We Hate Movies - S11: Episode 547 - The Simpsons Movie (with Henry Gilbert & Bob Mackey)

Episode Date: May 11, 2021

This week on the show, the long-awaited crossover event is here as Henry Gilbert and Bob Mackey from the great Talking Simpsons podcast are hanging out to chat about the 87-minute missed opportunity, The Simpsons Movie! Why weren't Mr. Burns or Sideshow Bob the villain of the film? If it had to be an Albert Brooks-voiced character, why not Hank Scorpio? Did we really need to see Bart's genitals? And really, who is this movie for? PLUS: Transforming those 7-11s into Kwik-E-Marts was a terrible idea. The Simpsons Movie stars Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille, Russi Taylor, Maggie Roswell, and Albert Brooks; directed by David Silverman. Check out WHM at FRQNCY in June! Catch WHM on tour this fall, hopefully! WHM Merch Store Advertise on We Hate Movies via Gumball.fm Unlock Exclusive Content!: http://www.patreon.com/wehatemovies See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on the program, it took them 10 years and this is the best they could do. It's The Simpsons movie. I'm Andrew Jupin. Steven Sadak. Eric Sisker. Chris Cabin. Henry Gilbert. Bob Mackie.

And we hate movies. Hello, everyone. Welcome to We Hate Movies. Thank you for tuning in. As always, I got to tell you, folks, this is a special one today. The long-awaited crossover. our fine program with another very fine program i'm so stoked to welcome henry gilbert and bob macky from talking simpsons among other podcasts into we hate movies today fellas thanks for coming and hanging out how you guys doing oh thank you so much hey it is a privilege to be here yeah no we've we've had all you guys on our podcast multiple times i i thank you all for probably about 15 episodes now we're finally giving back yeah absolutely and i feel like this is the natural way to do it with the

Simpsons movie from Aught 7 directed I guess by David Silverman. This was a name I did not recognize. Oh well Silverman is like the most he's directed most of the major episodes of the past like he's one of the first animators on Simpsons

and he'd he'd co-directed Monsters Inc. before this so he's done theatrical before he's if anybody was going to direct the Simpsons movie it would have been him I'd say And he has some of the best-looking episodes. He was there from the shorts, the Tracy Ellman show Shorts onward.

Okay. So this is a dude who was living and breathing the world of the Simpsons for quite a while. This is why we brought Bob and Henry on because I, I'm a Simpsons fanatic. I love The Simpsons. But then I'm not that good with all the stuff that they're very good with, which I think most of this episodes, you're like, is that right? Okay. Okay. There, go, go, go, fact check that real quickly.

I got no idea what I'm talking about. I recall, you know, seeing this in the theater back in 2007 and being, you know, I guess happy to be there at the start of the film. I remember seeing it up in the old, the old 86th Street theater. And I specifically went there to see it as is 86th and Third Avenue. It was one of the theaters, my co-host will remember, for a while I could get like discounted tickets to a couple of theaters in Manhattan. And I was like, oh, two tickets for $3. that sounds about right for the Simpsons movie. I mean, that was putting, putting,

because I think I was there with you when you saw it, Andrew, and that was like putting butter and jam on boldie bread. It was the Simpson movie I was waiting for, for all this time. I was seeing it for free. Wow. And I was walking into it, and I walked out, I remember being like, that was good. Yes.

I remember paying full ticket price, mind you. full ticket price and I remember liking it I remember being like oh yeah look they're getting their little mojo back or whatever and I enjoyed it and then upon rewatch I just I didn't really like it this go I skipped it

I did a DVD rental when it came out because I was just sort of like you know out not out on the I was out in the New Simpsons it's like how good could it be and then I remember Chris Cabin I was definitely too cool for school I was probably getting laid at the time probably

That is a capital P, probably. No, definitely not. Not 2007. But, yeah, that's my experience of it. And then I watched it. I liked it more than I thought I would, but I also was sort of like, eh. And I'm even more eh today. Yeah.

Bob and Henry, do you guys recall your first time with this one? I saw it right across the street from where I live still. Like, I just moved to Berkeley. And I was like, I'm a big boy. I'm going to see the Simpsons movie finally. And I've definitely felt very positive feelings after seeing it. I was like, oh, I think this is really good. They finally, they did get their mojo back.

All the writers came back. All the people came back. And I think it was on DVD that I started to feel a little less positive about it. And now every time I visited it probably three times in the last 12 years. And each time I did, I'm like, I like this little. less. I just a little less every time. Well, I did not like it. And before I made talking about the Simpsons my job, I was an unpaid worker online complaining about the Simpsons. So of course I had to see this movie. I walked out very angry. And the person I was dating at the time, I felt really bad for

them in retrospect because I'm sure the entire car ride home was one long rant for me about everything the movie did wrong because I was just pitching my article to my partner in the car that I would later right the next day. So I really didn't like it when I first saw it. Now upon every revisit, I'm not angry at it. I just see all of the missed opportunities that I'm sure we'll talk about in this podcast. Yeah, totally. I feel like that's, that's a great way to describe it, at least how I felt this time coming out of it is like, man, there's just some missed opportunities there and some things that like, I just don't need to be in this movie that just don't need to be in any kind of piece of Simpsons Entertainment, mainly Bruce's penis.

yeah green day but also Bart's penis yeah we finally get the payoff what is this little kid rocking his penis that's what I've always wanted to see a child's dick

um the first Superman movie didn't do it for me you know what I mean I got enough it wasn't enough it wasn't enough nearly enough the Nirvana never mind cover was pretty good but we need

something else. I think any cold news or some other sites spoiled me on Bart's Dick. I knew I would see Bart's penis going into the movie. Oh, wow. That's too bad. I think it was the talk about the town. It's kind of like a viral marketing scheme. Like put the little kid's dick in the movie.

Everyone would be talking about it. And then everyone wants to go see. They're like, well, you know, I heard it was funny too. That's why I bought my ticket. I heard it was funny as well. No, it's just because it's so funny. That's why I want to see it. Yeah. I was surprised in the theater by it, but now I'm just like, oh, I can see a 10-year-old drawn penis on Disney Plus.

Like, that's the power of Disney Plus. I was, I was waiting for it to just be, like, blurred out when that scene happened. Yes. Like, after, after reading the Daryl Hannah thing with the splash, I was like, there's no way they are letting this penis show up. And then, right as rain, the little fucking penis. I was even more surprised that they kept the smoking that Jimbo and Dawkins. for doing in that montage. Oh, right.

Because, like, that's, you can't be smoking on Disney. No, she has got a bong later. That's right. Yeah, I forgot about, yeah, Otto in his end of days just ripping hard from that bong. Uh, yeah, I, I guess, like, it's okay if a cartoon does it, but, like, Daryl Hannah's ass, you know, out on Montauk at the end of that movie, huge problem. Right. We should also mention that his whole, his fucking balls are hanging out, too.

Yeah. You see the full balls as well. It's a funny gag where it's like, oh, you know, we're doing the Austin Power's thing where we're always going to block it in the shot. And they're doing it really creatively and like, you know, really having fun about the animation. And then it's just there. And like, it sits for a minute. And I'm like, oh, man. It's when you get the twang of the guitar to like, like, wow.

Awesome. That's a Billy Joe Armstrong guitar chord right there. feel you know they they they don't show it and they're like okay how do you top all of the austin powers jokes of not showing a penis for so long okay then let's you show a penis but then right after that they go back to obscuring a penis with the french fries and i was like ah it's just as a joke pacing it's like you you showed me his dick like i you can't go back to obscuring it i agree yeah it should totally be the end of it right there yeah my uh my loud mouth opinion up front my listeners have heard this before but I'll say it on your show that to me the

Simpsons movie is who shot Mr. Burns part one and two and if you're going to make an actual movie it needs to be as good or better than that and I think the main problem with this movie is the two main villains of the Simpsons world are Mr. Burns and Sighto Bob they are not the villains of this movie there is some new guy who is kind of Hank Scorpio but he's also a parody of Rumsfeld and Cheney and it just feels weird it feels like that's one of the biggest Miss Opportunities, the villain is not Mr. Burns or Sightrow Bob in this movie. And you don't go to school, you know what I mean? You don't, you know what I mean?

Like all this stuff that the work, the life of the Simpsons that you love, you know, or you don't go to the power plant either. You know what I mean? Like you don't get to see the characters kind of do live their lives you want. Because the idea is it's got to be bigger than that. And it doesn't actually have to be. Like that is, yep. You're totally right.

It could just be better or, you know, like more, more resident. You know what I mean? It doesn't have to be big, big, big. Yeah, this notion of like it's a movie so we have to like top everything that we've ever done. But that's not why people have loved your show for so many years because it's this big whatever, like this whole notion of like

the dome and the town being like pretty much destroyed. The Simpsons House definitely being destroyed. Like that whole like we just got to take it to another level. It always reminded me of basically the plot of the Duck Tales movie where there's

Like when the genie gets all fucking crazy in the end of that 74 minute movie and like the McDuck's mansion is kind of destroyed. Duckberg's like kind of fucked with it. And it's just like that's not why I like this. Like yeah, Mr. Burns barely in this movie at all even. Yeah. It's just a huge fucking error. But you know what's in this movie is taking pot shots at the EPA. Yeah.

Yeah. Why? Good stuff. The perfect time right after Katrina is to do that. no i you know when i saw uh like the x files movie you know that was another one where i thought like uh oh i'm getting to see all the big budget and everything but like after an opening set piece they just separate the two main characters and it completely f's with the status quo and i was thinking like this was not why i bought a ticket to this movie is to see everything

explode and it not be a continuation but i think all the writers and producers they get in their head of like well if it's just a big TV episode why are people putting down their money to see it you know right yeah which then sort of just calls in another question though of like why does this TV show need a movie

right that's also the beef a good a good version of that is the mystery science theater movie which is just sort of like it's just a mystery science theater movie that they that they episode that they just kind of broadcast television like the sets updated

etc like I guess the bits have more weight to them or something, but it doesn't matter. Because that was a bigger B movie. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, just you look at it and it's like, oh, okay, they're using like nicer film stock, you know, during the bits

and whatever. But yeah, it's still true to what it is. And this just doesn't it doesn't feel like, it's like, oh, what if the Simpsons were on steroids? Like, that's really what this kind of feels like. That's the thing is I almost feel like while I was watching it, the one thing I really felt was like, why didn't you

go back to the old animation style. Yeah. The quote about like how much he likes imperfections grainings quote about that stuff. I'm like that feels like something you'd want to bring back for this thing that has been like it's your free money card. Whenever you want to cash this in you can cash this in. It's going to be free money

because everybody's going to go see the Simpsons movie. So why wouldn't you make it like something? I know like it just changes and animation style. That the work that went into the old stuff is a lot of work and probably a lot of labor practices got bent or broke in that but like sweet Jesus like I just found myself being like I don't connect with the way this looks yeah the polish

yeah well I would say after the last five years of watching the extremely digital seasons where the most recent ones feel so so very locked into place and like unmoving seeing Homer move he moves so much more fluidly in this movie than he does on the show but that really is about

the bar lowering just way more since 2007 you know right yeah right it's just too clean and like yeah I think that like you know and you guys talk about this a lot like how the old animation styles would like it would cheat stuff you know what I mean like and what you get

from a facial expression that smirks that's doing something that the face shouldn't do but it's you know it's more akin to cartooning as opposed to like akin to just sort of a digital model, you know? Well, this movie, it also does this thing that, like, most 2D animation that started doing a while ago, it's just like, you know, cars are hard to draw. It just have a 3D car, have a 3D vehicle, and just draw a thing on top of it.

And, and I mean, I'm sure it was easier. Also, this sounded like one, an incredibly hard thing for the animators to do listening to them on the commentary. So I don't, you can't really blame. them for taking you to be like, can we just have a 3D truck? Why do I have to draw a truck? Yeah. But it's, uh, you lose so much character just in that alone. I guess if you need answers as to why the movie could be better, it's that the production was spread so thin because they're working on the TV show at the same time and the movie and the video game, which had a TV

show's worth of animation in it. And the ride. And the ride too. You're right. And the ride. Jesus. Now, which, which, um, which video game are you talking about it? It's, it's just called the Simpsons game and it came out on every platform available and they're all kind of the same game but they do contain an episode's worth of new animation with new lines and everything it's written by the show's writers as is the ride

they didn't hire anybody new to do this stuff it was all internal um and this was I was I right up front in my little intro jab that this it really did start getting developed in like 97 they'd been saying movie internally for a long time like

yeah even well like here Here's a one old story, me and Bob know. Everybody remembers the season four premiere episode, Camp Krusty. Behind the scenes, they had said, let's hold this back. Like, James L. Brooks threw out the idea of like, let's not air this episode and expand this into the Simpsons movie. Like, this could be the movie. So, you know, as far back as 92, they're talking about it internally.

Yeah. And that's, I mean, that was a better idea for a Simpsons movie, right? it's a it's you know you got crusty the clown in there you've got good homer and marge uh stuff and it's not too it it feels lived in in the actual world as opposed to like movie five right and also the notion of like the kids going to a summer camp like that is kind of like a movie thing yes right you know it's like adam's family values type you know plot line or something right totally just like leaving the town and going and doing something elsewhere um i mean i guess they leave the town and do something else where in this

movie. Up front at the start of it, we hate movies, a favorite thing to point out, we are futzing with the opening logo. We have Ralph sort of singing along inside the 20th century Fox thing. I will say I'm generally a grumpy Gus when it comes to fuzzing

with the distributor logos. In this case, I was still chuckling last night. This little kid just singing this hard out. I think the movie opens pretty strong. I think the itchy and scratchy bit was like a highlight for me. I was like, oh shit this is pretty fun the whole thing about like itchy leaving scratchy on the moon and then rising to the presidency and then having to cover it up i thought it was pretty funny so you you eric ciska were really a fan of the that little portion of the film that references the kennedy assassination

oh yeah yeah totally yeah that's odd that's strange i don't know it's just not really it's two great flavors together at last the simpsons and the zabruder film i will say outside of the very 2007 hillary prediction. It is a very funny opening. Yeah, totally. Yeah, I just scrawled a cursed object in my notes when I saw that. I mean, when they were animated, when that film got released in July 2007, who would have ever, like, I knew people knew about Senator Barack Obama, but they, no one was thinking like he'd be president even then. Hillary should have chosen Itchy and not Tim Kane.

