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Silver Screen Goes Yellow for Opening Day of The Simpsons Movie

FOX's smash hit, The Simpsons, the longest running non-news program in American TV history, made its grand opening on the silver screen today.
The Simpson family, Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie, has come a long way from their humble beginnings as crudely drawn shorts on the Tracy Ullman Show. The popularity of the twenty second bits lead to a Christmas special and eventually their own weekly show which debuted on December 17, 1989.
The Simpsons has won dozens of awards since it debuted as a series, including 23 Emmy Awards, 22 Annie Awards and a Peabody. On January 14, 2000 the Simpsons won a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In a 1998 issue celebrating the 20th century's greatest achievements in arts and entertainment, Time magazine named The Simpsons the century's best television series.
In that same issue, Time named Bart Simpson to the Time 100, the publication's list of the century's 100 most influential people. Bart was the only fictional character on the list. In 2000, Entertainment Weekly magazine TV critic Ken Tucker named The Simpsons the greatest television show of the 1990s.
In 2002, The Simpsons ranked 8 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. Furthermore, viewers of the UK's BBC Channel 4 have voted "The Simpsons" at the top of two polls: 2001's 100 Greatest Kids' TV shows, and 2005's 100 Greatest Cartoons, with Homer Simpson voted into first place in 2001's 100 Greatest TV Characters.
In March of 2006, the show was renewed for a 19th season due to be aired in 2007–2008, premiering on September 23, 2007.
In May 2007 The Simpsons reached their 400th episode at the end of the eighteenth season.

The hype for the movie was huge. In one promotion, twelve 7-Eleven stores throughout the US were transformed into real-life Kwik-E-Marts and sold various Simpsons related products such as "Buzz Cola", "Krusty-O's" cereal, pink doughnuts with sprinkles, and "Squishees".
Burger King also jumped on the Simpsons bandwagon and featrues a line of talking Simpsons figures with kids meal. There are sixteen toys in all, including the limited edition Golden Homer.
The restaraunt chain also sponsors a website called "SimpsonizeMe.com" where fans can upload their photo and have it turned into a Simpsons. The King himself was the first to be Simpsonized and he now looks far less creepy than he does regularly. (Link: http://www.simpsonizeme.com )
The site's popularity, along with the SimpsonsMovie.com site's Simpsons Avatar generator has the entire world going yellow. (If you register on the SimpsonsMovie.com site, your customized character can be spotted in various places on the site.) (Link: http://www.simpsonsmovie.com )
On MySpace.com, many users have posted their personal Simpsonized profile pictures. Even MySpace founder Tom got in on the act. Many site users had criticized him for never changing his profile photo, so he did so on national TV, and became a Springfield denizen.

The Jump To The Big Screen

The Simpsons Movie opened today with a midnight showing that I could not attend due to work. But I got tickets for the 11:30 AM showing. I walked around with them in my wallet for days, just waiting…
Dawn and I arrived at the mall, grabbed popcorn and drinks, and found our theater.
With such a vast history and cast of well-loved characters, taking America's favorite family and moving them from the small screen to the big screen was a daunting task.
But Simpsons creator Matt Groening, and his writers have come up with a story so big, it couldn't be contained on a TV screen.
The final preview was just finishing when we walked in, so we immediately grabbed seats and prepared for the opening credits...
A moment later, the 20th century Fox logo came up and people began to applaud, before the film even started. A second later, Ralph Wiggum popped out of the logo and sang along. People began laughing, and from then on, it was pure fun.
The movie version of the town of Springfield and its citizens has a depth and dimension they have never had before. Though the animation is lush and wonderful, it still keeps the feel of the television show. One cool thing that stood out was that characters have shadows… all the time. Not just when it's needed for a gag. It was cool to see.
I was happy with the way the film was going to look, but how would the story be? Unlike other TV shows that have been made into feature films, The Simpsons Movie is not simply a string of three episode length stories strung together with thin segues. The film was written to be one great adventure, and in my opinion, lives up to all the hype that was generated for its opening.
Without giving anything away, (I don't want to spoil it for anyone…), Homer's love for a pig he rescues from death once again lands the family and the entire town in peril. The Simpson family then embarks on a wild adventure to save themselves and Springfield. The story revolves around the Simpson's nuclear family with all the other townspeople making brief walk-ons.

There is also quite a bit of the social commentary viewers have come to expect from the show's writers. The gags and jokes are plentiful and funny.
Dawn and I laughed all the way through the film.
The hilarity continues all the way through the end credits, with the cast performing a new Springfield Anthem. There are also a few Mystery Science Theater 3000 type bits with the Simpson family commenting on artists and animal cruelty. The scenes are worth sticking around for. Don't miss one moment of the fun.

In the end, I was absolutely happy with The Simpsons Movie. I would recommend it to all fans of the show. It is destined to be an animation classic, and who knows… Maybe it will break a few Box Office records.

Viva La Simpsons!

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