The Simpsons Movie



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


The movie starts off with Ichy and Scratchy on the moon when Itchy abandons Scratchy. Back on Earth Scratchy becomes a hero and the President. In his office he sees Scratchy is holding up a sign that says I'm telling. Itchy thinks and thinks of what to do and eventually decides to shoot nuclear missles at the moon. He then fires hundreds of missles at Scratchy. Homer then stands up in a movie theater and says that everyone is idiots because they can watch the movies at home for free.

After the Itchy & Scratchy cartoon, the film opens with 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 ("Horrible, horrible things are going to happen! And their gonna happen to you, and you, and you! People of Springfield! Heed this warning! A twisted tail! A thousand eyes! Trapped forever! EPA! EPA! EPA! Belive me! Belive meeeee! Thanks for listening!"). 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 Bart gets in trouble with Chief Wiggum. Homer and Bart eat at Krustyburger where Ned Flanders shows fatherly compassion towards Bart and 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 asks the Comic Book Guy what is the meaning of EPA, he responded, "I believe that's the sound Green Lantern made, when Sinestro threw him into a vat of acid, (Jeff Albertson-Comic Book Guy imitating an explosion: EEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPAAAAAAA!!!)" and then asks Grampa Simpson about the 1,000 eyes, he said, "I'm pretty sure a thousand is a number."

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.)

While cleaning up Plopper's pig tracks, Lisa talks to Marge about Colin, about his Irish heritage, environmentalist, as well as being a realistic human, thoughtless homer sings Spider Pig Song (to the tune of: The Spider-Man theme) "Spider Pig, Spider Pig, Does whatever a Spider Pig does, Can he swing from a web? No he can't!! He's a pig!! Look Out!! He is a Spider Pig!!"

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, after which the town decides to clean up the lake and Mayor Quimby declares the 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 colour there is, No offence 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, and Mayor Quimby used Cletus for dumping in the lake, and he can't dump anything.

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. While waiting in a queue at the dump 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 severly mutated. 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 one 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 and is removed from the state map. First, Clancy Wiggum's Springfield Police Department's Homeland Security to shoot their rifles targeting the dome, Next, Professor Frink, perfected an acid-firing superdrill that can cut out anything, however it's outside the dome, and finally, Sideshow Mel replacement for Sideshow Bob complains,"What kinda ruthless madmen coulda done this to us???!!!"

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

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, Address: 742 Evergreen Terrace, No Reward Required", and Kent said, "This station Channel 6 doesn't endorse no vigilante justice, 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 apologised to the townspeople, if he doesn't, within seconds an angry mob approaches the Simpson's home intending the kill the whole family. 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 told Bart and his folks to crawl on the plank, 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 to push 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, first Maggie, next Marge, also Bart by saying, "Geronimo!!" while he jumps, then Lisa by saying, "Sacagawea!!" 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. 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, hovever he got a solution, he proposes that the entire family move to Alaska to which they eventually all agree on. Marge is eventually very proud of Bart for being sober, and they tried their best to give Homer another chance. While stopping for gas, Marge told the clerk that she can't decide on whether she wants diapers, ladies razor blades or beef jerky, and Marge eventually agrees on Beef Jerky to cover the whole European Thing. Meanwhile in Burns Manor, Julius Hibbert, Clancy Wiggum, and Apu Nahasapeemapetilon asked Waylon Smithers and Mr. Burns for electricity, however, got chased by dogs. In Springfield, the townspeople are going crazy, running low on supplies, out of electricity, cut off from the outside air. While on the Springfield Book Club of "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. This is witnessed by Russ Cargill from a security camera who tells the President that they can't keep Springfield in this state forever and Cargill asks the President to choose another plan out of five, but this time manipulates him to choose the plan to blow up Springfield.

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 shortly after he is visited by a mysterious Native American, Homer has a vision after much torturing and reaches an epiphany: he cannot survive without others, and must save Springfield and his family.

Meanwhile, Marge, Lisa, Maggie and Bart arrive at Seattle train station and are immediately arrested by Cargill and the and they will all be killed. A helicopter then 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 WAY 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 disguised himself as General Mariott Suites, got some supplies before Homer 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, While going First Church of Springfield, in the event of "We Told You So", while Russ Cargill's bomb destroying Springfield Bart is with Ned and his sons, Rod and Todd Flanders wanted to be part of Ned's Family, due to Homer's negligence towards him. Soon he 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, "Homer wasn't much of a father anyway, because of the way Grampa Simpson raises him." 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, Cargill appears and just when he is about to gun down Homer with a shotgun, he is knocked out by Maggie.

Everyone is safe except Dr Nick who is injured 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 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 theatre, 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 admiting 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.

General

 * Moe's Tavern is shown as "Moe's Bar".
 * The ambulance wreckage from "Bart the Daredevil" remains at the side of Springfield Gorge.

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."
 * 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.

Marketing and release

 * 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".
 * 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. Like when he said "Chase Utley, Wait Why would I wan't to do that?"

Cultural references

 * 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 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.