That would have done it. That would have done it. Definitely more personality in that cartoon mouse. sure. I do love when he's in the Oval Office and he's looking at the picture of like a mouse Abraham Lincoln, it definitely gave me like PTSD flashbacks

to the fucking Tim Burton playing to the Apes movie. I was with Abraham Lincoln at the end of that one. That shot where he's like brooding over the desk like Kennedy going through like this massive decision. It's very funny the framing of some of these shots they use in this opening. I feel

but here's my thing though. Shouldn't it be Mouse Hillary Clinton then guys like if it's if it's mous Abraham Lincoln it's got to be mouse Clinton oh man it's me mouse Clinton oh you gotta be cheese well I will say Steve

I think a big problem with this movie is it doesn't trust anyone to understand anything I think drawing Hillary as a mouse would be a step too far for them yeah I mean I think that you Bob that's totally right just thinking about like the respect for the audience intelligence I think back to like one of my favorite Homer

holding up a t-shirt gags ever is the Ayatola Asahola t-shirt and like just trusting the audience enough to remember Ayatola Comini versus now where it's like no she's got to be a human it's got to be in the pantsuit because they're not going to

get it otherwise you put a mouse with like you know a longerish hair and in a pants suit you're going to get the reference it's totally not trusting the audience not everyone needs to get the joke like if you get half the audience it's fine and the other half can get it another viewing

or something. Some of your audience are going to be kids, especially since you're the Simpsons, and like me, who will see Ayatollah and be like, look at your fucking parent, be like, what is an Ayatollah? Well, I will say the commentary is a with the producers, not the animator

commentary. It is a tribute to their cowardice. Like I feel like you hear the writers just say over and over again, like, well, we didn't know if we wanted to reference this because it might not be famous enough. We don't know if we like they talk about how oh we did a titanic reference because we're like okay we can do a direct reference to this film because it is one of the most scene movies ever fine

we can do that but they they held themselves i mean i i think too on that esoteric thing the the two show runners they didn't invite back to help write this movie were bill oakley and josh winestein the uh seven and eight guys who you know oversaw poochie and arm and tamzerian and i think they're seen as two esoteric and weird for these guys guys like yeah and that's shame yeah that's what i that's one of the things that i love about the simpsons is how weirdly esoteric it gets and you know like even like adam west jokes etc etc like you don't care that like whomever might not get it it's just like no you want to make fun adam west you know right and because of uh james l brooks on the show his power made it so they did not

have to take notes from the network no other show got that privilege no future mac grating show would get that privilege it was a note free show but this movie feels especially noted it's very focused grouped. Yes, yeah, big time. The thing that does not play for me here. One, Steve, you must hate this because it's a fake movie, fake out, technically. Yeah. Because the Simpsons are in a theater, I guess just they're watching the itchy and scratchy movie or something.

But like the starting with the pillar boxing. Yeah. Is the pillar boxing and the letter boxing combo is not the joke that it should have been. they should have started with 4-3 like the television series and then close it down and widen it

at the same time as opposed to this where you're just watching ugly-ass pillar boxing and I didn't remember the opening of this movie and I was like holy shit

did Disney Plus put like a garbage transfer this on here and then they stretch it out to the widescreen and it's like okay I get what you're going for but that wasn't the right way

to do that joke and it drives me up the wall. Green Day is playing also. It's a very kind of clunky opening, right? Because it's like the whole movie theater thing, but it isn't really like actually connected to what's going on. They just go into the updated show opening. The updated show opening.

Of course, Bart has to say I will not illegally download this movie. Pirating jokes. That's great. You wouldn't steal a car, Eric, would you? I fucking would, dude. I did chuckle in. the theater. I remember feeling like when Homer points at the everybody

says, especially you like that. I gave me a good chuckle because I was like, I'm in the theater and I have a sucker. But I guess that's also the Simpsons really, especially under Al Jean, it's about expecting your first

complaint and going like, fine, we'll say it before you say it. You're paying to see a TV show. Yeah, you can't complain. I would have loved it if during that fucking totally pointless Breaking Bad movie, if they just had Aaron Paul turn to the camera and it's just like, and you didn't need to see this whatsoever. We got you. I spent last year, I was like, you know, I'm going to finally watch that Breaking Bad movie. And, you know, I'm going to, I'm doing it the right way.

I'm going to rewatch Breaking Bad, which is actually a mistake because I was like, oh, man, breaking bad is amazing. held up well. And then I'm like, and now the next chapter. And I'm like, what fuck? The next chapter that like 60% of it is rooted in the past in flashback form. Yeah, totally unnecessary. Yeah, so I don't know, Green Day is given this concert in Springfield for some reason. The one thing I appreciate is the Duff Concert Series. There's Duff Summer Concert Series. Yeah, totally.

No, it's, I guess, you know, if it's all about fame for like, who's your big guest art. That's really hard though for the show because they've had so many famous people in the show like the Green Day in 2007 pretty big but like not bigger than like the Beatles or even Aerosmith when they had them on.

It never felt like oh this is the next level of guests. This feels like a choice made in maybe like 2005. Yes. Yeah I mean the height of the American idiot powers I mean like because this movie is so you forget you know I was thinking about this at the time last night like

shit this is a movie that it's it's definitely a product of you know the georgia w bush era no doubt about it and that and that like just american idiot so ties into that so it like it makes sense but jesus i mean talk about putting an expiration date on your the opening of your movie if you want to open with music get someone that has transcended decades and you know obviously they couldn't get someone like david bowie but like a singer-songwriter type that that would be like a big get that wouldn't be distractingly dated. Or of the time, like, specifically of the time. But, like, I think what you probably would want was some jet.

Or, like, no, like, that's the thing. Is it, you would think. It's my jet impression. In 2007, it would have been, like, someone like Kanye, but they're not going to make jokes. They're not going to be able to write jokes around Kanye. They will be able to write jokes around Green Day. Yeah. Yeah, but if you just, if it was the same thing and Kanye was, you know, performing on a raft,

and the pollution in the lake just sunk it's the same joke like who gives a shit you wouldn't you wouldn't get to get to do the you know uh musicians on the deck of the titanic joke i guess but otherwise it's kind of the same thing also big um i never like when this happens and there is at least one moment on the show i remember it happens i never like the acknowledgment of we have a theme song and so like green day playing the theme song it made me remember there's one episode i It's a really old one, I think, where Bart's, like, whistling in the kitchen and he's whistling the Simpsons theme song. And it's like, I get it. I know I'm watching a thing that's not real that has a theme song, but like, what are we doing? The Simpsons loves that. Tiny tunes, I guess, I guess, because it's just such a self-reflective monster, like, it's a little different in that way. It was only funny when Homer was playing it on the giant piano on the floor. Yes. And destroying it.

I think at least, you know, one positive with Green Day as opposed to if they got, say, Kanye or Bruce Springsteen, let's say, is that Green Day gets the joke enough that they can just agree, like, you can kill us in the movie, we'll drown, but like they, at least works better as a joke. Like, there's probably a lot of famous people that would not accept being murdered by the town as, as part of their appearance. That's, that's definitely true. and like the whole like them just actually murdering real people who we know not to be dead really felt like an old school joke to me like just reminisce I don't know like not this but like when in crusty gets canceled when Bet Midler just murders those people on the road from the littering you know I'll get you for this Midler and it's like you know that kind of level of joke telling Luke Perry my face my horrible face as well or my valuable face rather I do yeah this scene especially like you see Edna Craboppel on Skinner's shoulders and it's just a bummer that

Marshall Wallace has no character in this. You know what I mean? She's not in, there's more lines from Cookie Kwan and you know what I mean? Like late additions that kind of were like exciting. I was surprised no Gill in this movie either actually. Yeah, Claytus gets more lines than Skinner.

Yeah. And probably burns too. Yeah. That's not. It's so wrong. They, on the deleted scenes and there are many, and the ones on the DVD are just the tip of the iceberg of what they deleted from the movie. But like Craboppel has a line there, and that's why contractually, Marsha Wallace

is credited in the credits, but she has no lines in the film as it appeared in theaters. But instead, they give her like double the cup size of breasts that she normally has, which really distracted me. It's a movie. Everything's got

to be bigger. On the TV show, Barts, Dick, is smaller. Look, we didn't get you many lines, but would you like to make the sound of like toast popping up from a toaster? Would you like to make, like, radio? We have a lot of radio in this.

Would you like to do that? Capital knockers, madam. Like that, you know, I don't know. Yeah, so I, they cut to their, you know, playing in, or sitting in church. Bart is playing a video game. I appreciate one, it's clearly a game boy of some kind, right?

It doesn't look like a DS or anything. It's the old sort of rectangular gray device. Playing a game called Baby Blast, which was a pretty surprising thing, I forgot about. Just the game is, I guess, murdering babies, shooting babies, which is truly something. Yeah, it's, I mean, there's Grand Theft Walrus later in the thing. It's all about the violent video games of 2005 as well. like you it's yeah yeah the script just screams 2005 they always kind of had some good video game title gags though i was always a fan of when the quickie mart offered the arcade game cat fight no yeah now the uh even in an episode i do not like the death of marge episode i do like the title of uh billy graham's bible blaster

that's a funny word disembowel or four yeah of course bone storm Bobby Bunstorm go to hell shut up mom but it feels like

this scene is meant to introduce the Simpsons to someone who doesn't know about them yes yes exactly it's like this the service is happening and like the Simpsons are late

so that's how they're introduced like in you know silhouette behind the stained glass and it is kind of funny like Homer talking shit and you know those idiots aren't going to hear us inside and everything it's kind of great but it is sort of like one yeah like if you don't know who the simpsons are but also this weird thing for like if you do know who the simpsons are this like here they come oh here come the simpsons get ready and it's like i fucking know man i know the movie starting the movie we already saw them too we saw them after the itchy and scratchy cartoon exactly yeah yeah i think the idgy and scratchy would play better for me if you don't have that ending and it really feels like an opening short you know what I mean like you're just watching oh see that would have been

itchy and scratchy cartoon yeah that's fucking interesting man that's fucking interesting right like they start the movie like Roger Rabbit starts yes right and just do a full itch and scratchy thing or something yeah in spirit the itchy and scratchy thing is a throwback to you know the old cartoons

to pre date start the movie but in this case like they they had to have a bridge of like no we put in a joke of Homer and to see the characters they could have just had like, you know, that's all folks. Fritchie and Scratchy and just have it be a complete cartoon. But, yeah, I think

maybe that also shows they did not have the guts of like, no, we got to show Homer now. Like, Homer, if people can't wait five minutes to hear Homer's voice. They will leave the theater. Yeah, we don't want people getting up and leaving five minutes into our 88 minute movie. So, it's fucking cat and mouse. I'm here for the Simpsons.

Wrong theater, honey. Let's go. But in that moment when they pull back and they're in the theater, was that Itchy and Scratchy movie 2 or 3? Not you have to be wouldn't it? I guess. That's right. Yeah. I guess you know Homer would let Bart see that. He wouldn't let him see the first one. Right. Yeah. The first one

no, still on principle. But the sequel, yeah, let's go to the theater. The sequels are fine, but the first one you've got to wait until you become a Supreme Court justice. Yeah. You don't get to see the DePama itching and Scratch. You only get to see the John Wu one. I do love, no, I don't love it.

It's interestingly, this like, grandpa getting possessed for a second as sort of something i don't know definitely in the simpsons world god is real like god yeah or a higher power because maybe it's the uh the god of the inuit people that will empower them later in it but this this is another of the giant changes they made to the movie like laid in it and it's crazy to think uh like bob you know yeah they they went through a million drafts of this movie so many changes so many things that are in trailers that never made the movie, but this was going to be Marge,

not Abe, who has the vision. That's really weird. But so what was the decision there? Yeah, to switch that. They cut it because Marge, if Marge is the person who has the vision

and Homer, they already felt bad enough that in this movie, Homer comes off like an asshole, which is because he is an asshole. But, right. So they're like,

okay, if it's March who has the vision and Homer doesn't believe her from the start there, you are they felt that was too much of an asshole they're like no he it it works and i think they made the right move because it works much better if one you get a crazy abe thing and it's fun to watch him go crazy and two nobody should believe aim he's a crazy old man who tells you stories about nickels with bees on him you know that's true or you know anyone's speaking in tongues i i wouldn't

buy but you know the american test audiences this is a huge religion in this country's just yelling gibberish. My grandpa does what their grandpa's doing. No, that's not realistic. He's not handling a snake or a serpent or nothing. I was born a snake handler, I'll die a

snake handler. But it seriously sounds like they almost fully animated Marge doing a freak out and then just changed it like three months before the film came out, which hard enough on these animators. Like there's we we heard stories that most of them were entirely burned out we've interviewed one of

the sequence directors which is basically like co-co-director of the movie under silverman Lauren McMullen and she just said like she told us these sad stories of how much work they put in things that just got like deleted never even put on the DVD and then she said she had to do just a cross-country drive just to get the feelings out of her after just cursing all the way through fucking Idaho man Yeah On the commentary for the animation part

They say like Lauren can't be here She's in Montana right now I think screaming Yeah Road trip therapy needed for like the death of parents Divorce or widowing And finishing the Simpsons movie Yeah

But yeah So you know Abe's prediction here Ipa, Epa, Thousand Eyes. What was the other part of it? Twisted tail and trapped forever. Trapped forever, right, right, right. It's filmed on a very 2007 phone.

It's like you miss smartphones by one year and your film is dated forever, you know? Absolutely. Did you look at this thing? It looks like one of those like LG chocolate, I think, was the name of the model that I had. Oh, gosh. Oh, yeah, the shittiest little like flip-up phone. Oh, my God, they were trash. We're forgetting the shittiest part of the vision. The Keepa!

Keepa! Yeah, I'm screaming that. It's kind of great. A little after this, there's another stupid TV joke where like the lower third comes on with an ad or something. And it's like, we're selling them during the movies now, too. We're five. It's that, I just feel like you get one transition from TV to movie joke. And that was one too many for me.

Well, because it's also, it's also a Fox joke too, right? it's like oh yeah fox like you know we're not you know uh we're soulless enough that we'll advertise in our movies too yeah i don't need a i don't need a lower third joke in this movie thank you they hit like three of those yeah i do yeah i think it's i think they're like well can we choose like no we can't we got to we got to do three of these movies the two be continued one way later in the movie that one worked for me yeah especially the first time seeing i did like that one also seeing all this fox bashing in the movie it just makes me go Like, I don't think they'd do this at Disney now.

I don't think they wouldn't, like, it's a different era. I don't think they would say, like, oh, there's a bit on the commentary where Al Jean actually makes a joke about, oh, I heard Walt Disney was anti-Semitic. And I was like, I can't believe it's still on Disney Plus. It's surprising. I mean, they leave in the direct knock at Disney. Yes. When they're on the train coming back and Bart's like wearing the bra on his head. He's like, I'm the mascot for a song.

this corporation it's like just fucking wait just you wait but it's weird I mean like it's weird how this movie is paced like for all like the bigness of it a lot of it is just like downtime like this this Homer and Bart

daring montage is just sort of like could happen anywhere or anything and like it's like it's almost if they'd had no idea what to do and it's like I don't know what have Homer and Bart are daring each other they're funny characters it'll write itself that seems like a like a first act

fuck around from an episode, right? It's like we're just doing this shit and then the episode's actually about something else three to five minutes later. It also feels like they're trying to establish Homer is a bad father. Are you new to the Simpsons? We'll use some information about Homer.

Yeah, actually, this is so similar to the one of insane clown poppy we just did with where Krusty meets his illegitimate daughter. But before that, it's just Homer and Bart do the chores with fire crackers for five minutes and then they go

to a book fair for basically no reason. The only thing that's missing is that if this had been written like in the year 2000, they would have had a scene of March saying like, now do your chores. Well yeah, can you imagine if they started the fucking X-Files movie and

like Mulder turns to skull and he's like well you know we have to investigate the F files which is as you know files that they don't want the public to see that are about aliens and monsters out there. And I'm like, they did this better like twice. Beavis and Butthead also

fucking Alleyoop. They didn't have to worry about anything. These two are stupid. You remember they're stupid good. That Beavis and Butthead movie really holds up. That's great. Oh, yeah. I did that like maybe a month ago or something and God damn.

