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The Movie:
The fourth, fifth and sixth and seventh seasons of "The Simpsons" are some of the fan's favorites, as they offer a wealth of classic episodes. The season opens with the conclusion of "Who Shot Mr. Burns?", the mystery that held the country's conciousness over the Summer of 1995. From there, the series pulled off a pretty consistent run of terrific episodes, starting with the popular "Radioactive Man", where Milhouse finds himself hating fame when he gets picked to play the sidekick in the new "Radioactive Man" movie (in one of the episode's funniest small bits, the filmmakers pick Springfield after seeing a tiny "Flim Springfield" ad in Variety.) There's also the classic line from Homer to Marge: "Do you have other men in the house? Radioactive men?"
Every season has to have a "Treehouse of Horror" episode, and while this season's isn't one of the best, it still offers some classic moments. In the first story, a lightning storm brings all of the town's giant advertising characters to life, with the Lard Lad seeking out Homer after he stole his giant doughnut. One of the best throwaway lines comes from Homer when the newly alive Lard Lad visits him, wanting his doughnut back: "He came alive, good for him." The second story has Willie coming back to life after his death, haunting the dreams of the local children in a "Friday the 13th" parody. The final story has Homer stumbling into the third dimension (Homer: "It's like...did anyone see the movie 'Tron'?") after finding a secret passage behind the bookcase.
Another classic episode is "Homer the Smithers", where, after Smithers feels that he's let Mr. Burns down, he goes on vacation and decides that Homer is a replacement that won't improve upon his work. When Homer gets fed up with the abuse from Burns, he punches him out, which actually leads Burns to become self-reliant for the first time. After injuring Burns for the second time in the episode, Lisa asks if Burns is dead, and Homer replies with another superbly-timed throwaway line, "What am I, a doctor?"
Finally, the last of the best for season 7 is "Homerpalooza", where Homer ends up joining a Lollapalooza-like music tour as part of the freak show, as his act is getting hit in the stomach with cannonballs. One of the funniest lines in the episode goes to former Smashing Pumpkins singer Billy Corgan, who says (after Homer pours his heart out about why he wants to quit the show), "We envy you Homer. All we have is our music, our legions of fans, our millions of dollars, and our youth." This episode also highlights one of the reasons why these sets are nice to have, as a bit with Otto's shoes talking to him is back in the episode after being cut in the syndicated version. This is just an example of one of quite a few small bits throughout the season that are not seen in the current syndicated versions of episodes.
Other highlights from this season include: "Bart Sells His Soul" (Bart sells his soul to Milhouse for $5, then goes on a journey to recover it when he sees the consequences of his action), "King-Size Homer" (Homer gains weight to be able to go on disability and work from home), "Team Homer" (Homer starts a bowling team with Apu, Moe and Otto, but Otto gets the bump when Burns - instead of asking for the sponsorship money back, decides he wants to join the team instead), "Bart the Fink" (Bart accidentally gets Krusty busted by the IRS), "Lisa the Iconoclast" (Lisa finds proof that town hero Jebediah Springfield wasn't exactly who everyone thinks he was), "Bart on the Road" (Bart gets a fake driver's license and hits the road with Milhouse, Nelson and Martin, but the four find themselves stranded when the car gets wrecked), "22 Short Films About Springfield" (short looks at multiple characters) and Raging Abe Simpson And His Grumbling Grandson In "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish" (Bart goes with Grandpa to try and keep an old treasure out of the hands of Mr. Burns).
Disc 1:
* Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two)
* Radioactive Man
* Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily
* Bart Sells His Soul
* Lisa the Vegetarian
* Treehouse of Horror VI
Disc 2:
*King-Size Homer
*Mother Simpson
*Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming
*The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular
*Marge Be Not Proud
*Team Homer
*Two Bad Neighbors
Disc 3:
*Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield
*Bart the Fink
* Lisa the Iconoclast
*Homer the Smithers
*The Day the Violence Died
*A Fish Called Selma
*Bart on the Road
Disc 4:
* Short Films About Springfield
*Raging Abe Simpson and his Grumbling Grandson in "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish"
*Much Apu About Nothing
*Homerpalooza
* Summer of 4 Ft. 2
The DVD
VIDEO: "The Simpsons" is presented once again here in 1.33:1 full-frame, the show's original aspect ratio. The picture quality is again quite good, even looking somewhat better than they currently do in syndication. Sharpness and detail remained perfectly fine, as the animation remained crisp and clean looking throughout.
