTS track for the release of The Simpsons Movie and although there really isn?t much audio to showcase throughout the film they do a decent job. There is no complaints about the material but don?t expect to take your speakers for much of a test drive, as the majority of the film is front heavy. The dialogue however is quite crisp and overall this track is quite solid, sure to please fans of the film.

Special Features

With a movie this long in the making and a show with a rich history like The Simpsons you would think Fox could have included quite a bit of features. Instead were hit with a rather disappointing set of features.

• Two Audio Commentaries
• Deleted Scenes
• Special Stuff
• A Lot of Trailers

Final Thoughts

The past few seasons of The Simpsons have been rather disappointing, but this movie has saved the show some face. The laughs are there like in the old episodes, and although it?s no Ratatouille the animation look very nice. The audio although quite nice leaves me wanting a little bit more, and that brings us to the most disappointing aspect of this Blu ray release, the extras, hardly anything to be bragged about or to be paid any attention to, truly disappointing. Overall though the disc was pretty solid and a good buy for fans of the film, or casual Sunday evening viewers.