It took 17 years for “The Simpsons” to finally make their transition from the small screen to the big screen, and the result was a crushing disappointment. Few would argue that the animated cartoon has been consistently at its best in this century, but that’s probably because it set such a high bar for itself towards the end of the nineties. The film though was weak even by later season standards, and there’s hardly a been a clamor for America’s favorite yellow family to return to cinemas in the five years since.
But it looks like they will be doing it some way or another, and to begin with it will be in a short format. It was announced in May that “The Longest Daycare” would precede this summer’s Fox animation “Ice Age: Continental Drift” — following in the footsteps of Pixar (and more recently Warner Bros. with their Looney Tunes shorts), with the studio offering a short alongside their main animated feature. Maggie Simpson is the star of this first Simpsons short which sees her return to the Ayn Rand School for Tots (first seen in the excellent season four, episode two classic "A Streetcar Named Marge" — watch below) where she is scanned by a machine which determines that her future is “nothing special.”
The big difference here is that this will be the first time (just about) that we’ll be able to see the Simpsons in 3D. We can hardly contain our excitement. A short teaser has hit for the short (below, along with the full poster), proudly announcing that it’s the summer’s shortest trailer. It confirms that Marge will also be appearing, and it looks like Maggie and Baby Gerald will be coming to blows at daycare. We suppose this is good news to fans still loyal to the show, and this may also be the first sign that a 3D Simpsons movie is at least being thought about over at Fox. It's a way to test the waters anyway. The bad news for "The Simpsons" fans though is that they’ll have to pay for a ticket to 'Continental Drift' if the want to catch it in theatres. [EW/MoovyBoovy]
I haven't even been able to sit through the movie.
I guess 90% on the tomatometer is a major disappointment…
I'm with Joe on this…"The Simpsons Movie" was pretty terrible.
Agreed! I was kind of taken aback when I read that! Disappointment for whom? Weirdo.
RE: "The Simpsons Movie." Joe, I'm shocked. I mean, are you kidding? Did you even see it? The movie was immeasurably better than the later seasons of the show. I've never even heard anyone say otherwise – neither die-hards nor casual fans. The later seasons of the show were mediocre to flat out bad; the film – while certainly not up to the standards of the early greatness of the series – was still something of a return to form, and one of the better comedies that came out that year.