The Week of 401(k)

"Gonna be huge" (we're not talking about Homer's brain)

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A lot of studio visits this week, most of them with me in a room doing 401(k) enrollment meetings where I drone on about the joys of tax-deferred retirement accounts: "The value of bonds goes up when interest rates go down...There are two basic types of stock-picking, value investing and growth investing..." blah de blah blah.

Today was Film Roman/Starz Media, where the television season for "The Simpsons" proceeds in fits and starts as teevee takes a back seat to "Simpsons, the Feature," Staffers working on the smaller screen version keep getting yanked away to pinch hit on the feature. (And next week, the still-in-work theatrical version is screened again for crew.)

A veteran Simpsonite told me he saw the last screening and thought it was damn good: "The animation is at a high level and it's got a lot of good gags. Cartoon gags. It feels like a real animated feature, and it spoofs itself a lot. The writers have really worked on it."

He echoes what many others who've seen the flick have said to me. "Fine flick." An artist who's worked on the big screen version for months reported that fine-tuning and revisions go on -- along with lots of overtime for crew.

On a related note, the last couple of weeks, I've had members of the press (who are calling about other things) mention that they're hearing loud and positive buzz about "The Simpsons" theatrical adventure. "Gonna be huge," seems to be the refrain.

And the voice cast, I'm told, is already signed to a sequel.

Fox is covering all its bases.