The Simpsons Movie (2007) - A Good Movie with a Bit of a Deeper Side

 

Has there been a movie that you feel is underappreciated? Not a movie that is over-hated or obscure, I'm talking about movies that generally, people are positive towards, but not necessarily favourable. Like, you bring up the movie and people will go "Yeah, that was a good movie", but not much else. For me, The Simpsons Movie is that movie, that movie I think doesn't really get the admiration it deserves, which is weird don't you think? I mean, this movie is not something like Felidae, a risky and one of a kind animated movie, nor is it like Treasure Planet, a very expertly crafted movie that can be considered a masterpiece. The Simpsons Movie seems like it would fall more into the camp of movies like The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie or DuckTales: The Movie, good movies that are entertaining, but that's all they aspire to be, and there is nothing wrong with movies that just want to be solid entertainment, but to say The Simpsons Movie is one of the most underappreciated movies, is to imply that it is more than an entertaining romp with our favourite characters. It also helps that I've been watching a bunch of Simpsons episodes recently, strike the ADHD iron while it's hot, am I right?

The plot is not wholly different from a usual Simpsons episode, it starts with one plot and then veers into another entirely. As condensed as I can make it, The Simpsons Movie follows the Simpson family as another one of Homer's screw-ups puts Springfield under a dome, but they manage to escape. It's kind of like three Simpsons episodes put together, like the first part is Lisa's plot about the lake and Homer's plot about getting a pig, then the second part is the dome, and finally it's Alaska and the plan to blow up Springfield. Despite this, each bit flows into each other nicely, we can see the progression from point A to point B to point C. Homer gets the pig, needs to dispose of it's feces, and dumps it into the lake, which was established to be heavily polluted by Lisa's plot. This prompts EPA involvement which leads to the dome, and so on and so forth. However, this plot is not the stuff I want to talk about, it's fantastically done, but there is something deeper here.

The Simpsons Movie is about how far one man will go to protect the people he loves. That statement may sound wrong, after all this is Homer Simpson we're talking about, this is like saying Family Guy is about one man learning to love his family. However, Homer is not Peter Griffin, while both of their idiotic tendencies have been amplified over the years, there are lines Homer would never cross that Peter has. Peter is callous while Homer is just thick in the head, so it doesn't feel like a stretch to say that this movie is about him and the lengths he'll go to protect his family. Listen to his excuses when the angry mob is trying to kill him, his excuse is that he's afraid for his family, obviously a cover for his real fear, but it's interesting that his first excuse was to protect his family. Him blowing off Marge as she uses his own words against him, an awful thing absolutely, but think of it from his perspective, he and his family are safe, and now Marge wants to risk everyone's life for a town that tried to kill them. Homer also does ridiculous things like dog sled, and then walk, from Alaska to Springfield, or does the motorcycle ride up the dome, this is not a man who doesn't care. He is destroyed when Marge and the kids leave to save Springfield, and his epiphany vision has features them prominently.

I'm not going to sit here and tell you that this is one of the deepest character dives in cinema history. I am however, going to say that this movie might have been hiding something in plain sight. I could easily see the writers pitching ideas for how Homer goes from Alaska to Springfield, and they could have done something really silly and jokey, like Homer dog sledding to an airport or a seaport, or even managing to hitchhike with some hilarious one-off character, but they went with something that wasn't as silly, which strikes me as interesting.

Beyond the plot, the movie is pretty solid. It's comedy is a bit... 2000s, but there are a lot of jokes and gags that do make me chuckle, to straight up roar with laughter. This movie was released between Seasons between 18 and 19, which is the era of Simpsons I grew up with, so if you're fond of this era of The Simpsons, I think there should be some bits here that you'll enjoy. These are still some of our favourite characters with some good writing. Admittedly, the satire stuff, like President Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Mr. Burns claiming "For once the rich white man is in charge", have aged a bit, and one gag about Fox advertising shows during movies, I mean in the era of Streaming, that joke feels like a relic of a by-gone era, but I think there are more jokes that are still fresh, than jokes that are aged and kind of groan worthy.

Animation wise, there are a couple flaws I noticed, like Lip-Syncing not matching with dialogue, some shots where characters look out of place, and some movement animation not being complete, but overall, they really aren't obvious. I swear anyone who says that "You need to study animation to appreciate it more" really has no clue what they're talking about, because I've become way more critical of animation since learning to animate. Barring these minor flubs, The Simpsons Movie doesn't really look all that much different from modern HD era Simpsons, maybe a little bit cleaner, like you can tell the difference at a glance, but it doesn't look too different. I think it looks great, minor flubs aside.

The amusing thing is, The Simpsons 2000s run, and even their modern run, are kind of getting second looks. People are going back to these seasons and going "You know, maybe our initial reaction was a bit harsh", yet people don't seem to be doing the same for The Simpsons Movie. I feel that is a bit unfair. I think the problem is it isn't completely a fun and wacky adventure with our favourite characters, but it also isn't something that is entirely deep and emotional, it's kind of an attempt to balance the two. I don't know if audiences would prefer it skew more towards one way or another. On the one hand, a wackier plot would be funnier, but it would be reminiscent of a standard episode like "Bart on the Road" or "Kill the Alligator and Run", whereas a more serious plot would let us care more for the characters, but would ultimately leave behind what The Simpsons is, it's a comedy, not a Drama.

