“The Simpsons Movie” - Dysfunctional family on the move

A wonderfully smart, witty film that rescues Hollywood from the doldrums

AFTER 18 years on prime-time television, “The Simpsons Movie” brings to the big screen all the qualities that have made the Simpson family superstars. That should reassure pundits who have been fretting over the question Homer Simpson poses at the beginning of the film, after viewing an especially Aesopian episode of “The Itchy & Scratchy Show”, Bart Simpson’s favourite ultraviolent cartoon-within-a-cartoon: “Who’s going to pay for something they’ve been getting for free?”

The answer is another question: how many smart, satirical, uproariously witty comedies did Hollywood make this year? “The Simpsons Movie” fills a niche in the major studios’ release schedules that has lately become a void.

Critics were shown the film just before it opened to keep the audience’s enjoyment of the rococo plot twists from being spiked by internet killjoys, a policy deserving of support. Briefly, an ecological disaster befalls the town of Springfield, brought about by Homer’s involvement with a new love and his weakness for doughnuts.

The dysfunctional cohesion of the Simpson family is put to the test. Bart starts wishing he had a father like Ned Flanders next door, who practises family values with a wise serenity that is horribly off-putting. Marge doubts her love for Homer. Lisa meets a musician named Colin whose green politics is matched by his lilting brogue. And baby Maggie breaks 18 years of silence by speaking her first word, which audiences will have to stay through the final credits to hear.

But it is Homer who really evolves, after an Inuit medicine woman teaches him his “throat-song” and sends him on a spirit journey to an epiphany about human interconnectedness based on enlightened self-interest. Strangely, we come to care deeply about all of them.

E não é que o filme já está, digamos, bombando?

“Simpsons” supera expectativas e arrecada US$ 29 mi na estréia

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Depois de aparecer semanalmente na TV por 18 anos, “Os Simpsons” tornaram-se astros de cinema em apenas um dia.

“Os Simpsons”, filme de animação baseado no seriado da família de Springfield, superou as expectativas e arrecadou estimados 29,1 milhões de dólares em seu dia de estréia, na sexta-feira, nos Estados Unidos e no Canadá, informou a empresa de pesquisa Box Office Mojo (http://www.boxofficemojo.com).