That is a perfect way to do what this movie stepped on its own dick trying to do. Like the Beavis and Butta do America is like, Like, you, it feels like you're watching an episode of Beavis and Butthead, like, minus the videos. But, like, they, you know, leave Texas. They go out on this massive road trip or whatever. And it's like, it feels big, but it still feels like true to the show where this just does not do that.

It's grounded more. Like the Walter Stack is the Robert Stack, rather, as the FBI agent or something, just pursuing them. It's like the president is not involved. Yeah. We're not going, you know, the world is not being saved. Well, the president is involved in the end. Yeah. Yeah, it's true.

No, well, you know, another downside the Simpsons had that Beavs and Butthead didn't, which, like, Beavs and Butthead, they never really had like an event episode. Most of their episodes were like five minutes long. But, you know, with Simpsons movie, you're seeing this in 2007, 13 years, 14 years earlier, you saw Marge versus the Montereil. again like a giant event like movie level thing so it uh you you have seen stories like this from the simpsons before i i don't know how else they could do a movie though you do have to have like something big happen in a movie oh sure you know what something big is uh a mysterious irish lad named colin now does this does this character ever jump into the show at any point i don't think he ever did i don't think so double check the wiki here

But this is another, one of the other reasons that this movie is not great is that they don't trust viewers to understand established characters. So they just make up new ones and introduce you to them. And Colin is a nobody. I guess it's a joke about Bono. And Henry pointed out to me in the pre-discussion is that Lisa is eight years old. She does not need to have a love story in this episode. No. Movie.

It sucks. It sucks. I don't think an eight-year-old should have a love story. Also that when, I mean, the Simpsons have been talked about a lot for like they never hired women for the longest time and not the, and there isn't one credited woman writer on this, but I feel like somebody now would definitely say if the pitch was, hey, we have this whole movie that's about environmentalism. Oh, it's Lisa do. Well, she likes a boy and she said she won't see that boy that she likes. Yeah, she gets horned up for the entire movie and that's it. I understand that they wanted to. give one of the female characters, like agency and something to do in this. But I just, yeah, you're right. That's just not the way to do it. It would be cool if she was actually contributing to saving the day. Right. Although I do like the little, the little scene here

of when she's going door to door trying to raise awareness about what's going on with Lake Springfield. The joke of the woman opening the door and going, why, it's the little girl who saved my cat. And the second she says Lake Springfield, she slams the door in her face. massive chuckle. I like how they show off how like the depth they can do on the big screen. Like that also feels

you know, artist first and something that's not written on a page of like, oh, a big wide scene. Like that is something. I think the artists often the overtime on Simpsons, they have such less and less agency. I think it's why creatively the show feels flatter

and has for a while. Shots like that are like, okay, that's good. It feels like he came from an artist. And back to Colin really quick. Colin is voiced by Tress McNeil, one of their regulars. She does a great job. She always does a good job. But it feels like he was there for some celebrity appearance that maybe didn't pan out.

Because I feel like whoever was 11 years old in 2007, that was going to be their role. But it's just weird that it's a regular on the show doing the voice. Yes, that is strange. Like I always wonder about that sometimes. And I think was this other, was this another, um, Tress voice job? I think it might have been because I've always thought that about, um, um, Bell. Yes.

That just always felt like it should have been somebody and then maybe that person canceled or something. I think they wanted Stalker Channing for a long time. Ooh, and that would have been great too. Similarly with the Inuit woman at the end, you expect that to be, that should be like, who does he find? And it's voiced by, I don't know,

Rosie O'Donnell. It's voiced by, you know. Kathy Bates is who I was looking for. someone more appropriate i don't know but yeah i would be interesting if they actually i mean having people bigger names would make it more like a movie colin mentions like my you know i'm a great irish singer songwriter even though i'm seven years old um and my dad is not bono maybe it would be a funny thing or his dad shows up and it's just drawn like a regular guy and bono does the voice yes right yeah that would have been a nice little button on that or

something or they should just be some jokes with colin he's he's just too earnest a character for comedy movie. They just, they wanted a straight ahead romantic interest. Again, for an eight year old, I don't, like, you like age up Lisa to 13 then if you're going to do that. It's just they can't, I don't like that. And then also, another reason I know Bob really didn't like this either, you find out behind the scenes that one, they wanted to give Lisa a boyfriend and they

had many boyfriends they went through. And one of them was like, you know what, she does start to like Millhouse. And they it puts her in mill house together at the very least I would have paid off jokes and you'd have and you would have a love interest that you could do jokes with it and the millhouse stuff is funny it's a character I like

and I like to see him with Lisa not as a romantic partner but just in scenes together yeah no totally and instead like his right before Colin is introduced I mean this like Millhouse line is also like oddly sexually aggressive

because he's like oh hey Lisa what are you doing and she's like oh I'm you know canvassing for to make awareness of you know the lake springfield pollution problem or whatever it is and he goes oh yeah well you can canvas me anytime and i'm like can she millhouse can she really there's a level of crassness here that i'm not super crazy about you know what i mean how about ned flanders doing the penis prayer with his sons and that oh i know we're trying to get away from that scene but i just wanted to mention thank you lord for your bountiful penis.

No, I think the stuff with Lisa, usually they've done it many times in the show too where I think they're used to like, you've seen these characters for such a long time, you don't think of them as eight year olds on some level anymore. Especially Lisa. Right. So, so they can do like Lisa's first boyfriend, Lisa's first kiss or like Bart, Bart gets a girlfriend, all these things. And it

seems on some level, it's like, I guess that's okay. But if you, if you I think the film also asks you to think more about them as real people than the show does. Yes. So, yeah. The problem I think is that like the show is always horny. There was, that's just the truth of it is like Dr. Hibbert laughing after he takes the cock juice. Like that was like there was always when he's getting a heart on, they all have the, the, the, uh, the grandpa's sipson's, um, revitalizing tonic.

The nerve tonic or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was like, you're just like the generic part where. they get hard-ons and hip-ers and cock juice but also like Homer and March very openly fuck

we all know they fuck yeah that's not something that's taken like you don't shove that in the corner but because it's a blockbuster movie and everything has to be amped up the horniness is also amped up to Shrek levels where it's just crass and disgusting

we're just talking about like yeah everybody wants to fuck everybody's talking about their dicks I have a cell from that episode And now I'll never not see it as cock juice You should write cock juice at the bottom Yeah Get out of magic marker

Yeah like Ralph being like I like men now They're just a ton of gay jokes in this movie That are just sort of They're just cringy You know what I mean It's just sort of like You know it was 2007 The idea of two men kissing

was it's hilarious. It's just fun to eat. Yeah. Yeah, those two cops, it's just like, it's such an eye roll moment where it's like, it's not the most homophobic joke, but it's just like a big, what are you doing? Like, why was that the decision?

And the same thing with Ralph, right? Like, this is, so the big like, you know, dare, you know, in the Homer and Bart one Upsman of the daring game is Homer says, I dare you to, you know, skateboard through town naked or whatever. And he's skateboards pass Ralph and Ralph just says I like men now and it's like okay I mean I I guess

congratulations we'll move right on from that you know again he's an eight year old who chooses to be gay that's the joke I guess I mean I I I like the line of Agnes Skinner saying nobody look where I'm pointing yeah yeah that was a great joke in that moment I mean that's the thing is this movie does have moments of good jokes but it's it's it's just It sags around it. A big laugh line for me around right before the penis is when Homer is daring him. He's like, and if you won't do it, I'll call you chicken for life. Good morning, chicken.

I'm going to be saying good morning chicken to myself for a while now. And I don't know. It's just a great Dan Castle and that delivery of good morning chicken. Also the end of the whole bad thing where Homer, where Bart's like, well, this is the worst day of my life. like he's he's handcuffed naked to like a pole and homer's just worst day of your life so far yeah yeah in that moment i have to question all the adults around there who are just like you know what we all shouldn't be staring at a naked 10 year old just tied to a poll maybe we should all give him like a robe or something what's yeah what's wrong with the people here even when he gets his

like Homer brings his shirt and his socks and not his pants. Another joke. I don't know. Cover your nethers with your shirt instead of just putting it on, Barth. Yeah. It's no, it's so weird that they, well, also they want you to feel, they want you to feel, they want you to laugh and see it a penis and all that. That's funny. But they also do want you to feel Bart's vulnerability for like a moment of how betrayed he feels by Homer.

But this is, this is a big. picture thing i'm complaining about the simpsons here they made homer a jerk ass for so long that when they write him as normal homer in this movie being the asshole we all know him to be for funny jokes about how much he doesn't care about his family when you see it in a film that you have to actually care about a emotional arc for a character it just doesn't work and you're like no this character in this movie is just an asshole and his whole family should leave him if you want me to care on that level, like a guy who abandons his nude son and leaves

him to be going to jail also, like, he's going to go to court, you think that guy sucks. You know, with all this child penis talk, has Q ever mentioned this movie? Those sickos are rubbing in our faces. I believe

it's in the stew, yes. Which drop was that? Oh, dude, the Krusty Burger shooting. Remember that? Oh, right, yeah. The basement of the Krusty Burger, I can't even believe we forgot so soon. I do love somewhere around here is Krusty. Well, they're at the Krusty Burger.

And he's on location filming this ad for The Clogger, which like this I have to say. Looks delicious because it does. I want to. No, I will say, I mean, yeah, maybe it looks delicious. But, like, good on the animators because, like, I felt my heart hurting, just looking at that sandwich. it's just like well done everybody i do love also like it's been done before but i will never not laugh at like crusty being disgusted by his own products so him having to take a bite of the burger and they call cuttney he spits it out so so great i wish there was so much more

crusty in this yeah he's so funny but i think that's they they can trust that an audience will laugh at a character for like two minutes but if they show more than that they're like well maybe what if a person in peoria doesn't know who crusty is. We got to sell this to the other. Yeah, I also what's funny with all this like grossness in a restaurant thing, another of the very difficult things that

creators, the animators on the movie had to do was also a ton of Burger King ads at the same time. Right. There was a shitload of Burger King stuff for this. Oh my God. These poor people. Yes. Yeah. They tell the story about how like

the villain of the movie was redrawn twice and they had a different villain in the movie, too. And they actually produced, like they said, thousands of Burger King products featuring those characters that just had to be like landfill, I guess, that they... Oh my God. They put

them in the same landfill as that E.T. Nintendo game. Just dumped it in there. Oh, man. It's great for an environmental film like this one, of course. Yeah. Right. Yes. Totally. Man, if wasting my money, if I had like millions of dollars, I would hire

like just a band of people to go to the landfills in Hollywood and look for this random shit. Like all around California, Burbank 2, just look for this stuff because I know it's out there. Old man cabbets giving away money for you to look through garbage. It's the good garbage

is what you want. You need to have the good garbage, not the bad garbage, it stinks. Also for... Oh, sorry. No, no, no, please go. Also for this movie, I remember that they dressed up a bunch of 7-Elevens as the Quickey Mart. I went to one of them in Chicago, and this was the first time I really thought about a poo because a lot of a

7-11 employees were complaining because hey, I'm a brown person. I don't want to stand next to the Apu cut out. Yeah. It's kind of weird. And I thought, you know what? That is kind of weird. It is weird. And most definitely be called Apu at the same time. Like, hey, Apu, I'm at the

7-Eleven. I'm at the 7-Eleven. It's like, no. Yeah. And you're going to say thank you. Come again? Do the voice. Yeah. Yeah. They should have thought of something different. Like maybe, I don't know, make a mo's in every city. Yeah. Oh, now we're talking.

Now we're talking. Find like, you know, scuzzy bars in, you know, towns and cities all over the country. And for a week, it's just a Moose pop up. You know, if Kevin Smith now can go around making all these Mooby burger pop-ups, like, why not? Like a Moop pop-up. Come on. I'll go drink a duff in public. But the last week or two of Mars bar, it should have just been most.

I don't know if you've been to the Universal Moes. It sucks. The Universal Moes should be like the Star Wars canina at Disneyland where it's like, you know, they let only so many people in at a time. There's no children. You're served in actual glasses. Yeah. It's compromise.

There's some good. Hey, they've got the love tester in there. That's fine. There's too much sunlight in there. What about the dank? There's no tank. Not enough dank. I guess the next movement is that this sort of really.

flat Barton Flanders subplot that just kind of doesn't go anywhere. And I like Flanders as much as the next day. I like Flanders quite a bit, but I just it's not a fun. I guess it's sweet, but it's not really sweet. And where it builds to at the end, it's almost like an afterthought.

I feel like we've already had this on the show as well. You have. Of course you have. Like this is a classical thing. Like that's it's so weird how this movie is like put together because it does feel like an introductory episode but then on top of it like

the thing with Homer being a bad guy like being an asshole that seems like that's almost like a Reddit correction thing like the way that Rise of the Skywalker rise of the Skywalker like they a lot of it seemed like things they were responding to from Reddit

this all seems like things that little assholes pick at like why would March ever stay with Homer he's an asshole why would anybody fucking put up with him he's an asshole and they're like we're gonna tell you why well that was that person much much more recently there was some article where some young person had watched the simpsons for the first time and was like well what what's to like about him what he's in it and it's like yeah i know i mean that was the point yeah okay fine yeah but that goes back you win he's a bad person you win everybody

but that goes back to henry's point like you can you can't have it both ways either you don't care about him and he's a joke machine and that's great or now we do and those emotional moments aren't going to work because he's a he is an asshole like you know that yeah i mean it just feels like it just feels like you're kind of popping between two movies although the gag of bart uh i mean i love the whole thing of flanders making this like gorgeous looking hot cocoa right uh and bart like scampering up and stealing it like he's a squirrel and then like running to a corner of the yard and just drinking it um so like the the the the plot like sort of does afford you some opportunities

to laugh. Although like, I didn't appreciate the because we're not doing flashbacks really in this movie, but there's the part where Flanders is like, did your dad ever take you fishing? And there's just this flashback to them doing the grenade fishing thing

which is fine, but it seems like that was just a deleted idea from an episode or would have made for like a funny like Simpson short. Now that like Disney Plus has those two like totally terrible Maggie short things that exists. It could have been better there. I agree with you

but Homer's saying that he wants the fish to die with dignity got a big laugh out of me because he's electrocuting the entire lake with a bug zapper. I mean, oh, that's what it is. Yeah, not a grenade, a bug zapper. The most I laughed was in that bit was just how long Bart is watching Homer just electrocute

himself, just fighting the fish over and over. Just the look on Bart's face says like, is he going to stop? Like, what is this but yeah you're right totally the movie doesn't have any other cutaways than that to like hey let's see a scene from normal time for it i i wondered if they made that scene just for trailers to be like hey we can just shove this in a trailer and it reveals that's what it feels like yeah yep yeah you're totally right in which case then just i don't know deleted from the movie like that happens all the time trailers have tons of shit you never see in a final cut like that just kind of could have been one of them um around in this also is another decision i never really dug on was like so when they are at the Krusty Burger it's a pig wearing a hat which you've seen before Homer you you know split a case of malt liquor with one one time but I I never dug the spider pig Harry Popper nonsense and like it just goes to such lengths that like

by the end of the movie with the song over the credits like it's just it's kind of it's kind of it's like pinchy again right did that happen yes that already happened it's Mojo. Yeah. Yeah. Every abused pets. I will say, like, the seat of Homer singing the Spider-Pig song

and making him walk on the ceiling is funny. That's why I was in the trailer. But apparently audiences like Spider-Pigs so much. That's why they wrote the Spider-Pig song that plays over Homer's, you know, vision. And that's why it appears again at the end of the movie. And that's why Spider-Pig, or sorry, Harry Plopper, will come back into the series.

