The Simpsons Movie

Gaz · Post by **Gaz** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 7:08 am

I'm sure everyone's heard about this by now but if not the long rumored Simpsons movie has finally been officially announced via a teaser trailer that's been shown alongside Ice Age 2. Oddly, the trailer hasn't been officially released online but you can download it here.

I've got really mixed feelings about this. I'm a huge Simpsons fan and I can pretty much guarantee I'll go watch this on the opening weekend but it feels 10 years too late. The Simpsons is past the peak of it's popularity and the show is nowhere near as good as it used to be. I'd like to believe this film will be up to the standard of the classic episodes but I doubt that will be the case. I just hope it's at least decent.

Baba O'Reily · Post by **Baba O'Reily** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 7:10 am

This movie will be a taint to the world of prime time sitcoms.

Not just a dark mark on their history, but a literal taint, the anatomical area between the anus and the testicles.

Post by **Crazy Penguin** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 8:01 am

The Simpsons hasn't been good since 1996. I can't imagine a Simpsons movie being any different than any of the god awful episodes from the past 10 years, except longer and maybe with even more guest stars.

It's a shame, because seasons 4-7 of The Simpsons are some of the best television ever.

Tsuyoshi-kun · Post by **Tsuyoshi-kun** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 11:22 am

From 1990 to 1995, The Simpsons could do no wrong. The first couple of seasons were a bumpy start, but they are important viewing nonetheless. Practically every side character in the series was introduced in season 1 and 2 except Duff Man, Gill, and Cletus. Seasons 4 through 6 in particular were awesome, and I can watch those episodes dozens of times (and have) and never get bored with them, which is more than I could ever say for Family Guy (which, like The Simpsons, has fallen down a spiral of suck of which it will never emerge).

In my opinion, seasons 7 was the beginning of the end for The Simpsons, when Lisa became a stark-raving, vegetarian bitch, Homer got more retarded, Bart became lamer, Marge did nothing, Maggie started disappearing (I don't think she's been in season 17 so far), and the side characters started getting whole storylines. I still think the Homerpalooza episode that season was one of the worst usages of guest stars ever, and that includes the episodes with Tony Hawk, Mel Gibson, and Weird Al Yancovik they've had since then.

Seasons 8 and 9 were an improvement, but not by much. 10 was awful, 11 and 12 were trainwrecks, 13-15 were mediocre, 16 was watchable but not good, and 17 won't be remembered by anyone two years from now. However, I'm glad they finally stopped getting guest stars for each episode (there have been several episodes this season without them).

I'm hoping the movie will be good, but what chance is there of that? I just hope this doesn't interefere with the Futurama DVD project or new season they've announced recently.

Zeta · Post by **Zeta** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 2:22 pm

I just hope this doesn't interefere with the Futurama DVD project or new season they've announced recently.

Sigh. They didn't announce a new season. Billy West thought they were making a new season and posted it on his blog, but he was wrong.

Neo Yi · Post by **Neo Yi** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 2:26 pm

From 1990 to 1995, The Simpsons could do no wrong. The first couple of seasons were a bumpy start, but they are important viewing nonetheless. Practically every side character in the series was introduced in season 1 and 2 except Duff Man, Gill, and Cletus. Seasons 4 through 6 in particular were awesome, and I can watch those episodes dozens of times (and have) and never get bored with them, which is more than I could ever say for Family Guy (which, like The Simpsons, has fallen down a spiral of suck of which it will never emerge).

In my opinion, seasons 7 was the beginning of the end for The Simpsons, when Lisa became a stark-raving, vegetarian bitch, Homer got more retarded, Bart became lamer, Marge did nothing, Maggie started disappearing (I don't think she's been in season 17 so far), and the side characters started getting whole storylines. I still think the Homerpalooza episode that season was one of the worst usages of guest stars ever, and that includes the episodes with Tony Hawk, Mel Gibson, and Weird Al Yancovik they've had since then.

