I'm on point for a Friday viewing of the film (can't wait!), but I picked up The Simpsons Movie soundtrack today.  Clocking in at a little over forty minutes, this one is a short albeit enjoyable listen.  This is Zimmer in orchestral-comedic mode, and so far it's working for me.  There is, of course, the wider cinematic soundscape, as pronounced by the heavier, more weighty instrumentation and use of choir -- but the softer tonality adheres pretty closely to Alf Clausen's "incidental" composing style from the TV series, giving it a sense of familiarity.  Zimmer does Elfman's theme justice, from the pound-for-pound recreation in the opening track to its several variations (some subtle, many quite epic) throughout.  The movie-exclusive's main theme serves as something of an extention to the Elfman theme, and while it's a little more sillier and a bit less edgier than said famous theme, it does carry its presence throughout the score.

And then there are the four "stand-out" tracks, verily different from the rest of the album's flavor, which at least demands one to sit up and pay attention.  "Release The Hounds" is the best of the quartet selection; smokin' surf-rock meets Stray Cats with sensibilities pointing to nothing but absolute coolness.  "Bart's Doodle" is unabashedly self-aware in its whimsical-soaked 'la-la' driven vocal-fest, and it's not hard to figure out what "Spider-Pig" is parodying, making it both at once satirically hilarious and unsettlingly creepy.   And I'm going to venture a guess that "Recklessly Impulsive" covers at least part of the end credits; it's a techno-trance reprisal of the movie-exclusive's main theme, which although makes a pretty spiffy listen (it's much better than what Tiesto attempted to do with the PoTC remixes), it might have been even better to integrate the Elfman theme in the mix as well.

Did you happen to pick up the limited edition? I couldn't find it at any the stores I went to, so I had to go for the bland, sugarless jewel case variety.

Listening to the CD, it's hard not to yearn for the simpler stylings of Clausen's TV scores, but the epic quality of the score is growing on me. I especially love it when the epic stuff is used to humorous effect. In particular, "Clap for Alaska" makes fantastic use of the choir, transforming Alaska from wasteland to Promiseland. I can't wait to see the accompanying scene.

I'm also quite fond of the touching melody (and the many interpretations of said melody) featured in "You Doomed Us All... Again" and "Lead, Not to Read." It sounds strangely familiar, though, as if I've heard something similar before. Regardless, the piano solo in "You Doomed Us..." is surprisingly moving, while the remix is tons of techno fun.

And perhaps I'm too easy to please, but the choral rendition of "Spider-Pig" is quite possibly the most brilliant thing I've ever heard. The lyrics are a hilarious take on the original theme, and I especially love how they emphasize the "gu" sound in the background.  It is a tad on the short side at only a minute or so, and I would have liked a second verse, but it's still my second-favorite track on the album after the thrilling fun of "Release the Hounds."

I am slightly disappointed that the Green Day cover of the theme wasn't put on the soundtrack. I also would've liked more sax representation -- Lisa's sax solo in the opening is all I remember hearing.

As for the movie itself, it's already opened in the UK, and I'm told that it's "really good," although the trailers are a bit misleading when it comes to certain plot points. I would've pressed for more details, but I didn't want to spoil the plot for myself further.

Unfortunately I haven't been excited about the Simpsons in years. I remember the last season I watched (years ago) I kept sitting through episodes and thinking "this just isn't funny"... so anyway, I think the show should have retired long ago. That said, I imagine the movie will be OK, but not more than that.

"Not as bad as it could be, but certainly not as good as you want."
http://www.accessatlanta.com/movies/mov … iewId=5322

cheers,

-avatar!

Yeah, I went with the sugarless too..... only because I don't think the limited edition was released yet?  It hits retailers on 7/31, if I'm not mistaken.  I've got it on order at Amazon.

But I concur, Spider-Pig is relentlessly addicting; damned near hypnotizing in its siren-like choir allure.  "Why Does Everything I Whip Leave Me?" has fast become my favorite track, though; a sweepingly epic, adventurous variation of the movie's main theme.

Dude, is your radar set to hone in on pessimism and negative reviews exclusively?

"With a hearty "Woo-hooo" and no "doh" spared, The Simpsons make the journey from small screen to big with their subversive wit, their wanderlust and their sentimental streak entirely intact."
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertai … b_06_txt+c

"The Simpsons is pretty much exactly the movie everyone hoped it would be -- fast, funny and filled with a thousand quickie jokes and odd angles that enhance the central story without distracting from it."
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar … 1034/ENT02

"Forget the recent griping and backlash, The Simpsons Movie has bragging rights as the best cartoon-to-cinema outing. Period."
http://www.totalfilm.com/cinema_reviews … sons_movie

I'm excited. ToyFare's "Top 20 Simpsons Characters" list made me realize how big a fan I used to be of the series, even if there were good times followed by the requisite bad times.

On that note, can anyone think of a series, animated or otherwise that hasn't seen a bad season of couple episodes?

