Difference between revisions of "The Simpsons Movie"

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The film's American theatrical poster.

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The Simpsons Movie is the only feature length film adaptation of The Simpsons. It is produced by Gracie Films for 20th Century Fox with animation produced by Film Roman and Rough Draft Studios and was released worldwide July 27 2007. The film has been produced by James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Al Jean, Mike Scully, and Richard Sakai and has been written by eleven of the television series' most prolific writers: Scully, Jean, Brooks, Groening, Ian Maxtone-Graham, George Meyer, David Mirkin, Mike Reiss, Matt Selman, John Swartzwelder and Jon Vitti. The film is directed by David Silverman, a former Simpsons supervising director. The film stars the regular television cast of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Pamela Hayden and Tress MacNeille.

Plot

A naked Bart hits the window of Krusty Burger, where Ned, Rod and Todd Flanders sit eating.

The movie starts off with Itchy and Scratchy on the moon when Itchy kills and abandons Scratchy. Back on Earth Itchy becomes a hero through lying about Scratchy's death and eventually the President. In his office he sees Scratchy is still alive and holding up a sign that says "I'm telling." Itchy thinks and thinks of what to do and eventually decides to shoot nuclear missiles at the moon. He then fires hundreds of missiles at Scratchy, who screams, causing him to swallow the missiles. After his stomach is full, the last missile stops at the stomach and takes a boot out of the tip and kicks Scratchy. Scratchy then explodes. Homer then stands up in a movie theater and says that everybody in the theater is a giant sucker because they can watch the TV show at home for free (a reference to how the actual audience can watch The Simpsons at home for free instead of paying for tickets.)

After the Itchy & Scratchy cartoon, the film opening consists of Waylon Smithers brushing their teeth with Montgomery Burns and he falls, Apu changing the Expiration date from 2006 to 2008, Martin Prince got flagpoled by 3 bullies, Bart's Chalkboard Gag, "I Will Not Illegally Download This Movie", and finally Green Day playing at a concert at Lake Springfield, . As they finish their song (The Simpsons Theme with a rock twist) they try to talk about the environment, which angers the audience to throwing trash at them. The trash in the water dissolves Green Day's barge and it sinks, killing them. At the funeral, which the Simpsons are late for (Reverend Timothy Lovejoy is up to the prayers of the faithful), First Ned told the Reverend to confess to a "modest sense of pride to our community", Hovever Grampa is possessed and begins to scream of a coming disaster foreshadowing the events on the film . This leads Marge to believe that God is sending them a message warning them about a future catastrophe (and is ultimately correct).

Later that day, after unsuccessfully trying to fix the roof. Homer and Bart play a game of dare, first the TV Antenna, the gutters, and now in which Homer dares Bart to skateboard nude to Krustyburger and back. His nudity was noticed by Disco Stu, Becky, Cookie Kwan, Ralph Wiggum (claiming that he loves men, after seeing Bart naked), Agnes Skinner, with Sherri and Terri and more people, and Bart gets in trouble with Chief Wiggum, who disables his skateboard. He leaves Bart handcuffed to a pole, as Nelson began laughing at him till sundown. Homer then arrives, but hearing that he would have to go to court if he admitted that he dared Bart, so he placed all the blame on him. He then gets Bart new clothes except pants as they walk into Krustyburger. Ned Flanders shows fatherly compassion towards Bart by providing him pants. Meanwhile, Homer adopts a pig as a pet when Krusty the Clown orders it to be killed shortly after taping a commercial and replaces Bart as his son.

Marge calls Comic Book Guy to her house, to write down the words Grampa said, in exchange for giving him her pregnancy pants. She becomes confused at the meaning of EPA, he responded, "I believe that's the sound Green Lantern made, when Sinestro threw him into a vat of acid" and then asks Grampa Simpson about the 1,000 eyes, he said, "I'm pretty sure a thousand is a number." Marge remembers what Grampa Simpson said about a twisted tail when Homer Simpson shows Marge the pig he adopted, increasing her concern. However, Homer makes her laugh by showing her that the pig can imitate her squeal and his belching.