Seasons 8 and 9 were an improvement, but not by much. 10 was awful, 11 and 12 were trainwrecks, 13-15 were mediocre, 16 was watchable but not good, and 17 won't be remembered by anyone two years from now. However, I'm glad they finally stopped getting guest stars for each episode (there have been several episodes this season without them).

Pretty much agree. Even with that said, I'll more then likely will see the movie, if not out of fan support. I've just been watching that show form some 14+ years now and regardless of the crap they've been spewing, I'm still a fan.

Post by **Pepperidge** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 2:41 pm

Zeta wrote:
I just hope this doesn't interefere with the Futurama DVD project or new season they've announced recently.
Sigh. They didn't announce a new season. Billy West thought they were making a new season and posted it on his blog, but he was wrong.

Personally, I'm glad he was. With the DTV movies the Futurama staff can focus on the stuff they wanted to do but never got a chance to do before with the series. Had the series been renewed, it would've only opened up the possibility of everything just going down the toilet after a certain point.

Protodude · Post by **Protodude** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 3:46 pm

The Simpsons just....needs to die. Are the ratings still that good for it?

Post by **Crazy Penguin** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 4:30 pm

Tsuyoshi-kun wrote:In my opinion, seasons 7 was the beginning of the end for The Simpsons, when Lisa became a stark-raving, vegetarian bitch, Homer got more retarded, Bart became lamer, Marge did nothing, Maggie started disappearing (I don't think she's been in season 17 so far), and the side characters started getting whole storylines. I still think the Homerpalooza episode that season was one of the worst usages of guest stars ever, and that includes the episodes with Tony Hawk, Mel Gibson, and Weird Al Yancovik they've had since then.

Seasons 8 and 9 were an improvement, but not by much.

I don't think season 7 was bad at all.

http://www.snpp.com/episodeguide/season7.html

The only sub-par episode I see on the list is "Lisa the Iconoclast", and that wasn't offensively bad in any way, just quite boring.

The annoying elitest Lisa didn't come until later. Personally, I think that the last episode of season 7, "Summer of 4 Ft. 2" was the best Lisa story the show's ever had. Similarly, "Marge Be Not Proud" was one of the best Marge episodes (Bart too), and by far the best Christmas episode.

The only two episodes where side characters got full stories were "A Fish Called Selma" and "Much Apu About Nothing", and in both cases the Simpson family was incorporated logically, unlike later episodes in which Homer would team up with a supporting cast member for no good reason.

Season 7 had some absolute classics too, like "Mother Simpson" and "22 Short Films About Springfield".

For me, season 8 was the first mediocre season since the first two or three (though let's not forget how groundbreaking those first three seasons of The Simpsons were at the time). It had a few gems, particularly "You Only Move Twice" (Scorpio!) and "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show", but for the most part you could see how they were running out of steam.

"Burns, Baby Burns" is one of the earliest examples of Homer teaming up with the central character of the story (Mr Burns' son Larry) for no particular reason. And there were so many episodes that were just plain lacking in funny - "The Secret War of Lisa Simpson", "The Canine Mutiny", "My Sister, My Sitter" and, ugh, "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious".

Season 9 was terrible, especially with the start of the ridiculous storylines - "The Principal and the Pauper" where Principal Skinner is revealed to be Armin Tamzarian, "Das Bus" where the school kids end up on a desert island (which didn't even get a real ending), "Simpson Tide" where Homer, Apu and Moe join the navy, " Trash of the Titans" where Homer becomes sanitation commissioner and the whole town ends up getting moved, building by building, to a new location. Almost every episode was a clunker.

Seasons 10 onwards were absolutely irredeemable. I don't know how people keep watching it. At 17 seasons and still going there have now been more bad episodes of The Simpsons than good, so it's a crap shoot even in syndication.

jenkins · Post by **jenkins** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 5:55 pm

Wow...and ouch. I guess I'll avoid quoting the Simpsons from now on. Heck, I like the new seasons fine, and don't know what the fuss is all about. But I'll take your word for it...I guess.

In summary, it's about time I picked up some of the old seasons on DVD.