Well, I think every series has "bad" episodes. However the Simpsons has had bad seasons!
I agree with this guy at:
http://www.jumptheshark.com/topic/simps … ments/1795
He says:
"I'm with a lot of the posters here, definitely jumped sometime in the late 90's. It is hard to pinpoint the exact moment. I think it really hit me in the episode where Frank Grimes comes back, but it actually ends up being Frank Grimes son and there is some bit where Homer is running from him on stilts. And then Lisa kept getting more progressive, Homer steadily kept getting dumber (Not saying he was ever sharp, but remember the episode in season 4 where he names off the progression of chief justices and ends up at Chief Justice Berger..mmmmm...Burger)

So I will go see the movie for sure. I loved this show as a kid and own the earlier seasons (3-8 or 9) on dvd and have really enjoyed watching the older eps again because you can appreciate them from a whole different perspective and sense of humor than you would have as a kid."

Definitely the older episodes were great! Unfortunately sometime after season 8 or 9 the show went downhill. It just became too strange and I couldn't relate to it like I used to. Well, I think that would have been a beautiful time to end the series, but it's so popular Fox obviously had other ideas (not that I can blame them from a financial point of view).

cheers,

-avatar!

That's true, maybe there isn't such thing as a series that's been consistently great throughout.

Just a question, is the Elfman-esque choir song on the album?

As soon as anyone has seen the movie, please post a review here, I'm still very ambivalent about this one, and I'd love to hear all your opinions.

I don't think there's a series without a bad or weak episode somewhere, but I think Futurama and Batman: TAS had consistently great seasons.  Justice League also had two great seasons before they turned it into that Unlimited thing.

On the non-animated side, Firefly had a surprisingly good season for its short run, and it's rare for a show to get things right so quickly.  I've found that many shows seem to hit their stride around seasons three, four, and five.

^ Interesting that you mention Justice League... I really didn't like it (got to the third or fourth disc of season one), and yet I find Justice League Unlimited more enjoyable.  I think the constant 2 part episodes really didn't work, because it just seemed to add a lot of filler within the episode or something.

I saw it yesterday and I absolutely loved it. Mind you, I like the recent seasons, so you probably won't enjoy it so much. Although there are many hit-or-miss jokes, the good outweighs the bad.

I just got back from seeing it... nothing they couldn't have done on television and I'm not so sure all the embedded cg was necessary.  Funny though, and worth the $5.  Due to a spoiler I won't say of what it is that I just disapprove though.  Not yet at least.  When's it safe to discuss spoilers?  Or how do you do that whiteout thing?

Came back from last night's showing, and yeah, I generally felt pretty great about it.  Just sitting in that theater, soaking in those first few moments before the show, thinking, "I'm really here.  And before me is the movie that I, just like everyone else who's sitting in this theater tonight, have been waiting eighteen years to see.  The Simpsons!  On the big screen!"  There was a special kind of electricity coursing through that theater last night, and I think everybody knew it.  And when that 20th Century Fox splash screen showed up, along with that spiffy 'addition', the audience cheered and clapped.  If nothing else, this was going to be fun to watch by virtue of the crowd alone.

Splurge on plot details I won't, but I will say that, for better or for worse, the film is multi-functional, moonlighting as both a three-in-one long episode and a movie.   For better or for worse?  What does she mean by that?  What I mean is, they introduce the basis of the plot at the beginning, the lead-in stuff which is arguably the best part of the film, and front-end it all into the first twenty minutes - in other words, the stuff that just feels purely unadulterated episodic Simpsons.  But once the crux of the plot kicks in, things do get more cinematically-formulaic, much more weighty and emotionally-involving.  Now, any good movie is supposed to do that, of course, but to me, the balancing felt a tad skewered because of it.  Maybe it's my brain being stuck in that twenty-two minute run time frame, but when the "weighty and emotionally-involving" factors kick in, well..... it felt a tad more prolonged and drawn out than it should've been.  Which many will argue needs to happen, being a full-length movie, after all - and the fact that there's resolution to the issues presented at least allows them to come full circle.  But for me, it did steer away on what makes the Simpsons so fun in the first place.

Still, that's made up for the fact that the jokes and visual gags, though largely predictable and tongue-in-cheek at times, are hilarious and plentiful.  Pop cultural references are tastefully done, and while some characters are slightly more emphasized over others, rest assured; they were able to squeeze in just about every key character of the series into the movie, giving them a memorable scene, be they in a brief speaking role or just having them doing some little action somewhere in a scene.  The voice acting is spot-on, and from start to finish, the animation is top-notch and bursting with clarity and color.  The music as heard in the film did seem to be condensed from the soundtrack release; like the cues were segmented, and patched in here and there.  And be forewarned; several tracks are mislabled on the soundtrack, as is the track order.  "Release The Hounds," for instance, might just as well have been called "Bart's Doodle" because it accompanies that particular sequence.  And I'm certain that "World's Fattest...." intermingles somewhere along the film's timeline of "Lead, Not To Read," rather than the CD's.       

How to best sum up the movie?  It's a good Simpsons outing, a great animation, and an appropriately enjoyable movie experience.  Like any good episode from the TV series, it leaves folks with a lot to talk about, and I can see a whole new era of memorable quotes and references making their way into normal conversations.  To me, that makes The Movie a successful adaptation.

