My two midnight screenings that summer couldn’t have been more different.

For “Spider-Man 3,” there were three (or perhaps four) packed theaters, but the energy got sucked out of each by that tepid fare after no more than a half hour.

For “The Simpsons Movie,” however, there were possibly 100 folks spread out in one theater, and judging from the (often too) loud laughter I heard all through, everyone left with a smile on their face. Or at least I’m certain I did.

My biggest beef and even bigger point of praise for “The Simpsons Movie” is that it’s all so terribly familiar. Given how all the advance details were kept to a minimum, I was afraid we would be getting a bloated monster packed with way too many guest voices and way too epic a plot.

Thankfully, however, the movie just plays out like an extended “Simpsons” episode, albeit one from way back when the show was still fresh and at least a little subversive (but, was it ever really all that edgy? How in the world did George H.W. Bush ever get into such a huff by such a family-friendly show?) But I digress …

Without giving anything away, I can tell you that Lisa wants to save the Earth, Bart wants to be a Flanders, Homer nearly brings about the end of the world and Marge frets about it an terrible lot. So, what would form you want to see it? Well, the jokes fly faster and hit their targets more often than the TV show has in

many, many years.

Even whether you’ve seen every possible advance clip for that one, and therefore had some choice gags spoiled (I really wish, for example, that I hadn’t known about Spider-Pig going in), there’s still plenty to surprise. And what I appreciate about “The Simpsons” on TV and here is that there are nearly as many visual gags as there are spoken-out-loud ones, so you’re rewarded for paying close attention.

My favorite moment, whether I can offer a mild spoiler, comes after Marge has had abundant and left Homer to fend for himself. Before they can be reunited, of course, he has to have an epiphany, but the five minutes in which he has it here are just a visual wonder (and, for me at least, a reminder of the great “Two Cars In Every carport And Three Eyes On Every Fish” episode from season two.) I can’t go as far as film critic Roger Moore, who I always enjoy reading, and declare that the best animated movie of the summer - “Ratatouille” is sheer perfection and more than a few notches above that one.

What it is, however, is a valentine to all the folks who have stuck with the show for the last 20 years (has it really been that towering?), and an nearly ideal summer treat.

P.S. whether any of that doesn’t assemble sense, please forgive me. It was written when I got home from the midnight flick, when I may not have been at my most lucid. Peace out.

Original post by Reel Fanatic