Film

The Simpsons Movie

Name: The Simpsons Movie
Genre: Animation, Comedy, Family
Released: 2007
Cast: Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria

Comedy

The Simpsons Movie is a feature-length extension of the beloved animated sitcom, transplanting the family's chaotic energy and razor-sharp writing to a theatrical canvas. It's broad and sentimental where the show could be subtle, urgent where it could be lazy, and genuinely moving alongside the jokes. For fans, it's essential; for newcomers, it's a perfect entry point that assumes you know these people already.

TMDb rating

3.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love the show's sharp satire and sitcom rhythm stretched onto a big screen, with the same yellow family and their knack for pointed jokes about government and small-town folly.

Skip it if you tire of sitcom gags in short bursts, since this stretches the format to feature length and a few sequences sag under the extra running time.

What it asks of you: It runs a brisk 87 minutes and stays busy throughout, with few quiet stretches, so you mostly need to keep up with a constant stream of jokes and visual gags.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut1999

Another animated sitcom scaled up to feature length with the same satirical bite. Proves the format works when you want to say more and spend longer on your gags. Hilarious and surprisingly touching.

But The humour is deliberately crude and offensive in ways that haven't aged equally well. If you need your comedy refined, this will feel exhausting.

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut poster

Beavis and Butt-Head Do America1996

MTV's least sympathetic characters on a road trip that somehow finds depth beneath the stupidity. The absurdist plotting and character work here is genuinely sophisticated. A perfect template for TV-to-film adaptation.

But The premise is deliberately thin and the protagonists are written to be awful. If you need likeable characters driving the story, this test your patience.

The Lego Movie2014

A feature that trusts its universe and characters completely while making something that works for both longtime fans and complete strangers. Packed with genuine emotion beneath the anarchic comedy and visual jokes.

But The self-aware meta-humour and constant barrage of references means it can feel exhausting if you're not in the mood for relentless brightness.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Simpsons Movie

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Truman Show1998

Both trap their protagonist in an artificial environment and use that confinement to explore what it means to be watched and controlled.

Both are about a character trapped in a constructed reality by unseen authority figures, and both use dark comedy to explore what happens when that reality begins to crack. But where The Simpsons Movie escalates outward, this internalizes completely—Jim Carrey's growing horror as he notices the walls of his world is genuinely existential. It's what The Simpsons Movie's dome concept could have been if it leaned into dread instead of comedy.

But It's played far more straight than you'd expect from a Jim Carrey film. The existential dread doesn't lift, and the ending is deliberately ambiguous rather than reassuring.

Batman1966

A beloved TV show expanded into a feature that somehow deepens the material instead of diluting it. Camp and sincere in equal measure, with visual gags and character beats that reward knowing the source.

But The campness is extreme and deliberate. If you're expecting superhero gravitas, you'll spend the whole film at odds with what it's trying to do.

Futurama: Bender's Big Score2007

Another Matt Groening creation proving he understands how to expand his worlds to feature length. Complex plotting, genuine stakes, and the kind of emotional payoff TV episodes could only hint at.

But The plot gets genuinely convoluted with time-travel mechanics. If you need straightforward storytelling, the structure will frustrate you.

The Incredibles2004

Pixar's superhero family film shares The Simpsons Movie's central conceit: a flawed family unit where the dad's screw-ups create the central conflict. Funny, touching, and narratively elegant in ways that justify the feature format.

But The tone is far more earnest and less cynical than the Simpsons approach. If you loved the show's satirical bite, this might feel sentimental.

Porco Rosso1992

A feature-length animated film that proves cartoons can be contemplative and melancholic alongside being visually stunning. Shows what animation can do when given time and resources most TV shows never access.

But It's a sedate, meditative film with minimal plot. If you need constant momentum and laughs, the pacing will feel glacial.

Anomalisa2015

Both are feature-length animated films that use their expanded runtime to find unexpected emotional depth beneath surface-level absurdity.

A 90-minute stop-motion film about a man's emotional crisis that uses absurdist comedy and animation to explore depression and disconnection. Like The Simpsons Movie, it's a theatrical expansion of animated storytelling, but it goes inward instead of outward—intimate, strange, and heartbreaking in ways the show never quite manages.

But It's genuinely bleak and unresolved. There's no cathartic ending, and the loneliness doesn't lift. If you need your stories to conclude with hope, this will leave you hollow.

Synecdoche, New York2008

Both explore what happens when a man's personal failure expands outward to trap everyone around him, blurring the line between personal crisis and collective catastrophe.

A live-action film that does what The Simpsons Movie only hints at: uses a man's personal failure as a gateway into exploring reality, identity, and the line between authentic experience and constructed performance. Spike Jonze creates a labyrinthine world where the rules keep shifting, and Philip Seymour Hoffman's growing confusion mirrors what Homer experiences, except here the stakes are psychological rather than physical, and the tone never settles.

But It's deliberately obscure and refuses to explain itself clearly. If you need narrative clarity and straightforward emotional arcs, this will feel impenetrable and exhausting.

People

Cast

Dan CastellanetaHomer Simpson / Itchy / Barney / Abe Simpson / Stage Manager / Krusty the Clown / Mayor Quimby / Mayor's Aide / Multi-Eyed Squirrel / Panicky Man / Sideshow Mel / Mr. Teeny / EPA Official / Kissing Cop / Bear / Boy on Phone / NSA Worker / Officer / Santa's Little Helper / Squeaky-Voiced Teen (voice)
Julie KavnerMarge Simpson / Selma Bouvier / Patty Bouvier (voice)
Nancy CartwrightBart Simpson / Maggie Simpson / Ralph / Nelson / Todd Flanders / TV Daughter / Woman on Phone (voice)
Yeardley SmithLisa Simpson (voice)
Hank AzariaProfessor Frink / Comic Book Guy / Moe / Chief Wiggum / Lou / Carl / Cletus / Bumblebee Man / Male EPA Worker / Dome Depot Announcer / Kissing Cop / Carnival Barker / Counter Man / Apu / Drederick Tatum / Sea Captain / EPA Passenger / Robot / Dr. Nick / Wise Guy (voice)
Harry ShearerScratchy / Mr. Burns / Rev. Lovejoy / Ned Flanders / Lenny / Skull / President Arnold Schwarzenegger / Kent Brockman / Principal Skinner / Dr. Hibbert / Smithers / Toll Booth Man / Guard / Otto / Kang (voice)
Pamela HaydenMilhouse Van Houten / Jimbo Jones / Rod Flanders (voice)
Tress MacNeilleSweet Old Lady / Colin / Mrs. Skinner / Nelson's Mother / Pig / Cat Lady / Female EPA Worker / G.P.S. Woman / Cookie Kwan / Lindsey Naegle / TV Son / Medicine Woman / Girl on Phone (voice)
Albert BrooksRuss Cargill (voice)
Karl WiedergottMan / EPA Driver (voice)
Marcia WallaceEdna Krabappel (voice)
Russi TaylorMartin Prince (voice)