note: This review is divided into two sections. If you want a straight forward review of the movie, then skip ahead to the bottom. Everything that precedes the "straight forward review" is an analysis of all things "Simpsons" and comedy

The Simpsons Movie

Anya and I made it to the Drafthouse last night for an early evening showing of "The Simpsons Movie." The movie is a little hard to review since it's basically an hour and a half version of the show.

There was a time in the 90's when I had seen virtually every "Simpsons" episode and could recite most of the memorable lines with my Marine friends. But sadly that time is long gone. I recently remarked to Anya that since the show's been on for 18+ years, I bet that I haven't even seen half of all "Simpsons" episodes. All those lines I had memorized have since been filed in the back of my brain where I keep all of the other useless knowledge that has run through my head...the plot to "Predator 2," I'm looking in your direction.

Since then, my animated fix has been filled by shows like "Futurama," "The Family Guy," and "South Park." I still have a fondness for "The Simpsons," but I find it hard to watch the show in its current form. I find it fairly obvious that the show's quality has declined considerably since its heyday. In some ways, the shoddy quality of many of the new episodes I've seen has damaged its legacy, much in the same way bad years of SNL taint the glory days of the 70's and early 90's.

I felt like I should disclose that information before I get to the review of the movie.

The movie seems more like the classic "Simpsons" episodes than anything I've recently seen from them in show form. But I'd say that the movie seems like one of their classic episodes from the late 90's as opposed to one of their classic episodes in the glory seasons 3-7 where every episode felt like a classic.

Hmmm. this review is all over the place... Before last night's showing, the Drafthouse showed a collection of classic Simpsons scenes. It was great seeing many of the classic scenes from the show's history, but it really hit home that the show's classic years were equal parts comedic brilliance and equal parts time and place.

The Simpsons was ground breaking television. The only two network shows that I can think of that changed the comedic language used by the culture are "SNL" and "The Simpsons" ... "The Daily Show" might rank in that list too, but that's debatable since it's basically a 30 minute take on "The Weekend Update" from SNL.

But as I said earlier, time and place is important. Because when a show is so revolutionary it's literally changing the way we view comedy, part of the humor relies on the fact that we've never seen anything like it before.

But since the Simpsons started, we've seen a steady stream of shows come out that have taken some of their air out of the Simpsons balloon. "South Park" is edgier than "The Simpsons" and has just as vast a character mythology. "South Park" also takes a more head-on approach to tackling important political and social issues. "The Family Guy" perfected the cutaway shot scenes that "The Simpsons" created. "Futurama" is as clever a show as I've ever seen.

So part of my enjoyment last night was tainted by the fact that I've fallen a bit out of love with "The Simpsons." If I had seen last night's movie in 1996, I probably would have been ga-ga over it.

Don't get me wrong, the movie is good...VERY good. It's almost great. It's a very funny movie and there were many times where I laughed out loud.

Similarly to the shows, I also felt a little deflated by the sheer brilliance of "The South Park" movie. "South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut" really took the conventions of the show and blew them wide open. It was like the show on steroids and gave us something completely fresh and new. "The Simpsons" movie felt more like a great episode of a show we'd already seen before.

I don't want it to seem like I feel that a show's movie has to be revolutionary for me to like it, because I think it's a really good movie. If the Simpsons staff's goal was to make a very funny movie that called to mind the better years of the show's existence, then mission accomplished. But I was expecting a little more from the people who changed comedy.

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Straightforward review

You can really tell that the writers, cast, and crew attacked "The Simpsons Movie" with a re-found zest for the material. The movie felt like a really fresh episode of the long-running show.

What I most liked about the movie is that it had a lot of heart. One of my big complaints about the show in its current form is that I feel as if it's lost a little heart along the way. The movie really hit home the idea that you have to have more than a series of comedic moments strung together to create a piece of work that's going to stick with those who watch it. You have to care about the characters and what's happening to them. And "The Simpsons" movie more than pulled this off.

Part of the problem with the movie though is that I felt as if I've already seen many of the scenes before. I felt like I've already done the Lisa finding a boyfriend, Bart wanting to be adopted by the Flanders, and Homer damning the town type of thing. But since this is a movie and not a show, they were able to flesh out many of the key-players, Flanders in particular. Who knew that he would become the emotional core of the movie and would ultimately be one of the key players in the events that transpired?

The movie was really funny and I laughed out loud numerous times, but it's not quite a "gut buster."

I like that they gave nearly every Simpsons character a line or two. It made it feel like the show. Most of the characters got good lines too. I was a bit worried going into the movie that the 96 speaking parts would amount to 50% comedic gold and 50% filler. Luckily, the lines were quite good.

On the technical side of the coin, I like that the movie had a mix of their traditional animation style and computer effects. It made the movie look sharp.

They should have found a way to put the opening credits into the movie. Come on, it's a movie. Show the opening credits...movie style!

I definitely recommend the movie, especially if you've ever been a fan of the Simpsons.

Rating: 8 out of 10