The Simpsons Movie
The Simpsons Movie is a 2007 American animated comedy film based on the animated television series The Simpsons created by Matt Groening. The film was directed by David Silverman and stars Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille, Joe Mantegna, and other recurring actors reprising their roles from the series, with Albert Brooks and Tom Hanks joining for the film. The plot follows the Simpson family as they grapple with the fallout of Homer Simpson's reckless actions, which lead to Springfield being imprisoned under a massive glass dome by the Environmental Protection Agency, the family's eviction from the town, and a strain on their relationship with him.
Although previous attempts to create a Simpsons film had been made, they failed due to the lack of a final screenplay. In 2001, after the voice cast agreed to do the film, series producers Groening, James L. Brooks, Al Jean, Mike Scully and Richard Sakai began development on the film: a writing team of Brooks, Groening, Jean, Scully, Ian Maxtone-Graham, George Meyer, David Mirkin, Mike Reiss, Matt Selman, John Swartzwelder, and Jon Vitti was assembled. They conceived numerous plot ideas, and one of Groening's was ultimately adapted. The screenplay was rewritten over a hundred times, which continued after work on the film's animation began in 2006. Hans Zimmer composed the score the for the film while Green Day performed a rock version of the shows theme. Consequently, hours of finished material was cut from the final release, including cameo roles from Erin Brockovich, Minnie Driver, Isla Fisher, Edward Norton, and Kelsey Grammer, who would have reprised his role as Sideshow Bob. Green Day and Tom Hanks voice their own animated counterparts in the film's final cut.
The Simpsons Movie premiered in Springfield, Vermont on July 21, 2007, and was theatrically released in the United States on July 27, by 20th Century Fox. The film received positive reviews from critics, who praised its story, writing, humor, and animation, and was a commercial success, grossing $536.4 million worldwide against a production budget of $75 million, becoming the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2007, as well as at the time the second-highest-grossing traditionally animated film and the highest-grossing film based on an animated television series, two records later overtaken by Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle in 2025. The film was nominated for numerous awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film at the 65th Golden Globe Awards. A sequel is scheduled for release on September 3, 2027.
Plot
After finishing a concert at Lake Springfield, Green Day tries to engage the audience in a discussion about the environment, but they refuse to listen and throw garbage at them. The pollution in the lake erodes the band's barge, causing them to drown. During their memorial, Grampa Simpson has a spiritual experience and prophesies that a disaster will befall Springfield, which only Marge takes seriously. Concerned about the terrible state of the environment, Lisa and her new boyfriend Colin hold a seminar and convince the town to clean up the lake. Meanwhile, Homer adopts a pig he names "Plopper" to save him from being slaughtered by Krusty the Clown at Krusty Burger. When Homer brings the pig back home, Marge identifies the pig as a part of the prophecy and warns Homer to get rid of him, but Homer refuses. Homer's fawning over Plopper makes Bart, now fed up with Homer's carelessness, look to Ned Flanders as a father figure.Marge orders Homer to dispose of an overflowing silo full of Plopper's feces. Rather than disposing of it safely, he becomes distracted after hearing that Lard Lad is giving away free donuts and hastily dumps the silo in the lake, critically polluting it. After a squirrel falls into the lake and becomes mutated, Russ Cargill, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, informs President Arnold Schwarzenegger of Springfield's pollution crisis and presents him with five solutions. Schwarzenegger randomly picks the third option – sealing Springfield off from the rest of the world under a giant glass dome.
Being trapped under the dome causes mass hysteria in Springfield and when Homer's silo is discovered on the news, hundreds of townspeople arrive at the Simpsons' house in an attempt to lynch the family. They escape through a sinkhole, which destroys the house. The family is furious at Homer for his blundering, but he convinces them to follow him to Alaska, where he had always planned to go if something like the incident happened. Homer wins a truck by riding a motorcycle around a globe of death and the family restarts their lives in a remote Alaskan cabin.
As Springfield begins exhausting its supplies, the townspeople eventually attack the dome and the city descends into chaos. Cargill, mad with the power he has over Springfield and outraged by their defiance, tricks Schwarzenegger into ordering the town's demolition. The Simpsons see Tom Hanks on television advertising a "new Grand Canyon" on the site of Springfield. Realizing that their hometown is in danger, the family vow to save it sans Homer, who refuses to assist and storms out. When he returns the next morning, he finds his family has left to save Springfield, with Marge taping a message over their wedding video to explain this to him. A distraught Homer is recovered by an Inuk shaman, who helps him come to an epiphany about his selfishness; he decides to save the town and his family. Meanwhile, Marge and the kids are captured by the EPA in Seattle and placed back inside the dome.
The EPA lowers a time bomb suspended by a rope through a hole at the top of the dome. While the townspeople attempt climbing the rope to escape, Homer returns to Springfield and descends the rope, knocking the escaping townspeople and the bomb off, inadvertently shortening its countdown and further provoking the town's ire. Refusing to give up, Homer reconciles with Bart and they use a motorcycle to travel up the side of the dome with the bomb. Bart throws the bomb through the hole seconds before it detonates, shattering the dome and freeing the town. Cargill attempts to murder Homer for foiling his plan, but Maggie knocks him out by dropping a rock on his head. The dome's destruction prompts the townspeople to forgive and praise Homer as a hero.