I think there is a lot here to admire about this movie, it is still The Simpsons, the characters and humour are still here. Plus, given a plot that is both silly and character-driven, I really do think that you should take another look at this movie. With The Simpsons modern era getting some more appreciation recently, people may look at the movie as the bridge between classic era and Modern era Simpsons, I don't think it is, "Classic" and "Modern" are descriptors that change with time. I feel like The Simpsons Movie gets lost a little, and I think it should get another chance in the spotlight. I don't think it's on par with the best Simpsons episodes, but when you have highs such as "Cape Feare", "And Maggie Makes Three" or "Last Exit to Springfield", that is a pretty high bar to reach. I say, give it a watch, and let it stand on its own merits, and I think you'll find this movie is more than you may have initially thought of it.

Open Season (2006) - A Rather Uninspired and Basic Kids Movie

 

Nostalgia is a dangerous thing, be wary of it. Those fond memories you have are not entirely based on quality. When everything was new and exciting, you will remember it as better than it was, simply because it was new and exciting, but always remember that memories can be deceiving, and it is best to acknowledge when what you are nostalgic for, is not really that good. By all means, hold onto the precious memories, but do not let them cloud your judgement of your future, your now, for as the Tragically Hip song goes, "You can't be fond of living in the past, 'cause if you are than there's no way you're gonna last". I am not above admitting that Open Season was a movie I enjoyed as a kid, but as time has moved forward, I've not come back to this one in a long time. Is there a reason I've left this movie behind alongside other aspects of my childhood? Or is there something worth growing up with?

The story follows Boog, a Grizzly Bear as he is relocated from his shelter home back into the woods after an incident. A deer named Elliot with a missing antler tries to get him back into his home before open season starts, which causes more problems for everyone involved. As a plot, it moves along alright, the only nitpicks I have are like really minor things that don't really matter. Like, there's a point where Boog is meant to find something in his teddy bear, which he finds because of hearing them break, earlier in the movie he throws his bear at something, and there is not a breaking sound. Again, it's a really minor thing that doesn't really matter, but the rest of the movie is uninteresting to the point where I'm left wondering about stuff like this because it's much more interesting. Which falls mostly on the fact that the plot is not really unique, and the characters aren't interesting.

I'm not really invested in these characters, and I think part of that is because they're really standard, Boog is a character we've seen before and nothing is really done that differently with him. He's the fish out of water, out of his element, and the only thing that really separates him from other characters of this type is that he's a bear. Elliot is your annoying moron sidekick, and that's it. There's some stuff about him being kicked out of his herd, but I can think of way better idiot sidekicks in animated movies. I think another part of it is the voice acting, no offense to Martin Lawrence and Ashton Kutcher, but they're voices do not really match the designs. Martin Lawrence's voice fits the pampered and tamed side of Boog, but I don't really buy it when he's supposed to be angry, it's just kind of too smooth for that, and Elliot's design just does not fit Ashton Kutcher's voice. It's a shame because the rest of the cast isn't bad, especially Gary Sinise, who plays the hunter Shaw, and he's really the only character I wanted to watch in this movie. The rest of the cast is okay, Gordon Tootoosis, Patrick Warburton, Billy Connolly, not bad choices, and they do solid jobs, but we're not spending most of our time with them.

That really is about the best I can say about the technical side of this movie, because the animation and soundtrack are both uninspired. The animation really has that early 2000s first feature vibe to it, it really does look like this was Sony Pictures Animation's first animated feature, which it was, so I can't be too hard on the animation, but when you look at their future films, with movies like Hotel Transylvania and their stylized CG animation, the jump in quality is just too noticeable. It isn't terrible animation, but it's on par with the time period. Similarly, the soundtrack isn't awful, in fact I do kinda like the opening song, but most of the other songs are just kind of generic and I feel they only used because they couldn't use similar sounding songs by R.E.M., it's like this movie saw Shrek, and wanted to have the dollar store version of its soundtrack.

On top of being really "2000s" in the animation and soundtrack, it's also kind of generic kids movie humour, admittedly there were some jokes I chuckled at, like when Boog drops Elliot off a cliff, only for the camera to reveal he caught him, that was a cute gag. Otherwise, most of the humour just did not hit, and it wouldn't, it was a movie made for kids in the 2000s, it wasn't really designed to grow up with them. This is the kind of children's movie I can't stand, it's the Duck Duck Goose or the Swan Princess, the kind of kids movies that are made just to entertain kids and not enrich them. I do think both of those movies are worse than this, Duck Duck Goose was taken to an almost insulting degree and The Swan Princess was a theatrical knock-off, and both of which irritate me more than this movie ever could, but that's mostly because this movie is just... uninspired.

The biggest crime of this movie is that it aims moderately and barely reaches the bar. The animation, soundtrack, characters and story are all uninspired and basic, it's not hard for me to imagine this movie being the favourite of many kids, but it isn't hard for me to see them forgetting about this movie either, because there isn't much in this movie that sticks with you. Some might argue that a boring movie is worse than a bad movie, and on some level I agree, but that implies that all kinds of "bad" and "boring" are the same, I mean, is this movie boring? Yes, is it worse than Duck Duck Goose? The Barbie Diaries? Felix the Cat? The Magic Voyage? Well, I'd much rather watch a movie that is uninspired and boring than any of those, so in this case I'd argue that a boring movie is better than a bad movie, but that doesn't change the fact that it's still a bad movie. I can't recommend this one, maybe if you have little kids they'd be entertained, but they'd probably be just as entertained with any other kids movie. I have some memories with this movie, but I don't think I'll be making any new ones.