The Simpsons Movie (2007) Rated PG13 Starring: The voices of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, and Yeardley Smith Rating: out of

The Simpsons Movie is finally a reality. And, while the series has lost some of its bite and a lot of its freshness, the movie finds the Simpsons with a renewed sense of hilarity. The laughs don't quite approach the level of the series' first few seasons, but it manages to be funnier than the past few.

Homer (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) manages to once again doom Springfield. This time around, he angers the Environmental Protection Agency by dumping a silo filled with pig waste into the recently cleaned-up Lake Springfield. His actions get the town cut off from the rest of the world after being deemed the most polluted place in the country.

That probably doesn't sound very funny but, in the classic "Simpsons" way, it manages to be not only funny, but in some instances side-splittingly so. The script -- written by a dozen different people -- provides plenty of opportunities to poke fun at the government, religion, and people in general.

Longtime fans may feel the movie feels like a send-off for the series as some characters do things you'd never expect them to do in the series. (Stay to watch the end credits, for an example.)

If you're not a fan of the series, you may be slightly confused, as were some people sitting behind me at the screening I attended. "He's really dumb," they commented about Homer Simpson's antics. But then again, they may be the only people in the country who haven't at least seen the show before.

If it is a send-off for the series, it'd be hard to imagine a better one for a show that's been around longer than any other American sitcom.

Trivia: Release prints were delivered to theaters with the fake title "Yellow Harvest". This was also used as a fake working title. It references "Blue Harvest", the fake working title of Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (Source: The Internet Movie Database)