Meanwhile, sad Bart is stuck outside feeling alone, while his dad, Homer rejecting him over Spider Pig/Harry Plopper, that infuriates Bart, however Ned Flanders calm him down, by taking him on a fishing trip together with no D'Ohzy antics from Homer at all, (ex: Using a bug zapper for catching fish/cheating his way to win.)

Meanwhile, Lisa starts to talk about the environment, with no success by the uninterested townsfolk of Springfield, until she meets an Irish boy named Colin and they combine their efforts to give a talk called "An Irritating Truth" at Town Hall. But because they wouldn't listen, she reveals that she put the lake water in their drinking glasses. The town then decides to clean up the lake after Mayor Quimby declares a state of emergency, Code Black when Lenny Leonard and Carl hears that word because he is African-American, he replies by saying, "Black, that's the worst color there is, No offense Carl." Carl Carlson replies, "I get that all the time." The townspeople tidies Lake Springfield and therefore, Fat Tony, Legs and Louie, Frankie the Squealer, and Johnny Tightlips were told no dumping in the lake. Mayor Quimby proves the effectiveness of their "idiot proof" barrier by telling Cletus to try dumping in the lake only to walk into the concrete barricade.

Marge realises Homer named the pig "Spider-Pig" and he keeps the pig's waste in a silo, which horrifies Marge, who tells Homer to dispose of it safely. She even encourages him to take Spider-Pig with him, but he states that he has renamed him "Harry Plopper". While waiting in a queue at the waste disposal plant, Homer is told by Lenny that Lard Lad Donuts has been shut down and that they are giving away free donuts. Homer decides on a quicker means of disposal and dumps the silo into the wonderfully clean lake, causing it to become heavily polluted. Shortly a squirrel falls in and is severely mutated, giving it many eyes, another part of Grampa Simpsons's prophetical vision. Nearby, Flanders and Bart bond during a hike, after fishing and discover the mutated squirrel, which is captured by the EPA. Ned Flanders shows his fatherly compassion again by showing the four states that's bordering Springfield, Ohio, Nevada, Maine and Kentucky and they saw the mutated squirrel, but ignored it by saying, "Thank the lord for the mighty fine design." Russ Cargill, head of the EPA, tells President Schwarzenegger that Springfield is so polluted that the government must take drastic action. He provides Schwarzenegger with five options and he picks option 3 at random without looking, saying he was elected to "lead, not to read". As a result, Springfield is quarantined/concealed in a giant glass destruction-proof dome that nobody can escape and is removed from the state map, ultimately fulfilling the prophetic vision Grampa had. First, Clancy Wiggum's Springfield Police Department's Homeland Security to shoot their rifles targeting the dome (which results in them getting hurt instead), Next, Professor Frink, announces that he had perfected an acid-firing superdrill that can cut through anything, however it's outside the dome, and finally, Sideshow Mel replacement for Sideshow Bob complains,"What kinda ruthless madmen could have done this to us???!!!" Russ Cargill appears and explains everything to the citizens of Springfield. Though Lisa states that they've cleaned up, Cargill throws back that someone did not get the message.

Kent Brockman says, "This is Kent Brockman on a crisis so serious it has its own name and theme music, "Trappuccino", gasoline, air, Botox shortage, the swallows being devoured by cats on their return to Springfield, and the ad for "Dome Depot" is now the result in their entrapment.

Marge claims to see Maggie on the other side of the dome, but when she brings Homer, Maggie is inside. When they're not looking, Maggie goes into the sinkhole that Homer covered with the sandbox.

