In Entertainment today, we hear two reviews of The Simpsons Movie – yes,

after 400 TV shows, America’s most famous dysfunctional cartoon family –

Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie – step up from the television to the big

screen for the first time. ‘Dysfunctional’ means not functioning, or working,

properly. ‘A dysfunctional family.’

The Simpsons series has been running on TV since 1989. The Simpsons Movie

is 87 minutes long – much longer than a TV episode, and everything about the

movie is bigger too. For example, Homer mistakenly causes an environmental

catastrophe when he pollutes the lake in Springfield with toxic waste from his

pet pig!

Now here’s the cartoonist Nick Newman giving his verdict on the look of the

film. He also explains that it’s a big production – it’s ‘on an epic scale’.

As you listen, try to catch any of the extremely positive adjectives Nick uses to

describe how the film looks.

Nick Newman

‘I think it looked absolutely stunning visually. It’s on an epic scale of the kind that watching it

on a 26-inch television you can’t believe – I mean, you go pan over Springfield and all of that,

I didn’t have a problem with any of that. I thought it was all dazzling. It was very funny, but

for those who have seen hundreds of episodes – of which there are 400 odd! – a lot of the

jokes seemed quite familiar!’

Amber: Nick says the film looked great – it was ‘absolutely stunning visually’. And he

thought the film was ‘dazzling’ – it was spectacular. For example, the camera 

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pans over Springfield – ‘to pan’ means to move a camera in such a way that

you get a broad view of a scene. Exciting stuff.

Listen again and notice the informal expression Nick uses to say that he was

rather indifferent to, in other words - he didn’t mind, the way the film looked.

He says ‘I didn’t have a problem with …’ the epic look of the film.

 

Nick Newman

‘I think it looked absolutely stunning visually. It’s on an epic scale of the kind that watching it

on a 26-inch television you can’t believe – I mean, you go pan over Springfield and all of that,

I didn’t have a problem with any of that. I thought it was all dazzling. It was very funny, but

for those who have seen hundreds of episodes – of which there are 400 odd! – a lot of the

jokes seemed quite familiar!’

Amber: Next, the journalist Andrew Billen gives his opinion of The Simpsons Movie.

He’s impressed – he says it’s ‘very funny, very silly at points, but not actually

trivial.’ If something is trivial it lacks seriousness or importance.

Well, the film has some ‘surreal’, or strange, moments – Homer falls in love

with a pig! And that’s what leads to the environmental threat to Springfield.

This is obviously ‘a low point’, a difficult time, for Homer – when he ‘reaches

rock bottom’! But in Andrew’s view, the film exactly fits – it’s ‘absolutely

bang on’ – the archetypal, or typical, popular American story. Can you catch

what that plot is?

Andrew Billen

‘Well, yeah, Homer reaches rock bottom doesn’t he when he does fall in love with a pig!

There was an American critic who once talked about all popular narrative being one plot

basically which is the family is threatened and the family is reunited and effectively you have

to do this by restoring daddy to the head of the table, his rightful place. And I thought in that

sense this movie was absolutely bang on the archetype and that was why it was so satisfying.

It was very funny, very silly at points, but not actually trivial.’ 

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Amber: So a family facing threats then coming together with the father back in control

– ‘at the head of the table’ – makes for a ‘satisfying’ – a pleasing – film. Listen

again.

Andrew Billen

‘Well, yeah, Homer reaches rock bottom doesn’t he when he does fall in love with a pig!

There was an American critic who once talked about all popular narrative being one plot

basically which is the family is threatened and the family is reunited and effectively you have

to do this by restoring daddy to the head of the table, his rightful place. And I thought in that

sense this movie was absolutely bang on the archetype and that was why it was so satisfying.

It was very funny, very silly at points, but not actually trivial.’

Amber: Now let’s recap the language we focussed on.

 

a dysfunctional family – a family that doesn’t function properly

‘I don’t have a problem with …’ – an informal expression meaning you don’t

mind something, you’re indifferent to it

trivial – lacking seriousness

to reach rock bottom – to experience a low or difficult point in your life

to be bang on – to fit exactly