Human Approaches to Ecology Versus Comedy in The Simpsons Movie

The Simpsons Movie recalls a sing-along cartoon from 1948, Little Brown Jug because of its blatantly environmental message with a foundation in human ecology and an ending that may eclipse those ecological leanings. Little Brown Jug demonstrates how a stream can become polluted by human waste, in this case from a cider mill producing hard cider. Although humorously showing animals getting drunk when they drink water from the stream, the cartoon also depicts the stream’s changing color as the cider spills into it. And the pollution is caused by negligence that results in overproduction: The animals produce so much cider that the kegs break, spilling over into the stream. In The Simpson’s Movie, the environmentally driven conflict arises when Homer Simpson (Dan Castellaneta) adopts a pig. The pig serves as the catalyst for environmental catastrophe because Homer pours the pig’s waste into Lake Springfield despite EPA warnings, causing what Nathan Rabin of The Onion A.V. Club calls “an ecological disaster of extinction-level proportions.”

Lake Springfield is so polluted that its acid content destroys the band Green Day’s barge and sinks them, so the town is on notice. It must clean up its lake, or the EPA will intervene. Waste dumping is prohibited in Springfield’s lake, and a barrier is erected. But Homer breaks that barrier and by accident dumps the pig waste in the Lake instead of at an environmentally sound site when he sees a sign for free doughnuts. Environmental disaster takes center stage immediately after the pig waste hits the water: Lake Springfield turns black, and a squirrel grows multiple eyes when it falls in the toxic water. 

Instead of attempting a clean-up effort, however, in the context of a Simpsons’ film, the EPA suggests containing the toxic lake by placing a dome over both the lake and the city of Springfield. Everyone will be trapped there, and, when the town finds out it is Homer’s fault they attack the Simpson’s home. A sinkhole in their yard provides an outlet for the Simpsons, through which they escape to Alaska.

When the EPA’s first efforts fail because citizens madly attempt to escape the dome, the EPA offers another suggestion. Again instead of cleaning up the lake, they suggest blowing up the city of Springfield and creating a new Grand Canyon (as Tom Hanks asserts in a public service announcement). Safe in Alaska, Homer first refuses to stop the bombing, but when Marge (Julie Kavner) and the children leave him, he has a change of heart, returns to Springfield, and, with help from Bart (Nancy Cartwright) and his newfound motorcycle skills, destroys the bomb before it wipes out Springfield.

The town rebuilds, and Homer continues his goofy adventures to end of the film, leaving the ecological problems unresolved. In fact, the film suggests that neither the town nor the government can or will solve them. Instead, the film plays up pollution for the sake of comedy, merely “seizing on an environmental theme,” according to Brian Lowry’s Variety review, and perhaps erasing any possible environmental message on display. A.O. Scott of The New York Times sees the rendition of the themes as part of the expectations for a summer blockbuster movie: “Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has been elected president of the United States; the elite forces of the Environmental Protection Agency; and the near-destruction of Springfield” (“We’ll Always Have”). Still, the toxic Lake Springfield serves as the catalyst for the fun, drawing on pollution control tenets of human approaches to ecology.