David Silverman
10 connections found
Filmography
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Connections, in both directions
The irony should not be lost on the fact that David Fincher's Mank, a dramatized feature about the writing of one of Orson Welles's greatest films, Citizen Kane (1941), is being released by the streaming giant Netflix.
The long-running TV series always has parodied movies, from "Cape Fear" to "Citizen Kane"; actors such as Mel Gibson have made guest appearances; and the show peppers its flat, two-dimensional perspectives with cinematic flourishes.
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
Directed by Trey Parker
influenced The Simpsons Movie (2007)
Any hope the writers will use the opportunity to stretch beyond the constraints of prime-time television for some raunchy humor in the vein of "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut" (1999) shrinks thinner than the hair on Homer's head.
But, of course, it's the touches that get our attention: Homer walking the pig on the ceiling and singing the "Spider-Man" theme, the sinking of Green Day's performance stage as if it were James Cameron's "Titanic," the arrival of flocks of little Disney bluebirds to help Marge and Homer prepare for a marital tryst, the interrupting crawl at the bottom of the screen to promote a phony Fox network show.
Cartoons that work beautifully on TV often get swallowed up by the big screen, as anyone who sat through the static and dopey “Beavis and Butt-head Do America” will recall.
Look what happened to "The Flintstones," "The Mod Squad," "Lost in Space," "The Avengers" and "Bewitched."
Few television comedies have successfully made the transition to the big screen, and with the exception of "The Flintstones," none has done it with the original cast intact.
They may be in Cinemascope, just like "Lawrence of Arabia," but the Simpsons haven't gotten too big for their britches.
An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
Directed by Davis Guggenheim
influenced The Simpsons Movie (2007)
Visuals
The film manages to lampoon An Inconvenient Truth even as it is obviously on the same side as the Al Gore documentary; that pretty much describes the show in a nutshell, bringing up the issues with just enough self-deflation so that the message and not the preachiness gets through.
Political stuff's here, too, like when Lisa uses a scissor-lift to show how bad the pollution in the lake will get, a la An Inconvenient Truth, but by the end, the townsfolk are really only convinced they need a new lift.
The writers (eleven are credited) take shots at global-warming deniers as well as tweaking An Inconvenient Truth, and there�s some sobering stuff about mob mentality, but mostly the film ends up being character-driven � and nicely character-driven at that, though nothing much that die-hards haven�t seen before.
Lisa Simpson, the family's do-gooder daughter, creates her version of "An Inconvenient Truth" – it's called "An Irritable Truth" – but again, the barbs are blunted.
(This tendency was memorably satirized in The Simpsons Movie and Austin Powers .)
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
Directed by Jay Roach
influenced The Simpsons Movie (2007)
Visuals
Bart's naked skateboard ride through Springfield (shown in the trailers) naughtily skewers the suggestive nudity masking of "Austin Powers."
That leads to a third-act monologue for which longtime Simpsons writer-producer (and Terms of Endearment Oscar winner) James L. Brooks reportedly demanded more than 100 takes from Kavner that is one of the deepest and most searching examinations of the meaning of "I do" that I've ever heard in a movie.