Brazillian Cara · Post by **Brazillian Cara** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 7:11 pm

I know exactly how you feel, man. And particulary, I don't think the first two seasons were that funny (at least what I saw of them). I blame the local dubbing (awful at the time).

Opa-Opa · Post by **Opa-Opa** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 9:10 pm

Yeeeah... I don't see any problem in The Simpsons at all. I mean, every single time I watch any episode of the Simpsons I laugh as if I had watched it for the first time, even that Monorail episode that used to run every week here.

Light Speed · Post by **Light Speed** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 11:51 pm

Ugh, I used to love the Simpsons. Back in highschool I would watch the reruns on Fox up to three times a day, but I never bothered with the new ones on Sundays cause they always sucked. Nowadays so many of the reruns are newer episodes that I don't even bother watching them anymore. The Simpsons is pretty much dead to me, even though I'll probably pirate the movie once it hits DVD.

Post by **Segaholic2** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 1:59 am

Honestly, with how bad the last several seasons have been, I don't see how they can keep an entertaining narrative going for 1.5 hours.

One Classy Bloke · Post by **One Classy Bloke** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 2:09 am

Clearly they will do porn, swearing and drug abuse. If Marge can show up in Playboy (or some magazine to that nature), they will do anything.

Zeta · Post by **Zeta** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 6:28 am

I know exactly how you feel, man. And particulary, I don't think the first two seasons were that funny (at least what I saw of them). I blame the local dubbing (awful at the time).

Did you know the Simpsons once went to Brazil? Do you really have multi-colored rats and gay-colored money?

Tsuyoshi-kun · Post by **Tsuyoshi-kun** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 10:30 am

Crazy Penguin wrote:
The only sub-par episode I see on the list is "Lisa the Iconoclast", and that wasn't offensively bad in any way, just quite boring.

I can count several other episodes that were lame. Like "Radioactive Man", which was a mediocre episode with a couple of good parts (and those parts were cut out of snydication, makely the episode deftly boring unless you watch it on DVD). Or how about "King Size Homer", where Homer purposely made himself 300 pounds just so he wouldn't have to work? If that wasn't the start of Homer's slowly turning into a jackass who only cares about himself, I don't know what was.

Or how about "Team Homer"? Oh boy, another episode where Mr. Burns backstabs someone; didn't see that coming. "Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield" didn't interest me one bit, "Two Bad Neighbors" was a pointless rip on Dennis the Menace, the disappoining second half of "Who Shot Mr. Burns?"..about a half of the season was entirely forgettable (I didn't even remember the Class Struggle one until I looked it up).

Season 7, at the time, also had the weakest Halloween episode ever, relying on the gimmick of CG for one of its segments. I liked the Groundskeeper Willy story, but the rest of the episode was forgettable.

The annoying elitest Lisa didn't come until later. Personally, I think that the last episode of season 7, "Summer of 4 Ft. 2" was the best Lisa story the show's ever had. Similarly, "Marge Be Not Proud" was one of the best Marge episodes (Bart too), and by far the best Christmas episode.

Oh, so you don't remember her freaking out, yelling at everyone for eating meat, calling her dad names to his face, and ruining his big neighborhood feast? Because that struck me as her being a bitch, and since Lisa didn't get attention before, now she must yell at everyone. This is a trait of her today I do not like at all. "Summer of 4 Ft. 2" was good, but I don't know about "Marge Be Not Proud". I mean, it's a good episode with a good plot, but something rubs me off in that episode. The first Christmas episode remains my favorite, as well as one of my favorite episodes from the first two seasons.

The only two episodes where side characters got full stories were "A Fish Called Selma" and "Much Apu About Nothing", and in both cases the Simpson family was incorporated logically, unlike later episodes in which Homer would team up with a supporting cast member for no good reason.

I said it was a starting trend, not full overblown like it is today. And "Much Apu About Nothing" had a stupid beginning to serve up its main plot, which killed my interest in the episode more than it should have. "Homer and Apu" did a much better job incorporating the Simpson family with Apu, but maybe that's just me.

Season 7 had some absolute classics too, like "Mother Simpson" and "22 Short Films About Springfield".

