Letters to the Editor
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Great write-up...
...but on the show, Lisa is 8. Bart is 10. Did they age the characters two years for the movie, or was that an error?
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The Movie
Saw the 12:01 show this morning and it is terrific fun. Stay through the credits!!
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This...
was the worst Simpsons Movie ever.
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To Anon
There was another one?
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Age Level
I haven't seen the movie yet, but I want to. I have always thought the Simpsons was the most brilliant thing on TV.
Being a hyper-conscientious current day parent, I'm just wondering if anyone has an opinion on whether this would be OK to take a couple of 12-year-olds to. I'm a bit concerned about the giant penis sight gag.
Thanks
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Let freedom rip
Thanks for your review. I've decided to go see the movie and look forward to having a good time.
One small quibble. You characterize " bad parenting " as not "organizing every minute around the children's activities and imagined needs." You're being facetious, right?
In my opinion, the trouble with many parents today (and I am one, although my kids are now in their twenties and thirties, and all but one now parents themselves) is that they do try to organize every single minute of their kids' lives. When I was a kid, in the 50's, it was a common thing for our mothers to send us outside to play all day. "Be back by dark!" was the only restriction.
I think one of the very reasons for The Simpsons' popularity is that it portrays a level of freedom for kids that is sadly pretty much a thing of the past. Children need a good deal of time to just be kids, to solve their problems for themselves, and to learn how to make their own fun and enjoy life. I thnk such time is an important element in developing self-reliance.
(Pay attention here, Barbed.)
(And - I'm sure that 12-year old kids of either gender will know what a penis is. If you find the gag, whatever it is, too vulgar for your taste, use it as a lesson in decorum. You can bet that if you don't take them to the movie, they'll hear all about it from their friends.)
I'm sure a slew of folks may chastise me for being irresponsible, not meeting my obligations as a parent, say you just can't do that anymore, etc. Fine with me. Being a parent is tough, and best luck to you. I grew up okay and my kids grew up okay.
Now, I think I'll make myself a nice drink and go relax in the backyard, just like my Dad used to do.
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spoiler alert?
Great review. And most importantly, I now know that buying one of those Megalo-Cokes at the snack bar would be not only a waste of money but a danger to the people sitting around me. If I had a mouthful when they flashed the title of Lisa's movie "An Irritating Truth" on the screen, a lot of innocent people would get wet.
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Am I the only one in the country?
who finds Matt Groening's brand of smug, know-it-all, finger-up-the-nose humor irritatingly, depressingly, cruel and sophomoric? If the world as portrayed by The Simpsons and its conjoined cousin South Park is even remotely close to reality, we all might as well hang it up.
I've never seen any point to this kind of stuff other than to make the people who put it out feel superior to the rest of humanity. Apparently their audience laughs along in hopes of being seen as part of the Superior team, not those dolts down there rubbing shoulders with the masses. This psychology has a name, coined by a better humorist than Groening. It's called The Emperor's New Clothes.
Now THAT'S funny.
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I for one welcome our alien overlords
Am I the only one in the country?
who finds Matt Groening's brand of smug, know-it-all, finger-up-the-nose humor irritatingly, depressingly, cruel and sophomoric?
Yes.
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yes "Eric Free"
You are.
(although I do like the meta-commentary you got going there - acting all superior because you don't like humour that acts all superior...now THAT'S post-modern man! :)
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I expected that
-- the Kitchen Girl letter, that is.
I forgot "simplistic," but that's in the name. The technique of pinning characteristics on your victims that you possess yourself. You know, like Rush, O'Reilly and their friends. Same stuff to a presumably different audience.
Liked debaser, though.
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No wonder our kids know nothing about geography....
I had to laugh out loud at Stephanie's comment on the below excerpt of from "The Simpsons Movie."
"When the Simpsons' deeply religious and even more deeply annoying neighbor Ned Flanders (Harry Shearer) takes Bart on a hiking trip, he waves at the vista spread before them, like a map of the territories of L. Frank Baum's Oz, and tells Bart that from this single spot, they can see the four states bordering Springfield: Ohio, Nevada, Maine and Kentucky."
That's just awesome. I have yet to see any Simpson episode (ok, call me sick but I don't have a TV) but I have to see this movie!
Thanks Stephanie.
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It had better be good!
The last season has been pretty much a collection of Worst Episodes Ever. Cultural references are made apropos of nothing to do with the story, if the writers even bothered to come up with a story.
The show has always had the chaotic zaniness of a bunch of clever people zinging gags at each other, but then there used to be a time where someone would draw the line and say, "Okay, we've had a laugh; how are we going to put all that into some context that makes sense and works and has a point to make?"
The context stage was often skipped entirely in most of the episodes last season, but I put it off to the idea that they had been funneling all their prime material and ideas into the movie. I hope the movie bears my theory out.
In any case, the movie IS out now. Get back to work, Simpsons team. And remember to tell a story while you're at it!
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Really, Eric Free?
I mean, have you actually watched the show, or are you trying to make a larger point using the Simpsons as a jumping off point? The best thing about the show is that it does just the opposite of what you say. No one is immune from the show's barbs - it makes fun of do-gooders (see my previous letter - "An Irritating Truth" has to be as good a satire of Al Gore, in three words! - as anything) and talk radio, religious people and non-religious people, intellectuals and slack-jawed yokels, burned-out teachers, science geeks, immigrant convenience store clerks, you name it. But, because it makes fun of everyone, it it also ultimately sympathizes with everyone - we're laughing at ourselves and with ourselves at the same time. PS - in case you get the wrong idea, I'm a fan of Al Gore, but he can be a little, er, uh, irritating, at times (specifically, those times when he's not being extremely irritating - just kidding, mostly). Still, if the show is going to make fun of Rush Limbaugh (Birch Barlow) for being a cant-spewing, hypocritic blowhard, it would be dishonest to give Al, or any other supposed liberal icons, a free pass, because they have their dishonest, hypocritic, hard-blowing moments too.