Are anyone actually still watching Simpsons?
Yes. There are dozens of us.
By the time this movie comes out, the first movie (2007) will be closer in time to the first episode (1989) than to the second movie (2027).
Why announce it when it’s a year and an half away yet.
They’re owned by Disney now. Expect Simpsons Phase 3 by 2028.
I kind of wonder if they’re doing it because they can.
They know exactly how long it takes to produce voice-acting and animation, because they’ve been doing it for 37 seasons.
Is this the end?
The first one came out when The Simpsons was at peak relevance — I wanna say it was right around the time Mr Burns was shot and we had that cliffhanger and nobody knew who shot him. I guess it was the new “who shot JR” except I still don’t know who shot JR. I’ve gotten curious a couple times, looked it up, said “oh” and promptly forgot about it because I never watched Dallas, so those characters don’t mean anything to me.
The neat thing about The Simpsons though, like most American cartoons is, what you know from the first seasons, when it was good, is still exactly what the show is still about. Homer still works at the power plant. Bart is still in fourth grade, Lisa is still in third, and Maggie is still in diapers. The characters don’t age. It’s not like Japan’s Fullmetal Alchemist where these adolescent boys age ever so slightly in every episode, and by the end of it all they’ve basically grown up. In The Simpsons, the family stays the same, it’s the world around them that changes, which is weird, because they do not grow, they do not learn, they do not evolve. That’s a good thing for those of us who gave up after the first movie or thereabouts, because we can just pick up where we left off, doesn’t matter if the last 20 or 30 seasons were trash. The movie can stand on its own.
That said, I’m not interested, maybe I’ll catch it on streaming, but I’m more likely to watch it in the next 5 years than I am not to. Assuming I live that long. I am old enough to have seen the first episodes when they first aired.
The movie was 12 years after Who Shot Mr Burns.
Yep, the movie was well past the peak. I used to watch The Simpsons every day for years, but I still haven’t seen the movie because I keep forgetting it exists.
Who Shot Mr Burns was a major cultural event.
To give a sense of “past the peak,” a lot of people put the “peak years” of the Simpsons ending prior to season 9.
Who Shot Mr. Burns is in season 6. The conclusion was the first episode of season 7.
I extend the tail of the “peak” a little further because I like episodes like “Pygmoelian” and “Kill the Alligator and Run” in season 11.
…The first movie was released around season 18.
When I saw the movie I found it a pleasant return to the funniness of previous seasons.
The specific moment I noticed the series was in sharp decline was season 11, episode 13’s Sadlesore Galactica, the with the racehorse Tenacious D. When the jockeys came out and sang like little elves, and the plot continued to follow that gag, it was a notably goofier tone than I’d noticed the series having prior to that. Sure enough, Zombie Simpsons soon followed.
I remember that episode super well too!! It’s crazy how hit or miss season 11 was.
Behind the Laughter is one of my favorites too, but I very clearly remember Saddlesore Galactica being a dud.
Yeah, that is correct. As someone who grew up during peak Simpsons, they were most relevant up until the end of the 90’s. Maybe 01-02 tops, but that was definitely when it faded from most people’s minds. I did end up seeing the movie and even went to the theaters for it just because. It was odd because everyone loved the Simsons, but everyone was just there because everyone was curious about what they were going to do. It was meh and quickly forgotten, lol. I can’t even imagine who this new movie is targeting.
I think the movie came out roughly a decade after Burns was shot, certainly past its main relevance (season 1-9ish). Season 9 ended in 98 and the movie released 07!