"Mother Simpson" was great, but it would've been better if Homer's mom didn't come back years later. That kinda soiled the episode. I do not like the latter episode, and thought it was something they cooked up because they couldn't think of anything else at the time. About the only segments I liked were the Bumblebee Man one and the one with Nelson.

For me, season 8 was the first mediocre season. It had a few gems, particularly "You Only Move Twice" (Scorpio!) and "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show", but for the most part you could see how they were running out of steam.

What about "Mountain of Madness", or "Brother from Another Series", or the cheestastic "Simpsons Spin-Off Spectacular"? I thought those were pretty good episodes. And "In Marge We Trust" had Mr. Sparkle, one of my favorite segments in the entire series (and Marge actually doing something for a change).

And there were so many episodes that were just plain lacking in funny - "The Secret War of Lisa Simpson"..

I'm not going to defend the other episodes, but that particular episode, much like "Marge Be Not Proud", is not supposed to be funny. It's about Lisa trying a new challenge, and having to deal with the problem all on her own. It was the last time I actually cared for Lisa in an episode, a feeling I have yet to have since.

Season 9 was terrible, especially with the start of the ridiculous storylines -

There were still some good ones. Like "Girly Edition" (ignore the lame sub-plot), "The Trouble with Trillions" (though that's probably just me), "Lisa the Simpson" (ignoring the stupid-ass subplot), "Lisa's Sax" (which I thought was cute), "The Cartidge Family", "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson", and "Dumbbell Indemnity". Overall, though, season 9 was worse than season 8; much worse than I thought, actually. A lot worse. And it also had the STUPIDEST Christmas special in the series. The one in season 16 was much, much better (Hell, even the one in season 11 was better).

This is just out of curiosity, Crazy Penguin, but what was the last episode (or season) you've willingly watched, regardless of how much or little you've seen of it? I fell that bad Simpsons is still better than most other prime-time stuff these days (especially the crap on NBC and the rest of FOX), and it's still people than the recent shitty episodes of Family Guy.

jenkins · Post by **jenkins** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 12:25 pm

Zeta wrote:
I know exactly how you feel, man. And particulary, I don't think the first two seasons were that funny (at least what I saw of them). I blame the local dubbing (awful at the time).
Did you know the Simpsons once went to Brazil? Do you really have multi-colored rats and gay-colored money?

Indeed, and that was a damn good episode. Heh, kids' shows. Japanese kids' shows work along the same lines.

Neo Yi · Post by **Neo Yi** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 2:22 pm

I'm not going to defend the other episodes, but that particular episode, much like "Marge Be Not Proud", is not supposed to be funny. It's about Lisa trying a new challenge, and having to deal with the problem all on her own. It was the last time I actually cared for Lisa in an episode, a feeling I have yet to have since.

Agreed. I massively enjoyed "The Secret War of Lisa Simpsons". Generally, I tend to care a lot of episodes garnered towards Lisa because they're generally some of the most heartfelt in the show. Too bad nowadays anytime they do feature Lisa, she's usually protesting against something. It's such a damn shame since I view her as my favorite character and probably the one I could relate to more often then not.

I fell that bad Simpsons is still better than most other prime-time stuff these days (especially the crap on NBC and the rest of FOX), and it's still people than the recent shitty episodes of Family Guy.

Agreed. Can't say for Family Guy (I'm rather mixed on the latest season), but consider Simpsons is one of the very few shows I watch on the idiot box, it's saying something, but to each his or her own...

Post by **Esrever** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 4:42 pm

I always really liked the one about the fossilized angel. It's one of my favourite episodes, and its a Lisa-focussed one.

Lisa-centered episodes have gotten much worse in more recent years, but you could say the same about episodes centered around any of the other Simpson family members too. Everyone just seems to be getting more and more exaggerated and archtype-ish... Lisa is more and more of an angry protestor, Homer is increasingly stupid, etc etc.... it just makes the show less interesting to watch.

The episodes focusing around the really, really minor characters are the worst, though. The "last straw" episode for me was the one about Skinner's mother and Comic Book Guy falling in love. Yeesh! That was when I stopped watching the show altogether.

