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.

Intro
The movie starts off with the usual 20th Century fox Intro, with a twist thanks to Ralph Wiggum, going (da,da,da,da. da! then echoed with instruments) Then a screen purposely smaller than the screen of the viewers, and an Itchy and Scratchy cartoon. Itchy and Scratchy land on the moon. Itchy stabs Scratchy with a flagpole and abandons Scratchy. Back on Earth, Itchy becomes a hero through lying about Scratchy's death and eventually he becomes the President. In his office he sees Scratchy is still alive and holding up a sign that says "I'm telling." Itchy ponders on what to do and eventually decides to commence and "accidental" nuclear launch, launching hundreds of nuclear missiles at the moon. Scratchy screams, allowing himself 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. The entire scene is revealed to be a movie that the Simpsons family and many residents from Springfield are watching in a theater. Homer stands up calling the movie boring, and announces that everybody in the theater is a giant sucker because they can watch the TV show at home for free, and then points at the viewer yelling, "Especially YOU!"

The Simpsons opening intro then commences, except that instead of just the Simpsons title floating towards the viewer through the clouds, Professor Frink flies by on a flying bike with a banner attached, with the word "MOVIE" inscribed on it, forming the movie title. The screen then expands after Frink says "Movie...on a big screen." The camera then flies through Springfield, showing Waylon Smithers brushing Montgomery Burns' teeth, Apu changing the Expiration date from 2006 to 2008, Martin Prince getting flagpoled by Dolph, Jimbo and Kerney, Bart's Chalkboard Gag, "I Will Not Illegally Download This Movie", and finally Green Day playing at a concert at Lake Springfield at night. As they finish their song (The Simpsons Theme with a rock twist) they try to talk about the environment, which annoys the audience and prompts the audience to throw trash at the band. The pollution in the water dissolve the barge floating on the lake that Green Day is playing on and it sinks, killing them.

The Main Plot
At the church service the next day, there is a brief tribute to the passing of Green Day, 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 suddenly possessed and begins to scream of a coming disaster foreshadowing the events on the film, involving a twisted tail, a thousand eyes, and "Eeeepa". 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, Homer does some chores, including the removal of a hornets nest (which he places inside the mailbox of the Flanders) and the fixing a sinkhole in the backyard (which he covers with a sandbox. After an unsuccessful attempt to fix the roof, Homer and Bart play a game of dare. Homer dares Bart to climb the TV Antenna, and he nearly falls off the house, though he has fun doing so. After Bart shoots at Homer with a BB gun while Homer carries a load of bricks, Homer dares Bart to skateboard to Krustyburger and back naked. Bart refuses at first, but then does so after Homer calls him a "chicken for life". His nudity was noticed by many people. Chief Wiggum chases him on a patrol car, who disables his skateboard. He leaves Bart handcuffed to a pole, as Nelson began laughing at him till sundown. Homer then arrives, but blames everything on Bart after hearing that he would have to take a parenting course if he admitted that he dared Bart. He then gets Bart new clothes but forgot to bring pants. Walking into Krustyburger, Ned Flanders shows fatherly compassion towards Bart by providing him pants. Before Bart could display his anger at Homer, Homer adopts a pig as a pet when Krusty the Clown orders it to be killed shortly after taping a commercial nearby.

Meanwhile, while Lisa tries to get signatures for a petition to clean up Lake Springfield (unsuccessfully), he meets an Irish boy named Colin, who is doing the exact same thing as Lisa. Colin just moved in and his father is a musician (Lisa thought it was Bono but Colin refutes her.) Lisa starts having a crush on Colin after finding out that he can play four different instruments.

Marge obtains cell phone footage of Grampa's outburst at Church recorded by Comic Book Guy. She becomes confused at the meaning of "Eeepa", which Comic Book Guy responded, "I believe that's the sound Green Lantern made, when Sinestro threw him into a vat of acid". When Homer Simpson shows Marge his new pig, Marge remembers what Grampa Simpson said about a "twisted tail" and pleads for Homer to bring it away. However, Homer wins her over by showing her that the pig can imitate her squeal and his belching.

Bart is stuck outside feeling alone, while his dad, Homer, rejects him over Spider Pig/Harry Plopper. This prompts Bart to angrily aim his slingshot at Homer, but Ned Flanders calm him down, offering Bart to go fishing with him. Bart felt after some thought that it's probably a good idea, especially as the only time he went fishing with his dad, Homer ended up using a bug-zapper to in essence cheat in fishing, as well as being electrified as a result of fishing. While Fishing, Bart accidentally let go of Flander's best rod. To his surprise, however, Flanders doesn't even strangle him (he instinctively started choking himself before realizing that Flanders wasn't strangling him.).

