Unlike Bender's Big Score however, TBWABB fails to deliver to the incredibly high standard that Futurama has set for itself. The main problem with it for me was the plot. It weaves in and out of so many needless story lines that the central theme is entangled and ends up being confusing and uninteresting. At times, it even seems like the guest stars are added just for the sake of it, rather than actually having some meaning to the story. This is most evident when the Robot Devil and Stephen Hawking appear, for no real reason other than to 'feature' and then disappear for the rest of the film. The recurring theme of togetherness and love doesn't really make for an interesting episode, at least not at this length.

I think it was trying to be clever and mix together all the parts which make up love and relationships into the plot, using the sub story lines, and maybe it lost some of its direction along the way.

The classic Futurama wit is still in there though, and there are lots of scenes which will get plenty of laughs. The Death Ball scene is fantastic and the marvellous Zapp Brannigan appears on screen much more this time around, which can only be a good thing. There aren't as many laughs as in Bender's Big score, but there are still enough to keep the fans happy.

The film is still snappy, funny, and worth a watch (it's mainly one for fans though) but the plot is key, and the dull main story just doesn't grab you the way Benders Big Score did.

Overall - 6.5/10

-DJ

Il cartone nasce dalla mente “malata” (per così dire) di Matt Groening, fumettista da sempre, che ha fatto la sua fortuna con questa sua creazione. Il cartone animato è ambientato a Springfield; viene rappresentata come una classica cittadina americana, ma piena di corruzione e “depravazione”. Una satira all’America oziosa e pigra che rivela, fondamentalmente, la realtà dei fatti. Il capofamiglia è Homer Simpson. Si presenta come un irresponsabile zoticone e bambino ottuso; ha l’età di 38 anni, portati malissimo dalla sua pigrizia e ingordigia (va matto per le ciambelle e schifezze fritte di ogni tipo). Lavora alla centrale nucleare di Springfield come addetto alla sicurezza nel reparto 7G, sicurezza che ogni volta viene sempre più spesso messa a repentaglio dalla sua irresponsabilità. Il suo luogo di ritrovo è il bar del suo fedele amico Boe, personaggio solitario e ambiguo, è l’animo triste della combriccola di Homer, svariati sono i tentativi di suicidio di Boe. Il resto dell’allegra compagnia di Homer sono: Lenny e Karl, coppia fissa della serie e colleghi di lavoro di Homer, e Barney: alcolizzato e nullafacente, va a zonzo per la città e si sbronza ogni giorno con i pochi spiccioli che gli restano. Come dice il detto “gli opposti si attraggono”, la moglie di Homer è Marge Bouvier, la mente della coppia e della famiglia. È la vera responsabile dell’economia e dell’incolumità dell’intero nucleo familiare.

Il personaggio di Marge è davvero pittoresco: un’artista mancata che dedica anima e corpo alla sua famiglia. Una mamma perfetta, insomma. Mentre la particolarità di Homer erano i suoi 117 chili di grasso adiposo, per Marge è la folta chioma lunga circa un metro di colore blu. Il figlio maggiore è Bart, anagramma di “brat”(monellaccio). Bart è un bambino di 10 anni che frequenta la scuola elementare di Springfield. Il bersaglio preferito dei suoi scherzi mostruosi e terribili è il preside della scuola: Skinner, reduce dalla guerra del Vietnam, porta ancora le ferite di quell’orribile campo di battaglia. Il suo migliore amico è Milhouse, un bambino afflitto da traumi psicologici dato l’invivibile clima familiare. Bart ama andare sullo skate e distruggere qualsiasi cosa gli pare, soprattutto adora infastidire le persone, come la sorella minore Lisa. Questa piccola Simpson è il sogno di ogni genitore. Ordinata, responsabile, buona e diligente, in un’età troppo precoce per lei: 8 anni. Lisa è un’amante dell’arte, suona il sassofono e la chitarra, ed oltre ad essere l’orgoglio della famiglia è anche l’orgoglio della scuola, la stessa di Bart. Come dice lui: “è la ciuccellona”. Infine c’è Maggie, la più piccola, solo pochi mesi, che, nonostante la sua tenera età, dimostra sporadicamente la sua incredibile intelligenza. Di tanto in tanto c’è la figura del nonno Abraham Simpson, detto Abe, il quale è stato mandato in una casa di riposo da Homer. Stanco, sordo e smemorato adora farsi ascoltare nelle sue lunghe storie di ricordi, annoiando gli ascoltatori.

