Bart is a bore

The great thing about The Simpsons is that it triumphs on two tiers. Children love the flatulence gags while parents smile appreciatively at its sophisticated critique of popular culture. Nancy Cartwright, Bart's voice since 1987, weaves her own story into the loveable brat's biography in My Life As a 10-Year-Old Boy, but the result only just passes muster on either level.

Cartwright, at 5ft zilch, not much bigger than her yellowheaded chum, tries to appeal to both fanbases, and it is a tough juggling act to pull off. Once you've got over the eerie sight and sound of that delinquent whine emanating from a mumsy fortysomething - essentially bad ventriloquism minus the dummy - there's not much else to love.

The story sails gently through a sea of clichès about the misfit from Dayton, Ohio, who discovered a knack for mimicry at school by impersonating a dripping tap. My Little Pony and Daffney the Snork jobs followed before Springfield brought an unsettling fame. Her name helps Cartwright avoid speeding tickets, yet her face is ignored on the red carpet.

A little theatricality is added when Cartwright skips from lectern to director's chair, but this is shallow stuff. Without the sitcom's dazzling scripts the tale is reduced to familiar catchphrases, mawkish platitudes about siezing the day and gushy anecdotes. Everyone is utterly

professional, although Hank Azaria (Moe) is sweaty.

The only sour note is the repeated digging at Fox for making squillions out of the Bart - "cash cowabunga" - while, technically, she does not own the voice she created. Her valid point is diminished by the fact that she has penned a best-seller on the back of her success and this behind-thescenes homage rides very much on the coat tails of the Simpsons demographic.

Pepped up by a trite trivia quiz and padded out with clips that cannot fail to amuse, this is an undemanding show that does what it says on the tin, though no more. Nothing to get animated about, just 70 minutes of two-dimensional twaddle as drippy as Cartwright's seminal tap impression.

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