Still, it held up for longer than Family Guy... I was so excited when it was renewed, but after about 5 of the new episodes I stopped watching it again. Boy, did that show get tired fast. Blah!

Post by **Crazy Penguin** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 6:05 pm

Tsuyoshi-kun wrote:
Crazy Penguin wrote:
The only sub-par episode I see on the list is "Lisa the Iconoclast", and that wasn't offensively bad in any way, just quite boring.
I can count several other episodes that were lame. Like "Radioactive Man", which was a mediocre episode with a couple of good parts (and those parts were cut out of snydication, makely the episode deftly boring unless you watch it on DVD). Or how about "King Size Homer", where Homer purposely made himself 300 pounds just so he wouldn't have to work? If that wasn't the start of Homer's slowly turning into a jackass who only cares about himself, I don't know what was.

"Radioactive Man" was a perfectly fine episode, and whilst King Size Homer was on the silly side it still had good plot structure and was pretty funny overall.

Tsuyoshi-kun wrote:Or how about "Team Homer"? Oh boy, another episode where Mr. Burns backstabs someone; didn't see that coming. "Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield" didn't interest me one bit, "Two Bad Neighbors" was a pointless rip on Dennis the Menace, the disappoining second half of "Who Shot Mr. Burns?"..about a half of the season was entirely forgettable (I didn't even remember the Class Struggle one until I looked it up).

"Team Homer" had a very predictable ending, but other than that it was a good episode. "Class Struggle" was one of the best plot-driven episodes the show's had and had Marge doing something. "Two Bad Neighbours", I thought was just plain funny, you can't really go wrong with a Dennis parody starring Bart Simpson and George Bush. Part 2 of "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" was disappointing, but still had a lot of great gags in it, like Smithers' dream sequence.

Tsuyoshi-kun wrote:Season 7, at the time, also had the weakest Halloween episode ever, relying on the gimmick of CG for one of its segments. I liked the Groundskeeper Willy story, but the rest of the episode was forgettable.

It was weaker than the previous Halloween episodes, but not really bad, and the CG gimmick was quite entertaining, especially at the time of original airing.

Tsuyoshi-kun wrote:Oh, so you don't remember her freaking out, yelling at everyone for eating meat, calling her dad names to his face, and ruining his big neighborhood feast? Because that struck me as her being a bitch, and since Lisa didn't get attention before, now she must yell at everyone. This is a trait of her today I do not like at all.

That was the whole point of the story though. It was a "Lisa learns a lesson" story, by the end of the episode she was sorry for being a jerk to people and promised not to do it again. It was only in following episodes that she would remain elitest and jerky throughout entire episodes.

Tsuyoshi-kun wrote:"Mother Simpson" was great, but it would've been better if Homer's mom didn't come back years later. That kinda soiled the episode.

Practically every good episode has been "soiled" by later episodes. On its own merits "Mother Simpson" is still as great as it always was.

Tsuyoshi-kun wrote:I do not like the latter episode, and thought it was something they cooked up because they couldn't think of anything else at the time. About the only segments I liked were the Bumblebee Man one and the one with Nelson.

I thought it was one of the more creative episodes, especially the way the stories all intertwined. I think it would probably have required a lot more time and planning than a regular episode.

Tsuyoshi-kun wrote:What about "Mountain of Madness", or "Brother from Another Series", or the cheestastic "Simpsons Spin-Off Spectacular"? I thought those were pretty good episodes. And "In Marge We Trust" had Mr. Sparkle, one of my favorite segments in the entire series (and Marge actually doing something for a change).

Mountain Madness was mediocre. The others were pretty good though, but with noticable faults. I can't imagine having liked "Brother From Another Series" if I wasn't a fan of Frasier, the first part of the spin-off episode was hilarious and one of my favourite parts of any Simpsons episode, but the following two parts were so painfully accurate parodies of the genres that they pretty much forgot to flesh out the general humour. I wasn't really taken by the Mr. Sparkle bit, it was one of the earliest inane subplots that didn't really go anywhere.