Lisa and Colin combine their efforts to give a presentation called "An Irritating Truth" at Town Hall. But because the townspeople wouldn't listen, she reveals that she put the lake water in their drinking glasses, causing everyone to spit out the water they just drank. The tactic is successful, Mayor Quimby declares a state of emergency, and the entire townspeople tidies Lake Springfield. 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 (including his own), 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 "a thousand eyes", another part of Grampa Simpsons's prophetical vision. Nearby, Flanders and Bart bond during a hike and discover the mutated squirrel, which is then captured by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 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".

Option 3 was to trap the entire town of Springfield under a gigantic dome. A hundred helicopters hoist the dome over the town and places it upon Springfield (flattening a man in the process), much to the horror of the Simpsons and the inhabitants of Springfield. Marge sees the words EPA on the side of the helicopter and realizes that Grampa's prophecy has come true. After several futile attempts to crack the dome by the Springfield Police Department and Sideshow Mel, Russ Cargill appears on a gigantic television screen and explains to the citizens of Springfield that their lake has become extremely polluted and to prevent the pollution from spreading out of Springfield, they trapped them under the dome, removing Springfield from the state map in the process. Though Lisa states that they've cleaned up, Cargill throws back that someone did not get the message.

Kent Brockman calls the incident "Trappuccino", and reports the shortage of supplies like gasoline, air, and Botox. The swallows being devoured by cats on their return to Springfield, and the ad for "Dome Depot" is now the result of 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 and ends up of the other side, and then back.

The members of the Springfield Police Department Clancy Wiggum in association with Eddie and Lou soon find the pig waste silo in the lake, with the words "Please return to Homer Simpson, No Reward" written on the side. Homer and Marge see a live news broadcast of the discovery, and Marge chides Homer over the fact that he did NOT listen to her after she warns him, but Homer simply says that "nobody watches the channel anyway". Contray to his belief, within seconds, a massive 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. Ned tells Bart and his family to crawl on a plank to his house, but Spider Pig/Harry Plopper pushes the plank off the windowsill, causing the family to fall down. The family run to their car, but Marge runs back into the flaming house to get their Wedding Video (and wash a few dishes), and escapes to the automobile, but their escape is futile as Snake Jailbird and the others pick up their car and moves it towards the backyard. The mob has prepared a noose for every member of the Simpsons family, including Maggie (Maggie's noose has a red pacifier attached.) despite the fact that they said they only wanted Homer. The family manages to escape onto the treehouse by climbing on the nooses, but Homer gets stuck on one of them. Homer attempts to apologize to the crowd but is responded with a hit from the non-sharp end of a powersaw. Otto Mann chains his schoolbus to the treehouse and attempts to pull it down. The family barely escapes when Maggie shows them an escape route through the sinkhole in the sandbox. Homer due to his size gets trapped in the sinkhole, but eventually goes through, but not before getting his head clawed by the mob. Chief Wiggum, Lou and Eddie shoot at the sandbox, but in the process causing the sinkhole to grow. The townspeople flee the area as the sinkhole devours the Simpson's house, including the car, the treehouse and even Santa's Little Helper's doghouse.

As the Simpsons look solemnly at the remains of their house, Lisa sees Colin next to the dome. He tries to play Lisa a song on his guitar but Lisa couldn't hear him, so he writes the notes of the song onto the dome instead. Lisa shares a moment with Colin but is forced to flee with her family as Russ Cargill and his men arrive. Russ Cargill, now mad with power, is determined to keep anyone from getting out of the dome and to get the Simpsons back in.

On the Run
While hiding from the EPA in Red Rash Inn, Marge catches Bart drinking whiskey to "drown his sorrows" and he announces that he misses Ned Flanders before passing out. The family later confront Homer, demanding to know why he dumped the silo into the lake. Homer admits that he never thought about his decision and apologizes to the family. To make it up, he presents them a solution which he had prepared for if he ever screwed up so badly: he proposes that the entire family move to Alaska. Marge is hestitant at first, Homer manages to gets her to follow him.

The 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 because the carny forgotten that he had to take his wives on vacation.

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 back in Springfield, power outages plague the surviving populance. 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.

The Simpsons family make it to Alaska, and they get a new house, deciding to rebuild their lives there. Homer and Marge have a private moment of intimacy while getting snowed in (thanks to Bart, who causes an avalanche by clapping repeatedly outside.)

