I am one of those people who gave up on the show. Years ago the thought of the Simpsons one day being canceled terrified me. Yet after suffering through season 15 were every episode became the new winner for worst episode ever I gave up. The show has continued on to the same familiar criticisms and everytime I catch a new installment I'm reminded how bad its gotten. I miss the days when Bart called his dad "Homer". When the movie was released I looked at the credits were I found that nearly all the writer's who helped make seasons 4-9 the best show ever worked on it. The film relishes in good old fashioned Simpson's jokes but stretches things just enough to let us know this is the Simpson's "Movie" and they can get away with just a few more things. Hearing Marge say "God damn" got at least a full hearty laugh from me. 

The film plays with our sensibilities and combines well meaning pathos which always helped to make the show more than just a string of gags. The reason Family Guy no matter how funny will never be as great as the Simpsons is simply because it misses this step. Certain gags in the film you can see coming, after 400 episodes of the show its not hard to predict the writing styles of even a script with 12 people working on it. The film delivers however and I am recommending it to all my friends, even those like me who stopped watching the show years ago. I also like how the film didn't find it particularly necessary to include EVERY character the show has had. There could have been a chance with Albert Brooks considering his work in this film and numerous episodes he's appeared on. Watching the credits was of course a laugh seeing each and every character listed and the voices for nearly everyone covered by the core group of actors, but for those who always wondered who did Barney and Grandpa, yep it is the same guy as Homer. Definitely the funniest film I've seen this year, but I haven't seen much.