Why The Bob’s Burgers Movie Doesn’t Feel Like The Simpsons Movie
Despite both theatrical spinoffs being huge hits, The Bob’s Burgers Movie feels nothing like The Simpsons Movie, and there is a good reason for that. The Bob’s Burgers Movie has proven a hit with critics and viewers alike, earning an impressive box office return and largely positive reviews. Even more impressively, The Bob’s Burgers Movie didn’t replicate The Simpsons Movie's successful formula. Instead, it feels nothing like that earlier hit.
There was a lot of reason to expect The Bob’s Burgers Movie to take creative inspiration from The Simpsons Movie. Both shows are long-running animated family comedies with warm tones and relatively PG-rated humor, and both series have a surreal streak that ensures their adventures never get too predictable. However, The Simpsons has a more ambitious scope than the modest cult hit Bob’s Burgers, something that comes through in the respective spinoffs of each show.
Despite the allure of a bigger budget and a more expansive runtime, The Bob’s Burgers Movie stuck to the formula that works for the television show. Unlike The Simpsons Movie, The Bob’s Burgers Movie made the wise decision to keep the plot’s action limited to the show’s usual setting of Ocean Avenue and the Wharf. There is a murder, which means that the plot's stakes are higher than usual, but there are precious few new characters, the entire story takes place over a few days, and the setting is as limited as an average episode of the show. As a result, The Bob’s Burgers Movie avoids feeling too much like The Simpsons Movie by moving away from the more cinematic style and scope of that earlier spinoff, with the movie instead doubling down on the small-scale ambitions that Bob’s Burgers has in its television incarnation.
A lot like South Park, The Simpsons Movie was used as an opportunity to tell a story that the show could never have fit into a normal episode or even a two-part special. In contrast, The Bob’s Burgers Movie eschews starry cameos and big action sequences, resisting the urge to transplant its cast into a new setting “The Simpsons are going to Alaska"-style. As such, the plot doesn’t put any fate more substantial than the titular family’s restaurant (and lives) on the line.
While The Bob’s Burgers Movie has plenty of conflicts, like most of the stories featured on Bob’s Burgers, the stakes mostly amount to Linda and Bob affording to keep their home and business, Tina finding the courage to ask out Jimmy Jr, and Louise proving to herself that she is brave. While The Simpsons Movie saw Homer and Bart save Springfield from a nuclear explosion that would have destroyed the entire town, The Bob’s Burgers Movie sees the show’s characters save their landlord from a prison sentence and gain one loan payment and one month’s free rent in the process. It is a little story with a little payoff that is perfectly fitting for a show celebrating the little guy and proves that The Bob’s Burgers Movie didn’t need The Simpsons Movie’s ambition to be a critical and commercial success on its own terms.
Source: Screenrant
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