In the latest of an ongoing series of Simpsons-related publicity stunts, Springfield, Vermont has been selected as the winner of The Simpsons Movie Hometown Movie Challenge. Fourteen Springfields around the nation competed for the prize by submitting a short film exhibiting the city’s “Simpson Spirit,” which depending on how its interpreted could mean either their immense fandom or their propensity towards nuclear meltdowns and poorly constructed monorails. The winning Springfield beat out its competitors with a video recreating the film’s opening and a short skit about donuts, giving it 15,367 votes out of 109,582 total cast on USAToday.com. This won it a premiere on July 21st, six days before the film’s full release. All of the runner ups will be given a screening on the 26th as a consolation prize.
This follows up on the film’s 7/11 to Kwik-E-Mart conversion a couple weeks ago, as well as giving British critics a screening of the film’s first ten minutes to create even more buzz (cola pun not intended) around the movie. Still to come: new action figures, a phone by Samsung, and a special edition xbox 360. The only element still missing is, of course, the film itself. Let’s all remember those golden seasons from 1993-1999 and cross our fingers.
Related links:
The winning video
The Simpsons Movie website
Early impressions on the film from the Guardian
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