I believe there's an episode where he comes back. Wow. That sucks. Yeah, it's, I think, I think, was like two or three years ago. He like helps Maggie save a bunch of animals or something. It's, uh, yeah.

In two years he's going to marry Agnes Skinner too. Is he voiced by Matthew McConaughey at least or something? I mean, the design of spider pig is, he's a cute, dumb animal. I like that and I like his hair. But definitely they got a thing. Spider pig being in this so much is all about them on the commentary saying like oh phoenix's test audience love this then we talked to i it just it tells me of like you guys listen to test audiences too much but seriously and you're running a joke into a under the ground

too you know yeah no no with how important spider pig is for like these five jokes here why doesn't he come back at the end of the movie and do something like yeah after they escape springfield he never comes back not even for like one scene or whatever he should swallow the bomb and they have to throw the pig out the fucking hole. Yeah. I mean, we have seen flying pigs on the show before also, like launch that fucker out of that damn or something, you know?

Yeah. It's still good. It's still good. I mean, what's funny about the spider big scene to me is Marge's reaction to it. It's not even the spider pig thing. It's the dead bam shot of March being like, and that's it. Like, so like, the whole thing, I was like,

what? This is what you locked on to? of all the things to lock on to. Well, you know, so I guess the next movement is like the pollution storyline with Lake Springfield, we get Lisa doing a Al Gore joke with the power, like the lift, the PowerPoint presentation and

which that's like a, that must have been a newer edition because inconvenient truth was like 2006 or something. So that's like a newer that was hot off the presses and I'm, maybe that's why I was laughing so hard the first time I saw. now that's why lisa says tipping point and everything yeah it's uh no then again here's

a bit where i was like why does quimby think an eight-year-old boys dreamy like he shouldn't agree with that oh right yes that is incredibly bizarre to have him say that ooh yeah it is it is shocking that cue is not picked up on this motion picture yeah the one the one funny line in that scene is uh carl being okay with racism yes black is the worst color there is and carl's okay with hearing that. It's like, I get it all the time. It's like, wow, poor Carl. Poor Carl. But though in this big town hall meeting, like, if you're doing a checklist of what's a major Simpson story have to include a town hall meeting totally fits. Absolutely. And also like for the animators, they really got to show off that every person, if you pause it, every person in the audience

is an identifiable character from another episode. You can be like, there's Nelson's dad who was the soccer coach in season four for one episode. Here's here's the old man who retired and Marge replaced him at the power plant and Marge gets a job like here's handsome Pete's right there. Pretty cool. Yeah. But I do think

that the town hall trope is great and I love those scenes but everybody's got everybody's got like the family has to be there and they're not like Lisa's just there and it happens really quickly. We're not doing I don't know it didn't feel as snappy or as memorable as other town halls

we've seen. But they do have the good gag, and I feel like this is often how you see like Springfield Town Hall meetings functioning, right? Is like, she's giving this presentation about the pollution and then the little like elevator genie

breaks on her, and then they immediately switch the focus of the meeting to voting on whether or not they're going to buy a new hydraulic lift. And it gets instantly approved, you know, it did have some of those feels of like a actual traditional town hall meeting, so I was kind of okay

with it. But so they decide yes, okay, we're going to clean up. And so there's this little montage of them picking up around the lake and everything. I do love and see, this is okay. A singular appearance by Fat Tony, this is exactly the kind of like cameo level

you have. And I just love this oh, I guess we will go throw our yard trimmings elsewhere. And the feet are sticking out of the rug? Chief, I think there was a dead body in that rug. I thought so, too, but he said his yard trimits. You've got to learn to listen.

Every Wigam joke is a winner. Yeah, he's great. I love, yeah. I wish he was in a more. Every time I see a side character, I'm like, I kind of want, but that's not who they make the movie for, ultimately, is it's not for the people who want to see them. I also can't believe they said it in the commentary that at some point, Sideshow Bob was in the movie, but that, like, that Tony appears in here, but no

side show Bob. I guess it does make it more special that Sideshow Bob's the villain of the ride when he was the villain of the movie but oh he's the villain of the rest so I've never been on the ride I've never traveled to the Springfield land that they have there

I want to someday but yeah I didn't know the ride had a villain is the ride one of those like you're sitting in a hydraulic thing and it's just a screen in front of you yeah yes it's actually they reworked the old back to the future ride I was just gonna guess that yeah

yeah yeah okay the Simpsons killed back to the future ride. So if you, if you prefer that one, well, you're too bad. The Simpsons killed it. Marty! I'm going to be replaced by Kelsey Graber. Yeah, dude, fucking Frazier takes out the Reverend Jim. That's too bad. I remember that being a, I still am, a massive diehard back to the future fan. And when I finally

got to Universal to go on that ride, I remember coming out the other end of it being like, hey, came all the way down to Florida for this, huh? It was totally let down. Another thing that, like, a dumb story that they try to, like, build into the world of Back to the Future, where, like, Doc is overseeing production of, like, many DeLorean time travel vehicles and it's a whole business. He's an evil person now.

Yeah, he became everything he didn't want to be. He's like, you know what, instead of no Delorians, how about dozens of them? Yeah, exactly. Everybody gets a Delorean. well to bring this back to the movie homer and the pig almost start making out yeah i like that i kind of like this joke because like we should kiss to break the tension is this how zoo started chris this is worse than zoo give me a break this kids are watching this kids aren't going to watch zoo for sure you had a had a horsecock in the ass it did but that's part of the natural world

Derek. People are going to see that every day. A farmer's son would see that, you know, every Monday. Fair enough. That's definitely farmer's stuff. And they're watching Bubblebee Man who, again, has more lines in this movie than Skinner. That's unforgivable. Skinner's such a classic character. They let so many by the wayside. And Colin, fuck you, Colin. At least like the Bubblebee Man is the square aspect ratio. Like to really show off how much wider this wide this screen

is. I like that. Well, the Spider-Pick thing, I just looked it up because I wanted to be sure. Yeah, the summer of 2007 was all about the anticipation of Spider-Man 3 because this has Spider-Man references in it, obviously, and knocked up as well. Like, they're

going to go see Spider-Man 3. They're so excited about it. Man, well, also, I remember the, do you guys remember the first trailer for this that was just Homer on a couch? It was tied into like, you think this is a trailer for Superman Returns, but actually

it's Homer wearing a Superman t-shirt. Oh, no, I don't remember that one. Yes, I do. I remember the one making fun of like the new CGI, like digital animation. Like there's a little bunny hopping through a field. Oh, yeah. It's like, it's dancing

with a bunch of dandelions. And then Mo and the Simpsons title come down and kill it. And then Mo is like, ah, the little bunny ain't moving. that's good but like the whole thing was like the whole thing was like we're making fun of like it's going to be the Simpsons movie

and 2D and I'm like I guess technically but I see computer and digital all over this thing for sure there is a there is an honest to goodness like digital rack focus in this movie that I never noticed before

and I was just like nah I you know like there are there are times when animation should be like you know cinematic and it has happen and animation has been beautiful.

This just isn't one of those properties where I need like cinematic technique involved. Like everything just needs to be flat, shallow focus and that's the end of it. And funny. That's all I fucking need you to be is funny, you bastards. Well, yeah, if you guys

really want to be bummed out, think about how like this movie got to be in 2D because it was like at the tail end of 2D theatrical like basically no 2D theatrical in America gets made anymore. If you look at, you know, 2004, there a SpongeBob movie and it got to be 2D. Last year there was another

SpongeBob movie and the Edict just was like, this is a 3D movie. Like if you're making a movie, it's 3D. If there were to be a Simpsons movie too, it has to make it 3D. The ride is 3D. The ride is CGI. You know what? It should take place entirely

within the erotic cakes story. We visit him in that part of the Simpsons multiverse. Honestly, a treehouse of horror movie. That's a movie. That would be something. Absolutely. Because then it's like, man, yeah, you know,

anthology-formatted Simpsons movie, that's the move. Yeah. That's the move. Damn it. Ah, too late now. But great idea. So, you know, the next sort of kick through all of this is Marge is very concerned about where Homer

is going to leave Harry Plopper's droppings and he's got the pig crap silo out of the back. There is a great line. here where Marge is like, ew, it's leaking. And he's like, it's not leaking.

It's overflowing. Also like it's how did it shit that much so quickly? And he's been helping. He's been putting up on the droppings in. It makes me imagine Homer and the pig sitting on top of it both shitting at the same time. You know, also the chief wigam eating donuts off his gun was pretty funny because

the health inspector closes down the donut store, kicks off this movement of where am I going to properly dispose of this pig crap silo I got to get down and get free donuts uh and it's this is a weird thing though because like as he's Homer is waiting online to

dump this you know at the landfill or you know wherever he is and it's the phone ringing and like he has to squeeze it out of spider pig which is like funny enough but then just like you realize oh god it's Homer Simpson holding his cell phone which I know

is all over the show, of course. But it's still just to my, to my eyeballs, it looks very bizarre. No, I mean, they, many episodes of the show now are about like, well, someone recorded something with their smartphone or they saw a thing with their smartphone. Or Homer took an Uber. Yeah.

You know, again, here, this is where they didn't want to make Homer too much of a dick. They said that they, on the commentary, they're like, they thought it was a funnier joke at first to have there be, for one car in line and Homer goes like to hell with this and then just dumps it in the lake but they were they thought tonally that makes him too much of a dick

even though that's a normal joke for Homer so instead they they create this thing of like too much pressure on him though it's still not defensible it's like yeah he's still a bad guy yeah I do like the dumping the no dumping signs that he's driving through

over and over again it's a nice like good runner you get Hans Molman yeah yeah Poor Hans Moleman. I feel like he has died on the Simpsons and been resurrected more than any other character in cartoon history. That guy, oh, what a life. What a poor. I'm 33 years old. Yeah. So he dumps the pig crab silo in the lake. And that's like, that is just a fridge too far for this lake. And it starts bubbling. I do love the gag of the skull coming out of the water and just going evil. that's good and then like a squirrel we get a squirrel version

of Blinky which is I so that's supposed to be the thousand eyes of the prophecy it's really like it's 30 eyes at best eyes are hard to draw yeah and Flanders and Bart are hiking and this is when the EPA shows

up and this is when we also meet Albert Brooks finally we get a good joke there too because he's like oh we from up here we can see all the states that borders Springfield, Ohio, Maine, Nevada, and Kentucky. You know, I guess, it's a good trailer joke. It's a good one. I got to say, like, if you want to put it in the trailer, fine, but I have never, I don't

know why, but just the whole endless jokes of, like, we're being ambiguous as to wear this town. Like, it's, it's never worked for me. And so, like, getting it in the movie, I was like, ah, just one of those again, huh? Okay. I like the visual element, I guess, of seeing, like, from this hit. in Springfield, you can see like, what was it? Like the desert

and then the, and then the Kentucky Derby at the same time. Yeah, which is actually, it's going on right now, as a matter of fact, it is a derby day today, everybody. Oh, wow. That's why I'm drinking. I should have known I would have dressed like an asshole.

It's a great day for animal abuse. Yes. Now, you know, mentioning that another issue the film has is just you see different flavors of jokes you've seen before. The cutaway to the symbol monkey in Homer's head. We've seen that joke with a different thing in his head

many times. And the mute squirrel. Previously it would like melt the acorn with its laser vision. Oh, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's the same joke too. Homer's brain monkey joke in this movie actually really works for me because it's like it kind of has a nice little twist

on it where the monkey stops and like points like no, look back and pay attention to Marge right now. I love the idea of that thing is like actually interacting with him. I don't know. Kind of funny. But yeah, Albert Brooks says Russ Cargill going into the Oval Office to speak with President

Arnold Schwarzenegger. I feel like, I don't know, make this Rainier Wolf Castle. Who cares? Yes, exactly. I don't want to be overly dramatic, but I did feel betrayed by this because this is Albert Brooks doing Hank Scorpio.

It's not Hank Scorpio, but he's doing the same character, the same voice, same mannerisms. And also Arnold Schwarzener, Neger is not president in the Simpsons world. And this feels like the biggest early odds. Could you imagine kind of joke? And coming off of Trump, nothing feels more dated than the reveal

of him as president is a joke. In this world, Arnold Schwarzenegger can't exist because Rainier Wolfgangs exists. You know what I mean? That's the joke in the critic. You know what I mean? And he even is married to Maria, what's her face? Shriver, yeah. That's right. Maria, my mighty heart

is breaking. I mean, just making reindeer Wolf Castle and hey make it fucking Hank Scorpio he got rehabilitative he got he got put into the administration I guess this would make more sense post Trump that someone like Hank Scorpio could get appointed to a government job after trying to take over the country yeah it's really annoying or something sorry yeah that's okay what's really annoying again they don't trust you so whenever you see him on the screen his name is on the screen on that little placard on his desk yeah yeah what snigger god they're two in your face about it like we asked Mike Scully like

why wasn't this Raymira Will Castle level? And he's like, I don't know why we chose that, which I think is honestly him covering for James L. Brooks or somebody else saying, like,

let's not be cute. It has to just be Arnold. We can't make it be our guy who is Arnold. This all has to be about getting converts to this little known show called this distance.

We got to get more audiences to check it out. If not, they'll be lost. We're putting out your movie. No one knows what this stuff is. Okay? I don't know what dish is.

It's also kind of great, though, because then they also make him make a Twins joke, which is like, so you're trusting the audience there because he's, oh, I'm Miss Danny DeVito. And I'm like, all right. So Twins is fine. That's a joke that's totally going to pass to all these fucking 12 year old kids watching this movie. But that's also supposed to remind. Like, if you're in the audience, you're like, I forget, who's Arnold Schwarzenegger? Oh, twins. That's what I know him from.

Well, and me and Bob have groused about this before, but in the W era, the George W. Bush era, the Simpsons, which had made fun of Clinton and H.W. quite a lot, they would, they wouldn't get direct with him. They wouldn't draw him into the show. They'd be like, and this is one of these things of like, these are W jokes in that there, the jokes about how like, oh, I kind of hate it because it's like, oh, yeah, George W. Bush gets tricked all the time by you guys like Dick Cheney. And I don't, I disagree with that. but then they don't even do that because I think they thought like oh they'll date it if Bush is the president in the movie but Arnold dates it all the same I don't think about I don't think it's the dating I think they knew if they did that Poppy would send his boys

and they'd be taken out good and quick the country's at war son and we are on Fox stay the course well I mean that's why I've always wanted if that's like part of that apprehension to nail on W in the show and in this movie is like 9-11 the fucking multiple wars that were launched.

Like, it's not the same as, like, railing on Clinton, you know, and, you know, well, I guess H.W. oversaw his own war there, too. But, you know, I don't know. Maybe that's something to do with it. I'm a smaller, cuter war. Why are we, why are we ragged on George W. Bush?

