Simpsons Movie Finally Under way (1 Viewer)

[WillG]

Looks like it has officially started

From the NY Post


The rest can be read here: http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/47895.htm

 

[Lynda-Marie]

The mind boggles... just what will the Simpson family be up to on the big screen? Can't wait!

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Hope they bring James L. Brooks in to work his magic on this one. If it's the current writing staff, might as well throw in the towel now.

 

[Adam Portrais]

Sorry, but I think that The Simpsons are just about as funny as they've ever been. Sure there are some hit and miss jokes here and there, but you try coming up with new material after 17 years. As for The Simpsons on the big screen, I don't know. The show itself has commented on how movies made from TV shows suck (it's in the episode The Ziff Who Came To Dinner, the one with The Re-deading (Baby Button Eyes), and the kids are talking about the movie "The Wild Dingleberries", can't remember the exact quote).

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

It's cheap humor though. I thought maybe I'd just overrated the show until I went back to the early seasons on DVD and realized just how genuine emotion there was at times back then. Modern Simpsons mocks such sentiment and character development. If I'm going to pay ten bucks to sit through and hour and a half to two hours of something, I better get more out of it than the ocassional laugh I get from modern Simpsons.

 

[Jonathan T.]

I can see wher you are coming from Adam. TO a certain extent, ALL sitcoms chnage in a similar way over their lives. So many shows started out very "small" and character driven, like Friends, Seinfeld, Frasier, King of Queens, Family Matters, The Jeffersons, and begin to rely on gimicks and zany plot devices as they age. Sometimes the shows survive this shift and continue to be funny, but in different way, like Seinfeld, and Frasier, and other times they evolve into something awful and you wish they would just die, like Family Matters and Friends, and worst of all Rosanne (WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO THAT ONE????)

Thankfully the Simpsons is in the former group, and I look forward to the movie. I imagine Groening will become directly invloved on what could end up being a send off for the yellow family.

 

[MatthewA]

I disagree. The other shows you mentioned were never held on such a high pedestal. I detested Friends, and the only show you mentioned that I ever cared for was The Jeffersons, but that's not the point. They never made any big-budget films out of those series and probably never will. There is not now, nor do I think there ever will be, a college course on Movin' on Up 101.

But lately on the Simpsons, a cheap laugh would be better than none at all. Hopefully it's because they are saving their better material for this film. But the writers they have now are just phoning it in, and using any excuse to justify the often dreadful scripts, increasing the ratio of overall bad-to-good episodes. They have publicly claimed that the 22-minute length is not enough time to resolve plots, and then said the new episodes are competing against "memories" of the old ones. And then bashing other shows while trying to ape their style (Family Guy) wreaks of hypocrisy.

Is this an elaborate commentary on shows that start out good but degenerate into schlock? I doubt it.

Gimmicks are not any good unless they actually work.

I was in England a few months ago, where the show is still popular, and the entertainment press and airport inserts act like the show is still friggin' Shakespeare.

Bottom line: A show that should have ended no later than 2000 is using its current writing staff for a motion picture. I'm praying for a miracle.

You may think I hate this show but that's simply not the case. It pains me to see this show degenerate into a mess. It's like watching an elderly relative you love very much die from dementia.

 

[Jonathan T.]

How do you know that? What's your source?

 

[Fred Bang]

I personally think that the idea sucks.

We're gonna have another Flintstones movie on our hands.

 

[Fred Bang]

Forget my previous post. I somehow conclude that a Simpson movie would automatically be a 'live action' movie (like the dreaded Flintstones movies), but I guess its animated, right?

 

[WillG]

I would assume since apparently it was the voice actors who did the table read.

 

[andrew markworthy]

Although there are still some good Simpsons episodes, I firmly believe that the quality ratio has slipped in recent years (if I see one more lame episode where Homer has a zany idea that involves yet another guest star I think I'll throw something through the TV). Accordingly, I fear it'll be turkey time, but I look forward to being pleasantly surprised.

Dumb idea - I wonder if the movie is planned to be The Simpsons' swansong?

 

[Ocean Phoenix]

I hope this doesn't delay the DVD releases :frowning:

 

[Nathan Phillips]

I have to agree that the movie is DOA if it relies on the show's current writing staff. And I love "The Simpsons"; if it had ended in 1996, it would be my favorite show of all time. I too am really hoping they involve James L. Brooks in the production.

As for the "you try coming up with new material after 17 years" argument, good point. Which is exactly why the show should have ended years ago!

Is there any narrative show that has maintained any kind of quality after a decade on the air? (Sorry, I just realized this is the "Movies" forum, cancel that question!)

 

[Josh Simpson]

Shouldn't this have been made 12 years ago??? Oh well, I'm sure I'll see it, and whether you think this show is/isn't as good as it used to be, let's just hope for the best for the movie, ok?

 

[TedT]

Or maybe another South Park movie on our hands! (That would be great!)

 

[Rob P S]

Will this contain at least 53% new footage?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Not that this is necessarily worth anything, considering the source, but AICN reports that they have a seperate writing team for movie from the TV show, and it's made entirely of "Simpsons" TV veterans. Where that means the team behind the previous cycle of shitty scripts before the current ones or the cream of the crop for "Simpsons" writers is yet to be determined.

 

[DavidPla]

Seems there MIGHT be a teaser for the movie attached to "Ice Age 2". But it could all be an early April Fools Joke... anyone see it?

http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=22909

 

[Tom Brennan]

The "Superman" teaser is real.