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  1. #1
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    The Simpsons Movie (heavy spoilers alert)

    Here's the sceanrio: I've just come back from the screening of The Simpsons Movie (third one in Melbourne, Australia, I think). The following is not a review. It probably won't make much sense cos I need sleep. Worse, the following will contain heavy spoilers. I strongly suggest anyone who hasn't seen the movie yet DO NOT read on. Go and see the film first, or see it a couple of times. Don't blame me for ruining it for ya.

    Being a Simpsons fan, I cannot be unbaised about my feeling towards the Movie. The boy sitting next to me pretty much sums up how I feel: "This is the best movie ever." Well not quite, since The Graduate is still my favourite movie of all time. But I can't remember the last time I'm so excited about going to a movie. Of course I love it. And of course 80-something minutes is not enough. I wish there's more.

    Would it convert those who don't think much of the TV show to love the series? I don't think so. A good friend of mine in the real world doesn't like the show, and I don't expect him to check out the Movie let alone loving it. So there.

    As for the fans, is it worth 18 years of waiting? Hard to say. Better throw your expectations away. Just sit back and enjoy it. You'll feel better.

    Now the spoilers. What you will see in the Movie (aka the money shots) (in the least blantant words I can think of):
    1. Little Bart
    2. Homer giving digits
    3. lots of perspective-changing shots
    4. the death(?) of a minor character (I won't name who)
    5. Maggie's second word (I don't think that's the voice of Liz Taylor though)
    (In the Movie Marge says "her first word", which is technically true because when Maggie said "Daddy" it was never heard by any of the family members.)

    What you won't see in the Movie (and some may dislike the film for the lack of these. Doesn't really bother me though):
    1. Crouch gag (though there's a blackboard gag)
    2. Sideshow Bob (don't trust IMDB)
    3. What happens to Spider-Pig at the end (he probably died when the Simpsons house gets sucked into the sinkhole. But I would have thought he would come back at the end for one last gag.)
    4. Like At World's End, scenes/shots featured in the trailers are altered. eg Details of the scene shown in Sneek Preview #2 we posted in the FE is rather different in the final cut. I kinda think those signs read differently in the animatic works better than as it is now.
    5. No song-breaking moments except Spider-Pig, which is actually a good thing for me since I rarely like the new songs in recent seasons.
    6. Kang is credited at the end but I don't see him actually appearing in the Movie. Unless it's a local gag that doesn't appear on the international prints, perhaps one can expect a few deleted scenes on the DVD?

    BTW if you are the only one who laughs in the theater when Grand Theft Walrus blasts the tap-dancing penguin, like I did, you know you're a movie nut.

    BTW2 here's something of the Movie that works on me on a personal level: when Homer kicks the bomb the time changes to 4:11. April 11 happens to be my birthday. The Movie opens in Australia today, July 26 - the birthday of my first love. At the beginning of the bomb-disarming robot scene, the bomb clocks at 3:18. March 18 is the birthday of my best friend at primary school... Freaky coincidences? Probably...


    BTW3 they put a life-sized statue of The Simpsons in the lobby of the theater I went to. I happened to take some snaps with my phone before the movie (excuse my shaky hands). By the time the movie's over, they were gone so I missed out taking snaps with myself and Marge.

    BTW4 no Dark Knight teaser attached to the movie. Only the international trailer of The Dark is Rising.

    1 session down. 6 more to go this week.
    Last edited by editman; 07-27-2007 at 03:37 AM.

    "The idea was to be a symbol. editman could be anybody, that was the point."

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    my DVD/blu-ray List

  2. #2
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    They had one of the those couch sets in a theatre here for a couple of months now yet they didn't rope it off like in the picture so you can only imagine what kind of shape it's in now.
    You're waiting for a train, a train that will take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you, but you can't be sure. But it doesn't matter - because we'll be together.

  3. #3
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    It wasn't in very good shape either even though they roped it off - looking at the pic I just noticed Homer's arm with the remote has been dismentled from his shoulder. And that was before other people started taking snaps around the statues in the mroning. (Then again, the set was probably already there two days ago for the Melbourne premiere.)

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    so, the movie is good ? i'll see it tomorrow!

  5. #5
    j7wild Guest

    Question

    Quote Originally Posted by editman View Post
    By the time the movie's over, they were gone so I missed out taking snaps with myself and Marge.
    Gone as in someone ran off with them?


  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by j7wild View Post
    Gone as in someone ran off with them?

