.jeri.

Ric and I saw The Simpsons Movie at the theater uptown. Wow, that theater is still in classic mode, even though it has stadium seating. The sound quality was lacking, but not enough to be bothersome, and we had a good time.

The movie opens up with a great observation: the movie's audience is paying money to see something they can normally see for free at home. I'm glad they got that out of the way right at the beginning, because that was one of the main reasons I was tempted to wait for the dollar theater. If you haven't seen it, I'd suggest waiting. It's not that the movie is bad - it's just not much more different than watching a really long episode of The Simpsons. Marge has questioned her relationship to Homer several times, and we've all seen Homer get people mad at him due to his ignorant behavior.

Speaking of which, the plot centers around Homer and his new pet pig, and in his laziness, Home dumps the pig's waste into Springfield's lake, which has finally reached its breaking point with the town's reckless dumping. Discovery of mutated animals causes the EPA to quarantine Springfield in a giant glass dome, and the whole town is ready to kill Homer for shutting them off from the outside world.

The story is funny, and there are plenty of treats for longtime Simpsons fans, who get to see references to older shows and have a glimpse of pretty much every resident of Springfield. Was it worth the wait, after all these years? Sure, I guess so. I love the show and was entertained by the movie, which certainly got a lot of laughs in our theater (my favorite line was Ned's quip about "baking up a batch of frownies"). It's worth a viewing, but since we do get to see it for free normally, I just wasn't wowed enough to feel like I should have spent a full ticket price on it. Eh. It was good, and I probably would have wasted the money on something like coffee, so I don't regret it.