"The Simpsons" at the Movies

A wonderful 20-minute time waster-- every film reference from the first five seasons, or "Golden Age" of The Simpsons.  The Wizard of Oz, Citizen Kane and Gone With the Wind are particularly popular, but the greater sight gags are the less obvious-- did you spot them all?

Best Animated Short Film Short-list

The Simpsons might find itself an Oscar nominee!

Five of these ten titles will be nominated for the Best Animated Short Film for the Academy Awards:

• Adam & Dog- directed by Minkyu Lee
• Combustible- directed by Katsuhiro Otomo
• Dripped- directed by Leo Verrier
• The Eagleman Stag- directed by Mikey Please
• The Fall of the House of Usher- directed by Raul Garcia
• Fresh Guacamole- directed by PES
• Head Over Heels- directed by Timothy Reckart
• Maggie Simpson in 'The Longest Daycare'- directed by David Silverman
• Paperman- directed by John Kahrs
• Tram- Michaela Pavlatova

The joyous Disney short Paperman.

The Simpsons

Anyone who watched The Simpsons last Sunday caught the tagged couch gag by graffiti artist\icon Banksy, and witnessed what I personally believe was the most inspired and transgressive sequence the show has offered in years, hearkening back to the time when the show was at it's cultural and satiric peak.  Banksy's opening transported the viewer from the Simpson house to the an Asian sweatshop where the shows mechanics and various bric-a-brac is produced.  It was by turns funny and horrifying; a point made even more succinct since large aspects of the show are indeed outsourced to South Korea.

Banksy was the recent subject of the acclaimed and juicy documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop, which for it's ideas and provocation will likely not get an Academy Award nomination this year, despite being highly deserving-- the academy doesn't really do "fun" docs.

The Simpsons Movie

I realize this movie came out like a thousand years ago, but now that I can actually write about it, spare me that one indulgence. As a Simpsons geek since has far as I can remember (literally the show started when I was all but six), I ventured into the theater with excitement and trepidation-- would this be the zenith experience of all time, or an invaluable waste that damaged my entire eighteen year geek obsession?!?!? To my delight the film was hilarious from start to finish and stated true to The Simpsons motto of if it's not broke, don't fix. Nothing earth-shattering, like an enlongated episode, but that's all we wanted, wasn't it?

The beauty of the show (and the movie) is that nothing really changes to the lives of Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart, and Maggie, yet sight gags and political and social commentary can be gathered through the lives of this normal nuclear family. The story goes as follows-- Homer accidentially dumps toxic waste into Springfield Bay and single-handedly makes the town the most polluted city in America; President Schwartzenegger, puppeted by others puts the town in an enclosed dome. Homer and gang move to Alaska; Lisa falls for an young environmentalist, and Bart anguishes father issues and embarks on Ned Flander's more nurturing attentiveness. Not much, but lots. No other entertainment enterprise in history is more subversive than The Simpsons, and yet it's all one big-hearted laugh. The irony is that as much humor and sly jokery put into The Simpsons, jokes on politics and religion, is that it's all spent on Rupert Murdoch's dollar. You got us there!

And yet the movie has a heart, as the show always does, most evident in a moving monolouge spoken by Marge about the commitment and absolution of a marriage-- it's a scene that very real and geniune, and perhaps one of the most heartfelt speeches on the subject in modern movie history, not because it picks at the heartstrings, but because underlying the gaiety is a story show about a family. Bart's feelings of Homer as a father ring true as well, maybe Ned's nurturing nature are a better influence than Homer's constant buffonery?

So for a movie that that opens laughing at it's audience for the stupidity of paying for something one could get for free every week at home, The Simpsons Movie does do it's own name proud, to this geek's delight. Plus everyone loves Spider-Pig-- admit it! B+