The Simpsons Movie Anticipation Thread

He started his career by writing jokes for Yakov Smirnoff.

YAKOV SMIRNOFF: Hey, kid, I don't do Russian jokes for last ten years. Now I do jokes about relationships and things I observe.

It's not better than now, guys!

Good god, NO ONE would claim that. For the last five or six or seven years, yes.

Agreed.

Not me though. Actually, the more i watch the newer, wackier ones the more i see they're pretty good in their own fucked up way.

xp

You rang?

Thanks a lot, prick.

Futurama doesn't come into this at all, using it was a total straw robot, my bias notwithstanding.

As to the topic at hand, to be honest I'm not really jonesing for the movie. The trailer hasn't gotten my interest. I'm way WAY more interested in the new Futurama movies/shows up for '08.

xpost

But don't ask me, I'm just a nerdy Bab5 lover.

I'm totally peeing myself in anticipation for it, but I would =)

That was a good show. TEN YEARS AGO.

this helps me remember the good times. and forget series 8 thru...whatever the hell they're up to now.

btw, simpsons movie's gonna suuuuuuuuuuuck. i hope the whole plot is frank grimes-based.

I was contemplating whether to see norbit today. I think I'll just lounge around the house and jab toothpicks under my fingernails instead.

That's my limit, right there. I don't think I can get along with people who are too lazy or unimaginative to come up with something to do besides watch TV. Not that I hate TV or people who enjoy it (I enjoy a fair bit myself) or even who enjoy things that I think are meritricious crap that is actively making the world worse. But fucking christ, have SOME standards, even if I do disagree with them.

OTM.

i dunno i was sure this would blow but - albert brooks is the villain! hank scorpio!!!

! Okay, this could be cool.

well The Simpsons were always, among other things, kind of a rejoinder to cheeseball 80's sitcoms, without making many explicit nods to them.

has there ever been a Perfect Strangers reference in The Simpsons?

-- blueski, Friday, August 3, 2007 4:19 PM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Balki/goat/toilet joke or something?????

Barting Over episode

Larry: Balki, why are you dancing in the toilet?
Balki: What? You never heard of "Flush Dance"?

i swear a goat was involved

entirely possible - nonetheless, not one of the better episodes

Treehouse of Horror XV:

n a parody of Perfect Strangers, Kang and Kodos are preparing the Simpsons for dinner for their "boss." Bart and Homer are the main course, Lisa is in a soup, and Marge and Maggie are pies. Bart is frying on a skillet, while Homer keeps eating himself. The boss comments on the delicious meal, whereupon his stomach bursts open, liberating Bart, who, in turn, delightfully exclaims "Cool, I'm vomit!" Kang and Kodos get a hyper-galactic promotion. Bart is sad about being an orphan, but he is adopted by Kang and Kodos. The Perfect Strangers theme song then plays over the opening credits.

I AM LOOKING FOR MY COZEN LARRY! + Andy Kaufman = Borat (also = me asleep)

-- Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, October 18, 2006 3:11 PM (9 months ago) Bookmark Link

well the sense i got from it was that he saw through the formal comedy cliches at work but still thought they were done effectively. i mean i'm not gonna go line for line but you have to admit there are some pretty negative parts in there. me, I just fail to see how this is all just a slightly more explicit/'edgy' version of Latka Gravas/Balki Bartokomous as played by a much less entertaining performer.

-- Alex in Baltimore (Alex in Baltimore), Thursday, November 9, 2006 8:10 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark Link

hooray we agree

I just fail to see how this is all just a slightly more explicit/'edgy' version of Latka Gravas/Balki Bartokomous as played by a much less entertaining performer.

you're right but... SFW dude.

you misspelled stfu

Was Kang in the movie? I think I saw a voice credit but don't remember any aliens (unless it was in a Where's Waldo crowd scene).

actually he's not right about the much less entertaining performer part. xp

i want to reiterate that this movie reeked btw.

no s1ocki's right, my post was completely safe for work.

Jordan, Kang & Kodos were originally going to be complaining during the credits but it got cut. They might have been in some other deleted scenes as well.

slocki pls uniterate

Was Kang in the movie? I think I saw a voice credit but don't remember any aliens (unless it was in a Where's Waldo crowd scene).

I was wondering that too. Maybe he was cut, or maybe he sang in the anthem during the credits?

Anyway I just saw this movie and it was nice. About what I expected. It did show off the limits of the series, though: It's still a sitcom, and sitcoms don't become movies very easily.

(Compare say South Park, which is satire, which can work in that longer format much better.)

jesus it was fucking shit, the more I think about it the more shit it seems. the emotional scenes=crap and unconvincing attempts to return to some time 10 years ago or more, and the gags=awful one liners for as many stock characters as possible.

it was 80 mins long and by 50 mins me and my friends I saw it with were dying to leave.

i don't want this to be true but it is. someone upthread said they pandered to fans but it's exactly opposite; in an effort not to scare off casual viewers and children with arcana and um, wit, everything was flat and cursory and the rhythm was so lazy and sitcomy. Flanders was creepy. There were some good gags, stranded. It all fit together though, felt like a movie I guess. I'm not sad or anything, just kicking myself for not seeing Bourne Supremacy.

i mean even these days they make episodes (marginally) funnier than this on the fly, how could the time factor not result in something sharper?
it seemed like they strained to avoid topicality to such a degree that most of it feels generic, so many jokes in name only. disheartening until you remember you've sat through stuff like this for at least 10 years.

I shouldn't say everything was cursory, I quite liked the stabs at emotion, just for being there. I should stop thinking about it, my opinion is just gonna trend 'hater' if I keep it up. It's late. I should have drank first. It was "enjoyable", "just a movie" etc. fin.