(I do have to wonder, though.  What became of Spider-Pig?  I'm disappointed that they dropped that story arc midway, and never came back to it again. -_-;)

Just click on Quote reply on the post I did just after yours.  You'll see the formula there.

Spoiler discussion?  I'm still waiting on when we can do it for At World's End!  But I suppose that ship has sailed by now.....

Oh, I see.  So, I am disappointed that they killed off Dr Nick.  Actually, when all is said and done, I think that the movie would have made a good enough send off for the show.  Speaking of the show, I'm guessing this movie's animation has not been the status quo, but will it be for the next season?

Not really, open one up and say what you want.  People have had plenty of time to see it if they wanted to see it.

$5!  Lucky you.  Matinees around here cost $7.50.

Nearly $14 where I am for an adult ticket. I hate you both, incidentally.

For a MATINEE?  Something's screwy with Canada, for sure.....

$7.50 here in the Queens NYC area, $10.50 regularly.  Given all the movies I've seen this summer (some multiple times), I'm surprised I didn't need to take out a small loan to support this hobby.

Yeesh, those tickets are expensive. In Seattle, a regular ticket is around $9.50 and matinee $7.25.

I've heard ticket prices in London are MUCH worse! My friend said they were ridiculously expensive. Well, I looked it up and according to this site:

http://www.frommers.com/articles/3651.html

a movie ticket in London is $23.25...D-A-M-N

-avatar!

Ouch... Then again, everything is expensive in London. A cup of regular coffee for almost four bucks?

To be fair, while I found seasons ~10-12 to be almost unwatchable, the last few seasons have seen an increase in quality due to the return of Al Jean as show runner. It's still nowhere near as good as it used to be, but it's much better than it was during the "dark years."

For those ambivalent about watching the movie, it should be noted that many of the best writers from the show's golden years came back for it, and I thought it showed. If I had to place the tone of the humor, I'd say it was around season 8 or 9. Homer's a bit too much of a jerk in the movie (whereas in earlier seasons of the show he was just a dumb oaf), but I suppose it had to be that way for plot purposes. The movie does, however, recapture some of the heart and sentimentality that the last few seasons have lacked, yet does so without being overly treacly.

The jokes and sight gags are generally hilarious, with a few truly laugh-out-loud quotes. There's also quite a bit of social/political commentary, but they manage implement it without getting too, well, "preachy!" ^_^

Seriously, what was up with that? I was rather shocked at the scene that "Bart's Doodle" actually accompanied. I wasn't expecting it at all!

A friend and I were discussing that as well. One of the characteristics of latter-day Simpsons episodes has been the dropping of plot points from earlier in the episode, so I was disappointed that they seemingly forgot about that. However, I did just read an interview where the producers acknowledge that (spoilers follow)there was a scene with Spider-Pig at the end of the movie that was cut. Also, he'll be appearing in at least one episode during the upcoming 19th season.(spoilers end)

I must find some way to incorporate "No he can't; he's a pig." into daily conversation.

Just saw it myself, and I was very pleased overall.
Placing it around season 8 in terms of humor seems about right, not being as good as anything they did in 4, 5 or 6, but still very enjoyable.
The story was told pretty adequately I thought, and the drama was pretty touching too.

There were some "I've heard that line before" moments which was kind of a shame, but also plenty of background references to older episodes, which was good.

I really missed Sideshow Bob though.

As for the biggest shock to me, that must've been Marge saying "goddamn" near the end, I didn't think she had it in her

My favorite quote was "There's something odd about that SOP sign"

Nice one, I'll probably get it on DVD once it hits the stores.

I saw it and thought it was entertaining, but it certainly didn't have the magic the show had during its heyday. Still, there were a few good moments, but not anything that would make me want to purchase the DVD nor see it again. The movie is doing very very well raking in the cash, so I'd be surprised if there isn't talk about the next 2 or 3 sequels even as I write this...

cheers,

-avatar!

It's strange. They advertised the fact that every Simpsons character ever was supposed to appear in the movie, but I didn't spot Sideshow Bob or Kang and Kodos (though my friend says he saw Kang listed in the credits). Maybe I just wasn't looking hard enough.

There's supposed to be tons of unused footage, and theoretically the DVD will have it all. In one of the early screenings, Kang and Kodos made fun of the movie during the end credits. I wish they had kept that in, but hopefully it'll show up on the DVD.

The Critic.  Seasons 1 & 2 were flawless.

But it did not age well at all.

I saw it earlier this week and I was pleasantly surprised.  Even though I think the more recent seasons have been improving, I still wasn't expecting much, and this movie was pretty damn good.  I'm a little surprised at how much more of a jackass they made Homer than he normally is, but not as surprised as I am by how much cash it raked it.  I didn't think anybody cared about The Simpsons anymore.  Glad to see that's not the case.

Are you kidding me?  Please explain.

I  enjoyed it when it first aired.  I bought it when it came out on DVD and watched it.  It wasn't really funny or flawless, and I regretted the purchase.  I sold it rather quickly.  To be fair, the show probably would've gotten better if it was allowed to live long enough.  I think The Critic was the only ABC animated primetime show that actually made it to two "seasons".