It’s been a long time coming, but Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie and all the other wacky residents of Springfield are finally on the big screen today. After sold-out midnight screenings, the first feature outing for the long-running FOX series should be in for a big weekend at the box office. The film opens in 3,922 theaters domestically and 7,500 locations internationally.
In The Simpsons Movie, Homer must save the world from a catastrophe he himself created. The Calamity draws the attention of U.S. President Arnold Schwarzenegger (Harry Shearer) and Environmental Protection Agency head Russ Cargill (Albert Brooks), who come up with dubious plan to contain the mess. As the fates of Springfield and the world hang in the balance, Homer embarks on a personal odyssey of redemption in order to reunite his splintered family and bring peace back to Springfield. The show’s supremely talented voice cast regulars (Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Yeardley Smith, Nancy Cartwright and Hank Azaria) are on board for the Springfield clan’s big-screen adventure.
Directed by David Silverman, The Simpsons Movie was penned by a grand cabal of the show’s writers, producers and show runners?creator Matt Groening, James L. Brooks, Al Jean, Ian Maxtone-Graham, George Meyer, David Mirkin, Mike Reiss, Mike Scully, Matt Selman, John Swartzwelder and Jon Vitti. Produced by 20th Century Fox and animated at Film Roman (with service work provided by Korea’s Rough Draft Studios), the 2D animation crew used a combination of Toon Boom’s network solutions, Harmony and Opus.
The feature has received generally glowing reviews (88 % raves on www.rottentomatoes.com), although some critics have pointed out that the feature has an unusual tendency to explore issues such as the real meaning of life and family! As Los Angeles Times reviewer Carina Chocano points out, the feature ‘feels a little like the Simpsons movie Lisa might have written’the jokes are pin-sharp and off-the-wall loopy as ever’but once the movie wanders into its contemplation of mortality and meaning, the trenchancy kind of creaks and falls off!’ Meanwhile, The New York Times’ A.O. Scott writes, ‘The Simpsons [TV show] is an inexhaustible repository of humor, invention and insight, an achievement without precedent or peer in the history of broadcast television, perhaps the purest distillation of our glories and failings as a nation ever conceived. The Simpsons Movie is, well, a movie!’
Entering its 19th Season this fall, The Simpsons has garnered 23 Emmy Awards and has legions of fans around the world. Foreign markets debuting the movie this weekend include the U.K., France, Germany, Australia and Spain. In most non-English speaking territories, the film is dubbed by local talent used for the television series. (The movie is Animation Magazine‘s cover story next month. Check your local Barnes and Noble book store for the new September issue of our magazine.)
Domestically, The Simpsons Family only has a couple of fellow newcomers to compete with. Warner Bros. culinary romantic comedy No Reservations debuts today in 2,425 theaters and Sony/Columbia Pictures’ thriller I Know who Killed Me (which had a critical blackout) arrives in 1,320 venues in the shadow of star Lindsay Lohan’s latest arrest. Also opening today is the MGM/Weinstein Co. urban golf comedy Who’s Your Caddy, which gets a 1,019-theater roll out.
As of last week, Disney/Pixar’s Ratatouille was holding onto the No.6 spot at the North American Box Office in its fifth week of release. Having earned approximately $171 million domestically, the family comedy is gradually making its way around the world, opening in Japan and South Korea this weekend.
