Full of belly laughs; Everyone's favourite dysfunctional TV family are now a runaway success on big screen The Big Movie THE SIMPSONS MOVIE (PG) VERDICT: ****.

Byline: PAUL FULFORD

AT THE start of the Simpsons Movie, Itchy and Scratchy are locked in another bout of bloodcurdling hyper-violence in a film-within-a-film.

Homer glares from the screen and asks loudly why anyone would be dumb enough to pay to watch characters who can be viewed free on television.

"Suckers," he sneers in that dozy, know-all voice that sets him out as a super-sized buffoon.

Far from it, Homey.

The spin-off Simpsons movie is worth the seven-year wait that it took to get it to the big screen.

Like the long-running TV series, it appeals across the generations. Kids will be delighted by its slapstick and naughtiness. Adults will find their own joke. Movie anoraks will seek out references to other films.

All very knowing. All very postmodern.

Utterly entertaining.

The plot is simple in that contrived, nightmarish Simpsons sort of way. Homer, inevitably distracted by the lure of doughnuts, screws up worse than ever before. He puts Springfield in mortal danger, flees with the rest of his family when a howling, pitchfork-carrying mob tries to kill them and, after much soul-searching, returns to save the town, his marriage and his dignity.

There are nods towards the surrealism of vintage Disney cartoons and plenty of action movie thrills along the way.

But what is amazing is how, in an era in which the big screen is dominated by jaw-dropping special effects, a neatly, simply drawn cartoon can hold the attention so tightly during its 90 minutes.

The clever wit - visual and spoken - is partly the answer, of course.

Likewise the film's interesting and not overly convoluted plot.

But central is the fact that the characters are so likeable and, despite their exaggeration, rounded and believable.

Bart cuts a sadder picture than ever before, Ned Flanders displays new levels of kindness and sensitivity, Marge's anguish is heart-rending.

There is plenty of tension and not a little pathos as the story unfolds.

Not much will offend the fuddy-duddies - there's Bart riding his skateboard naked and a coy love scene between Marge and her wobbly husband.

But this is a film with a moral we've seen a thousand times before - a man's got to do what a man's got to do... even when he's a fat, bald numbskull who's a bad dad.

One warning: don't leave the cinema until the credits have rolled.

The Spider Pig song at the end is worth the admission price alone.

YOUNG REVIEWER'S

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