Mixing to pleasingly irreverent effect the same sort of light social satire, dysfunctional family comedy and base physical gags that have been part of its well-honed formula for almost 20 years, The Simpsons Movie smoothly jumps the yawning chasm from small screen to large, delivering consistent laughs from the start-to-finish fallback position of a wide, nearly uninterrupted smile.



As with the series, the film still milks considerable comedy from the clash of personalities within its chief nuclear family — intellectual daughter Lisa as the chastening voice of conscience and reason; unruly Bart as the skateboarding mischief-maker; sweet, blue-haired Marge as the unaccountably accommodating matriarch; and Homer as the distractible and oafishly self-centered bread-winner (and -eater). Driving The Simpsons Movie forward is Homer’s habitual indifference and inattention, which drives Lisa and Marge up the wall and sends Bart, searching for a father figure, into the open arms of do-gooder neighbor Ned Flanders.

There has to be a fleshed-out plot, of course, and The Simpsons Movie takes as its launching-off point a premise of environmental destruction. With Springfield teetering on the brink of ecological ruin thanks to its rampant pollution, littering and illegal dumping, Homer unloads a silo full of his new pet pig’s waste into the local lake. The effect is toxic, and draws the attention of hard-charging Environmental Protection Agency chief Russ Cargill (voiced by Albert Brooks), who advises President Arnold Schwarzenegger (voiced by Harry Shearer) to seal off the entire rotten city with a giant biodome.

With Homer scape-goated for their situation, the town turns on the Simpson clan, who manage to accidentally escape the bubble, and briefly set up a new family life in Alaska. Old fractures quickly give way, however, and Homer — aided by an Inuit-assisted epiphany — is forced to embark on a personal odyssey of redemption, seeking the forgiveness of Marge and his family, as well as the salvation of his hometown.

It's somewhat surprising how immediately suited for long-form narrative the characters feel, and this is without even giving much more than lip service throwaway jokes to many of the supporting players that have come to flesh out the citizenry of Springfield. The only surprising thing might be that the movie doesn't feature any satirical musical numbers, something for which the television show has become known. For the full review, from Screen International, click here. For more random thoughts and a few good joke bits (like how a book club reading of Tuesdays with Morrie sets off a riot), check back over the next several days.