I really liked season 8 overall ("Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment" was another of its great episodes), but still consider it a big step down from the previous seasons (and season 9 an even bigger step down, and seasons 10 onwards pure trash).

Tsuyoshi-kun wrote:
And there were so many episodes that were just plain lacking in funny - "The Secret War of Lisa Simpson"..
I'm not going to defend the other episodes, but that particular episode, much like "Marge Be Not Proud", is not supposed to be funny. It's about Lisa trying a new challenge, and having to deal with the problem all on her own. It was the last time I actually cared for Lisa in an episode, a feeling I have yet to have since.

I thought it was dreadfully dull. Granted, it wasn't supposed to be one of the funnier episodes, but it wasn't really anything else either, the emotion just wasn't there.

Tsuyoshi-kun wrote:There were still some good ones. Like "Girly Edition" (ignore the lame sub-plot), "The Trouble with Trillions" (though that's probably just me), "Lisa the Simpson" (ignoring the stupid-ass subplot), "Lisa's Sax" (which I thought was cute), "The Cartidge Family", "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson", and "Dumbbell Indemnity".

"The Trouble with Trillions" was quite good, but the ending was more or less non-existent. "Lisa's Sax" and the New York episode were good, two of the last few really enjoyable episodes of the show.

Tsuyoshi-kun wrote:Overall, though, season 9 was worse than season 8; much worse than I thought, actually. A lot worse. And it also had the STUPIDEST Christmas special in the series. The one in season 16 was much, much better (Hell, even the one in season 11 was better).

I think the season 11 Christmas episode is one of the absolute worst episodes the show has ever seen. The season 9 Christmas episode was really bad, but still nowhere near as bad as the season 11 ep.

Tsuyoshi-kun wrote:This is just out of curiosity, Crazy Penguin, but what was the last episode (or season) you've willingly watched, regardless of how much or little you've seen of it? I fell that bad Simpsons is still better than most other prime-time stuff these days (especially the crap on NBC and the rest of FOX), and it's still people than the recent shitty episodes of Family Guy.

The newest episode I recall seeing was where Homer started smoking pot. It sucked. Yeah, it's probably better than most of the other stuff on prime time TV, but it still sucks supremely.

Majestic Joey · Post by **Majestic Joey** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 6:59 pm

Fuck Lisa. She's annoys the crap out of me like this god damn tick in my arm.And the episode where homer smoked pot was a awesome ass episode.Also the episode "behind the laughter" was a funny ass episode.

Tsuyoshi-kun · Post by **Tsuyoshi-kun** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 7:03 pm

Esrever wrote:The episodes focusing around the really, really minor characters are the worst, though. The "last straw" episode for me was the one about Skinner's mother and Comic Book Guy falling in love. Yeesh! That was when I stopped watching the show altogether.

The minor character stories as of late have been really bad. I almost missed them pimping out guest stars instead.

As for the Comic Book Guy / Skinner's Mom coupling..well, that's a reason why the title of the episode is "Worst Episode Ever".

Brazillian Cara · Post by **Brazillian Cara** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 8:21 pm

Zeta wrote:
I know exactly how you feel, man. And particulary, I don't think the first two seasons were that funny (at least what I saw of them). I blame the local dubbing (awful at the time).
Did you know the Simpsons once went to Brazil? Do you really have multi-colored rats and gay-colored money?

No, our rats are all grey and/or brown. But if it counts for something, our R$10 bill is pink.
I tought it was pretty funny. Too bad the Departamento de Turismo had a different opinion and wanted to sue FOX.
Anyway, feel free to ask any questions about Brazil based on that episode (even serious ones). I can't wait to answer them.

Grant · Post by **Grant** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 12:54 am

I think the movie will be good. The writing staff is pretty amazing. Matt Groening and James L. Brooks will be participating, as well as core writers from the prime years (Mike Scully, Al Jean, George Meyer, David Mirkin, Mike Reiss, John Swartzwelder, Jon Vitti) and a couple of new guys who are respectable too (Ian Maxtone-Graham, Matt Selman).