Others would argue that Family Guy has taken the comedy torch and run with it in a more subversive direction.

Are those "others" you speak of 19-year-olds who don't know that "potty talk" /= "subversive?"

Oh here we go...

I AM LOOKING FOR MY COZEN LARRY! + Andy Kaufman = Borat (also = me asleep)

-- Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, October 18, 2006 3:11 PM (9 months ago) Bookmark Link

-- Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, August 3, 2007 12:03 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

ppl who quote themselves are AWESOME

Still, "paraplegereeno".

I quite liked the stabs at emotion, just for being there.

The movie is something of a betrayal of the really interesting emotional point the series has reach in the last four or so seasons, but if I remember right it was written back then, so that makes sense; plus the current emotional scene is possibly too bleak and tortured for a big popular movie.

90 minutes of Moe suicide jokes wouldv'e rocked.

I was thinking the Marge/Homer dynamic, but yes, where was the Lenny-in-physical-pain stuff?

I thought this was entertaining enough. I didn't laugh all that much, just a few chuckles here and there (esp. compared to the non-stop yuks of the 5-year-olds in the theater at 11 PM on a Tuesday night, who seemed to love any and all instances of comedic violence) -- but I had a good time.

SPOILERS!

I saw this last night, and had mixed feelings about it. There were numerous one-off gags that were really funny, but the main story felt kinda predictable and safe. Okay, it was nice that they focused on the Simpsons family, and tried to invest some emotion into it (Marge's video), but on the other hand the whole scheme (Homer fucks up/is bad father, but in the end proves his worth) felt played out, and didn't really do anythig the series hadn't already done a hundred times.

I guess if you see the film as an extended TV episode it was guide entertaining... But like someone mentioned, since the movie has been so long in the making, you'd think the writers would've pulled off their guards and done something more unexpected and daring. The biggest disappointment was the finale, which fell totally flat. Homer rides the bike, throws away the bomb, and... that's it. He's the hero. How cliched can you get? I guess the guys behind South Park were right in doing the South Park movie while the series was in prime, because the movie felt like it went even further than the series had done before. Whereas the Simpsons movie was perfectly funny, but also felt calculated and safe.

Some random remarks:

* Lisa's love-story was totally tacked-on, seemed like writers thought they need to provide her with a storyline of her own too.

* The meta-jokes about this not being the TV show weren't really that funny. Okay, this is a movie, you don't have to watch commercials in the middle, we get the point.

* The other end credit jokes were nice, but the one about Maggie's first word was really cheap. Though I guess it was meant to be cheap.

* What was the point of that one dude dying in the end? Had the film-makers promised some character would die, and this was their way of dealing with it?

* Am I the only one who was worried about what happened to the Spider-Pig? It was left in the burning house! And then the house collapsed! Seemed like the movie totally forgot about the whole pig.

Spiderpig was no more - he had become Harry Plopper. It was Harry Plopper who disappeared from the plot. (Me? Pedantic?)

Oh, but otherwise Tuomas OTM.

I enjoyed the film as a series of one liners, but the plot was pretty lame and was all to familiar. However, when it comes down to it I laughed a lot and will enjoy it again when it come out on DVD (for the xmas market).

* What was the point of that one dude dying in the end? Had the film-makers promised some character would die, and this was their way of dealing with it?

Dr. Nick's catchphrase on the show was "Hi, everybody!". His last words were "Bye, everybody!". I bet the writers had been sitting on that one for ages.

* Am I the only one who was worried about what happened to the Spider-Pig? It was left in the burning house! And then the house collapsed! Seemed like the movie totally forgot about the whole pig

He will appear in an upcoming episode.

Ah, hope they'll explain how he was miraculously saved from the burning and collapsing house.

"The choral version of "Spider Pig" from the movie soundtrack, credited to Hans Zimmer, reached #24 on the British singles chart for the week ending 2007-08-05. At 64 seconds, it is the shortest track to ever reach the British top 40."

Maybe it's cuz I've caught the show only about half the time in the last 4 seasons, but I thought the Marge/Homer dynamic was far more touching here than anything in Ratatouille. What really interesting emotional point of the series do you mean re M/H, Cas?

also, "You're a woman. You'll hang onto it your entire life" most penetrating movie line of the year thus far.

Who said that line to whom?

Marge to Lisa.

assuming nothing in The Apatow Canon tops it.

not that i've seen or heard, and you're right, the line was awesome

also, "You're a woman. You'll hang onto it your entire life" most penetrating movie line of the year thus far.

oh for the love of god.

morbz if you liked that penetrating insight may i recommend a little television program called 'reba'

hang on to what?

Anger

For the last few seasons it has been more or less explicit that Marge is going to leave Homer as soon as the kids are grown.

Of course, due to the nature of the show, this is mostly because she's had to put up with him for eighteen years plus backstory. And since the kids don't grow, she will be stuck with him forever, except in flash-forwards. All that is implicit, which is probably a good thing.

In the movie, the weight of what Marge has already put up with in her life seems greatly reduced, and it's back to the simpler "I'll put up with you forever" plots of the earlier seasons. I kind of like the dizzying "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Wolf?"-style menace of their recent relationship -- but again, only because they've "earned" it over the past 18 years.

women are going to be hanging onto a lot of anger caused by ILXors

i am watching this 'on demand'. this is what i demanded. it sucks.

Coming out on my 48th birthday

https://variety.com/2025/film/news/simpsons-movie-sequel-summer-2027-release-date-1236534270/

Wild to think that the first movie came out 20 years the Simpsons shorts first aired on the Tracey Ullman Show, and the second movie is coming out 20 years after *that*.