    More like, gone as being dismantled by thearter staff and returned to Fox - the theater complex is on the 4th floor in the middle of a big shopping centre, so I'm sure if someone snatches them s/he wouldn't have gone far.

  7. #7
    j7wild Guest

    Smile

    Quote Originally Posted by editman View Post
    More like, gone as being dismantled by thearter staff and returned to Fox - the theater complex is on the 4th floor in the middle of a big shopping centre, so I'm sure if someone snatches them s/he wouldn't have gone far.
    oh they don't return those things once they take it off display; they store them away somewhere or a lucky employee (usually one of the Management staff) takes it home.

    I taken all kind of standees when I was a General Manager for Cineplex Odeon back in the early 90s.


  8. #8
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    Just got back from and and being a huge Simpsons fan like editman, I loved every minute of it. It was the fastest 80 minutes of my life!



    Favorite parts:

    -Ralph, I like men now
    -It's not Bono!
    -Spider-pig is classic. Can he swing from a web, no he can't, he's a pig....
    -Grand Theft Walrus had be balling I was laughing so hard
    -Forest creatures watching Homer and Marge
    -The scroll at the bottom telling us to watch a Fox show on Tuesdays
    -Martin kicking the crap out of Jimbo and gang
    -Green Day playing Nearer My God To Thee
    -Bomb disposal robot blowing his brains out

    Honestly there are too many great moments to list here.


    Where the hell was Sideshow Bob????? I can't believe they didn't include him unless he was in one of the many crowd shots. Could he be in a sequel?

    I didn't' see Kang either. Again, maybe in a crowd shot?

    I wonder if they'll carry over Dr. Nick's death to the series?

  9. #9
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    Well, I've come back from my 7th viewing. By now if I tell you the gags are not wearing thin in my head, I'll be lying to you. But I'm not sick of the Movie yet. I've still got a long way to get there. So I'll probably go to it for the 8th time next weekend. Yep, I'm a sucker alright.

    Noticed a couple of things (here comes the spoilers):

    Different crowds laugh to different minor gags. Eg. I found that the morning audiences tended to be a tougher crowd than the afternoon viewers, probably with more kids. Not all the time the audiences would laugh at Otto smoking a bong, or "An Irritating Truth", or the "To Be Continued" gag, or Bart and Lisa kicking each other when passing out.

    Of course no one in Australia laughs at the Springfield border gag. Of all the 7 viewings I only heard one guy laughing at it. Either he's a geographic brainiac or an American.

    When Marge says on the tape (not exact words), "To prove it to myself that this is the end, I've taped over our wedding video", I could actually hear faint sobbing between the specific two lines. I don't know if Julie Kavner was in tears when she did the reading, but that wasn't Marge cos the sobbing wasn't animated.

    Re: chernabog_ca's questions:

    1. Where was Sideshow Bob? - he's probably in jail, which "conveniently" wasn't shown in the Movie. (j/k) Seriously, perhaps they couldn't fit him into the storyplot (it's probably the same reason why Snake doesn't have a line in the Movie either). Or perhaps Kelsey Grammer was busy doing other projects.

    Thing is, IMDB wasn't seriously misinformed before the Movie opened. According to their old cast list entry, Erin Brockovich was supposed to play herself but in the actual Movie she's nowhere to be found. Perhaps someone knew about the lake-water-in-drinking-glass gag and somehow made a connection.

    2. Kang credited but not seen, in the crowd?: I don't know. Strictly speaking the space aliens are not in the Simpsons universe until Halloween. I'm more leaning towards the deleted gag/scene scenario.

    Besides, Julie Kavner is credited as the voice of Marge, Petty and Zelma, and I don't recall seeing that scene in the DMV building featured in one of the TV spots or hearing any spoken line from the Bouvier twins. So their scene probably got cut out too.

    3. Dr. Nick's death: frankly I'm not sure if he's actually dead (hence I put a question mark above). He's probably just badly injured at the expense of the gag. If the TV series finds a gag for him later on, he'll most likely be brought back to life - they brought back Dr Marvin Monroe after all.

    One thing that bugs me though: the hulky Austrian actor-turned-politican in the Movie is "President Arnold Schwarzenegger", so what happened to Rainer Wolfcastle? (I know the generic audiences would probably not get it if he's labelled "President Rainer Wolfcastle". Still, I'm now confused if Arnie and Rainer are two different persons in the the Simpsons universe, considering they look and sound alike, and if so, how one can tell them apart...)
    Last edited by editman; 07-28-2007 at 07:20 AM.

  10. #10
    j7wild Guest
    7th times?

    you paid for it each time?