He's a fun, cute painter. He's an adorable old man. He loves candy. Yeah, Trump is the bad president. There can't be too bad president. Yeah, and then in 10 years, I'll say how cute Trump is, and he's just a nice old dude. It's nice. 83-year-old Trump dancing with Ellen on TV.

It's going to happen. That's when it's time to fucking check out, folks. That's the way society goes. It's been time to check out for a while. I have to just tell myself to not go crazy watching the movie that Russ Cargill is Hank Scorpio in a costume. Like, I have to find. Hank Scorpio is wearing a mask. I have to just tell myself that.

And Albert Brooks has proven on the show. You can do a ton of voices and a ton of different man. He can find characters and create characters, but it's just Hank Scorpio. So then just being a fucking Scorpio. Exactly. Like it's not a thing where it's like he can't do anything else, right? Because this, like, Hank Scorpio is so much different than fucking Brad Goodman.

Right? Which I think is probably like his second biggest, you know, voice that he's done on the show. But like, you know, so he can create things with his voice. And I just, yeah, it's just so, like, for people who did follow the show, do follow the show, like, you're just sitting there wondering why it's not Hank Scorpio. Well, we get to now be introduced to the new character that we're going to love for many years, Russ Cargill, who will be part of the Simpsons lore and we will enjoy his lines, I guess. His lines. Yeah, also, I mean, if they're worried that, like, oh, audiences will know who Hank Scorpio is, then the amount of time you spend introducing. Russ Cargill would be equal to

introducing Hank Scorpio. All the lines would be the same. He's also not in the movie enough to be the villain either. You know what I mean? Like they pretend he's a villain and I think I read somewhere on IMDB or something that they added the scene with Homer and Bart fighting him at the

end to just sort of solidify that because it didn't read that way. Because he never gets to interact with any of the actual characters in the movie you give a shit about because he only appears on the huge view screen once the dome is put down. That's the time that they really interact with the character, which

it's just like Cletus and everybody else just yelling at a screen. Also, you need some one-on-one. I feel like we even need more background, just setting them up even more so. Like, I know that would be maybe tedious, but you could find jokes that Albert Brooks could do. It might be better than Spider-Pig.

Yeah. Maybe. Maybe, Eric. I don't want to go over a bit. That's a little bit much. Well, if those jokes were in there and Phoenix didn't like them as much as Spider-Pig, then that's why they're not there. Blame Phoenix. That's our motto around here.

Blame 200 people in Phoenix. You got to see one showing of the Simpsons. There is, so when the dome is put down, right, that is Russ Cargill's plan. It's like Springfield is the most polluted town in America. We're going to put this dome down and...

I was elected to the end game is whatever. Steve, go ahead. I was elected to lead, not to read. It's a good line. It is a good line. It's a good line.

I'm not made a stone. His options take. at random he did and that just happens to be the dome option that just has to be stephen king being like say clickety clack clickety clack clickety clack clickety clack cookety clack because that book came out after this movie it did yeah yeah yeah a group of people called the simpsons are under it oh wait backspace back space bass space bass space a group of people are under the dome click and click a clack um I'm gonna write a terrifying story about a man who works at a nuclear power plan and his family

when the dome is being put down I do appreciate any time we're doing an in-town geography mess around and I love for the visual gag of the people switching spaces we have the church is right next door to Moes

and all the bar flies come out and run into the church and all the churchies come out and run into the bar. That's a really good visual joke that I appreciated. It's a great joke, but they really don't trust you because Mo's Tavern is called Moes Bar and printed in the most legible font ever above the door. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's true. That's what annoyed me at the time and still, just like, we should know what Moses is. Like, if they don't know what Moses is, then they don't get the joke and it's fine.

I don't know. I mean, people in Phoenix, are they going to know what a tavern is? We better use Bar. Exactly. Tavern, that sounds close to Taverno. What is this? What are we in Greece? I'm confused.

I'm confused Well, I mean, a building with those big spires I mean, how do they know that's a church? We don't know that we might have to call it church on it. Ait Simpson has a joke right here that I appreciate. That crazy old man in church was right. Yes, that was great. I did write that in my notes.

That is a funny joke. Every A-Blime is also a hit. Apparently the guy who gets crushed by indecision that they originally recorded Ed Norton doing that. Oh, wow. But he did it as a Woody Allen impression, and it sounds, I'm kind of glad they cut it and it's just a guy. But I do want to hear that.

Like, I don't think it should be public or anything, but if like I could just hear that, I'd be very happy. Is that on the DVD at all? Sadly, no. There's only so much space on the Blu-ray for like that, if you guys know, the Aquitine Hunger Force movie has a deleted movie on it because they cut so much stuff. like the simpsons could totally have that but yeah i will say the joke that but i think i groaned the hardest at was the dome comes down and we cut to a news segment uh and fucking man botox the botox joke oh yeah yeah a botox joke in 2007 even then feels a titch late although like

i will say good um good sound effects work here because the sound of kent brockman pulling his fucking neck flesh back and and propping it up there. Ooh, it sends chills down my spine. It's so disgusting. I did like the very alarmist news headline of Trappuccino. Yes, absolutely. I mean, my problem with it is like of all, like the thing I go back to the Simpsons about, at least the salad days was like it was never, if it was the obvious joke, it was the best version of the obvious joke.

And this is the obvious joke and possibly the worst version of it. that he's just like, yeah, and Botox, you know? Did you know that news anchors use Botox? I do appreciate another one joke that I did like, Professor Frank having the super drill, it's, but it's just outside the toe.

I do like, I also I like, I like the visual Bob might not like this because it's bird violence, but when those swallows smash into it and that's cute, but the shot of the excited cats waiting

and there's like scratching at it like I love that I love that shot it's it's it's I think it's a good joke I've always kind of like that one because it's also it's it's start like they present it as you know Kent Brockman being like well and now for some good news the swallows are returning back to Springfield you know and then somehow also there is footage of this all from outside the dome yeah you know I've always been like how did they get that footage bad whatever it's a crazy joke's not funny and yeah this the town starts to the town learns that homer did it again through another news report this is great too because they're pulling the pig shit silo out of the lake and so well that could be anyone's pig shit silo and it turns around it's like return to homer simpson no reward and and you know right before that i i i will say they did good plotting of setting up that that Maggie can escape through the sinkhole. And they did set up the sinkhole earlier.

Like there's, there's not a ton of like mega holes in the plot anyway, other than other than the cameras outside the dome, I suppose now. Yeah, I'm going to go to my grave fighting about that. Yeah, Henry, there are no plot holes that one would want to drive a truck through. Yes.

And the mob scene that's coming up here, my big problem with it is the mob is like we only want Homer but then they're ready to hang the baby and I feel like Homer is pushed to the limit in this in this movie like Homer's the worst he's ever been the townspeople are ready to murder a baby that's much worse than anything Homer has done I think

that is potentially I mean well he's doomed the whole town I agree with you in theory but like trying to hang the baby is pretty funny to me there was a gas honestly not that I was like offended but I was just sort of like eh you know it's it's on that level

of crassness where it's like, this is not, that's almost family guy. I think you're right, but I do just the idea of taking a news to kill a baby very famously easy to kill. It's just funny. Yeah, I guess that's the thing

is like putting it in my mind that I now have to think about like the semantics of putting a baby in a news while I'm watching the Simpsons movie is a little weird. Yeah, and the problem with that joke is the setup is like they're putting like a pacifier that's not her pacifier

on the news to let you know they're going to hang the baby? It's just like too much. It's too much. Yeah. Also, like it would be Moe who do it. Mo would have to hang a baby for sure. Yeah, no, no problems there. But like they literally just came from, I don't remember who screams

through the, is it Carl that screams through the window? Like, no, we just want Homer. Yeah, yeah. You just said they only want Homer, you know, although the gag there that I do like of the window shouting is grandpa yelling, oh, I'm part of the mob. That is a great thing.

Yeah. And I mean, the shot, the Simpsons has a million shots of a mob going crazy in the show's history. But they, I, you know, is it very digitally and stuff? Yes. But as a show off scene of like, this is the biggest mob we've ever drawn and every

character is a nameable character with a Wikipedia entry. Yeah. I like that. They all want to kill that baby. They do. Yes. Krusty. Skinner. Yeah, I mean, it is odd as hell, right? I mean, like, we're going into the backyard, and they have five nooses hanging from the tree. Like, we're going to kill the Lincoln conspirators here.

Nelson has a red arrow so he knows who he's going to kill. Right. That's a good detail. Makes me want to buy arrows and paint them red. And I like that Maggie and Mr. Tini have a little moment there. but oh yeah when Lisa finds out this is something me and Bob talked about before and too of just like that it's such a weird line that Lisa is that it's it's very gender politic yeah of this movie of March telling Lisa like you're a woman you can hold on to it

forever it's like it's I mean Lisa should be mad he killed the town and destroyed the thing that was important to her like right we yeah yeah it's it's just very like Tim Alleny yeah if I may yeah Do you believe these women remember things and are mad about it later? Since that's like they're superpower or something. And that's your job as a woman. It's to hold on to all that anger and not express it.

It's important to know. There is the good gag. Marge, like, you know, always the concerned mother making sure that her household is fine, even as it's being burned to the ground by rioters, doing that last dish that's in the sink. Oh man. That actually got me really good last. I didn't remember that joke from the last time I saw this. It was like, ooh, that's nice. But the odd thing of the Simpsons having like the memories cabinet with the lock on it or like in their kitchen, that was kind of weird. But very important, she pulls a videotape out of there, their wedding video. The second I saw that wedding video, I knew it was like, all right. I know where we're going here. right in the first thing. Well,

also because like there's the faith, they don't have like the famous wedding video the Simpsons have. Like they've, they've done many jokes about like on Homer and Marge's wedding. They did X. But I, I also, I guess I'll complain about it later when they watch it.

But it's not, it is and it is in continuity. It respects the continuity just enough that makes you go like you, okay, then you guys know what happened in the show and you're half remembering it. Like, yeah. That almost,

I mean, like I think that almost makes it worse. Right. It would have been better if it was like one of those completely different course corrected, you know, Homer and Marge's meet cutes that they've done a thousand times. But like the fact that it's so close to being what it was, you're like, well, then it was there. It was right there. It was there the whole time. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I was never crazy, even though it's kind of funny, but it's a hardcore family guy joke, I feel. Of Homer giving the finger as he's going through the sinkhole. I just seeing Homer Simpson give the finger So the tree house is being pushed down They all jump into the sinkhole to escape The one thing I do like about that moment Is when his head's still exposed

It's kind of a cool visual element Where like oh his head Mo is like oh his head Top of his head still exposed claw at it Yeah What he's digging with his middle fingers Like he doesn't change his hand position I know well I

You know when I first saw this I actually was kind of hoping and I mean, of course, we see a penis and we also see the middle fingers. But I was kind of thinking, is this movie gonna have the F word in it? Well, they get the one PG-13 fuck. And they build it up so much

that I was sure when Marge gets the megaphone at the end, that's when it was gonna happen. But it never did. I think that really was just a choice on their part. They're like, even though we're PG-13 and we could, we don't want there to be a Simpsons where somebody says, even shit. They don't say the word shit

in this movie even though they're saying pig crap. Yeah. I mean they still give Marge the opportunity to say God damn which in itself is like more than enough. You know I like still even hearing that last night you know throw that will somebody throw the goddamn bomb and I was like whoa

March let's tone it down here you know so like I feel like just an all out fuck like one March shouldn't be the character to say it like that's a fucking Mo or a crusty line or something but even still like it would just feel so like blah whoa what did

they just do? Marge must have had one glass of red wine with dinner that night I guess after a decade of South Park it's like if the Simpson said fuck in a movie it's like well I've seen cartoons say fuck for 10 years now I'm good I'm not impressed it's all been scraped down

to the bone already they go to the motel I like the drunk Bart bit but I feel like this movie lets Bart down for the most part but I do like the drunk Bart bit it's kind of funny it does let's get hard down

big time yeah yeah they but that is something they can't do on the show Bart can't get drunk on the show right I wish I did accidentally in the one time there I wish Flanders was my father

there I said it despite my problems in the movie the performances are great yes yes and great drunk acting on Bart yeah no I mean that that is something to say positively about this is like everybody

in the voice cast is totally bringing it you can't really hear that anyone's like asleep of the switch at all yeah and if you read or listen to anything about the show you know that John Swartzweiler was trying to get drunk Bart in the show for years that was really something he was knocking on

the door for yeah and I love the animation of him like running with the bottle in his mouth and he's like tipped his head up to run away from his mom while still guzzling whiskey like that. I like that. Yeah, no, it'll work.

Did anybody notice, was this the, are they back staying at the Sleep Easy or Sleazy Motel? It's the Red Rash Inn. Oh, okay. So a new sign joke. So still a sign joke. I'm okay with it. Yeah. The Sleep Easy Motel would be in Springfield, though, no. So that's true. That's been domed at this point.

Yeah, that's right. I totally forgot about the dome, Steve. How stupid am I? I at least like, you know, it's a little cheap of like the, oh, look, two gay guys. But I at least like the animators really go for it. Like, these are two men passionately making out. Like they, at least they go all the way. Yes. Right, right into the motel room too.

And close the door. They can't take it anymore. And I like the sound march makes of like, it really does go like, hmm. She's like, okay, I'm not offended, but I'm surprised. In the hotel room, though, I think they really want you to feel sympathy for Homer because March asks him, like, why do you do these things? And he's just like, I don't think. I just don't think. And I think you're supposed to be like, oh, Homer's a dumb animal.

I feel bad that people are yelling at him. He just doesn't know better. And I feel like they want you to be on his side for a bit. Yes. Even though it's impossible to do so in this movie, for sure. Well, yeah, everybody's talking about, like, they're trying. to make this person the villain. They're trying to make this person villain. Homer is the villain

of the movie. So like when you make it him be both the hero and the villain, it makes it sloppy and feel weird like I'm being tugged all over the place. There you go, Eric. That was for you. Gift drafted for Eric. You're welcome.

The weird thing that was like, just mere seconds after that Homer moment, which I totally agree is like a, oh, okay, you're kind of feeling bad for him. again, just in service of making a joke he's shitty instantly because

when he proposes the idea of the Alaska escaping to Alaska, what he says is like basically that this was a plan that he's concocted thinking about how he's going to like escape from the family alone but like

they just so happen to be here with him but the plan will still work you know. Yeah and previously they did a joke where he thinks he's outside of the dome he just abandons his family's like, have a great life. Like, yeah, I, no, I don't, I think they thought it was better as an explanation than it is. But ultimately, Homer says, like, well, I'm sorry I do things. I'm thoughtless.

