28 July 2007

The Simpsons Movie


Saw The Simpsons Movie today. I found it to be one the best “episodes” in years of the show, but hey, I would rather have 10 seasons of so-so Simpsons episodes than one hour of The Family Guy.

The debate about The Simpsons Vs. The Family Guy will always go on -hell, even Matt Groening’s own son has said The Simpsons are over and that Family Guy is the hot show - but I think I know why my love of The Simpsons grows, even though the show is not as good as it once was.

While The Simpsons is fairly simple on the surface (much like Family Guy), but when you scratch that surface and see the next layer you see the show grappling with very real, and complicated issues. Oh, it’s not to say that there is no low-brow humor in it (I mean, pig poop in a pond is the main thrust of the movie), but the series tries to stay at a certain level.

Another words, if the joke is too easy, then they tend to avoid it, where The Family Guy will take the easy joke, because it can. But then, so Family Guy is not for everyone. The show has always gone for the more easy road when getting to the climax of a joke (and it usually involves farts). Plus, when they tell a joke, they also need to visualize for the audience -almost assuming that it’s fans are complete morons and can’t get a verbal joke.


Scratch The Family Guy’s surface and you get more surface. With The Simpsons, and its darker look at life, and with a coda that Matt Groening says is “about alienation, and the ambivalence of living with a family who you love, but who drive you completely crazy” you get more satisfaction -even with a few seasons of stinkers.

The Simpsons Movie is good, the animation great, and the jokes (with some working and others not) come fast and furious. But there is also a message in the film (along with a very clever opening), one not seen in a tent-pole film such as this.

But personally, I don’t see how a Family Guy film -which is rumored to be in the works - can be better than this film. But, then again, people sit through and then buy Larry the Cable Guy movies, and they’re about as funny as having a tooth execrated with out pain killers.

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