Pretty much everyone I've talked to felt exactly the same way after seeing The Simpsons Movie -- relieved that they didn't blow it, a lot of laughs, but it wasn't quite the earth-shattering event we'd been dreaming of since we were kids. The film was measurably better than the current episodes, but not up to the show's heyday of seasons 1 - 10. Still, I don't think anyone could argue that the film is a rock solid comedy, and that was more than enough to make it stand out in the dreary summer season we just sludged through. But do I really need to revisit the movie? After reading the details on the DVD, that answer might be "yes." Releasing here on December 18th, The Simpsons Movie DVD looks to be quite d'oh-lightful.

Most intriguing are the two commentary tracks. One track will feature James L. Brooks (a hero of mine), Matt Groening, Al Jean, Mike Scully, David Silverman, Dan Castellaneta (voice of Homer and many other characters), and Yeardley Smith (voice of Lisa). The other will be a directors' commentary by Silverman, Mike B. Anderson, Steven Dean Moore and Rich Moore. There will also be deleted scenes, though not as many as I was expecting considering all the versions the movie went through on its way to release. These include: an alternate ending, something called "Sausage Truck," and additional work from Albert Brooks as Russ Cargill - whom I would argue stole the film. He certainly delivered its funniest line: "Rats can't be trapped this easily. You're trapped like...carrots." You also get Homer's amusing Tonight Show monologue, the Simpsons judging American Idol, and alternate character designs by the directors and Groening. Oh, and on DVD you can pause all the hardcore full-frontal Bart action!

You didn't think that massive list of movies was all that SXSW 2007 had to offer, did you? Well that's just plain old silly. If you know anything at all about the South by Southwest Film Festival, you know that the programmers love to throw in a few juicy surprises from time to time. And here's the first batch of special additions:

• Thanks in large part to AICN, D.J. Caruso's Disturbia will join Scott Frank's The Lookout as part of the opening night festivities. And while the Disturbia trailer might not look all that promising, I do feel that Caruso's The Salton Sea and Two for the Money are pretty underrated flicks. Plus it was written by the guy who penned Red Eye, and that was a pretty fun little matinee.

• Producer / director / character actor supreme Bill Paxton will be holding a Q&A panel discussion! Awesome! I'll try not to geek out all over the place when people start asking him about Aliens, Near Dark, One False Move or Frailty.

• Another new panel has been announced. It'll be called "Ready for Primetime: TV Comedy Today" -- and get this line-up: Al Jean (The Simpsons), Rob Corddry (The Daily Show) and Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy). OK, so it's TV and not movies. Still sounds pretty awesome.

In addition to the fleshing out of the panels and a few new title adds, the SXSW programmers just announced all the short films that will be playing the fest next month. Needless to say, Cinematical will be on the ground in Austin come March 9th. Jette and I live down here, so it's not like it's an inconvenience.