Channel Frederator Blog

(don’t worry, it’s spoiler free.)

It should surprise no one that “The Simpsons Movie” crushed the rest of the movies on its opening weekend at the box office. Not only has the fanbase for this movie been built since 1986, the Simpsons have become a cultural institution in this country. No matter how old, lame and out of touch one is, everyone still knows where that ubiquitous “D’oh” comes from.

Ah, Simpsons. What a long, strange trip it’s been. Now, the cynics out there will tell you that the Simpsons jumped the shark roughly eight years ago, and they have a pretty good case for that assertion. The first eight seasons of the show have to be recognized by anyone with half a brain as eight seasons of the highest quality, most transcendent television ever made. I can remember the first time I saw a Simpsons short on the Tracy Ullman show as a child. Every week after that you would find me, sitting in my kitchen, watching a fuzzy UHF television station (look it up, kids) to get my Simpsons fix every week.

That isn’t to say that the plug on the show shouldn’t have been pulled before season nine. This may get me lynched, but I don’t care. At that point the show lost its magic and became just another predictable TV sitcom, complete with pigeonholed famous guest star and tired, telegraphed plot week after week after week. It was unbearable (especially if you grew up with a “Life is Hell” book under your bed), and truly heartbreaking to those of us who grew to love it from childhood.

Thankfully, this movie does present somewhat of a return to form to the old days when the writing was stellar and the characters still felt fresh. Certainly, the movie is also a well deserved payoff to the voice talent and creative team that brought this creation to life for so long with so much talent. So if you haven’t seen it yet, get out there, forget the other garbage at the theater right now, and hand over your hard earned dollars to some people who truly deserve it. Despite the rough patches, they have still given us 20 years of memorable laughs, lines and characters… and that is far more than I’m accustomed to getting from pop culture in these times.
-Kenneth England