The Simpsons “Angry Dad The Movie”

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I don’t think we’ve ever done this before – post an entire episode from a current TV series – but this episode of The Simpsons must be seen by all loyal Cartoon Brew readers. So stop what you are doing for 22 minutes and watch Episode 14 of Season 22: Angry Dad: The Movie:

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  • J.M

    Good! I knew you would post it.
    I never watch the simpsons but tonight I caught them due to the Rango preview.
    pleaseant surprise, and I must say…..high budget.

  • http://www.classicparamountcartoons.blogspot.com ParamountCartoons

    I saw it and I’m more than glad! Acts 2 and 3 parody the Oscar race dead-on!

    I only saw the parts I missed on Hulu! I saw it last Sunday night during it’s intial airing and boy did I get every animation/Oscar-race related-joke!

    Thanks for emebedding the Hulu link for Cartoon Brew, Jerry! I wonder if you’re an Academy member or just animation expert!

  • Mike!

    The various animated segments are pretty well done… but they’re just not funny or particularly interesting. This episode is basically a series of vignettes to pad time. Seeing such a fantastic show denigrated to this level is a bit disheartening.

    • J.M

      The show is more than 20 years old. Nothing lasts forever. Would you still laugh at Seinfeld jokes right now?

      • Rob

        Yes.

        Seinfeld has managed to continue being hilarious, like many classic Simpsons. The writing today just feels like its taken a backseat to trying to parallel certain other nameless animated shows.

      • http://Juxtaminute.tumblr,com Juxtaminute

        Seinfeld knew when to quit.

      • tgentry

        Wow, I thought this episode was quite funny and still very much “Simpsons” kind of humor. Sometimes I wonder how much of the criticism is based in reality and how much is “me-too” dog piling. Granted it’s not Golden Age Simpsons, but every time I tune in they never fail to make me laugh.

      • kalle

        Also, you might want to consider how much the viewers changed in those 20 years.
        I myself enjoyed this episode a lot, and I didn’t particularly like the early simpsons.

      • J.M

        I enjoyed the episode too.

        But I am Definetely a fan of seeing the simpsons Retire soon.
        was expecting them to quit when the movie came out…didn’t happen.
        was expecting to see them quit at the 20th anniversary …didn’t happen.
        FOX is behaving like that son who just wants to keep his mother alive at a hospital and won’t let her die with dignity until she signs the will.

      • Brody

        Seinfeld reruns seem unwatchable and painfully unfunny after the Larry David show revealed who the real talent of that show was and how much funnier his comedy was, freed from that awful cast. The whole Michael Richards racist thing just threw some more dirt on the Seinfeld grave for me.

      • Chris Webb

        Awful cast?

      • J.M

        Wow only til you mentioned here I saw it.
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amjUNF_R_PY

        it´s pretty rough, I hate Kramer now.

      • Brody

        Yes, awful cast. Have any of the principal cast members given a good performance in anything else (Jerry Seinfeld himself, while a gifted comedian, is no actor) since?

    • Funkybat

      Ah, the great debate of “when did/have the Simpsons jumped the shark?” I suspect that this one will become a perennial war, like debates over Star Wars or Abrams’ Trek vs. all that came before.

      My two cents: Haven’t seen the episode yet, but I’ll say that the Simpsons have gone on one hell of a rollercoaster ride.

      The art, well, the art is a matter of taste. Some of us love the “crude” look of seasons 2-6 (don’t know anyone who pines for Season 1 or the Tracy Ullman days, sorry Matt.) Others prefer the more polished look that came along by the late 90s, though even that has evolved subtly even before the HDTV leap. I personally hope the art never gets more polished than it is now.

      The acting has remained strong throughout. I miss Maggie Roswell but otherwise there hasn’t really been any decline as far as the actors or their voices.

      WRITING is of course the heart of this matter. The writing of course can’t stay sealed in amber, but it really went through some ups and downs over the years. I actually have been watching the Simpsons more regularly than I had in a long time starting in 2008 or so, something definitely changed for the better IMHO around then, and I’ve enjoyed most recent episodes far more than almost anything between 2002-2007.

