THE PACK Message Boards

I worked on the show, but I'm also just a long-time fan. Everyone put your reviews here. I'll be seeing this movie today.

I'm back. Saw it. Loved it. About as good as a Simpsons movie could be. Funny, without being overly gross or mean-spirited (aka Family Guy) Looks GREAT on a big screen.

Yeah, I noticed from the trailers that they really went all out with the animation. There's a steady but noticeable incline in the quality of the show's animation from the early years to the newer years (probably because they went from hand-drawn to computers... which, unfortunately, started making them a bit lazy with their camera angles when compared to earlier episodes. They use the same ones a lot more, and a lot of angles ended up looking a lot like a sitcom like Married... With Children, where it was filmed on a stage. Yeah, there were a lot of others, but just most... I'm not doing too good at explaining what I mean). However, the movie seems to be kicking the a** of any animation the show has had, without sacrificing good camera work.

I'm a bit skeptical, though. I'm a pretty big fan of The Simpsons, but there are only a few new episodes that I like.

Well ravaged did you see the MOVIE? Want to see you MOVIE review :}

To me, it was just like a regular episode of the Simpsons, only it was longer and it cost me $7.50 to watch. Apart from some enhanced visuals (which I'd say were on par with Futurama and were only upgraded at all to justify it being a movie instead of a miniseries), it was the exact same stuff I can watch on TV for free.

So afterwards, I kinda' felt like, well. . . Remember in the early episodes of South Park, they had an episode that ended with "tune in next time!" but before the second part, they ran the half-hour Terrance & Philip episode? That and the Simpsons movie made me feel the same way: Like the big joke was not anywhere in the movie, but was actually being played on the people watching it. I used to love the Simpsons, but lately I've been getting the impression that Matt Groening is just laughing at how dumb his devoted fans are for continuing to watch whatever crap he throws at them.

Not bashing any of the work that went into it Matt. If Camp Lycanthrope looks even half as good as the animation in The Simpsons, it'll be an instant classic. I just really hate Matt Groening right now.

Damn. I tried to see it tonight, but it was sold out! Maybe I can go tomorrow after work.

Why do you hate Matt Groening?

MattSullivan wrote:Why do you hate Matt Groening?

Well, like I said, I felt like the biggest joke of all was on me. It was basically just another Simpsons episode, except I had to leave the comfort of my own home and pay money to go see it.

I kinda' felt like the person laughing the most during the movie was Matt Groening at all the people that went out to go see it. That's why I'm none too thrilled with him right now.

Terastas wrote:To me, it was just like a regular episode of the Simpsons, only it was longer and it cost me $7.50 to watch.

D'OH!

I thought it was okay. The visual jokes were probably my favorite. I gotta say though, I felt they broke character a few times. I mean, I know the Simpsons have dealt with everything, from going into space to raising a lobster to homosexuality to marijuana, but I felt that a few scenes went too far. To me, the Simpsons world doesn't have weighty curse words, full frontal nudity, drug use (except alcohol), or flipping the bird. They just live in their little jaundiced universe, occasionally approaching the line but never crossing it. It makes my heart sigh to imagine that they included what they did because of their rapidly fading audience, competition from newer, "edgier" animated sitcoms, or that they can put all the stuff in the motion picture they can't on TV.

Just my two cents.

Going to have to disagree with you about Simpsons universe not including drug use of full frontal nudity, but lately I have been getting the impression that Matt Groening was mooching off of Seth MacFarlane's material.

Something I once said of Disney is that they've been around for so long that they can essentially get away with directly ripping off their rival studios (namely Dreamworks) and yet everyone will believe Disney was the studio that got ripped off (Madagascar vs. The Wild, for example). I'm starting get the impression that the people behind the Simspsons, the longest running sitcom in history, have realized they can get away with it too.

Its hard to say which of those films got ripped off first. According to some, The Wild was in production before Madagascar.

Dude, terastas, Family Guy was mooching off The Simpsons first. They only SEEM like they're being originalbecause they've pushed the limits far past what used to be allowed on television.

Just got back from a double header at the cinema...Transformers followed by The Simpsons..

I gotta be honest, i would of happily waited to see The Simpsons on DVD when it comes out. I've seen far better normal episodes. Don't get me wrong, it was funny and definitely had it's moments but, well.... I guess I just expected too much from it.
The highlight of my day was Transformers. Just Brilliant. I think I probly enjoyed it more than my 2 sons!!

Shadow Wulf wrote:Its hard to say which of those films got ripped off first. According to some, The Wild was in production before Madagascar.

MattSullivan wrote:Dude, terastas, Family Guy was mooching off The Simpsons first. They only SEEM like they're being originalbecause they've pushed the limits far past what used to be allowed on television.

See what I mean?

There are three reasons I think Madagascar was the original:
1) Better graphics.
2) Better storyline.
3) Made it all the way to DVD before The Wild was even in theaters.

So Madagascar was a much better, much higher quality movie, and The Wild was basically a rehash of Finding Nemo. . . But when it came out, countless people still believed The Wild was the first just because their Uncle Bob or whoever told them so. . .