  11. #11
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    I had a good crowd last night. Went to the 11:45pm show which was sold out which meant about 500 people mostly in their early 20's. I find I laugh more when the whole place is laughing or I end up laughing longer. I know there's stuff I missed due to laugher continuing on.

    The 4 states that boarder Springfield gag did not get many laughs. I think due to two reasons. Most people probably aren't all that familiar with US geography and the fact that gag was in the TV commercials so we've already seen it a bunch of times.

    "An Irritating Truth" didn't get many laughs either and you had to have seen "An Inconvenient Truth" in order to get it which luckily for me I just watched this past week.

    When "To Be Continued" appeared on the screen, one guy yelled out "You've got to be kidding" and there were a bunch of "Oh no's". But as soon as "Immediately" appeared peoeple were laughing.

    I guess you're right about Sideshow Bob. It wouldn't have done him justice to just have him in a bit part. As he's pretty much my favorite character after Homer, it just sucked not seeing him. I'd love to see a sequel with him trying to finally succeed in getting revenge.

    They could have done a gag with Kang and Kodos after they put the dome over Springfield but like you said they only appear during the Treehouse of Horrors episodes.

    I don't recall hearing Patty or Selma although they are seen a few times in the crowd. Come to think of it, I don't recall Skinner saying anything either but I could be wrong there.

    I don't get the whole Schwarzenegger thing either. I was surprised when I first saw that in the trailer that it wasn't Wolfcastle. Like you said, perhaps non-fans wouldn't have gotten the joke.

    Am I the only one who kept picturing Hank Scorpio whenever Russ Cargill was on screen just due to Albert Brooks voice?


  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by chernabog_ca View Post
    Am I the only one who kept picturing Hank Scorpio whenever Russ Cargill was on screen just due to Albert Brooks voice?
    To be honest, the first time I saw the Movie I didn't picture anyone at all. But once I realised it's Albert Brooks who did Cargill's voice, from then on when I saw the "tough guy, soft guy" scene, I too was picturing Hank Scorpio in my head.

    And yes, I paid for all 7 session. Full price.

    It's nothing compared to the money I spent on getting the film posters online, the costs of SMSing I spent on trying to get the premiere tickets (which I didn't), the set of 6 bumper cars they sold in cinema, the 15 Oscar-like Simpsons "gold" statues they're selling with Kids Meal at Burger King/Hungry Jacks - those made-in-China toys which you push the button and hear a line from the character but you can't take the sealed-in batteries out without breaking the plastic seal... now you know how big of a sucker I am. And that's why the Comic Book Guy will never get married. "Life well spent!"

    I wonder what other kinds of promotional crap tied in with the Movie are like in other countries. I knew about the 7-Eleven Kwik-E-Mart thing in the US, but that's about it.

  13. #13
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    *bump*

    To answer the question I myself asked more than a year ago:

    Quote Originally Posted by editman View Post
    assuming they animate the movie along with the next season in acamedic ratio (to avoid leakout of the movie plot), then the film must be matted to 2.35:1. If so, would the fullscreen DVD (if there'll be one!) be open-matted? Guess we'll find out when the DVD comes out.
    I didn't get any info of what aspect ratio they animated the Movie in, but I did get both the widescreen and fullscreen versions of the DVD for a comparison.

    While I'll say 95% of the fullscreen DVD is pan-and-scan, there are indeed a few shots in which the FS version shows more picture than the WS version, and with notable differences in composition.

    Here are some screenshots. For the sake of argument I did not crop or resize the caps:

    Example 1: the Springfield panorama right after the movie title

    Here's the widescreen version


    Here's the fullscreen version


    Notice that while the 'Springfield Prison' monument is more or less at the same position in both caps, the electrical towers in front of the observatory in the WS version has already gone out of frame in the FS version.


    Example 2
    WS version


    FS version


    An even more apparent example: much more headroom in the FS version. But also notice the different perspective of the view outside the hole: You see the sky and the bomb in the WS version, while in the FS version you see more of the footpath in front.

    (to be continued...)

  14. #14
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    Example 3:

    WS version


    FS version


    You don't see as much of the left and right in FS, but definitely see more of the top and bottom.

    So I still don't know what the deal is - whether these shots are open-matted, or re-animated specifically for the FS version like what Pixar did with A Bug's Life. Anyway, I suppose at least it proves the FS DVD does have some merit and not just good for being a coaster.

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    I want one of those couches in my living room. So I can sit on Homers lap everyday!!!

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