The Simpsons is one of those increasingly rare pop culture phenomenons that has lasted long enough to span through multiple generations in an untouched form (although most of the critics and loyalist fans believe the series has declined in recent years). What they're really groaning about is that it hasn't changed much. While racier toons have popped up, e.g. pointed satire like South Park, The Simpsons has remained stunningly effective in its simplicity and subtlety. Additionally, when a show runs for that long, many of the original writers move on so the flavors of the episodes change and, as with every brilliant work, it eventually gets a little tired. The Simpsons is a show (and movie) that I could watch with my parents (I'm 26) and the trendiest 14 year old with "mad texting skillz" and we'd all probably enjoy it equally as much. In fact, in the movie theatre, we did. I looked around the theater before the movie and the demographic was as mixed as any I've seen. Ranging from baby boomers to entire families to teens to the X generation, the variation was wide.

People were literally shouting, screaming and cheering for the movie to start and clapped loudly again when it ended. They stayed until every last roll of the credits were done, trying to make sure they got every last joke. I got the "greatest" seat in the house - middle of the front row (everything was sold out). I purchased the ticket from Fandango, so all we had to do is walk in, but outside the theatre were huge lines of people waiting for the later show. I grew up in Eugene, Oregon, next to Springfield, Oregon (although there are cities named Springfield in nearly half of the States). Matt Groening's home town is in Portland Oregon and the Simpsons characters were literally named after his own family (with the exception of Bart, an anagram of brat). The movie plays out like a 1.5 hour episode with the normal gags, jokes, celebrity cameos and satire of American culture and of being human. All the main characters are stuffed into the Simpsons mix. The comic book guy, the bus driver, principal Skinner, Millhouse, and ofcourse, Mr. Burns and Smithers. I could list them all, but that would take more than a few paragraphs. Wikipedia has an (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpsons) impressive collection of characters and Simpsons history for those of you feeling nostalgic. The plot is unimportant. It's the same plot many of the episodes follow. Homer gets a new idea. He screws up big time.

He's in trouble with his family. Then as fate has it, it's up to him to save the day and in this case the entire town of Springfield. To think that the show has been running since 1990 is crazy. It's had such an effect on pop culture that even Pirate Bay (the bittorent site in Sweden that is notorious for providing access to illegal downloads) re-branded their website with a custom Simpsons-style logo to announce the first pirated copy to be available on their site I've been reading the reviews and they're all overwhelmingly positive. It has a rotten tomatoes score of 88%. The fans of the Simpsons flooded IMDB with high scores before the movie was even released. The result is the The Simpsons movie is already ranked as one of the best movies ever made. At the time of this writing, it's ranked at 75, 3 places behind Forest Gump and above Terminator 2 ( remember these are the fans voting). The dysfunctional family got a whole lot larger on the big screen and I imagine that this movie will do VERY well at the box office. I anticipate both the series to stick around a while and another Simpsons movie sequel. In the Simpsons forums, some people are predicting that the Simpsons may get nominated for animated movie of the year, but that Rattoutouie will probably win. There has been some legitimate disappointment among many of the loyalist fans.

There was a lot of screen time played on moving the plot along and many character interactions (The Simpsons at this point has SOOOOOO many characters) that most of the sub-characters relied upon already existing knowledge and gags from the series. My response was, of course it did. It's a Simpsons movie, designed for people that ALREADY know who Mr. Burns is and I liked the non-stop pacing of joke after joke after gag. There were two points that tried to be a bit too heart-warming and I found slow- paced compared to the rest, but I'm not complaining. I laughed hard throughout and it was fun to see a movie and be reminded of those years I spent on the couch, watching episode after episode when I was younger. In fact, I had so much fun, I'm filled with a desire to rediscover the series (where it is now) and laugh all over again at Homer, Bart, Marge, Lisa, Maggie and the entire cast of odd ball characters. As an aside, here are some interesting Simpsons-related articles I've been reading: "Homer Simpson is a Big Fat Idiot (Savant)" from Sci-Fi.com. Also, side-note on that story: check out the bio on the author - Will McCarthy. The Simpsons, Bigger and Better - TIME Magazine The Pirate Bay Goes Simpsons - TorrentFreak The Simpsons Movie - Rotten Tomatoes "The Simpsons" Fanboys are the most Powerful Fanboys on Earth

21 Things I Learned From The Simpsons About Being Guy

"Homer Simpson is a Big Fat Idiot (Savant)" from SciFi.com. Also side note on that story check ou the bio on the author - Wil McCarthy. Wil McCarthy is a rocket guidance engineer, robot designer, nanotechnologist, science-fiction author and occasional aquanaut. He has contributed to three interplanetary spacecraft, five communication and weather satellites, a line of landmine-clearing robots and some other "really cool stuff" he can't tell us about. His short writings have graced the pages of Analog, Asimov's, Wired, Nature and other major publications, and his book-length works include the New York Times notable Bloom, Amazon "Best of Y2K" The Collapsium and most recently, To Crush the Moon. His acclaimed nonfiction book, Hacking Matter, is now available as a free download." I thought it was a joke until I looked him up and it seems to be a real bio. The book "Hacking Matter" is really available as a free download and he has his own Wikipedia page that talks about how he invented the programmable matter concept. He's definitely a super geek and he puts Homer Simpson on the level of a genius savant even speculating on brain injuries (from a crayon lodged in his head) and defective genes. It's a super geek fest, but worth the read.