In Springfield, the situation deteriorates even further. The townspeople are about to reach the breaking point after running low on supplies, no electricity, and being cut off from the outside air for 93 days. The Springfield Book Club, led by Helen Lovejoy, discusses "Tuesdays with Morrie" repeatedly since they have no new books. Cookie Kwan, Lindsay Naegle, Bernice Hibbert, Luann Van Houten and the others complain, and the discussion ends with Lindsay Naegle throwing her book at Helen. The book instead flies out the window and knocks out the coffee machine inside the Church at an alcoholics anonymous meeting. Barney Gumble finally snaps and runs out to make a futile attempt to crack the dome, followed by the rest of the Springfieldians, using everything from battering rams and jackhammers to shovels and boxing gloves. 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 Option 4: Blow Up Springfield.

In Alaska, the family is peacefully rebuilding their lives until one night they see a commercial with Tom Hanks about the "New Grand Canyon" being built, to be located east of Shelbyville, and south of Capital City. This happens to be where Springfield is located. Marge and the kids decide that they must save Springfield, but Homer refuses to help the town that tried to kill them, and stubbornly distances himself from his family once again, even after Bart calls him a bad father. He leaves the house to play a "Grand Theft Walrus" arcade game at Eski-Moe's Bar and returns to the house the next day, only to discover that Marge left a video tape. She has left with the kids to save Springfield and to prove she has ended their marriage, she taped over their wedding video. Homer is left heartbroken and runs 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.

Homer gets closer to Springfield, able to see the dome. While observing it (using imaginary binoculars), he hears saxophone music coming from an armored van. Homer realizes that his family is inside, and tries to rescue them by knocking the truck over with a wrecking ball. Unfortunately, the plan doesn't work, and he gets hit by the wrecking ball painfully. Bart tries to break his handcuffs but the truck drivers fill the compartment with tranquilizer gas, knocking the family out.

The Simpsons (minus Homer) wake up to find themselves back in Springfield, now in ruins. They find Moe Syzlak, who is dressed in a bathrobe, a traffic cone and bullets and has become self-proclaimed Emperor of Springfield (although his leadership was unsuccessfully challenged by Barney). Just then, Russ Cargill reappears on the giant screen, and announces to the people of Springfield that placing the dome over Springfield was a mistake, and the government has commenced operation Soaring Eagle, which involves killing them all. A helicopter arrives and opens a hole at the top of the dome, lowering down a bomb, timed at 15 minutes. As the Springfieldians panic and find cover, the family realises that they still miss Homer.

In order to save his family, Homer disguises himself as General Mariott Suites and knocks out a guard guarding the site. Homer grabs a tube of superglue, which he applies to each hand and climbs the dome himself. Carl tells everyone to climb the rope to safety while Cletus distracts him with his thumb. Unfortunately, Homer descends down the helicopter rope, knocking the escaping town people and bomb off the rope. The fall of the bomb freezes its timer in the process. Homer is upset when Bart disowns him for this and accidentally kicks down the bomb, which not only reactivates it but halves its time limit, resulting in him being berates by the townspeople again.

Bart finds Ned and his sons, Rod and Todd Flanders inside the Church. Bart wants to be part of Ned's Family, due to Homer's negligence towards him, and Ned decides to accept him, though Rod and Todd try to warn him not to. Homer sees Marge behind the ruins of a building and tries to get to her, but accidentally hits a tree. One of the tree's leaves point towards a motorbike. Knowing what he has to do, he rides the motorbike and grabs the bomb, determined to save Springfield. Before he does so, he finds Bart and the Flanders at the Church. Bart reconciles with Homer after he offers to let Bart hold the bomb, and they cycle up the side of the dome. While cycling around the dome the same way he did at the carnival weeks ago, Homer is about to realize his family's cycle of negligence between the relationship of father and son only to be interrupted by Marge to "just throw the goddamn bomb". When Homer reaches the top, Bart throws the bomb through the hole, mere seconds before it detonates. The explosion cracks the dome, and Homer manages to ride down from the falling pieces of the dome to the slope of Springfield Gorge, managing to make it over. The dome shatters completely into tiny harmless pieces, and everyone is saved, except Dr Nick, who is crushed by an exceptionally large piece of glass.

While looking at the now domeless Springfield, Cargill appears, deciding to cope with defeat and handle a shotgun by killing Homer, only to be knocked out by Maggie.

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 and intimately kiss each other. The film ends with everyone rebuilding the Simpsons house and restoring things back to the way they were.

Credits
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.

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 which was sort of released on Itchy and Scratchy Land episode.
 * 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, Joe Mantegna, and Maggie Roswell reprised their roles for the film. 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, Groundskeeper Willie and Kang did not have speaking parts in the final cut, the first three had parts in the DVD's deleted scenes, and Willie is heard cheering with the other Springfieldians 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

 * 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".
 * McFarlane Toys 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 released a limited edition Simpsons 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, twelve 7-Eleven stores across the United States and Canada were 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?"