Release Date: July 27, 2007
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Director: David Silverman
Screenwriter: Matt Groening, James L. Brooks
Starring: Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright
Genre: Animation, Comedy
MPAA Rating: PG-13
****

CREW INFO

Animation

Groening rejected making either a live action or a CGI film, describing the film's animation as being "deliberately imperfect", and "a tribute to the art of hand-drawn animation, which is basically disappearing." The film was animated in a wider 2.35:1 aspect ratio than the television series, and colored with the largest palette the animators ever had available to them. Unlike the TV series, the characters have shadows. David Silverman said that unlike the TV series where "you've got to pick and choose", the film allowed the opportunity to "lavish that attention with every single scene that we do." Silverman and the animators looked to The Incredibles, Triplets of Belleville and Bad Day at Black Rock for inspiration as they were "a great education in staging because of how the characters are placed". They also looked at Dumbo and the Pluto cartoon Pluto's Judgement Day for a dream sequence.

Although most animated films cannot make any changes to the story for budget reasons, The Simpsons Movie crew continued to keep playing with their film even into 2007. James L. Brooks noted, "We saw a trailer the other day, and somebody said 70 percent of the things in it — based on where we were eight weeks ago — are no longer in the movie, because we keep on fooling around." Various new characters were created, who were cut as they didn't contribute much. A large amount of material, which Groening described as being "probably enough for two more movies", will be included on the film's DVD release. Several elements of the film will be permanently transferred across to the television series.

Music

Hans Zimmer was selected to compose the score for the film, with him composing for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End at the same time. He told The Hollywood Reporter that he liked "using all his creative juices at once." Zimmer expressed that the score was a "unique challenge", stating "I had to try and express the style of The Simpsons without wearing the audience out with too much attitude." In addition to their appearance in the film, Green Day will record their own version of the theme song of The Simpsons, releasing it as a single.