It's like, oh, that that isn't an excuse. To be thoughtless isn't an excuse. March kind of accepts it as one. And I know the arc of him is that he learns other people matter and I should try to save other people. Like, I guess that. But his lesson wasn't, you should. shouldn't be thoughtless. Like you are thoughtless, try to think some. And yeah, I think, too, it's just a bad defense of a shitty guy to say that like, well, my problem is I don't think about people. And I just can't. Biologically, I just can't. I'm sorry. And you're trying to solve this issue that's been like the fulcrum of the show essentially for years since the beginning. And you're trying to solve that issue in 22 minutes. At the end of the show. your movie. Why would

you do this? Why? We do go to Alaska. That's sort of fun. You get a thousand dollars when you enter because they're ravaging. Well, first he's got to use the motorcycle cage to win a truck. So first there needs to be a total, a full Simpsons episode

right there. Yes. Before we get to Alaska. But that's, but you're right. And this is like just so like, homerata motorcycle. It's just a lot of I don't know. Well, it comes back later. How about that? It does. Hey, it does feel that. Yeah. No,

it feels like they ditched an entire the family joins the carnival episode there. Good opportunity for the cooters to return. Yeah. I will say, another joke reads way more reactionary to me now than it did in 2007 when Homer

is like, this is America. He reveals like, oh, all these signs are not in English and it's like is the joke that we're losing our American spirit because signs aren't in English anymore like where I don't I don't want to follow this too far down yeah I do say Steve you're you're saying you're saying you know Stephen King saw this movie and went with the under the dome business I think also Ryan's Derek C and France saw this movie

and because a few years after this the place beyond the Pines comes out and the whole motorcycle daredevil in the globe shaped yeah that's true what Ryan Gosling's character like does for a living in that movie and his character his character does feel like a grown-up Bart Simpson in that movie as well. Kind of does. Yeah, it does. Actually, you're totally

right. But yeah, so of course, Homer learns from Lisa how to like do this trick. They win this guy's truck and off they go. I like that Homer fails three times and they for a second leave you guessing like, well, well then how's he going to get this

thing because the family has to do this. Right. Yeah. You learn to needs to speed up. Yeah. And that's when you get the one burn scene in the damn movie. Yeah. And then it makes you think he should be doing all of this. It's like, oh, this is a good villain

with already a ton of backstory. Yeah. He blocked out the sun. It's pretty similar. Exactly. And I mean, the way that they also you know, we never, I guess, have seen like this wide of an establishing shot when we go to Burns mansion. But in

this movie at least, like it's on the top of this crazy hill you know, or like, you know, cliffside or whatever. So like conceivably Burns could still do the dome thing and like his mansion is just on the outside of it. I could see that happening, right? And then

you have a villain of the movie that actually fucking makes sense and not just a fake Hank Scorpio and Arnold Schwarzenegger for some reason. Well, Phoenix won't get all the old timey jokes and references. Oh, right. part. Think about Phoenix. One reference of Auto Giro and the movie got canceled.

You got a problem with the old-timey jokes, huh? At least Burns has one good line of like, for once, the rich white man is in charge. I like that. I found your problem here. Someone sent this audience to Phoenix. Oh, apologies to the city of Phoenix for this episode. Beautiful state, Arizona. I will say that. or. Tempe's shit though. I have not had the pleasure, Steve. Flagstaff and Tucson I like though. Well, there you go. How about that? I do like

the gag though about when the power is going off and you see like Mo the lights go off and like the bar has been rated and he talks shit and the lights go out again and then literally the bar is gone. He's from the building. It's so good. Yeah, he's totally just there in his underwear. And like I feel like there's a nice like extra gag of the door hasn't even finished closing all

the way. It's just so great. Him and his free Duff underwear. I laughed at that. Actually, I know that I'm talking about it. It's a lot of Hank Azaria and not a lot of Harry Shear, right? If you think about the other characters in that way, right? Like there's less Harry Shear. I was thinking like other than Ned, there's no major, there's no multi-seeing character for Shearer. I was even thinking like, boy, does Tress McNeil have more lines than Harry Shear in this movie? Like, I don't think so, but she has two major characters and he has just one with that. I mean, Harry Sherer is always grumpy about The Simpsons. And I think around this time he was

especially grumpy because I remember when the writer's strike happened, like a year after this movie came out, I think he wrote a letter saying, oh, think of how much teachers get paid compared to these writers. And the showrunner was very mad at Harry Shearer. Then he said, well, Harry Shearer, he's not in the show a lot because he doesn't really play ball a lot. He doesn't really want to participate so he don't use his characters as much. So that could be why. And also at Universal, you will notice if you go, there are no Harry Shearer characters on display except for Scratchy. Really?

Yeah. Wow. I mean, he's got some iconic characters. It's pretty weird to write him off like that. I was going to guess that was this around the time when he was making that what is the name of that documentary that he did? Oh, about Nalans? Yes. Wasn't that kind of around this time?

Maybe a little later. You know, maybe it was post-Katrina, so maybe he's also not in a great mood. I should understand that. I mean, if you think this movie is bad, listen to LaSho for about five minutes. And then you'll appreciate it. There is a great gag. So they pull into a gas station, and this is where they realize, like, they're on a wanted poster. I love the gag of Marge asking Bart, like, how he's level.

out from stopping drinking, you know? And he's like, oh, yeah, I'm totally fine right now. Watch this. And he uses his slingshot to knock a hot dog out of Homer's hands. And just the gag of Homer having a backup hot dog in his pants pocket, ready to go. Oh, very disgusting and great. By the way, the big uneasy, 2010 was the whole show, Doc. Okay, yep.

So who knows? Yeah, this wanted gag poster is great. it's reminiscent of the time the Homer lookalike goes into Moes after Homer gets banned but it's like the matching to the exact like you know look of Bart's graffito tag

I've always thought was really awesome and this poor like whatever this other family is just getting arrested I love just seeing their pained faces as they get arrested they're still in Guantanamo that family they haven't hard enough look at how they look

we just have to keep them here there Henry and they don't deserve a trial. It is what it is. Yeah, so we get to Alaska and there is the gag if everybody gets $1,000 to let the government ravage our natural resources, which is, it was based on

an actual Alaskan policy that I think started in like the 80s or the 70s or something like that. Yeah, yeah. It's one of those classic things where The Simpsons, you know, a Simpsons writer read that or heard it on NPR. They're like, hey, let's do that.

Yeah. You get a small fact. Also, it's just so funny to think, like, this comes out July 07, a year later, all Alaska jokes are reset because Sarah Palin is the vice presidential nominee. That's totally right. That set them back quite a bit. You know, I would actually rather amouse Sarah Palin. Just a general.

It's a good one. I mean, so this is, so they get to this house in Alaska, and this is the scene that drove me so Marge and Homer are there's Disney animals in the house like there's a big Disney like and I kind of thought of this as like an extension of the trailer thing like making fun of new digital CGI yeah creatures and they're all in and they come into the bedroom and what do they do they watch Marge and Homer fuck and like they just like big bulgy eyes and I'm like yep great Shrek came into this movie, too. Good. Fantastic.

Well, her and the nighty in the whole thing. I thought I had the wrong tab open. Uh-oh. What happens when Marge Simpson gets up to trouble? There's something wrong. I was trying to watch the little Bart Dick movie. Chris is right. This is a Shrek joke.

Yeah, totally. And I will say the mix of the Disney Simpson style for these characters, it's very well done. But the joke is totally out of Shrek. Yeah. Yeah, big time. It's a joke that would have felt original in, like, season three or four of Simpsons, but then Simpsons made that so normal and then that Shrek could do it, you know, in 01, and now here we are six years into it.

Like, we get it. This is, you know, Bambi and the characters from Sleeping Beauty show up and they, they help them undress and then watch two adults have sex. Like that also, I was thinking like it's PG-13, you know, let's see Homer's ass, let's see, let's get a little dirtier in here. Some thrusting. A sound of Homer thrusting at least. Does he say

Doe when he nuts? I need the No, that's got to be a woo-hoo. Doe is when it goes away. You know, he's an older man. He sounds more like Walter Mathel in the act of love making. His voice reverts back to the old voice.

I'm fucking my wife in a I at least like that the kids are outside the house for this. You know that like this is their private tie. Right. Yeah, they're outside on like a post sharing a cigarette while this happens. Yeah, so

around here is like the they realize that like the dome plan like isn't really working out. We got to like kill these people and it's like the commercial of Tom Hanks. Like, I'm okay with this cameo. I think it's great. Yeah, you know, it would have been cool if Tom Hanks was like playing someone else in the movie and you just got to recognize that beautiful Dulcet Tom Hanks voice. But like him being like, you know, hi, I'm Tom Hanks. I'm here to tell you about the new Grand Canyon. Yeah. So great. The U.S. government lost its credibility. So it's borrowing some of mine. That literally just happened at the inauguration because it could do the big inauguration. They got Tom. I'm Hanks to host it. They're like, yep. I, no, I mean the, I, again, this does feel like the joke, though, that, oh, you know,

Dick Cheney tricks W into invading Iraq kind of thing of like, here, just pick a number. And at least it's a funny back and forth of like, you know, you already said three, two, double that four. Got it. Okay. There's also the line of like Arnold's like, oh, no, I'm good to have to go back to doing my family movies. And there's a poster of Arnold in diaper genie. which I like that. I like that. I do also like that it's what sets people over the edge to finally have their big fight, the big Bob, and it's the AA group running out of coffee. Like that's, I like that. And also Ralph referencing blowback, which was very much happening in 2007. I do. I like the Albert Brooks Cargill line about like, we've got a thousand tough guys. Then get a thousand soft guys. The tough guys look at the soft guys. And I want to go, tough guy, talk guy, top guy. It's a, it's a fun Brooksism bit.

Yes. Oh, I love the line of like, you ever try going man without power? Nobody listens to yeah. That's a great one. Yeah. I mean, he's got his, he's got, I mean, it's Albert Brooks at the end of the day, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's. But, but Tom Hanks at least, I was impressed in the theater with that just because I was like, I guess he never did do the show. And he is a pretty famous guy. Like it's not. Yeah. You know, they never got Tom Cruise for the show. They wanted that. But I. I could laugh more at Tom Hanks. And now I've seen Tom Hanks appear in like many things. And I'm like, okay, you're, you're just like Brian Williams. You're a guy who wants to be in comedy things now. But it felt special in 2007. It's amazing, Henry, that you said that about the inauguration because that also happened with COVID.

Yes. Where he was like, like, look, see, it's good. You can, it will happen. Don't worry. We'll survive. He said COVID's good? No, like, you said you can survive it. beating in and yeah like it like one that it's real and yeah my one favorite early covid joke was

norm macdonald started calling a tom hanks disease that's good uh oh i like that uh so you know they they see this commercial uh you know they realize that springfield's going to be destroyed and of course everybody but homer is ready to go back to springfield and you know try to warn them and everything and you know that causes a big fight and of course in that situation you got to go to the bar and he's drinking at eskimos nah tavern witches nah it's not great and the grand theft walrus thing is just so out of nowhere like yeah and a bit corny take that happy feet yes yeah oh yes definitely it's a it's a happy feet joke yeah it's yeah they even just do the full like tap dance and everything like oh that's right yep

Though I do think like you see that Homer's a giant asshole that Marge says the exact like speech of like there's only one answer you can give and he just says that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard like that's Homer being a bad person. You don't forgive him after this. It's really hard to have him bounce back in this movie. Like it it's it's really asking a lot of the audience. It's asking a lot of like the fans of the show for so many years. Like he's such a. fucking piece of shit in this movie. I guess that's the thing about it though. Like you, the show sort of reverts itself every 23 minutes, right? You know what I mean? Like you get a brand new Homer every time and like you forget

you don't even have to forgive him at the end of the episode you know, or even think about what he did last week. But now you're with this dude for 88 minutes and he's, it's almost like three episodes worth of fuckups one after another without the reset. Yeah, that's totally true. And you don't get any of,

of the like until the end you don't get any of the soft homer moments yeah of those moments where you remember he's a guy who loves his kids loves his friends all that stuff like he goes back and forth but we don't get any of that we just get the shit part of it for fucking 70 minutes and then they're like hey here's 18 minutes of him being okay I'm not even opposed to Homer being an asshole one of my favorite closing lines of an episode is marge my friend I haven't learned a thing yeah totally um yeah I think there really is something to be said though about like taking that in 22 minute

bites. Yes. Versus an 88 minute bite. It's just it's a lot. But this is where, you know, the most dramatic part of the movie, I still find it affecting Marge's speech on the tape. Yeah. You know, I think

Kavanair totally nailed this. Was this the thing that she was asked to do this like a hundred times or something? It was a real Kubrick Shelley DeVall moment on the set. right of the movie uh you know what it worked on me the first time and i can see how it can be effective this time i just feel like oh julie cavner sounds like she's sick like she's got a head cold i feel for her but i no i well i will say i i've seen other of

our our listeners have said that they had done too many at this point of like no marge is really even homer for real this time bits on the show but i i think the way she plays it at least makes it feel, it does feel more serious. Of course, you know, if you're, if you're watching this, you're like, you're, you're like, you're like, you're, you're like, you're, you're like, of course you'll survive. It's a TV show. Like, of course, of course they're going to get back together. But I, at least, at least Julie really went for it. I, I feel really bad that, like, I, I think, though, that they did break Julie Kabner, that when I hear her voice in the show now, every time where I'm like, boy, she sounds tired.

I just think of like, did they make her do this too many times 13 years ago for this movie? I feel like she amongst everybody else when I watch newer episodes seems mostly checked out. You know what I mean? In terms of just sort of like, I don't know, maybe that's rude. But it's not. I think that she's just sort of like cash in her checks, which you should. Yeah, yeah. Or at the very least, she's just very tired.

She's in her 70s now, just like Harry Shearer. They didn't know they'd be doing this for 40 years. exactly yeah you know and i mean and and part of that is just like yeah the it's it's time passing it's nature right like yeah she sounds like she has a head cold but also like it's 2007 they started the show in the 80s like she just she sounds different you know like i popped on a new episode you know maybe within the last like year or so and like clearly it's just an older person doing a voice of an ageless cartoon so it isn't gonna sound the same although i mean i do like that in the speech she

sort of acknowledges like yes we've been down this road before where I've threatened to leave you and using the wedding video as evidence of like this time I really mean it you know I taped over our wedding wedding video but yeah this is we have the carpenters in this video

which I think is like sort of the strongest link but you know this is not the Margin Homer wedding real yeah so okay as everybody knows from the I Married Marge episode they go across the border for a quickie it's implied nevada but they don't say Nevada but it's just the two of them in a cheap wedding chapel in across the border shotgun Pete's right shock and so none of their friends are there and none of that's right like it's but they show all their friends there but the homer and marge designs are are their designs from their wedding in that episode it's just once they do it halfway it feels like the writers just said Well, it's the wedding video, whatever that looks like.

And then an animator, remember, here's the character design. So let's at least stick to that. Yeah. It doesn't, I mean, I much prefer, and they weren't filmed there either. They had a Polaroid. They had one Polaroid at their wedding. That's the joke. And then we know Homer after Byser Fudgy the Whale.

Right. As they're a whale of a life. That reminds me of the onion ring engagement ring. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. The Carpenter's is pretty great because that is their song. I did like that. Absolutely. Absolutely. Close to you. Great tune, by the way. So this is also the great joke of when the song sort of fades out, we fade to black and it's the two be continued, you know, immediately, which is great. I will say my, I remember all my audience and me including going like, what?

I, this is the, a pretty good 08 and 07 and beyond joke of like the U.S. government listening to Barton and March talking on the Amtrak or whatever and like it does, it overplays itself a little bit where it's like, the U.S. government finally found somebody they were looking for. hear that Mr. Bin Laden. Yeah. These jokes died with him. They couldn't do these jokes anymore. The surveillance state thing with the NSA is interesting because what Snowden didn't even happen yet. And it was correct there.

