I can’t believe we’re paying to see something we could watch for free on TV. Everyone in this theater is a sucker! Especially YOU!
–Homer Simpson
Regrettably it has been an awfully long time since an American movie studio released a 2-D animated feature. The last one I can remember was Waking Life in 2001, and that was a very obscure art-house picture. So The Simpsons Movie is notable on that basis alone.
If you are familiar with the TV show (and who isn’t?) then you pretty much know what to expect: sharp, funny writing, good voice acting and grotesque character designs. The animation quality is somewhat better than on TV, but not so much that you will really notice the difference.
The plot is fairly standard: Homer adopts a pig and as a result ends up triggering an environmental catastrophe. He has to flee town before an angry mob, but in the end he manages to more-or-less redeem himself.
The main reason that I am giving it a high rating is that it is the funniest thing I have seen so far this year by a substantial margin.