The Simpsons Movie

The Simpsons Movie will make you laugh. Out loud. Consistently funny dialogue and moments of visual genius make it at once sharply satirical and shamelessly sentimental. No other cartoon has come close to matching the formula.

But is the feature-length Simpsons experience bigger and better than any of the 400-plus, 20-minute slices of TV heaven? Well, yes... and no.

The chaotic and colossally entertaining (and highly self-aware) first hour sees Grandpa having a religious premonition, Lisa meeting her soulmate (an Irish, eco-conscious musician - don’t mention Bono), Bart skateboarding naked through Springfield, and Homer acquiring a pet pig.

Business as usual, then. But just when Lisa achieves her goal of cleaning up Lake Springfield, Homer fouls up her plan by, er, dumping his pig’s ‘leavings’ into the water supply.

Without looking at the proposals of devious environment agent Cargill (Albert Brooks), President Schwarzenegger - "I was elected to lead, not to read" – wastes no time in sealing off the toxic town under an impregnable glass dome.

Now public enemy numbers 1 to 5, the Simpsons narrowly escape the angry Springfield mob - and the dome - and make for Alaska. But Homer’s dreams of the quiet, cowardly life are scuppered when Marge has a crisis of conscience.

Homer is faced with a dilemma – live in boozy solitude... mmm... or go back to save Springfield for the sake of his marriage, his kids and all that other boring, morally correct stuff.

Plot-wise, the movie follows much the same arc as any given episode. Yet the ecologically-minded slant keeps it hip and happening, and creator Matt Groening and his collaborators are working to a slightly more risqué remit than on the small-screen.

There’s sex (Homer and Marge... a snowed-in cabin... some woodland animals); nudity (Bart’s skateboard streak is a hoot); drugs (Homer has an epiphany after being given a potion by a big-boobed Inuit) and rock’n’roll (Green Day do the theme tune, then sink).

You’ll need a sharp eye to register all the subtle sight-gags and movie references (from Day of the Dead to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth), though you’ll also notice that many Springfielders barely get a look-in.

Of Sideshow Bob there is no sign; Mr Burns and Smithers have but one scene, and Krusty, Barney, Apu, Archie, Principal Skinner and Selma and Patty are practically redundant. Even Homer’s pig disappears. Their absence leaves a big hole in the donut.

And with the focus being on the Simpsons themselves - and the Flanders – the latter stages get a little bogged down in family values. But even then the gags keep coming.

Homer sums it all up with his very first line. Only we’re not allowed to give any spoilers here, so we can’t tell you that he stands up in a cinema and... d’oh!

Elliott Noble