There are no doubt some critics out there who will complain that The Simpsons Movie is not a whole lot more than a longer, more visually elaborate, Simpsons episode. And they'll have a point. But as far as I'm concerned, that's no reason to complain. For one thing, if this is in fact merely a longer Simpsons episode, it's a damn good Simpsons episode.

As eagerly awaited as this movie has been, one has to remind oneself that it's a spin-off of a television series that's been running for, what, 30 years? [Actually it's now in its 18th season –Ed.] And during its run, which is continuing unabated as we speak, The Simpsons has been as ambitious and innovative as any satirical animated TV series about a mustard-colored dysfunctional family and its dysfunctional heartland American town can get. The scalawags behind South Park — who got to make a big-screen version of their show only two seasons in! — owned up to this in a 2002 episode of their own entitled "The Simpsons Already Did It."

Indeed they did. So what do you expect The Simpsons's creators to do with a movie? Well, given Simpsons fans' fanatical devotion to the motley and enormous population of Springfield, the aforementioned heartland town, you'd expect a plot that calls for the participation of the entirety, more or less, of that population. And this — courtesy of the script by James L. Brooks, series creator Matt Groening, Al Jean, Ian Maxtone-Graham, George Meyer, David Mirkin, Mike Reiss, Mike Scully, Matt Selman, John Swartzwelder, and Jon Vitti — is what you get. Opening with a benefit concert to clean up Lake Springfield (featuring Green Day) that counterintuitively makes a case for celebs touting a message, the movie sees Springfield facing the diabolical wrath of that most sinister of government agencies, the EPA (whose dissembling honcho is voiced by Albert Brooks). This, after do-gooder Lisa's almost-successful attempts to clean up Lake Springfield are ruined by — who else? — Homer, who dumps the droppings of his newly adopted pet pig in the water, kicking off a fish-mutating disaster. The EPA's solution to this problem (approved by one President Schwarzenegger) is to drop a giant transparent dome over the town and let the residents either rot or pop. Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart, and Maggie manage to escape the dome — good for them, as the entire town has come after them with torches and pitchforks — and, on Homer's insistence, try to start a new life in a new, remoter and unspoiled locale. But the call of civic responsibility, such as it is, draws the family back. Can you, in fact, go home again? They'll find out.

In a typical Simpsons' episode, Homer will behave insufferably for better than two-thirds of the show, and then do something, if not to redeem himself, at least to renew, a bit, the viewers' affection for him. One advantage of the long-form Simpsons is that here Homer is even more insufferable (if that's possible) and for a longer duration, giving rise to a funny subplot in which Bart flirts with the notion of defecting to Ned Flanders's clan. And while the movie doesn't up the series' vulgarity quotient by much at all, the creators do take advantage of not having to answer to standards and practices in small but effectively funny ways, as in this exchange between Marge and Bart: "Bart, are you drinking whiskey?" "I'm troubled."

From its opening scenes of Itchy and Scratchy, to its (wide) screen-bottom crawls, to its teeming detailed throwaway gags (Grampa Simpson is seen reading a copy of "Oatmeal Enthusiast"), to its inspired Disney parody, to its hilariously overworked "Spider Pig" gag and beyond, this is as jam-packed with hilarious, all-over-the-place jokes as any comedy you'll see this year. And the variety of laughter it elicits — knowing, ironic, affectionate, and often raucous — makes the picture as refreshing a summer tonic as one could hope for.