The Simpsons — bigger than Pixar!

The Simpsons Movie broke a few records this past weekend. With over $74 million in the till as of Sunday, it had the third-biggest opening weekend of any animated film ever; it lags behind only the two Shrek sequels. That means it had a bigger opening than any film by Pixar (The Incredibles, 2004, $70.5 million), Disney (The Lion King, 1994, $40.9 million), Fox / Blue Sky (Ice Age: The Meltdown, 2006, $68 million), Warner (Happy Feet, 2006, $41.5 million), Paramount (The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, 2004, $32 million) or any other movie studio, save DreamWorks.

Seeing the Simpsons on the big screen brought back some weird memories. In fact, the first time I saw the Simpsons was on the big screen. It was the late 1980s, and the one- or two-minute clips that were originally produced for The Tracy Ullman Show (1987-1990) were included as interstitial segments in at least one of the animation festivals that my friends and I attended at the time. (I vividly recall Homer and Marge expressing their displeasure at the way Bart and Lisa behaved at a funeral.) Come to think of it, I might have encountered the Simpsons at one of the very same festivals where I first saw Pixar’s Tin Toy (1988).

Needless to say, seeing the new movie — a mega-merchandised event attended by millions of devoted fans — does not even begin to compare to the thrill of discovering these characters when they were more obscure. And it certainly doesn’t help that the TV show, and thus the franchise as a whole, has been in decline for at least a decade. The Simpsons Movie still has some good laughs, though. Possibly not enough to warrant buying a ticket … but several gags are of the sort that work best only in a movie theatre. So you might as well see it anyway — especially with a crowd.