Inoltre ci sono il cane (Piccolo Aiutante di Babbo Natale) ed il gatto (Palla di neve I, II e III). La famiglia Simpson è al completo; altri personaggi rilevanti della serie sono: Ned Flanders, il vicino di Homer, un uomo casa e chiesa con una famiglia modello, e molto bigotto su molte idee. Devoto come manco il reverendo Lovejoy, è un personaggio sul quale si concepisce una satira delicata sulla religione. Apu Nahasapeemapetilon è un extracomunitario Indù che, ogni volta, tenta disperatamente di farsi accettare come Americano. In più è il gestore del Jet Market, uno dei luoghi principali della serie, dove spesso Marge fà la spesa. È sposato con una sua concittadina e possiede 8 figli, gemelli. Poi c’è Krusty il clown, idolo di Bart, lavora in un programma televisivo per bambini su Canale 6, dove quotidianamente ci sono le puntate di Grattachecca & Fichetto, cartone preferito di Bart e Lisa.

Clancy Wiggum è il pigro commissario della polizia di Springfield, padre di Ralph, amico di classe di Lisa: figura con il quale Matt Groening si diverte a schernire la polizia americana, corrotto fino all’osso. Sempre in ambito d’immoralità c’è il sindaco della città Joe Quimby: tutt’altro che politico, show-man, direi, che cambia idee attraverso le tendenze del momento per accaparrarsi ogni volta sempre più voti. Innumerevoli sono le sue amanti. Schifoso nella maggior parte della volte. Ma il latifondista della città è Montgomery Burns, proprietario della centrale nucleare dove lavora Homer. È un uomo senza cuore e avido di denaro. Vive da scapolo e al suo fianco c’è solo il suo portaborse e assistente Waylon Smithers, segretamente innamorato del capo. Ma la figura di questo grande e caro imprenditore mi ricorda sempre più qualcuno, non credete? Ma dato che siamo in campagna elettorale non posso citarvi il nome. Provate solo ad indovinare.

Questi sono i personaggi di spicco della serie televisiva più lunga di tutte, la quale ha anche vinto un Guinness World Record, per l’appunto. Durante la lunga serie ci sono stati ospiti importanti, cito alcuni: Paul McCartney e sua moglie Linda, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Maryl Streep, Magic Johnson, Susan Sarandon, Brooke Shields, Sting, Jack Lemmon, James Taylor, James Brown, i Limp Bizkit. Prima della lunga serie però sono stati prima fatti assaggiare al popolo televisivo dall’87 all’89 con dei corti al “Tracey Ullman Show”. Una volta approvati è cominciata la lunga striscia di cartoni durata per 16 serie, fino al 2004/2005, per poi finire con un film di debutto al cinema. Il primo ed ultimo lungometraggio dei Simpson campione d’incassi ai botteghini di tutto il mondo.

Questa è la lista delle serie dei Simpson:

I corti al "Tracey Ullman Show"

1) Stagione I (1987), 7 episodi.

2) Stagione II (1987/88), 22 episodi.

3) Stagione III (1988/89), 19 episodi.

I Simpson

1) Stagione I (1989/90), 13 episodi.

2) Stagione II(1990/91), 22 episodi.

3) Stagione III (1991/92), 24 episodi.

4) Stagione IV (1992/93), 22 episodi.

5) Stagione V (1993/94), 22 episodi.

6) Stagione VI (1994/95), 25 episodi.

7) Stagione VII (1995/96), 25 episodi.

8 ) Stagione VIII (1996/97), 25 episodi.

9) Stagione IX (1997/98), 25 episodi.

10) Stagione X (1998/99), 23 episodi.

11) Stagione XI (1999/00), 22 episodi.

12) Stagione XII (2000/01), 21 episodi.

13) Stagione XIII (2001/02), 22 episodi.

14) Stagione XIV (2002/03), 22 episodi.

15) Stagione XV (2003/04), 22 episodi.

16) Stagione XVI (2004/05), 6 episodi.