The members of the Springfield Police Department Clancy Wiggum in association with Eddie and Lou soon find the pig waste silo in the lake, Homer says, "That could be anyone's pig waste silo", however the evidence in the silo said, "Please return to Homer Simpson, No Reward", and Kent said, "Just a reminder, this station doesn't endorse vigilante justice, unless it gets results, which it will!", as a result the sign says, "GET HIM!!!, Marge told him angrily that he did NOT listen to her after she warns him and is forced to apologized to the townspeople. Within seconds an angry mob approaches the Simpson's home intending to kill Homer. Homer fears that the mob will go after his family but the mob interjects that they just want him, even Grampa is in it. First Maggie Simpson stabs Mr. Teeny with a broken glass baby bottle, next when Colin gives Lisa roses, Carl Carlson torches them, Homer fakes a chainsaw imitation, Ned tells Bart and his folks to crawl on the plank, this results in Springfield Elementary students doing archery presented by, Seymour Skinner and Edna Krabappel (ex. Nelson Muntz uses a red arrow, just to murder Homer), Spider Pig/Harry Plopper pushes the plank down for the family to fall down, Marge gets their Wedding Video, escapes to their automobile, but no luck with Snake Jailbird and the others, then Otto Mann chains the treehouse and finally, the family escapes through a sinkhole Maggie discovered earlier, first Maggie, next Marge, also Bart by saying, "Geronimo!!" while he jumps, then Lisa by saying, "Sacajawea!!" while he jumps, and finally, Homer due to his size the sinkhole devours the Simpson's house, including the car, the treehouse and even Santa's Little Helper's doghouse. The Simpsons are soon declared on the run from every law and order state in America and is nominated for their recent China's Problem now. Cargill in particular, has gone mad with power, which he acknowledges to a subordinate.

In Red Rash Inn, Bart was drinking whiskey, because he is troubled due to missing Ned Flanders, being a father figure/role model, and therefore the family got angry at Homer, due to his stubborn nature. However, he presents a solution which he had prepared for if he ever screwed up so badly: he proposes that the entire family move to Alaska to which they eventually all agree on.

Next day, the family is at a carnival, where a carny is offering his truck if someone can ride a motorcycle in a spherical cage once, for three tries. However, three times Homer failed, so the carny gives him another try, just to see him get hurt. Lisa advises her father to not stop when he reaches the top, enabling him to win. As the Simpsons drive off in their new truck, the carny's Siamese wives aren't very happy.

While stopping for gas, Marge is eventually very proud of Bart for being sober, which he proves by knocking a hot dog out of Homer's hand with his slingshot. Marge tries to tell Bart to give Homer another chance but is cut off when she sees a wanted poster for them. She distracts the clerk from noticing, while Bart draws over the poster to match a similar looking family who had just walked in.

Meanwhile in Burns Manor, Julius Hibbert, Clancy Wiggum, and Apu Nahasapeemapetilon asked Waylon Smithers and Mr. Burns for electricity. The former two want to help patients at the hospital and fry prisoners respectively, but Apu tries reasoning with Burns, only to them chased by dogs.

An angry mob of townspeople come looking for Homer.

In Springfield, the townspeople are going crazy from running low on supplies, no electricity, and being cut off from the outside air. While on the Springfield Book Club, led by Helen Lovejoy discussing "Tuesdays with Morrie," Cookie Kwan, Lindsay Naegle, Bernice Hibbert, Luann Van Houten and the others complain and they attempt to break the dome, in a revelation started by Barney Gumble, that started by Drederick Tatum boxes the dome off, next The Sea Captain uses the swordfish to break the dome, then Ralph Wiggum blows bubbles to destroy the dome and finally, many Springfield residents, making cracks appear in the dome. This is witnessed by Russ Cargill from a security camera who tells the President that they can't keep Springfield in this state forever. If they get out, then the world will knows, which would mean bureaucratic investigations. Cargill asks the President to choose another plan out of five, but this time manipulates him to choose the plan to blow up Springfield (Option 4).

