The Simpsons Movie (2007)

There's a moment early in The Simpsons Movie where Homer does something so catastrophically stupid, so perfectly Homer, that the whole cinema I was in erupted. And for a good while after that, the film earns those laughs. It's big, loud, colourful, and crammed with the kind of Springfield absurdity that made the show a cultural institution. But somewhere between the spectacle and the sentiment, I kept thinking: this should have been so much better.

The plot, such as it is, hangs on Homer's reckless decision to dump a silo of pig waste into Lake Springfield, triggering an EPA crisis, a glass dome sealing off the entire town, and a villain in Russ Cargill who gets some genuinely funny monologues out of the whole affair. It's a silly premise, and the film knows it, leaning into the absurdity rather than trying to anchor things in realism. That's the right call. The opening sequence with Green Day is a cracker. The family-on-the-run stuff in Alaska has its moments. And that "D'oh!" echoing through space might be the single best gag in the whole thing.

So yes, it works. As a feature-length cartoon comedy with satirical edges, it mostly delivers. Kids will love it, casual fans will have a great time, and even the most hardened Simpsons devotee will laugh more than they expected. I laughed more than I expected, and I went in sceptical.

But here's the thing. I grew up on the early seasons. I know what this show is capable of when it's firing on all cylinders, that rare combination of sharp writing, genuine emotional weight, and satire with actual teeth. And The Simpsons Movie, for all its energy, doesn't come close to that. The characters feel stretched into caricatures of themselves. Homer's selfishness, always the engine of the show's best episodes, is cranked up so high that it becomes a bit exhausting. The satire, particularly around environmental politics and government overreach, lands softly when it should land hard. It's poking at targets with a foam finger rather than a proper jab.

What bothers me most is the glossiness of it all. There's a smoothness to the animation, a polish to the production, that somehow makes Springfield feel less real than it does in a standard episode. The show's scrappiness, that slightly rough-around-the-edges quality that made it feel lived-in, gets swapped out for something more conventionally cinematic. It looks great. It feels slightly hollow.

And the sentimentality. God, the sentimentality. The film keeps reaching for your heartstrings in ways that feel more like formula than feeling. Marge's video message. The family reconciliation. The redemptive third act. None of it lands with the quiet devastation of, say, the best Homer and Marge episodes from the show's golden years. It's chasing the emotional memory of a better version of itself rather than actually earning those feelings fresh.

That's the real disappointment. Not that the film is bad, because it isn't. It's that it arrives as a reminder of how far the series had drifted from what made it special. By 2007, The Simpsons had been coasting for years, and the movie amplifies both what remained good and what had gone wrong. More jokes per minute than most of what was airing on television at the time, but fewer that genuinely surprise you.

For comparison, think about animated films that actually take risks with their storytelling, that trust their audience to sit with something complicated. I reviewed Yi Yi not long ago, which has nothing to do with animation but everything to do with how a story about a family can carry real, unforced emotional weight. The Simpsons Movie wants that weight but isn't willing to slow down long enough to earn it.

Three stars. Fun while it lasts, occasionally brilliant, and absolutely worth watching if you love Springfield. Just don't go in expecting the masterpiece the show's legacy deserved. This is the film the 2007 version of The Simpsons was capable of making, not the one the 1993 version would have made. And that gap is exactly the problem.

Rating: ★★★  | Year: 2007  | Watched: 2025-09-26

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Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus · Channel 4 Plus
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US

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