They're listening to literally. They listen to this podcast before it comes out. How does that make you folks feel? I just like being watched. I appreciate it. No problems for me either. You're not going to hear me complain. But I did love hearing Homer talk.

I liked hearing Bart saying the Disney's an evil corporation. Yes. None of us laughing at that joke in 2007 would have imagined that 11, 12 years later, they'd all be the same company. Like, yeah. Even now we'll look back on the jokes of like, remember when Batman and Spider-Man weren't owned by the one corporation that owns everything? That's pretty crazy.

I think Disney stances, yes, you've been conquered. Make your little jokes. We don't care. It's cute. Everybody on the run-up to that as a comic book fan was like, you know what? It's good. It sucks. Fox is going away.

But when Wolverine and Spider-Man and Captain America are the same movie, I'm like, yeah, when the fuck's that going to happen, guys? You know what, dude? If that's the only silver lining, get the fucking X-Men in this universe quicker than you're doing. And rant over. Angry. In 2030, it's going to feel really, you know, satisfied.

When we're like late 40s, like, oh, finally, Wolverine's fighting the Hulk in a movie. Oh, it was all worth it. It was all worth it. Oh, Steve, they're playing the Spider-Man and X-Men movie again. Let's go see it. It'll be one senior citizen and one Supreme Court justice. to see the Spider-Man versus the X-Men movie. Ah, but who is who? Who gets what ticket?

You'll find out. Oh, all right. Excellent. So, yes, this is where the indigenous woman finds him falling in the snow. And, like, yeah, I don't know. I guess. I guess with Homer throat singing. I guess. We're just doing another Homer Vision quest.

Yes. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Get Bob Balaband to put him in a fucking diver's suit and fucking do it. the right way, okay? I will say, Tress McNeil is doing what she's asked to do, but not the most respectful performance.

No. Yeah. Yeah. Not great. No, and that at least give her one scene with, like, what if she saw them come to Alaska? What if she had appeared at any? She's in the background at Eskimos, but

not even like remarked upon. It's just, I mean, it is the the trope of the magical non-white person who fixes the problems of a white guy for no reason other than just like she feels she must like there's yeah it would be better if she left him for dead in the snow that would be a good joke to do that and then to be like yeah all that stuff plus she has jokes yes yes like that that was when when they start doing the swaying joke i was like i'm out i'm done that was that Eric is this why

you wanted Kathy Bates to voice this character? I think so. Get a little bout schmidt in there. I was singing to that hot as usual. It is Saturday. The dream sequence is at least nice. But yeah, you mentioned the Vision Quest. It's like, it's just a different version of his chili dreams.

And it's very David Silverman. If you see the way David Silverman draws and the way he likes to draw Homer, you can see a lot of his drawings in the in the sequence. But yeah, it is like the chili pepper sequence. And again, we don't need the. Spider-Pig song. Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. That's kind of the shittiest part of his whole thing. We didn't mention the music. In the show, Al F. Claussen gives the Simpsons the musical texture until recent years when he's not on the show anymore. But in this show, it's Hans Zimmer. And I don't think it fits the action of the movie.

Yeah. One, it's also, I think it's Hans Zimmer in quotes. Right. His team. Yeah. Bleeding Edge Productions or something weird like that is what they're called. But it's not a movie if it's not. not Hans Zimmer, I guess.

You know, Alph Kloss. I mean, maybe this is really where the rift that would eventually become a lawsuit from Alph Klausen begins. They didn't give him the big movie money. Yeah, it could be. Yeah, totally. Like, I've been with you the whole fucking time and you go to make this movie and you get Hans fucking Zimmer.

Oh. Why not, if we're doing it, you know, you want to get a big score guy. Get fucking Danny Elfman. That's something. He wrote the theme of the show. he can expand i would love to hear a dany a elfman score you know that would be awesome dude that is a great idea another missed opportunity in a sea of missed opportunities i do love the whole

homer trying to like guess like what the answer to the vision quest is and one that always strikes me is if uh if it's more than two shakes you're playing with it because i have a very we all had a big laugh about this in high school i used i played football in high school i used i played football in high and I remember being in an away game and it was a particularly long bus ride to whatever high school we had to go to to play and so everyone on the team had to take a huge league so we all ran into the locker room

and everybody was just urinating and the coach was so furious that we were taking so long he just started shouting if you shake it more than twice you're playing with it just like over and over again dude this is not motivating me to piss any faster man

you not watching me piss could be a bit of a motivator though pour some piss in your pants. Get on the bus. Well, I didn't know that was just a colloquialism. I never heard. I did not have a football coach tell me that. This is an upstate New York expression.

I guess it might be. It's more of an Albany expression. I mean, it was funny. Do you hear Homer mention playing with yourself? That made me giggle enough of like, oh, Homer, how often is Homer talk about masturbation pretty, rare. Right.

Yeah. And yeah, then Homer just wakes up and he's like, oh, I'm just going to leave. Thanks, Boob lady. Just runs off.

I would think Homer's those giant run would make, he lost at least 10 pounds on this trip. Oh, for sure. Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

I do love the gag of him with his dog sled, though. I think this is great. Much, mush, climb, climb, jump, jump, land, land. Rest, rest, rest is the,

the funniest one. But then like just a delicious button on it. If you are in the audience like, man, this Homer Simpson is just whipping all of these dogs repeatedly. The dogs do get the ultimate revenge of just attacking the shit out of him once they're released. Intense animation.

Those dogs tearing him apart. They attack his whipping arm. I think I remember the DVD, the Simpsons season, whatever DVD it was that came out the year before this, had this on it as, like a sneak peek of the movie and so yeah i saw this one bob and i and i saw it like a year before the actual movie came out but still good definitely um and then you know we we have to have

have to have one more like instance of boob lady here she appears like in the sky in a vision to him and it's like you have to go this way and it's just pointing with the saggy tits so it's like all right man, I thought I was watching the Simpsons movie Hero, what is going on? I at least like that Homer goes like, thanks. Like he just TV barely reacts to it. Yeah.

So here's a big cut that you should be happy isn't in this movie and we'd be talking way more shit about it if they did. So the family gets caught in Seattle right. But originally they wrote a scene where the Simpsons minus Homer

appear on the view in Manhattan. It would be caught there. Oh, man. That would have been. Nope. Nope. No, thank you. It would be a Megan McCain-Free view, though.

It should be worse. It was the rosy years, I think. Now, Bodge, tell me, you're on the run. How are you feeding your children? See, and you know, that is just reminiscent of, I think, one of the absolute, how, not the absolute nadier, but one of the worst things Tree House of Horror ever did

was putting them on Jerry Springer in that one episode where Kang and Koto's come back. It's just like stay off of real talk shows. I can't, I don't know. I mean, like, I will stomach like Bart guesting on Conan

and obviously Conan being on the show makes more sense that you would do that, you know, and like, I don't know, Carson with the crusty gets canceled, but like, God damn it, them going on Jerry Springer. It would have been the same disgusting feeling if they'd been on the view for me at least. Well,

then don't dig around in the extra section for this movie on Disney Plus because you will see the promotional video they made for American Idol where the Simpsons judge Simon Cowell and sent him down a trap door. Oh, excellent. Excellent. And that's just some

network brand synergy right there. Oh, is it? Yeah. So like this is like the end here. We're all. Homer infiltrates it's kind of funny like the Simpsons get trapped back in the dome

stands Homer and everyone figures out a way Albert Brooks sets of time bombs says you're all going to die et cetera et cetera and everybody Cletus again huge Cletus movie

is distracting him while everybody climbs up but then Homer ruins that I do like that he passes up the jet pack that's just there and decides to get crazy glue on his hands, immediately grabs his dick and balls and has to

violently pull them off. They don't get severed, but part of his clothing gets torn and then he climbs up the dome and then knocking everyone down when they're like so high in the sky. So those characters are all dead? They're standing up behind him

after they're fine. It was only like five stories. There is a great joke when the clock is set for 15 minutes conceivably the amount of time left in the movie and then Homer kicks it out of frustration and they're given less time to get through the movie. Yeah. I like that. You know, the wrecking ball bit, I did chuckle of that.

The biggest joke, not the violence done to Homer, but when it taps the side of the thing and Lisa goes like, was that a moth? And March says, I hope it's okay. That March line was my biggest laugh upon rewatching this. March is concerned over the moth. Actually, she's being driven to be basically executed. Yes. You know, it's funny because I want to do like a partial retraction because I was kind of, complaining about like when this movie gets a little

cinematic but two things I want to say is I think one the all the action sequences including like the upcoming motorcycle business I think are all really well directed and animated I think it's pretty cool but I do like there is the nice transition effect they have

of the four of them are stuck in the back of the EPA car you know being driven back to the dome and they get gassed and knocked out and when they have like there's this like shot from above looking down on them all like gassed in the truck and it transitions into them just like eerily kind of just being left in the center of town yeah um back in the dome and you

don't see them being placed there i did actually like that transition which is a little more cinematic than i'm usually okay with with with the simpsons but cool transition yeah and i like part of lisa kicking each other as they uh yes go unconscious that's good uh but yeah all of Springfield is like feral now pretty much Mo is the emperor of Springfield which is kind of great. I love him wearing the traffic cone on his head. There's there is a line though of like how much how much death do you want to assume has happened like the last the in between scenes like clearly none of your favorite characters actually got killed but like the way it's so destroyed lots of people are dead like I think Mo even just winks to it of like a lot of people died. It was

Barfly number two is dead That guy who calls me Bill When Homer breaking back into the dome I do enjoy this gag of him Saying he's General Marriott Suites And when he's got the to-do list On his hand Or written on the leaf rather

And the end of it is return Dorman's uniform by 5 p.m. That's great. It implies he had borrowed it from the guy. He asked, I can't borrow this? I got to get it back by five. I got to work. Definitely will do that.

I like him coming in with the motorcycle and with the bomb. And when they do the whole thing between him and Bart and Bart is like, you know, no, I don't want to be the last person with you. And they're like, want to hold the bomb? Dan gets me. That I really liked because that did to me. speak to their relationship like at a basic primordial level they get each other

forget all the fucking details and the logic and all that forget all that it just makes sense that they would be together and it's far as being a bad kid which you don't get a lot in this movie you know what I mean it's at least like doing playing on that trope

yes yeah yeah at least you're you're supposed to they expect the audience to go like oh no part's almost going to keep hanging out with the Flanders oh no But, hey, I mean, it's at least nice to see Homer and Bart enjoy their time together, though I think Bart's fine and not forgiving Homer. He should just be like, no, screw you. I like that.

I'll go on your bomb ride, but I'm not going to forgive you. I like the Flanders line. When we meet, when we get to heaven, you call him Mr. Christ. You know, I wish you didn't have the devil's curly hair. Oh, yeah. That's great. A small gripe I have here, because he's referred to it differently on the show, when Flanders says like, you know, oh, yeah, you can come in and join the Flanders clan, he's definitely used Flanders flock multiple times. And why would you just, why would you pass up a great opportunity for some alliteration?

Yeah. Yeah, that's a, Phoenix doesn't like alliteration. It confuses them. I it's it's the darkest joke in the movie but I and I always forget it but that robot blowing its brains out it's fucking funny oh he's been talking about it but I didn't take him seriously that's the best that wig of is just like no I didn't believe it like oh man it is just it is so great like it's freaking out over you know which wire to cut and then just committing suicide like it is dark but the fact that it's a wrong

robot, it's a turtle pass here. And that he doesn't, I love the reality of it too, that he steals Wiggum's gun to kill himself with the two. Like, it's way funnier than if he just pulled a gun out from behind his back or whatever. Yeah, you're totally right. Yeah, so Homer comes up with the motorcycle.

I'm risking my life to save people I hate for reasons I don't quite understand, which is like a great summation of this third act. Homer knows he has to be the hero at the end of the movie. He doesn't know why but he knows he bust yes exactly uh there's a couple of great things of like people what what they're doing with their final moments i do like martin prince gets a little bit of

revenge on the bullies by beating the shit out of them right here kind of nice yeah kind of nice you know this third act makes me think though oh i like these characters i wish we would have stayed with them yeah yeah why we spend 15 minutes in fucking alaska with the way none of these characters are. I do like a reprise of Zebra Girl. That is what a comic book guy is reading. Yes. Oh, right. Yeah, totally. Yeah, I've spent my whole life collecting comic books.

Life well spent or whatever his line is. It's great. I'm with him. Yes, sure. This is also where Otto's hitting the bong, which is great. Because, of course, you'd be sitting on the first step of the school bus, just taking a nice crisp rip right there. with his last seconds that's the right move

Oh exactly dude You got to hold it in until the bomb goes off And then right before the flame hits your face Let it go I want to like I think honestly One of my favorite bits of detail In this whole movie Is that when they rejump Springfield Gorge

Yes this for sure The fucking ambulance Is still just sitting crashed into the tree That's an awesome detail It also speaks to how the Springfield government and society works. Yeah, just we'll just leave it there.

Just leave it totally. No, that's so the that moment is one of those ones I was like, man, I wish you had more of this stuff that this this moment recognizes that the many, many, many fans of the Simpsons all remember this gorge jump. So let for the big screen do it even

bigger and this time they succeed like that. It's a really cool payoff of a thing that fans remember and and I'm not saying I want all fan service in a movie but you know but it's it's yeah I mean it's using an instance like where you're pulling something from the show

that's like not it's just informing another thing that happens right it's not like just a reference for reference sake like it's a continuation of that they do better right it's a change they're successful it's something Bart finally uses his slingshot

for use like But Bart also has superhuman strength in that moment. Let's say it was adrenaline. With all the ways they don't trust the audience, I'm surprised there was not a line of dialogue from Homer. Like, wow, that went much worse last time I tried that. Yeah. So I like that they're like, yes, he did it this time.

We're not going to comment on it. Either you get it or you don't. Yep. Either way, he made it. He's alive. Yeah. And because if you don't understand the reference, it's still tacked on to the end of what is a pretty coolly animated action sequence.

So it's fine if you don't get it. and yeah so i just wish like they could have taken a note from that sequence and realized that could have peppered that a little more throughout the movie and as an action sequence of them rushing down the wall as cracks for them and like it's a it's a clever idea for for an action sequence absolutely and like surfing on the big panes of glass you know to come down it just it all looks really great like it's actually i remember last night watching it being like you know even you know knowing what happens and everything feel clearly like excited in that

moment. It was the only time in the movie that I was excited to be watching it. And then, you know, no, luckily no one's hurt from the falling glass except for Dr. Nick. Yeah. Bring him back though. He does not die for good, unfortunately. See, and that was, I was going to ask

you guys that exact thing because I was like, I got a sneaking suspicion. This doesn't stink. Goodbye, everybody is a good, is a good outline. I mean, I guess they should have killed a poo here. Yeah, exactly. that at the very least I think they put that in the movie so they could say like and seriously one of our famous characters dies in this movie you have to see the movie to see

who dies and like you know I like Dr. Nick Fine but he's not a character you super miss when he's not there sure but if they could have just just committed to it like if you said you killed him in the movie just keep him dead it was the movie you don't need a memorial service you just don't bring that character back you know what I mean yeah yeah how often do you really need a shady doctor drew but but you don't understand dr nick is humongous in phoenix you know who's not is maud you know that never never sat with me right is when they killed maud flanders it was and not it didn't feel right yeah yeah i i they made up with the voice actress but it also just came out of like

At the time, they didn't want to give her a raise. And it was like a cost of living adjustment for a beat back. Talk about Homer's cruelest moment. He inadvertently kills his neighbor's wife and prevents ambulances from saving her. And the dynamic there, like him coveting her all the time was pretty. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maud, eh? Yes.