In Alaska, the family sees an advertisement presented by Tom Hanks promoting a new Grand Canyon, to be located where Springfield is next to Shelbyville & Capital City. Marge and the kids decide that they must save Springfield, but Homer refuses to help the town that tried to kill them. For example, he betrays them by saying, "I'm happy here, screw Springfield", The angry mob which in retrospect is his friends, chased him during Access Hollywood at 7PM, and he's thinking, "We've have a great life here in Alaska, and we're never going to America again!!". He comes back from a nearby Eski-Moe's Bar to play Grand Theft Walrus, and the next day to discover Marge left a video tape. She has left with the kids to save Springfield and to prove she has temporarily ended their marriage, she taped over their wedding video. Homer is left heartbroken and run out to find his family only to be mauled by a polar bear. It is chased off by an Inuit shaman, who drags Homer to her hut. She tells him that he must have an epiphany and begins the art of throat singing. Homer then enters a dreamworld, trying to find the right epiphany but is slapped, punched and kicked by "epiphitrees". When they pull his body apart, Homer realizes that he cannot survive without others, and must save Springfield and his family. He begins a long journey home, from driving a train of sled dogs, who attack and leave him when they started to rest, before walking. He starts to lose hope, until the northern lights turn into the shaman, who points the direction of Springfield with her breasts.

Meanwhile, Marge, Lisa, Maggie and Bart arrive at Seattle train station to inform the world of the EPA's plot. Unknowingly, they are overheard by a robotic drone, used by the National Security Agency to spy on people's conversation and are immediately arrested by Cargill upon arrival. A helicopter arrives and opens a hole at the top of the dome, lowering down a bomb, timed at 15 minutes. Carl tells everyone to climb the rope to safety while Cletus distracts him with his thumb. Homer soon discovers the family's capture and uses a crane to try and get them out after the truck stops at a crossing but with little success, by using SOP, YELD or ONE VAY signs. Bart then succeeds in gassing himself and the whole family to sleep after protesting to the driver, waking up in Springfield next morning, where Moe has become the self-proclaimed "Emperor of Springfield", although his leadership was unsuccessfully challenged by Barney. Cargill soon appears on a giant screen on the dome and tells the townspeople that Springfield is to be destroyed.

In order to save his family, Homer disguises himself as General Mariott Suites, gets some supplies, and Homer ultimately climbs the dome and descends down the helicopter rope, ironically knocking the escaping town people and bomb off the rope. Homer is upset when Bart disowns him for this and accidentally kicks down the bomb, halving its time limit, resulting in him being chased out of town again. The Comic Book Guy, discovers that he's been doing nothing in his life by collecting comic books. Bart is with Ned and his sons, Rod and Todd Flanders Bart wants to be part of Ned's Family, due to Homer's negligence towards him. Soon Homer notices a motorbike and tries to reconcile with sad/depressed Bart who had just declared to be with the Flanders family, and they cycle up the side of the dome. First, Homer grabs the abandoned bike from the open, then he borrows a hat from Rich Texan, and finally Bart, who eventually listens to his father's words and confesses that, "[He] wasn't much of a father anyway, because of the way my father raises [him]." He then reaches another epiphany about a cycle only to be interrupted by Marge to "just throw the goddamn bomb!". Meanwhile, Martin Prince slugs 3 bullies Jimbo Jones, Dolph Starbeam, & Kearney Zzyzwicz for picking on him at school and life. Bart throws the bomb through the hole, detonating it and shattering the dome to pieces. Afterwards, when they make a safe landing by Springfield Gorge, Cargill appears, deciding to cope with defeat and handle a shotgun by killing Homer, only to be knocked out by Maggie.

Everyone is safe except Dr Nick who is injured and/or killed when he is impaled by a large piece of dome glass. Lisa is told by Milhouse that Colin died when they were away only for him to appear afterwards. The town praises Homer, who rides off with Marge on the motorbike into the sunset. The film ends with everyone rebuilding the Simpsons house and restoring things back to the way they were.