È il primo cartone per adulti trasmesso da Fox. Eppure sembra strano che la Fox trasmetta in onda un cartone dichiaratamente di sinistra. Ma alla fine è questione di indice di ascolti. Durante le puntante sono immancabili gli sketch che mettono alla berlina la Fox. È un cartone splendido e con dei ritmi incalzanti. È il migliore di tutti i tempi. Un pilastro della cultura moderna ed underground. È un cartone per menti sveglie che riescono a concepire che oltre alle battute di Bart, come “ciucciati il calzino”, e quelle di Homer c’è anche una satira educata sulle realtà dell’America e del mondo intero. In Italia va in onda su Italia 1, rete dinamica e giovane, come la natura del cartone, dal lunedì al venerdì alle 14,30, e per i possessori di Sky sulla rete italiana di Fox, canale 110.

The Real Dreamer

The Void: Why did you choose to make a Simpsons movie now rather than earlier in the show's history?

Matt Groening: One of the reasons is that The Simpsons were created in 1987. So that’s 20 years. We’ve just passed our 400th episode. I thought that this was a landmark time. It’s now or never.

Al Jean: One reason we didn’t make it earlier was the fact that we didn’t have the cast contracted until 2001. You might say, why 2007? But it took us a while to write it. We tried to do it ten years ago, but we wouldn’t have had the ability to do digital animation that we have now. We wouldn’t have had the ability to turn things around and write them as quickly. You really couldn’t have made the film five years ago.

c

We're all used to seeing in The Simpsons characters in 22 minute episodes on the TV. How much of a challenge was it to keep them interesting when you moved them to a feature length?

James L Brooks: You have to tell a story and you have to have a narrative and it’s been one of the most difficult, challenging things in the process.

Matt Groening: We basically tell a feature-length story every episode of the show. So it has been a challenge, given how much story we can compress into a TV show, what are our opportunities on the big screen? So, there’s more ambitious animation and a more epic story.

c

All the people who created the show have reunited for the movie. David, how was it having the auspicious responsibility of directing the film?

David Silverman: It’s a big challenge and a lot of pressure, but there’s also a lot of support. So, certainly while the task was daunting I felt very supported by everybody here and they helped me do the right job.

Matt Groening: David Silverman has been working on The Simpsons since the beginning, so many, many years. He’s been with us since the days of The Tracy Ullman Show, James L Brooks’ TV show. He basically invented a lot of the rules for how to draw the characters. He invented a lot of the rules, so the animators could draw them consistently. He came up with the number of hairs on the top of Bart’s head. That was David Silverman’s choice. I drew about 25 or 30; he honed it down.

David Silverman: We had it at 11 and I decided to bring it down to nine.

Mike Scully: He picked the nine funniest ones.

c

Whose idea was it to make the characters yellow in the first place?

Matt Groening: I came to animation as a print cartoonist and I’m very lazy, so I only draw the outlines of characters in black and white. I just don’t think about colour. Then it came time to colour the characters and I wanted to do something other than that conventional colour that passes for caucasian in cartoons – that horrible pink. And Giorgio Pillucci, our colour stylist, made them yellow and I thought that was great.

David Silverman: One of the reasons she made them yellow is that Bart, Lisa and Maggie don’t have a hairline. So it works as their skin and hair colour.

c

How many storylines did you have to go through in order to get to the story used in the movie?

James L Brooks: We had one session where everybody brought things and then it started at that first session what the notion was going to be. We’ve had lots of drafts – it wasn’t that formal. We had a large group of writers who came together, which was anybody who’d been with the show from the beginning, who’d ever run the show, would be part of that initial group. It was a reunion. Everybody brought in something and we had a conversation and it wasn’t that long before we came away with this starting notion.

Groening: We have a concept we call a notion on the show too. Writers on the show come up with notions and it’s just based on a single idea, a thought or ‘what if we do our version of a famous movie and localise it’.

c

Plot details on the film were kept very much under wraps throughout production. Why did you choose to reveal very little about it?

James L Brooks: I think it started out as a privacy thing and then it started to be fun to keep it a secret. Also, it allowed us to change without explaining. The fact that privacy doesn’t exist anymore is not altogether a good thing. It’s nice to have a little privacy while you’re doing your work. We put out fake storylines and everything; it’s fun to play around with it.