Shimmering was really the only issue with the presentations. Although it wasn't distracting, some minor shimmer was spotted in several scenes. Edge enhancement wasn't noticed, but there were a couple of brief traces of pixelation. The elements used seemed to be in terrific shape, with no instances of wear present. Colors looked bright and vivid, with excellent saturation and no concerns. Colors seemed even a tad more vibrant here than they do when broadcast in syndication.
SOUND: The seventh season of "The Simpsons" is once again presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. While these repurposed soundtracks are not terribly aggressive or dynamic, they do open up the audio of the show a bit, with a nice spread largely across the front speakers. Dialogue remains crisp and clear through the center channel.
EXTRAS:
Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part Two): Matt Groening, David Mirkin, Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, Wesley Archer, & David Silverman
Radioactive Man: Matt Groening, David Mirkin, Susie Dietter, & David Silverman
Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily: Matt Groening, Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, Jon Vitti, & Susie Dietter
Bart Sells His Soul: Matt Groening, Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, Greg Daniels, Wesley Archer, & David Silverman
Lisa the Vegetarian: Matt Groening, David Mirkin, David S. Cohen, & Mark Kirkland
Treehouse of Horror VI: Matt Groening, Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, David S. Cohen, Bob Anderson, & David Silverman
King-Size Homer: Matt Groening, Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, Dan Greaney, Jim Reardon, & David Silverman
Mother Simpson: Matt Groening, Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, Richard Appel, & David Silverman
Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming: Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, & Dominic Polcino
The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular: Matt Groening, Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, Jon Vitti, & George Meyer
Marge Be Not Proud: Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, Mike Scully, Steve Dean Moore, & David Silverman
Team Homer (Commentary extends :45 after episode - David Mirkin's Farewell): Matt Groening, David Mirkin, Mike Scully, & Mark Kirkland
Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield: Matt Groening, Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, & Susie Dietter
Bart the Fink: Matt Groening, Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, David S. Cohen, Jim Reardon, & David Silverman
Lisa the Iconoclast: Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, Jonathan Collier, Yeardley Smith, Mike Anderson, & David Silverman
Homer the Smithers: Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, & Steven Dean Moore
The Day the Violence Died: Bill Oakley, & Josh Weinstein
Fish Called Selma: Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, Jeff Goldblum, & David Silverman
Bart on the Road: Matt Groening, Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, Richard Appel, & David Silverman
22 Short Films About Springfield: Matt Groening, Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, Richard Appel, David S. Cohen, Rachel Pulido ,Yeardley Weinstein, Jonathan Collier
Much Apu About Nothing: Matt Groening, Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, David S. Cohen, & Susie Dietter
Homerpalooza: Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, Brent Forrester, Wesley Archer, & Ken Keeler
Summer of 4 Ft. 2: Bill Oakley, Josh Weinstein, David Silverman, Dan Greaney, & Yeardley
For those who have listened to the commentaries on previous seasons, you'll be familiar with the kind of fun found within. The show's crew energetically discusses each episode and has a lot of fun joking about some of the bits within each episode, behind-the-scenes stories and changes. While I can't say every episode of this season is at the same level of quality, the commentaries are always great. Jeff Goldblum jumps in for "Fish Called Selma" to chat with the creators about his experiences providing his voice for a character in the episode.
On the first disc, we also get a featurette about "3-D Homer", with the animators discussing the difficulty of doing the 3-D segment in 1995. A pretty fascinating segment, and it's interesting to hear about doing both the early CG animation and the live-action clip at the end of the episode. On the disc, we also get the recipe for "Lentil Soup" talked about in "Lisa is a Vegetarian" and picture-in-picture (multi-angle) looks at the storyboards and animatic for "Home Sweet Homeiddily-Dum-Dodily". We also get an intro from creator Matt Groening.
Although deleted scenes are available with specific episodes, we also get them altogether (a total of nearly 20 minutes, with optional commentary) on the fourth disc. The fourth disc also offers a "Multi-Language Demo", a storyboards/animatic multi-angle feature for Raging Abe Simpson And His Grumbling Grandson In "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish", original sketches and a featurette with the animators pointing out their thoughts on the look of some scenes.
Note: This set is available with both regular packaging (see seasons 1-5) and a collectable Marge Head package. Season 6 was a Homer Head package, although fans could get a regular package by going to simpsonsbox.com. This time around, both regular and collectable versions will be available at retailers.
Final Thoughts: The seventh season of "The Simpsons" has a few uneven moments, but there's also some very good episodes and a bunch of favorites. The DVD set once again offers fine audio/video quality and a very good selection of extras. Highly recommended.
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