Because it was Disney. "And Disney has been the sole provider of animated entertainment for 50 years; the idea of Disney plagiarizing is unfathomable, so the only way those two movies could have been similar is if the other studio ripped Disney off!"

Lately I've seen the same thing happening with the Simspons.

First of all, don't tell me Family Guy ripped off the Simpsons. I've seen all the evidence, and if you expect me to believe Family Guy ripped off the Simpsons, you might as well tell me that every freakin' sitcom in existence has ripped off the Simpsons. Sure, The Simpsons had an episode where Marge was addicted to gambling, and Family Guy had an episode where Lois was addicted to gambling, but you can't possibly convince me that Marge missing Lisa's school play was the inspiration for Lois selling the car and getting the entire family indentured to an Indian casino. My initial impression of the Simpsons/Family Guy feud was that Matt Groening was pissed that he wasn't the one and only authority on animated sitcoms anymore.

So Family Guy has used basic concepts used by the Simpsons. . . But lately I have been seeing The Simpsons using blatantly direct sight gags taken from Family Guy.

And when I pointed them out when I saw them, can you guess what people said?

"It was Family Guy that ripped them off!" Even though the Family Guy episodes had been aired years ahead of the current Simpsons episodes I was questioning, people still insisted that The Simpsons was the original. . .

Because it's The Simpsons! "And Matt Groening has been the sole provider of animated sitcoms for 20 years; the idea of Matt Groening plagiarizing is unfathomable, so the only way those two TV shows could have been similar is if the other artist ripped Matt Groening off!"

See what I mean? They've both been around so long that nobody questions their integrity anymore. Matt Groening could have Santa's Little Helper suddenly come into the room drinking a Martini and listening to Vivaldi and people would still insist that Brian was the ripoff.

Terastas wrote:the idea of Disney plagiarizing is unfathomable

That actually is pretty funny. I'd challenge anyone saying that to watch A Bug's Life followed by Seven Samurai and tell me how original Disney is again. But then again, we're not exactly talking about Disney, we're talking about Pixar (Bug's Life still applies), who actually tends to be a lot more original than Disney, I can see where the problem would lie here, since Madagascar was a much newer movie, and let's face it, everyone steals from Seven Samurai. Even Rambo is stealing from Seven Samurai, though not as blatantly.

ravaged_warrior wrote:

Terastas wrote:the idea of Disney plagiarizing is unfathomable

That actually is pretty funny. I'd challenge anyone saying that to watch A Bug's Life followed by Seven Samurai and tell me how original Disney is again. But then again, we're not exactly talking about Disney, we're talking about Pixar (Bug's Life still applies), who actually tends to be a lot more original than Disney, I can see where the problem would lie here, since Madagascar was a much newer movie, and let's face it, everyone steals from Seven Samurai. Even Rambo is stealing from Seven Samurai, though not as blatantly.

I was actually toying with the idea of comparing that to Antz originally, but didn't because I thought my post was long enough.

For those of you who don't remember, Antz and A Bug's Life came out roughly the same time as well (like only a month or two apart), but Antz had stunning visuals (especially by the then current standards) and focused on the struggle between collective and independent thought, while A Bug's Life was just another movie about the outcast trying to fit in. Once again though, Pixar made the first fully CGI movie, so a lot of people fall victim to considering them the automatic original as well.

Well, not to burst your bubble or anything, but I worked at Dreamworks when ANTZ was being made. Jeffrey katzeberg ( the ceo ) assembled every employee and basically told us we had to finish ANTZ first, in order to "squash that other bug movie"

Terastas wrote:the struggle between collective and independent thought

Sounds like Ayn Rand's Anthem to me. There's a lot more originality in the storyline of Antz, but it isn't the most original film ever made, either.

I watched The Simpson Movie today. Overall I thought the whole thing was pretty funny alot of people laughs synchronized through the entire movie, I was also amazed of how many people were at the theater to watch Simpsons......it was on a Sunday early afternoon! My friends loved it!

I wish they wouldnt have insert that explicit scene when Bart was Skateboarding.

I wanna see it. Hopefully it's better than the latest few seasons. IMO Old Simpsons/Futurama>Family Guy>New Simpsons.

Just saw it. It was very good, and the animation was superb. I thought that the plot was generally as stupid as some of the new episodes, but luckily the humor wasn't.

Shadow Wulf wrote:I wish they wouldnt have insert that explicit scene when Bart was Skateboarding.

Me, too, but at least it was a pretty good joke poking fun at the ridiculous ways of censoring nudity in cartoons, usually something like a cloud or someone's head (usually a sight gag, but the reverse was a sight gag here). Also, at least it purposely wasn't detailed. Thank god for that.

I won't touch the plagiarism thing, but I will say I've personally come to the conclusion that the show is just getting old, which is not a bad thing. Things change as time goes on. There's only so much they can do with the limits they have.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they made the movie. I just wish I had liked it better.