Matt Groening: I think one of the reasons we get along and are friends is because we’re continuing to surprise each other. One of the great things about this whole project is the idea of surprising ourselves. We’ve been working for a long time together in the same room that’s too small and people continue to come up with surprising things. If we can continue to surprise each other then we’ll surprise the world.

c

So many animated movies released nowadays are computer generated. Did you have any thoughts about changing the way the movie was animated, from 2D to 3D?

David Silverman: I would say that we’ve used more 3D in the movie [than we do in the show], in terms of having 3D sets and doing camera moves and 3D props. But we wanted to keep a hand-drawn look because we wanted people to still associate this with the TV show. We never thought about doing it as a whole 3D animation, because that would destroy the personalities of the characters.

Mike Scully: Also the computer lets us do things in the film that we just can’t do on the show. Like there’s a huge mob scene – we just couldn’t do that on the show. So the fans will really feel like they’re seeing a movie and not just an expanded TV show.

James L Brooks: It should always look like The Simpsons. You don’t want the characters to look like Pixar characters. I also think it makes us different to other animated pictures.

Matt Groening: Through the history of animation, there’s always been something very charming about the hand-drawn line. I think that’s the appeal of comic books too. There are no computer-generated comic books. It’s all about the gesture of the artist.

David Silverman: What I love about it too is that you’re watching a picture come to life and I’m always charmed by that.

Al Jean: I think our early trailer showed that people are getting tired of that CG beauty – that bunny that was animated. People want something that’s real.

Mike Scully: I also don’t think there’s been a great 2D film that has failed. I think sometimes studios over-react and think the public doesn’t want 2D. The public just wants to be entertained; they don’t care if it’s 2D or CGI.

David Silverman: I hope we can help regenerate interest in 2D animation. That would be a great bonus.

c

Will the TV show change much following the movie?

Al Jean: For me, they’re independent entities. You can watch the movie without ever having seen the TV show and it’s not like the movie will end with ‘Oh, you’ve got to see this episode to understand it’. It’s a self-contained unit. However, people who see the movie, if they haven’t seen the show, we hope they’ll check it out.

James L Brooks: And there’ll be some continuity. Some things that happened in the movie will affect the series.

c

So the events of the movie will carry over into the show?

James L Brooks: Certainly, the events that take place in the movie will have happened.

c

Matt, how much of you is in Bart and Homer?

Matt Groening: There is a little bit of everybody who works on the show in all the characters. Let me put it this way though - it is not autobiographical. Originally the characters were named after members of my family. The only one I will admit to being like anyone in my family is Lisa. My sister Lisa is sensitive, intelligent and pretty. The rest, and my family and I agree on this, are not like the characters on the show.

c

There are a few new characters in the movie....

David Silverman: Yes and some old ones too. We have a lot of scenes where there are crowds, so we figured let’s just grab people from different episodes and put them in there for big fans of the show to spot.

c

Will any of the characters introduced in the movie become part of the regular cast?

Al Jean: We’re hoping to. That’s the goal, yes.

c

How have the characters changed since the show started?

David Silverman: I would say, by the time we got to the third series we settled down on the characters. Look at any animation and it’ll change. Look at Bugs Bunny at the beginning; look at Mickey Mouse at the beginning. Even if you look at comic strips. You look at Peanuts at the beginning; the style has not quite congealed. What happens for every cartoonist is that you discover little things.

c

Do you see a point in the future when the show will eventually end?

Matt Groening: Actually, several years ago I did an interview in which I speculated on that same question and I talked about the first rule of Zen: nothing is permanent. And it became this big thing and I learned how much it upset people – the idea that The Simpsons might end. The attitude that I have is that there is no end in sight. We keep having fun and we keep doing new things and the movie is the latest and most ambitious project yet, but the show will continue and everything associated with it.

Al Jean: On the show last year we won at every award show we went to, including the Emmy for Best Animated Show. So, we’re still doing stories that we really like and it’s still being responded to by the audience. So why stop?

David Silverman: It’s amazing for me when I see kids of eight years old and they tell me how much they love The Simpsons. It’s great that it’s still fresh to people that young. That’s an amazing feeling, so I don’t see any end in sight.

c

Why do you think this show has had the success that it has?

