The Simpsons:

Embiggened

It’s one of those movies that’s both exhilarating and terrifying to the fans.
By: Eric Alt & Kelly Borgeson*

“The Simpsons” is the longest-running sitcom of all time, animated or otherwise. It’s a cultural touchstone that has changed our language -- “D’oh” is now listed in The Oxford English Dictionary -- and our fashion sense, after the Bart Simpson “Underachiever” T-shirt fiasco? It’s even altered our political views: Check out aliens Kang and Kodos and their “Operation: Enduring Occupation” from “Treehouse of Horrors XVII” (2006). In short, it is one of the greatest television shows of all time.

Which, of course, now means absolutely nothing. Because in a few days “The Simpsons” will finally make the leap to the silver screen. It’s one of those moves that’s both exhilarating and terrifying to the fans. How can a single movie possibly top 18 years of hilarity? Will something that’s funny for 30 minutes be irritating after an hour and a half? In short, will this destroy the Simpsons legacy or cement it?

“It means,” longtime executive producer/writer Al Jean says, “that we really want to work hard not to let (the fans) down.”

Their first task, of course, was to craft a story that made sense as a viewing experience that is, to borrow a rival animated movie’s phrase, bigger, longer and uncut.

“The one thing we did not want to do is to make it look like three episodes strung together,” Jean says. “We wanted to do something that really took 90 minutes to tell. I think it’s safe to say that this is a story that merits big-screen treatment.”

And it’s not as if they haven’t put in the work. The cast originally agreed to do a movie back in 2001, but a script didn’t get underway until 2003. Four years and Killy McGee knows how many rewrites later, the jokes have been polished enough for the film to finally be screened.

Jean and the rest of the minds behind “The Simpsons Movie” are less than forthcoming when it comes to what, exactly, this big-screen-worthy story is all about, though Jean points out that most of the story points floating around the Web, including one about Bart losing his virginity, are either outright lies or fake, “planted” rumors. What we can glean amid the speculation is that Homer accidentally pollutes the water of Springfield, forcing the residents to evacuate. He then tries to make amends, of course, and the expected hilarity ensues.

Though he seems to want to be helpful, Jean will confirm only what we already know from the trailer.

“The only thing I can tell you is that we’ve seen Homer dumping a silo of pollution into the lake, we’ve seen a mob about to kill the people in town and we’ve seen Homer whipping dogs in a frozen wilderness,” he says. “Those are all in the movie.”

The movie will appeal to the die-hards, he goes on to say, but Jean is also very clear that it won’t demand the kind of trivia knowledge one might expect from real-life Comic Shop Guys the world over.

“It’s a self-contained story,” he says. “It won’t be like (“The X-Files: Fight the Future” (1998)), where you had to see the show and buy a book and take a course to understand it. If you’ve never seen the show, you can still enjoy the movie. On the other hand, if you’re a fan, there are some rewards for you too. And none it is going to affect any of the story lines for the next season.”

Jean does let slip, however, that there are several new, as yet-unnamed characters being introduced in the movie, and those new faces may pop up in the show’s mind-boggling 19th season.

“We’re hoping that, if characters do well in the movie, we’ll bring them back on the show,” he says. “But, I want to make clear, the movie has an ending. It doesn’t require you to do anything more than see the movie.”

As for fan favorites such as Barney, Professor Frink or Krusty the Clown, Jean assures aficionados that every effort has been made to include everyone, but there’s still no telling which jokes, and by extension which characters, will end up on the cutting-room floor.

“What we found is that the jokes work if they’re jokes that are just plain funny,” he says. “It’s not enough that (the audience) goes, ‘Oh, there’s the Comic Book Guy from the show!”’

He’s even more mum on the question of celebrity cameos, admitting only that the producers are “hopeful” in that regard.

In a theater landscape featuring a photorealistic Paris in the current “Ratatouille” and three-dimensional surfing penguins in the recent “Surf’s Up,” is the 2-D world of “The Simpsons” going to look hopelessly outdated? The initial teaser trailers poked fun at this very notion, with Moe the bartender accidentally killing a 3-D rabbit, but do you need to rush out to a digital-projection theater to see the same pastel-colored world you can see on television?

“One of the questions people ask the most is if the animation will be different,” Jean says. “Somewhat. But it will retain the feel of the show. Still, people expect a certain level of detail from an animated feature, which I think they’re going to get.”

Early shots do reveal more depth and more intricate shadowing -- but it’s not as if people enjoy the Simpsons for their looks, anyway. Jean admits that making a movie does give the writers more leeway than they have enjoyed on the show, but insists that the humor won’t be pushed into R-rated territory simply because it can be.

But back up a second. Did Jean mention something about a 19th season? Hasn’t “Simpsons” creator Matt Groening been rumored to have said that the movie would effectively end the series, being the big, grand finale that finally lays Springfield to rest?

Chalk it up as one more unfounded rumor.

“We’re recording season 19 now, which premieres in the fall,” Jean says. “At that point the contracts are up, but I’m hopeful we’ll do more.”

If that’s the case, then even the notion of “The Simpsons Movie 2: Everything’s Coming Up Milhouse” might not be that much of astretch.

“If it’s a success,” Jean says with a shrug. “Whenever a movie’s a success, they always make more. Certainly I’d love to do it again.”

 

*Eric Alt is a senior editor for Premiere.com. Additional reporting for this article was contributed by Kelly Borgeson.