“Personality, in our sense, is a Simpsonian invention, and is not only the greatest originality of The Simpsons but also the authentic cause of their perpetual pervasiveness.” So Harold Bloom did not write in Shakespeare: The Invention Of The Human, though he might have done if his reference library were a little more hip.
If our consciousness is dictated by language and our language is peppered with Simpsonian discourse, then Homer Simpson, the finest slubberdegulliuon of our age, is right there in our hardwiring. Forget 24 and The Sopranos. No other apparently “influential” show has the demographic reach, the smarts or the stamina to actually imprint itself on our cerebral cortex. Matt Groening, dear reader, is controlling and shaping your brain and there ain’t nothing you can do about it.
If Shakespeare invented the modern human – and of course he did – then The Simpsons have invented the postmodern human, a mercurial wonder capable of bridging the gap between Thomas Pynchon and Grand Funk Railroad, Satyajit Ray and Stan Lee, Vilgot Sjöman and Mel Gibson, Stanley Kubrick and Ed Wood Jr.
If you’re one of the faithful, someone who has spent the past month singing – “Spider-pig, Spider-pig/Does whatever a Spider-pig does”, then you hardly need this review. In fact, 500 random words making numerous threatening references to the UN and repetition of the immortal phrase “Screw Flanders” should have sufficed just as well.
If, however, you’re one of the preterite, a clichéd malcontent who insists that The Simpsons Aren’t As Good As They Used To Be, then you’re a long way from home buddy. Even ignoring the fact that Season 18 has been the best in four years, you still have the new Simpsons Movie to show you up as the nitwit you most likely are.
Between them, some of the finest writers to ever grace the closing credits – everybody but the otherwise occupied Conan O’Brien and Brad Bird has showed up to the party – have forged a plot grand enough to justify a jump across media and Springfield Gorge. A series of rollicking sight gags quickly segue into what Kent Brockman calls the Trappuccino Crisis – Homer meets pig, Homer bonds with pig, Homer dumps silo of pig-poo into Springfield Lake causing a toxic meltdown. President Schwarzenegger (actually Ranier Wolfcastle), at the behest of power-mad environmentalist Russ Cargill (Albert Brooks in Scorpio mode), isolates the town within a giant glass dome prompting its inhabitants to hunt down America’s best known family. They escape to Alaska, only to learn from a Tom Hanks infomercial that the US government now plans to blow Springfield off the face of the earth.
Fans will almost certainly relish the incidental details – Ralph Wiggum performing the 20th Century Fox trumpet blast, Stampy the elephant charging at his glassy prison, a nod to Kubrick in the opening seconds – but unlikely ingénues should be equally pleased. For this belated big screen debut, the mobs have never been bigger or angrier and everyone’s skin is at its absolute yellowist.
Nitpicking Simpsons geeks may be slightly disappointed in a tone much closer to the Sam Simon vintage (seasons 1-4) than the heyday of Grimesy and the like, but, as we’ve already noted, The Simpsons Movie features Spider-pig. Enough said. Oh, except “Screw Flanders” and “Woo-hoo”.