"The Simpsons" was the first animated series to bring cartoons back to prime time, but it’s one of the last to make a movie, following "South Park," "Beavis and Butthead" and even "Family Guy"’s DVD movie. They may have saved the best for last though, as creator Matt Groening explained how "The Simpsons Movie" expands the world of Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa.
First of all, no more "Homer stories" and "Bart stories." "The Simpsons Movie" includes everyone. "It’s about the family," said Groening. "It’s one of the nice things about having a full length feature is we don’t’ have to just tell one or two small stories."
Some characters may get more laughs though. "There’s a lot of gags with Homer. It’s funnier to see Homer get smashed than just about anybody."
It won’t just be a string of Simpsons episodes either. "We took a really long time to do the Simpsons movie and we are still tinkering with it. It is not three episodes. It is not one big episode. It really is, we think, we hope the fans will agree, that it stands on its own."
For all those epic promises though, it won’t be overlong. "90 minutes, whatever, conventional feature length movie. And we’re not padding it out with a lot of dancing penguins either."
Die hard fans may get a long overdue recurring gag. Remember the episode where Lester and Eliza saved the day instead of Bart and Lisa? That was disturbing, and I personally expected them to come back and wreak more havoc. A decade later, we may finally get closure. "I think we put them in The Simpsons movie. They were in one draft. I’m not sure if they survive."