Voice cast
| Voice actor | Credited roles |
| Homer Simpson, Grampa Simpson, Krusty the Clown, Groundskeeper Willie, Mayor Quimby, Sideshow Mel, Mr. Teeny, EPA Official, Itchy, and Barney Gumble | |
| Marge Simpson, Patty and Selma Bouvier | |
| Bart Simpson, Ralph Wiggum, Todd Flanders, and Nelson Muntz | |
| Lisa Simpson | |
| Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum, Cletus Spuckler, Professor Frink, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Lou, Comic Book Guy, Captain McCallister, Bumblebee Man, and Dr. Nick | |
| Mr. Burns, Smithers, Ned Flanders, Reverend Lovejoy, Lenny, President Arnold Schwarzenegger, Seymour Skinner, Kent Brockman, Dr. Hibbert, Scratchy, and Otto Mann | |
| Milhouse Van Houten, Rod Flanders, and Jimbo Jones | |
| Medicine Woman, Agnes Skinner, Crazy Cat Lady, Colin, and Cookie Kwan | |
| EPA Officer and Man | |
| Edna Krabappel | |
| Martin Prince | |
| Helen Lovejoy | |
| Phil Rosenthal | TV Dad |
| Billie Joe Armstrong | Green Day |
| Frank Edwin Wright III | Green Day |
| Michael Pritchard | Green Day |
| Fat Tony | |
| Himself | |
| Russ Cargill |
Production
Development
The production staff had considered a film adaptation of The Simpsons since early in the series. The show's creator, Matt Groening, felt a feature-length film would allow them to increase the show's scale and animate sequences too complex for the TV series. He intended the film to be made after the show ended, "but that was undone by good ratings". There were attempts to adapt the fourth season episode "Kamp Krusty" into a film, but difficulties were encountered in expanding the episode to feature-length. For a long time, the project was held up. There was difficulty finding a story that was sufficient for a film, and the crew did not have enough time to complete such a project, as they already worked full-time on the show. Groening also expressed a wish to make Simpstasia, a parody of Fantasia; it was never produced, partly because it would have been too difficult to write a feature-length screenplay. At another point, it was briefly suggested to do an anthology-style Treehouse of Horror film, but such suggestion was never pursued. Recurring guest performer Phil Hartman had wished to make a live-action film based on his character Troy McClure; several of the show's staff expressed a desire to help create it, and Josh Weinstein proposed to use the plot of the seventh season episode "A Fish Called Selma" for the film, but the project was canceled following Hartman's death in 1998. The project was officially green-lit by 20th Century Fox in 1997, and Groening and James L. Brooks were set to produce the film.| "If every episode of The Simpsons is a celebration, which we try to make it, then the movie is like a big celebration. It's a way of honoring the animators, allowing them to really strut their stuff and really go as far as they can with the art of the handwritten gesture. It's a way of honoring the writers, because we were able to get the best all-star writers of The Simpsons and write our hearts out, and it's a way of honoring all the great actors." |
| — Matt Groening |
The voice cast was signed on to do the film in 2001, and work then began on the screenplay. The producers were initially worried that creating a film would have a negative effect on the series, as they did not have enough crew to focus their attention on both projects. As the series progressed, additional writers and animators were hired so that both the show and the film could be produced at the same time. Groening and Brooks invited Mike Scully and Al Jean to produce the film with them. They then signed series director David Silverman to direct the film. The "strongest possible" writing team was assembled, with many of the writers from the show's early seasons being chosen. David Mirkin, Mike Reiss, George Meyer, John Swartzwelder, and Jon Vitti were selected. Ian Maxtone-Graham and Matt Selman would also join later, with Brooks, Groening, Scully, and Jean also writing parts of the screenplay. Sam Simon did not return having left the show over creative differences in 1993. Former writer Conan O'Brien expressed interest in working with the Simpsons staff again, although he later joked that "I worry that the Simpsons-writing portion of my brain has been destroyed after 14 years of talking to Lindsay Lohan and that guy from One Tree Hill, so maybe it's all for the best." The same went for director Brad Bird who said he had "entertained fantasies of asking if could work on the movie", but did not have enough time due to work on films like The Incredibles and Ratatouille. The producers arranged a deal with Fox that would allow them to abandon production of the film at any point if they felt the screenplay was unsatisfactory.
Work continued on the screenplay from late 2003 onwards, taking place in the small bungalow where Groening first pitched The Simpsons in 1987. The writers spent six months discussing a plot, and each of them offered sketchy ideas. On their first brainstorming session, Scully suggested a story in which Steven Spielberg would try to blow up Springfield so he could shoot a film with Tom Hanks. It was also on this same reunion that Groening introduced the idea of Homer adopting a pet pig, inspired by a pig-waste management story he had read in the news. Jean suggested the family rescue manatees, which became the seventeenth season episode "The Bonfire of the Manatees", and there was also a notion similar to that of The Truman Show where the characters discovered their lives were a TV show. Groening rejected this, as he felt that the Simpsons should "never become aware of themselves as celebrities", but the idea was later used in the video game The Simpsons Game. Groening read about a town that had to get rid of pig feces in their water supply, which inspired the plot of the film. The decision for Flanders to have an important role also came early on, as Jean wished to see Bart wonder what his life would be like if Flanders were his father. Hank Scorpio, a character from the eight season episode "You Only Move Twice", was originally meant to return as the main antagonist, but the staff dropped the idea and created Russ Cargill instead.
Having eventually decided on the basic outline of the plot for the film, the writers then separated it into seven sections. Jean, Scully, Reiss, Swartzwelder, Vitti, Mirkin, and Meyer wrote 25 pages each, and the group met one month later to merge the seven sections into one "very rough draft". The film's screenplay was written in the same way as the television series: the writers sitting around a table, pitching ideas, and trying to make each other laugh. The screenplay was rewritten over 100 times, and at one point, the film was a musical. However, the songs were continually being shortened and the idea was dropped. Groening described his desire to also make the film dramatically stronger than a TV episode, saying that he wanted to "give you something that you haven't seen before".