The Simpsons Movie

[Joe']

Disco Stu appears at the beginning of the movie, Shadow. Although he's on screen for no more than two or so seconds.

[SVG18]

^^I finally watched the movie and thats what I hated the most, the lack of the side characters involved in the story

[shadowgrin]

Seeing Disco Stu for 2 seconds is better than seeing the amount of time Venom was in Spider-Man 3.
6 more hours to go and I'm off..

EDIT: Ah fuck it. Bad weather prevented me from seeing the movie. It's typhoon season in the country.

[Andrew]

Supposedly the cast has signed up for at least three movies should they be made. If they do ever produce any sequels, hopefully the main supporting characters have larger roles and there'll be less emphasis on a new character. Albert Brooks did a fine job playing the film's villain and the commentaries on the season boxsets (along with his numerous guest spots in the series) suggest he's a favourite of the producers, but it did push aside some of the regular characters. Of course, I expect there'll be some deleted scenes so perhaps there was more from the supporting characters that ultimately didn't make the final cut.

[shadowgrin]

Finally saw the gloriousness of the Simpso...wait...it wasn't glorious at all as I expected.

- Arnold as president but no Renier Wolfcastle.
At least it provided one of the best lines in the movie, "I was elected to lead, not to read." The other best lines are the one about Todd's curly devil hair and Bart referring to Homer as the biggest fertilizer salesman.

- It has hilarious moments* but it still felt like one long TV episode with better animation instead of a 'movie'.
*
Homer giving the finger while sinking.
Bart drawing over their Wanted poster and replacing a picture of Homer with Flanders.
The religious going to Moe's and the bar flies going to the church.
Eski-Moe's.
Grand Theft Walrus.

- I consistently saw Disco Stu in the 'group' scenes, but still disappointed that I didn't see a short speaking part or even a dancing part for him.

Same as Andrew, I'm expecting a lot of cutscenes to be included in the DVD release. I saw Kang in the credits but I didn't see him in the movie (or maybe I missed the part).

[Andrew]

- It has hilarious moments* but it still felt like one long TV episode with better animation instead of a 'movie'.

I don't know if you can really avoid that when you're making a film based on a TV series. Even if they'd made the movie during the classic era I think it would have that same vibe.

[el badman]

- Arnold as president but no Renier Wolfcastle.

Exactly what I thought, not sure why they did that...At least, they should have involved him a bit more in the story, instead of just giving him 2 scenes.

[shadowgrin]

Considering it's a 'movie', I was expecting to see 'movie stars' like Wolfcastle and Troy McLure (you might remember him from such films as..)
Even a non-speaking cameo for McLure would be sufficient (I think he was voiced by the late Phil Hartman).
McLure even has a better 'hair tussle' than Tom Hanks in one TV episode.
*McLure tussles the kid's hair*
Kid: You're hurting me.

I think that scene is in one of McLure's after-school specials, the episode where Lisa becomes a vegetarian.

- It has hilarious moments* but it still felt like one long TV episode with better animation instead of a 'movie'.

I don't know if you can really avoid that when you're making a film based on a TV series. Even if they'd made the movie during the classic era I think it would have that same vibe.

I was expecting non-stop funny moments. The lull of funny moments was like a commercial break.

[Andrew]

The Simpsons at its best wasn't a non-stop gag-fest for 22 minutes, which is what the recent episodes are commonly criticised for attemping to be.

[Oznogrd]

OK, i'm a giant Simpsons dork in the old school realm (basically after the japan episode i switch off). This movie was fantastic and was proof that if they wanted to still make the show good they could with a little effort. Now everyone saying it wasnt non stop hilarity you gotta remember, the Simpsons is above all else a sitcom. Yes its more satirical than most, yes its more thought out than most, but it still has the family sappy messages throughout. Now as for the movie not having supporting characters I'd agree, but it is a "Simpsons" movie, not a "simpsons and a cast of thousands" movie. People go to see Homer and Bart mainly, and thats what they focused on.

Best Parts
Bart-Drunk and the skateboarding scene are tied
Homer-Spiderpig
Lisa-Punching out Bart outside the town
of course the one ralph line was priceless

Bad
Lulled alot in the middle. some gags that were supposed to be funny just werent (boob lady)

Also, yes Troy McClure was voiced by the late and also great Phil Hartman. As was Lionel Hutz. I'd rather both of these characters never be shown/used again than them try to replace Hartman. Almost every line he delivered was classic (especially with Hutz)on the Simpsons, SNL, and i believe he was even on Newsradio and it was a shame he died so early.

[Andrew]

Agreed, I think it's only right that they retired those characters after Hartman's untimely passing. Billy West could probably voice both characters quite accurately as his performance as Zapp Brannigan on Futurama is very Hartman-like, but I'd rather not see it happen out of respect to Phil Hartman.