The credits come to a pause, where we see Smithers with Mr. Burns in his looted manor, and the depressed millionaire suggests that suicide for Waylon Smithers might cheer him up sometime. The credits briefly pause again, when we see Tom Hanks asking the audience that if they see him in real life, to leave him be.

While the credits roll, the Simpsons are (still) watching the movie in a theater, and Lisa wants to see that no animals were harmed during filming, which she does. Before they leave, Maggie says "sequel". During the credits, the Springfield National Anthem was based on the French National anthem, La Marseillaise, due to Springfield admitting that they don't have their own anthem, and therefore they stole their tune by paying a short guy to write it, but vanished, because the French does outstanding things like making love, wine and Roquefort, Camembert and Brie cheese. At the very end of the credits, the Squeaky Voiced Teen cleans up the floor, not thinking four years in film school was really worth it.

Trivia

General

Moe's Tavern is named "Moe's Bar".
The ambulance wreckage from "Bart the Daredevil" remains at the side of Springfield Gorge.
Snowball II, doesn't appear during the movie.
The film's color & shading was brighter then color & shading used on the show since the film is made in a 16:3 aspect then 2 years later the same style of color & shading was used from the middle of season 20.
Dr. Nick Riviera is killed by a giant piece of the dome's glass yet in the season 20 episode "Lost Verizon" he is seen alive.
Bart's penis is briefly shown to the viewers during his nude ride to Krusty Burger, but up till then and after that it is blocked out.

Production

The season 4 episode "Kamp Krusty" was originally going to be a film, but difficulties were encountered in writing a movie length script, at which point the movie plans were dropped in favor of a season premiere.
Before his death, Phil Hartman had always wanted to create a live action Troy McClure film, with several of the staff saying that they would have loved to help create it.
Matt Groening expressed a wish to make Simpstasia, a parody of the Disney film Fantasia.
Production began in 2001.
Numerous plots were considered: Al Jean suggested the family saving manatees, which became the 2005 episode "Bonfire of the Manatees", and there was a The Truman Show-style notion of the characters discovering their lives were a TV show, which Groening rejected due to his rule "that the Simpsons never become aware of themselves as celebrities", however this idea was later put in as the plot in The Simpsons Game where the family discover that their lives are a video game.
94 characters have speaking parts.
Series regulars Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Marcia Wallace, Pamela Hayden, Russi Taylor, Tress MacNeille and Maggie Roswell reprised their roles for the film, as did Joe Mantegna for Fat Tony. Albert Brooks plays Russ Cargill, Green Day and Tom Hanks play themselves.
Minnie Driver recorded the part of a patronizing grievance counselor in a scene that was cut, as were Edward Norton, Isla Fisher and Erin Brockovich's scenes, and Kelsey Grammer's as Sideshow Bob.
Hans Zimmer provided the score, ahead of regular composer Alf Clausen.
Although credited, Patty, Selma, Edna Krabappel and Kang did not have speaking parts in the final cut, the first three had parts in the DVD's deleted scenes. Kodos was also in one version of the movie; he and Kang slated the film over the end credits, however this was cut after the test screening.

Marketing and release

Homer Simpson sitting on his couch in a Superman t-shirt and briefs in the teaser trailer that debuted on March 31 2006.

In 'Treehouse of Horror XVII', first shown on November 05,2006, in the credits executive producer Al Jean's name had the date of the release as a middle name.
A teaser trailer for the film was attached to the film Ice Age: The Meltdown from March 31 2006 onwards; the same trailer was then broadcast during the April 2 episode of The Simpsons, "Million Dollar Abie".
In July 2006, two clips of early, black and white, unfinished animatic footage from the film were shown to audiences during a Simpsons panel at Comic-Con 2006, with a third animatic clip being released on the The Simpsons The Complete Ninth Season DVD boxset.
A 1½-minute-long trailer was then shown on November 12, 2006, immediately after the second act of The Simpsons episode "G.I. (Annoyed Grunt)".
Another 1½-minute trailer appeared on The Sun newspaper's website on December 11, 2006.
On the February 14 2007, episode of American Idol, footage was shown of the contestants attending a private screening where they were shown an early preview of the first theatrical trailer. The same trailer was then shown during The Simpsons episode "Springfield Up" on February 18, 2007, and was made available online shortly afterwards.
A short TV spot was then aired during the episode "You Kent Always Say What You Want".