Yeah, the description of his actions at her funeral are always horrifying when, because he's not remembering I think is the joke. And they're like, Ned says, like, you fell in the grave. Which is like, yes. I wish I could have seen Maud Flanders funeral because I bet that was horrifying. Well, at least though with the actress who played her, you know, they did make up and like Maggie Roswell. She's in the movie. Hell of Lovejoy has one line, but she says it. And I know that Maggie Roswell, like, she's on Twitter. She seems like a very nice person. And one of her pictures, I think profile picture is her and her daughter at the premiere of this movie. movie so at least reconciliation was done

with the actress but I wish when they hired her back they just go like you know what no that episode didn't happen here's here's what again where we're not exactly that's in the past scratch that yeah yeah um I mean because the only this is sort of like a later like past the the golden era that I normally really watch but like I do like the episode where Homer takes Ned to Vegas and they accidentally get married for a hot second so like that's kind of the only thing that the death of Maud Flanders afforded the show that I think was of any worth

is that episode? I don't know. I don't know if they've played with it elsewhere. I mean, there is the one where I'm, oh, I guess that's the same episode with the dating video and everything and the damn sexy Flanders. Flanders is dating everywhere, you know,

every, yeah, I mean, he was married to Edna Craboppel. Let's not forget this. I forgot that because of his monster dong, right? Well, yes. That's canon. He's, I can't get over that giant pixelated penis. He's the one he should be thanking God for a bountiful penis. Yeah.

So this is where they get the totally useless like Russ Cargill sendoff where Maggie defeats him. The only thing that I liked about this is where Homer's like, oh, thanks, Maggie, or whatever. And she does a little quick salute. Yeah. Just this kid. that thing of like Maggie understanding English I always appreciate. But Maggie that you got to kill that kid and start

over. This is a true. This is because she shot Mr. Burns. She dropped the rock on this guy's head. You're asking you're, this is like a Damian level event. That's true, man. That's true. She could be the daughter of Satan himself. She's playing the baby blaster game. She's getting ready for something dark.

Something bad. Yeah. Come on. And and Bart does the like a mo prank call joke to like like that's right uh playing to the cheap sheets one yeah yes treasure of i'm a weiner and what was that was anyone missing colin oh here he is colin dude this is a fucked up thing that like millhouse is really fucked up in this movie that's true because like when you see him here he's like oh lisa colin died i like that jesus christ kid what is your problem you've never been this creepy

on the show like a week passes and then she sees colin or something something. That's what sure happened. Behind the scenes, Millhouse is just mad. His love scene got cut. He's like, I'm just going to say he's dead. I didn't need this resolution. I don't care about the future love life of Lisa who was eight.

Again, the column character, much like the Russ Cargill character, is really ill-defined. And it's like, well, Schwarzenegger's not their president anymore after this either. Like, none of that. Well, also, I guess they thought that like, oh, he probably got impeached

after trying to blow up Springfield or something happened. Right. Yeah. I do, you know, the Cotland reconciliation isn't great, but I do like Bart reconnecting with Santa's little helper. Yes. I laughed at that. I think, I got to say, I almost tweeted this last night and then I think I was just too stone and I forgot. But to me,

this was the biggest laugh of my rewatch. And I think it's my favorite joke of the entire movie. Of just the subtitling of the dog saying, I did things no dog should do. They will haunt me forever. And it's just like, he's probably eating other dogs to survive. That's what it is. Dog cannibalism and I'm totally

here for it. It's a little anchormane though. You know, that, yeah. Oh, you're right. I didn't think about that. Yeah. Can you remind me, Steve? I haven't seen Anchorman since the Obama administration. Something, something the dog is

killed in like the first act or second act. And it comes back and then he, the dog speaks through subtitle about all the things he had to do to come back. Oh wow. Okay. You're totally right. Not that, not as dark. It's like cute. Like he makes friends of the bear and all

sorts of stuff. Yeah, okay. I do. Yeah, you're right. You're right. Yeah, I do remember that now. Just they will haunt me forever though because I love that notion of like you know, he's got this like long memory. You know, it's going to last his entire life, whatever these things that he had to do. And he has the same blank

expression on his face he always has. It does make you think like, oh right, I didn't even see this dog for the entire movie. What happened to him? Snowball might be dead, though. They could be on Snowball 3 at this point. Yeah, I think you only see Santa's Little Helper, like, for a minute right before the house collapses from the

sinkhole. And I was like, oh, well, Santa's Little Helper is dead. But thank God, that's not true. But it does say something that like, 88 minutes of of this movie. And like, when when the bomb goes off,

immediately after that, I'm like, Ed. and the movie and the fucking movie I'm fucking dying here like all these little things just keep on happening I'm like just stop just stop just stop you're totally right I mean because that that movie's over

like you get the Lisa stuff and then it's like you know best kiss of your life so far is also the line thrown around here and you're just like you're waiting for these credits but then you just see again someone totally not used in the movie groundskeeper Willie's like you know on the construction site we're rebuilding the Simpsons house and it's like

I don't need to see any of this I understand that when the show comes back for the next season it will just have a house again and it is totally fine like I don't need any of this but then just the reprisal of them being stupid on the roof

it wasn't funny the first fucking time it was going to time in the beginning of the movie by the way I just checked Frank Wilker not credited in the Simpsons movie that is one check he did not get the one that got away it's got to be Dan

barking then that definitely is him yeah I I like the as a technical achievement, the animation of the turnaround on Margin Homer on the bike. Like that looks really good. Yeah. But it is almost like unearned. I mean, I'm thinking in my head, even the first time I watched it, like Homer almost killed the whole town.

His triumph is that he prevented them from dying like the third time after he almost killed them. Yeah, right. Everyone celebrates him and he gets his wife back after he learned the last. of risk my life to try to undo the one of the eight awful things I did. I don't know. But it's, you know, the music upswell happens and a kiss happens. So it's a happy ending.

Yeah, exactly. You know, and there it is. But now Homer has to fall off the roof. And it's such a just smash. Just like boom, just bam, smash to black. And then there were more jokes over the credits. There's more burns in the credits. Yes.

Yeah. I wanted to see a scene where they looted Burns' house. Instead, they just, they, they only keep the punchline of it of Burns saying to Smithers, like, you know, I never considered suicide. But if you wanted to try, I don't just cheer me up. This is a good lie. It is. Yeah. And there's another like Tom Hanks as himself bit that happens.

And then, of course, we have to fall into the gag. They're just, they are watching the credits to a movie. They're good. It's like the end of the critic. Yes. you know. Yeah. Yeah. Which is whatever. Maggie's first word shit. Oh, sorry, Henry. Yeah. No, I was going to say Maggie's first word, but it was daddy. We heard it. We heard it.

On the commentary, Yardley Smith says that. And then Al Jean's like, no, this is her first word. You want it to be a big deal in the movie. Like, yeah, I know I agree with David Silverman. His response to that is that, well, the family didn't see her first word. as far as Marge knows sequel is their first word. But sequel is so like winky even for this movie is like I just I always hate when a movie is like maybe we'll get a

sequel. I was like you know what? Just just end your movie and we'll talk about it. Yep. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, it's very smug. Exactly. And they almost did do a sequel. They they did a season, I believe it finally aired in in 2015, but they made an episode called The Man Who Would Be Dinner,

which is it also drives me crazy because it is a canonical appearance of Kang and Kodos that kidnapped the whole family. And yeah and they take him to Rijal 4 and when they take him there they make that as a 22 minute episode

and the same deal they're like you know what? This is the movie so we can't put this out. We'll just expand this into a sequel and then after like two years of trying to convince Fox to do it they just let it go. They're like all right fine no sequel. We'll just air

this as an episode. So yeah. That's rough. That is rough. I'm sorry to tell you guys about New Simpsons and don't make it. I'm sorry. No, it is quite all right, my friend. I do like in the credits, I appreciated when

each actor's name came up, they do the little grid of all the characters that they've voiced. I thought that was cool. It's a cool victory lap thing. Again, that would have been more effective if the show was over and then we're just doing this movie

like what the X-Files movie should have been like that's just the end of it the end of that whole story but it is still cool seeing all the names because I mean like everybody knows a lot of these actors are doing tons of different characters throughout the years and everything but it's cool to see it

like all acknowledged in one place at one time I thought it was kind of rad but that's the end of the Simpsons movie guys can you even believe it we did it we got through all 88 minutes yes I'll I will toss it to

our guests this week for recommendations and final thoughts how this held up for you etc we'll throw it to you guys I will say the first time I saw it I was furious and as I go through my 30s almost at my end of my 30s I've meled out a lot more and now I just see it as a fairly mediocre movie

with some good jokes here and there but I feel like this is the only time they will get to do this at a good time for the series and not the ideal time but an okay time for the series and I feel like whenever I watch it now all I see is like oh this should have been different this should be the villain this should be the main story like I just see all the flaws and it's hard to ignore that so I find it a frustrating movie

not a terrible movie but it could be so much better and I wish they had more faith in the audience and made this for the fans instead of the average person who might not know who the Simpsons is totally yeah the I went from really liking it in the theater to liking it less each time I saw it and I know too much behind the scenes to like I see the flaws even more. But I will say the more I know about the animators, I at least appreciate how much the animators were able to pull off under horrible circumstances of a terrible deadline and

8 million rewrites and now looking at how structured the show is now and how things never get to be off model or have like a wacky pose. Occasionally when I see Homer like at the very least, look, do we all laugh too, we don't laugh too hard when Homer grabs his balls. But at the very least, he's drawn different than he normally would be when doing that. So yeah, I appreciate the animation more, but the jokes get worse and worse to me. Though now I feel, I do feel weird that I'm getting nostalgia for its era because we're not in its era anymore on The Simpsons.

Right, right, right. Steve Sadek, how are you feeling after this discussion, bud? It is a light, this is the second time I've done this today and second time in two weeks. It's a light non-recommend. Like, it's not the worst thing in the world. It doesn't suck with a capital S.

I think Bob, the mellowing out thing is also a part of it. It just, it's flat. It's mostly flat. I do, it's hard to watch it without playing what if and what if it was this, what it was that, and also where's so and so.

So those things kind of keep me up. It's of, I guess I wouldn't recommend, if the person I wouldn't recommend it to is somebody is like, I like the Simpsons, what I like this movie, I'd probably say you wouldn't. So it's a light non-recommend. Yeah, Chris Cabin? I would say, no.

only see it if actually i'm not sure if this is opposite what steve said but like if you are a completist see it see it to know its position in the place but the problem with it as a movie to me is it's kind of weird that i thought sims would be able to break out of this it's both a greatest hits collection and attempt to buy a new audience at the same time which you can't do you have to pick one uh and the greatest hits thing it annoys you because you're like I've seen all these jokes before they're just worse and lamer and for people that aren't me and so you're just like lost and uh it annoys you and there's no real story structure to it so you're just kind of like okay I guess that was funny but not

really I don't know what we're doing next but who really cares like you're just like lost in this like the asthma of it and it's 88 minutes you shouldn't feel like that um but yeah so I would say no to me. Yeah. Eric Siskin. Yeah. It's also for me and not recommend. I think there are some good jokes throughout.

I agree with what Chris is saying. I feel like those two ends like don't really connect. And the movie doesn't really feel like a movie, doesn't really feel like a TV show. And I just, it's a watch it. It's a curio. If you're completest, obviously. But on this go around, it just didn't work for me. yeah i mean i wouldn't i wouldn't recommend it either unless you're there's a completeist out there who hasn't

gotten to the point in the simpson's continuity where you're going to watch it like it you know not seeing this movie doesn't affect uh you know your like knowledge or appreciation of the show in any way i don't think it you know watching it does anything for you except maybe enhance your appreciation of like what the show was at one point um but you know to to henry's point i mean learning all this stuff about how the animators were just totally shafted during all of this. It really is huge props to them for

pulling this movie off. I am not a fan of the glossy Simpsons, but like it does look good. I mean, the animation is good. It's just not for me as a Simpsons fan, but I mean, it's looking good. And the action stuff, again, like I think it looks great. It cuts together well. So there's

a lot to say about the direction and the animation, but a little less to say, I guess, about the writing itself of the script. But Bob and Henry, thanks so much for coming on. Always educational and fun. So give a quick bit of info here. Where, everywhere and anywhere can folks find all the great work you guys do? Well, of course, the podcast is Talking Simpsons. As you can tell from this episode, we know an obnoxious amount of episodes and information about the Simpsons. And an irritating amount of information is what we have in our brains and we are very entertaining and we have all of these fine gentlemen on the show at some

point multiple episodes with uh andrew chris steve and eric so if you want to start off uh on one of those episodes it's a great place to start if you're a fan if we hate movies yeah and uh me and bob are such uh such an honor to be invited on and and yeah our uh the talking simpson podcast is every week we have a second podcast called what a cartoon where we talk about animated series super in depth and going the history is well there and we do So many exclusive podcasts on our Patreon, patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons. To expand beyond all the Simpsons stuff we talk about, we have covered over a hundred episodes combined of series like King of the Hill, Futurama, Mission Hill, and the critic. We did every episode of The Critic, like that's all there on our Patreon.

So a ton of stuff. And tons of interviews with people like David Silverman, the director of this movie and lots of other Simpsons legends too. Patreon.com slash talking Simpsons if you want to see all of it. That's awesome. And yeah, you guys come back anytime. This was so much fun. As for us, of course, yeah, patreon.com slash we hate movies.

We got a lot of stuff going on there this month as always. By the way, I didn't announce the Gleap Glossary yet this month on air. It will be on General Maximilian Vias. Oh, yeah. Somebody just shit their pants. I don't know who it is.

But somebody's really excited. That's me, actually, pow, I just shit my parents. And on animation, damnation, speaking of the critic, we'll be covering an episode of The Critic to sort of tie in to this Simpsons thing, episode TBD, but it'll be a fun episode of The Critic. We are big fans of that show. Yes, exactly.

Animation, Damnation isn't always against stuff. And also, we've got this month coming out, Escape from New York as a We Love Movies episode. We've also got a ton of, we've got another Melroote 2-0 out there. We've got stalked by my doc. on that feed. We've got the Snyder cut on that feed. Just a ton of shit on the $10

tier there. But as always here on the main feed, Steve, we hate movies rolls on next week. What fantastic title will we be discussing then? Oh, boy, we are going to play another game with Saw 3. Oh, shit. Just a time for

spiral to be terrible. I think we have to. Yeah. Oh, man. So until next week with Saw 3. I'm Andrew Jupin. Stephen Siddak. Eric Cisca. Chris Gavin. Henry Gilbert.

Bob Mackey. Take it easy. That was a HitGum podcast.