Film Footle: The Simpsons Movie

"Spider-Pig, Spider-Pig, does whatever a Spider-Pig does..."

In theory, I could just leave that as my entire review as no matter what else you take from the film several days of humming the Spider-Pig theme tune is guaranteed.

The Simpsons Movie is thankfully exactly what it should be; it's a movie-length episode of the television show. It takes advantage of the film format here and there to toss in some jokes it wouldn't get away with on the small screen, but effectively it takes the hallmarks that makes The Simpsons so very watchable after twenty years and spins them out with skill over 80-odd minutes.

The plot is as ludicrous as ever, and centres on an environmental disaster with lots of chances to chuck in topical humour that won't age too quickly in most cases. Virtually every character with a recurring role pops up somewhere with the result that Dan Castellaneta, Harry Shearer and Hank Azaria must have had very sore throats by the end of recording. As usual with The Simpsons the best jokes aren't the obvious ones but the background humour and the odd surreal flight of fancy (Grand Theft Walrus, anyone?).

For the first time in ages I found myself genuinely and consistently amused by a comedy (and a cartoon, at that) and at some moments I was something close to moved; not that close because The Simpsons may have heart but it's never sentimental, but still, the family dynamics were upheld beautifully so that Homer's bizarre logic and selfishness devoid of actual malice make him remain as lovably frustrating as ever.

No footle on this film would be complete without a big fangirly nod to Albert Brooks, though, whose megalomaniac environmentalist is completely perfect and extremely funny. Some of the political jokes will be dead in five years but the whole climate change debate promises to rage far longer (unless of course we all die from side effects of carbon emissions and radiation poisoning, in which case we wouldn't care anyway) so the film should stand the test of time. Most importantly it doesn't fall to bits when taken to over an hour in length and it introduces the world to the best comedy invention since the last one: Spider-Pig.