Al Jean: Because it’s good.

David Silverman: In my mind, it’s like those Warner Brothers characters, like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. It’s a totally different style of animation, but the longevity is the same. I don’t compare it to other TV shows. We’ve created this whole universe of characters, in the way that Disney has Mickey Mouse and Goofy and Warner Brothers has Bugs and Daffy and we have The Simpsons.

Brooks: It’s an accident when you touch a culture; it’s an accident when you strike that chord. We’re the beneficiaries of some alchemy of timing and a group of people that came together. You just have live in appreciation of the fact that this happened to you and serve it.

Mike Scully: From what I’ve heard, for some parents the show has gone from something they didn’t want their kids to watch to something they watch with their children. It’s now a family institution. It’s one of the few family activities left, as far as watching television together. So I think that’s tribute to the show lasting all these years. Nobody wants to see it go away…

The Simpson's Movie is out now on DVD and Blu-ray. Why not treat yourself by clicking here and buying a copy today. Also, why you are at it, why not click here and create your own unique Simpsons Movie DVD cover, using a Simpsonized character you have created. Ace!

When Futurama was cancelled four years ago, university and college campuses mourned a great loss: a programme which not only made you laugh, but had many high-brow 'geeky' references in it that allowed sly chuckles at the 'cooler' person sitting next to you. However, like a space-phoenix from a supernova, the show was reborn and, like Family Guy before it, and returns for our viewing pleasure in the form of a feature-length straight-to-DVD film.

The show continues where it left off pre-cancellation, with Philip Fry, Leela and Bender working for the Planet Express delivery company under the watchful, though senile, eye of Professor Farnsworth. Together they travel across space (and occasionally time) to deliver packages and often end up saving the world or their own asses, depending on the situation.

Normally about now in a review the journalist would write some words explaining the plot of the film and how good or bad it is. But as fans of the show will know, Futurama episodes have never really had the easiest of plots to sum up quickly without either going off into highly descriptive prose or revealing the ending. This means that in this review, the focus will have to be on the quality of the humour which cocoons the plot of this film. Well, the programme is made by the same team that brought you that other cartoon… what’s it called… oh yeah, The Simpsons, so it is fair to say that you expect a certain level of quality, which is dutifully delivered with some fantastic one-liners, comical references and cameos by Al Gore, Mark Hamill and Coolio to name but a few.

One thing that can be said about this film is that unlike the Family Guy ‘film’, this does actually works as a feature. While Family Guy was three episodes taped together, this has a much more consistent plot throughout. So much so that at times the only thing carrying you forward are the many many jokes which litter the finely-crafted script.

Like all previous DVD releases by Mr Groening, the DVD also comes with a host of extras, such as deleted scenes, concept drawings and commentaries, which not only reveal some background into the show, but also help highlight some of the geekier references via a 20 minute lecture by a mathematician explaining the theory behind the jokes.

This is clearly a disc that has been made for the fans who have petitioned for this show to come back on air, and the fans of the show will no doubt rush out and buy this DVD straight away. For those who have not embraced Futurama before, you would probably do best to catch a few episodes before sitting down to watch this disc, not because it is too complicated to understand, but because you will appreciate it a lot more if you did.

In terms of "Futurama" - "We're doing four DVD movies around ninety minutes and then we're going to reconfigure those and they'll be [sixteen] episodes on Comedy Central. The impolite way of saying it is we're chopping them up and the polite way is to say we're reconfiguring and we're going to add narration and more stuff. We're going to be doing some fun extras on the DVD show, there's going to be "Everybody Loves Hyptno-Toad" - a whole show of it. The DVD's are going to be self-contained packages, but the episodes will also work, we hope. That's the goal".

When will it air? "It's going to be on Comedy Central, starting at the beginning of 2008 's going to be on Comedy Central, starting at the beginning of 2008".

What about "The Simpsons Movie", how'd they come up with the plot? "We got together with a bunch of the writers and everybody threw out ideas, we picked one and went with it... It's one big story. We had a lot of ideas and probably have enough for three or four movies. We'll thrown out a lot of them".

(Dark Horizons)