Marge and Homer look at the silo in their back yard in the animatic included on the season 9 DVD set.

McFarlane Toys will released a line of action figures based on the film, these include Ned Flanders and Bart looking over a rock at a character that is covered by a "Top Secret Character" logo. Others include Bart skateboarding naked having been dared by Sherri and Terri, Homer and his pet pig, and Itchy & Scratchy in "Presidential Politics". Also a series of "movie mayhem" figures, depicting the family in a cinema, were released.
The Simpsons Game was released to coincide with the film's DVD release.
Samsung released a special Simpsons Movie phone, and Microsoft will released a limited edition Simpsons Movie Xbox 360.
Other merchandise that was released includes a The Simpsons Movie donut-shaped stress reliever, as well as a badge pack.
As a promotion for the film, eleven 7-Eleven stores across America will be transformed into Kwik-E-Marts, and sell Squishees, Buzz Cola and Krusty-O's Cereal.
The film is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for "irreverent humor throughout". The rating had been expected by the production staff.
Fox held a competition between sixteen Springfields across the United States to host the American premiere, with Springfield, Vermont being selected as the winner.
Test screenings were held in Portland, Oregon and Tempe, Arizona.
The film made a total of $526,417,972 at the box-office.
The film garnered an 90% freshness rating on critical site Rotten Tomatoes.
At the 2007 MLB Allstar game, Homer announced the starting lineups and saying something funny about each player: "Chase Utley, wait why would I want to do that?"

Cultural references

File:Happyfeetgrandtheft.jpg

Happy Feet and Grand Theft Auto reference.

Titanic: Green Day play "Nearer, My God, to Thee" on violins as their barge sinks, a reference to the film.
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery: When Bart is riding his skateboard naked, different passing objects are constantly covering his genitalia, a nod to similar techniques used in the film.
Disney: Homer and Marge's love scene parodies many Disney films, with Disney-style animals helping them undress. Also, Bart, while wearing a black bra on his head like Disney-style ears, impersonates Mickey Mouse on the train, calling himself "the mascot of an evil corporation".
Grand Theft Auto: Homer plays Grand Theft Walrus, an allusion to the video game series.
Happy Feet: In the above game, his character shoots a tap-dancing penguin in reference to the film.
Spider-Man (1967 TV series): The "Spider-Pig" song is a parody of the theme song of the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon.
Harry Potter: Homer renames Spider-Pig Harry "Plopper" and dresses him in glasses and a lightning scar, an obvious parody of the Harry Potter character.
An Inconvenient Truth: The name of Lisa's lecture, An Irritating Truth, is a play on Al Gore's documentary.
Full Metal Jacket: The bomb disposal robot was based on Vincent D'Onofrio's character Leonard "Pyle" Lawrence, who commits suicide in a similar way.
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi: At the end of the film, the crowd's celebration is similar to the conclusion of the final Star Wars film, with Carl performing the exact same hand gestures as Lando Calrissian.
Hillary Clinton: The former Democratic Presidential candidate appears as Itchy's vice president.
Independence Day: The scene where the EPA Dome is delivered to Springfield (notably the immense shadow covering Springfield and the People's reactions) resembles the Alien Destroyers positioning themselves over Washington DC, New York City, and Los Angeles scenes in the movie.

Mrs. Glick is playing American Idiot:Funeral version at Green day's funeral.American Idiot is one of Green Day's best-known songs

External links

The Simpsons Movie Official website

Characters