The Simpsons Movie

I was laughing even before the movie began, when Ralph starts singing along to the 20th Century Fox intro: ‘da da da DA da da da DA!’

The first half, particularly, is a diverse bag of laughs as the characters do as they usually do – only magnified. In the movie, Flanders plays surrogate father to Bart, Lisa falls in love with the son of an Irish rock star (‘no, not Bono!’) and Bart shows what he’s made of in all his full frontal glory – and it would appear that no, they haven’t dropped yet. But it’s Homer’s show from there. The usually loveable and forgiveable Homer loses the advantage of the 30 minute timeslot, so his slovenly, selfish, stupid antics go to the point of near-unbearability. But fortunately, he (and Springfield) are rescued in the end.

Hang around during the credits to see Maggie speak her first word, and a few other little bits and pieces among the thousand Korean names (my name’s up there: Hyun Joo Park!).

Rating: 7/10
A good job but clearly the work of the current mob, therefore not as clever as the earlier episodes.