The Plot: Homer's pollution of Lake Springfield forces the family to flee town after the EPA seals it off in a giant bubble.  Soon, however, sinister EPA head Russ Cargill (Albert Brooks) comes up with another plan for the town and it's up to the Simpsons to stop him.

Stop!  Homer time.

The Flax Take:
The Simpsons hasn't been a truly great TV series in more than a decade, so fans of the show's golden age could be forgiven their skepticism when plans to release the long-discussed movie adaptation were announced a couple years ago.  Eleven writers, culled from the show's two decades' worth, put their names on the screenplay, but perhaps the two most important were, alphabetically, the first two: James L. Brooks and Matt Groening.  Groening and Brooks rarely had much to do with the literal writing of the show, but they deserve much of the credit for the underlying decency of the early episodes, back when Simpsons characters were allowed to have real human emotions, back when the show was more of a sitcom and less of a cartoon.  That hasn't been true for years, but The Simpsons Movie may be as close as we'll ever come again.

When the film begins, it seems like more of the same thing spooned out by the show on a weekly basis - an uninspiring guest appearance (courtesy of Green Day), brutal slapstick (which has really crossed the line into cruel on the show in the last few years), and a main character in Homer who shifts between aggressively unpleasant and almost willfully idiotic.  The Homer of the first six seasons or so was more of a well-meaning blunderer; starting with episodes like "Homer Goes to College," most of his humanity was slowly stripped away to reveal an obnoxious boor with a penchant for getting hit on the head and being fine in the next scene.  And it's that Homer who appears for the first part of the film.

Credit the writing staff for turning back the clock, in what might be knowing fashion.  This may not be "Lisa's Pony" - the third-season episode in which a contrite Homer struggles to work two jobs so he can pay for the pony he bought Lisa after disappointing her yet again - but the show reverts to its classic arcs.  Homer's selfishness leads to marital problems with Marge, and he must prove his worth to her; Homer fails to understand the needs of his children and is cast out by Bart in favor of a better surrogate (in this case, Ned Flanders).  It's not the single most original thing the movie could have done, using two of the show's most enduring tropes, but it makes sense - wouldn't you expect a big-screen version of a television series to try and encapsulate everything that series is about?  The Simpsons Movie uses its plot - Springfield gets sealed inside a dome after Homer dumps a silo of pig manure into the lake, irreversibly polluting it - to up the ante, rather than trying to make grand character shifts; it's the smartest way The Simpsons could have transitioned to the big screen.

Don't get me wrong: The Simpsons Movie is far from perfect, and aside from the strong job it does with the emotional notes, it's not going to have anyone thinking they're watching an episode from Season Four.  The humor is fairly consistent; it's rarely uproarious - though even in its best years, The Simpsons was really not that kind of show - but it thankfully lacks the actively unfunny scenes that too often characterize episodes of the last ten years.  For that alone, it should probably be commended; fans had every right to expect the worst, and it's to the film's credit that it manages to sidestep most of the land mines.  The writing is a little more scattershot, as the plot yo-yos the family to Alaska and back as though it had been a rejected idea for broadcast; while many of the emotional scenes do work, they're built on a plot involving Homer doing something so stupid it's almost hard to believe he's even allowed a chance at redemption.

The Simpsons Movie won't be confused for a classic episode - even in 22 minutes, shows from the early years gave more depth to character arcs than the writers do here, as if paying lip service to the old themes is more important than truly doing them justice.  Given what we might have gotten, though - for example, a full-length movie version of an episode from the largely dreadful most recent season - it's hard to complain about a movie that carries a few good laughs, no groans, and a surprising amount of heart.  After all these years, The Simpsons Movie ends up being better late than never.