Warning: If you don't want to see any spoilers for the new "The Simpsons Movie," stop reading now.
If you think that Homer Simpson lovingly proclaiming Alaska as the state where "you can't be too fat or too drunk" isn't funny, better skip to the obits.
The movie, No. 1 at the box office after its debut last weekend, holds a surprise for many Alaskan moviegoers -- their state plays a starring role. There's even an Alaska connection behind the scenes too, with two former Fairbanksans helping to draw the animated film.
West Valley High School grad Charles Ragins, 38, designed backgrounds for the movie, creating, for example, a snowy Alaska cabin for the Simpsons to escape to.
Meantime, 32-year-old Eddie Rosas, who went to Lathrop High School, worked as an animator. He mapped out how the characters move and act, such as during a pivotal, emotional scene inside the cabin.
In "The Simpsons Movie," Homer drags his family to Alaska to start a new life. Along the way the writers skewer the state's sacred cows, such as the Permanent Fund dividend, oil companies and dog mushing.
"Welcome to Alaska ... Here's $1,000," Homer is told as he crosses the border. A cheery customs agent explains: Every Alaskan gets cash so oil companies can ravage the state's environment.
The state is a major part of the movie, but Ragins and Rosas said plenty of Alaska content written into early versions didn't make the final cut.
"There was a song in this movie at first, an Alaska song, and they were making fun of the suicide rate, and alcoholism, and it was like, waaaay over the top compared to what was in there," Ragins said.
Other early scenes that didn't make it, according to the artists:
• Homer hanging out in Eski-Moe's Tavern, meeting Eskimo counterparts of his hometown buddies Barney, Carl and Lenny.
• Bart making one of his famous prank calls to Eski-Moe's. (A scene of Homer playing a video game called "Grand Theft Walrus" inside the bar did make the final cut.)
• A train designed to look exactly like an Alaska Railroad engine.
• Homer looking up and seeing the northern lights in the middle of 24-hour sunlight -- something the Alaskan artists argued against as unrealistic.
KEEPING THE SECRET
The movie isn't the first time parts of the state have appeared in the Simpsons' universe.
Ragins said he modeled a biker bar in one episode after the Howling Dog Saloon in Fox. Look closely in another episode, and you may spot a ski resort that looks just like Alyeska in Girdwood.
Ragins said he was drawn as a character in that episode as a ski-lift operator -- it's the show where Marge breaks her ankle.
"Homer gets distracted and falls down the mountain, and falls down in front of me," he said.
Just a few months after starting work on the show in the 1990s, Ragins animated a herd of reindeer based on photos he'd taken at the Santa Claus House store in North Pole.
He and Rosas work at a Burbank, Calif., animation studio that helps create "The Simpsons" TV episodes and both worked on the movie for months.
Rosas, who spent two years at the University of Alaska Fairbanks before attending the California Institute of the Arts, said he was happy to read the script and see the Simpsons would be headed to his home state. But the movie's plot was a secret.
"For like two years, we had to keep our mouths shut and we weren't allowed to mention it to anybody," he said.
SUSPENDING DISBELIEF
In the movie, Homer meets an Inuit woman who is portrayed as a kind of shaman, and who becomes Homer's spiritual guide. Ragins, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, drew the artifacts found in her home, and said he strove for authenticity.
But what made it into the movie is a mish-mash of cultures, he said.
"It's just so inaccurate, but ... what's meant to happen is that you're supposed to suspend disbelief, obviously, in an animated show, and just buy into kind of the fantasy of this woman and what she can do."
As for the overall portrayal of Alaska, Ragins and Rosas said it could have been worse.
"We were kind of scared that they were just going to butcher Alaska," Rosas said. "For the most part, I think they did a good job."
Praised by most critics, the film made more than $70 million over the weekend, according to The Associated Press.
Still, one Alaskan says she'll wait for the DVD: Gov. Sarah Palin.
"What? They called us 'fat'?!" Palin wrote in an e-mail Monday. "That ought to be incentive to do something about that."
Moviegoers leaving Century 16 Monday afternoon generally gave the Alaska jokes a thumbs up.
The portrayal of Alaska was far-fetched but fun to see, said Fred Korevec of Anchorage, who was born and raised in the state.
"I just take all that kind of stuff in stride."
Find Kyle Hopkins' political blog online at adn.com/alaskapolitics or call him at 257-4334.