      I’d say the Simpsons actually swung so far away from “funny” that it went around the world and came back to it again. I just hope it doesn’t go down the road to crazytown again.

  • http://beesbuzz.biz/ fluffy

    I don’t normally watch The Simpsons, but for some reason I saw it last night, and I fully expected it to show up here. Is it just me or did their parodies of well-crafted, artistic films come across as more than a little mean-spirited?

    In particular, their treatments of Triplets of Belleville and Persepolis both just felt like sour grapes over being shown how to actually tell a story through animation.

    • tgentry

      I thought they were just playful pokes at the Academy and what they consider “important” or relevant, and less mean-spirited attacks on these particular movies. Although my entire family was bored to tears by the rambling Triplets of Belleville, so maybe it’s not the one to be giving lessons on storytelling.

      • http://beesbuzz.biz/ fluffy

        I admit that Triplets of Belleville isn’t really for everyone, but I thought it was wonderfully-done, and I felt like the Simpsons parody of it was just gross and angry.

  • http://www.ryanmcculloch.com Ryan McCulloch

    clever and fun, I always love when they ‘Simpsonize’ other animation styles

  • Hulk

    I thought it was great and I haven’t watched the show regularly in a long time. I felt the show ran out of steam 15 years ago. If they were smart, this would’ve been the last episode and they’d go out on a high note.

  • joris

    Took me a while to figure out how to watch it from outside the US, but it was worth it! It’s as if the series wanted to make something up to all the animation lovers that stopped watching the simpsons years ago (like me).

    I don’t think the parody was mean spirited. True, it wasn’t exactly the best parody, but so little people seem to know these movies that it’s bold they decided to parody them in the first place.

    Well done!
    (pitty Secret of Kells wasn’t in there ;) )

  • http://weirdurl.com Zekey

    Nick Park saying “I’m more clay than man, now” had me rollin’

    There were actually alot of nice bits in this. Parody Man the web series. The angry old man in the theater. That disturbing parody of Triplets of Belleville. I gotta show this to my friends.

    • Stephan

      That Angry old man was George C. Scott taken from a movie where he sees his daughter in a porn film. I have no idea what the film was, but its kind of an underrated classic from what I understand.

  • Iain

    I wish Hulu was avalable in Canada, thus I won’t be able to view it in about as high quality as that site presents, I’ll eventually watch it on a third party site though.

  • The Scarlet Pumpernickel

    Great, now I’ll have to use an US proxy just to catch a short glimpse of the episode. Not that there’s anything wrong with it.

  • tgentry

    Loved it. I can’t understand why people say the Simpsons isn’t funny anymore. They’ve had their peaks and valleys, but they never fail to make laugh. “I’m more clay than man now.” Great stuff.

  • Derik

    The beginning itself was good. Bart and his contraptions! And I laughed at a lot of jokes that had nothing to do with parodying other things. I also agree with Joris!

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/OriginalGagBonkerss OriginalGagBonkers

    I prefer the old episodes of The Simpsons, but there are times some of the episodes nowadays are in the 50/50. Meaning some of it is good and some of it is bad. I laughed at the Pixar parody as well as the cameos. Nice change of pace for using different animation styles for this one. Its a pitty there wasn’t a dreamworks parody or at least a Disney parody.

    You’d think Fox animation would have a tackle of that.

    • Funkybat

      I doubt they felt the need to do a Disney parody, given that Family Guy did a pretty good one (though with a sour punch line) just a couple of years ago. Probably figured it’s better to let FG follow rather than lead.

  • erin

    When they joked about the Triplets of Belleville I laughed so hard. I am curious to how much of the world understood what they were making fun of. I thought it was a great episode. Nice shout out to Banksy as well.

    • J.M

      I love how the simpsons doesn’t care whether everyone will get it or not. Because its the gag that’s funny not the Pop Culture reference only, like family guy.

      My friend was laughing hard and still he doesn’t even know what The triplets of belleville was.

  • http://www.stringstornasunder.blogspot.com Chris Powell

    There were some good jokes here and I LOVED all the film references. (especially ‘Condiments’. wanna see that again)

    But I still cant stand how the show has become more about jokes than about any kind of character. The characters now exist to tell jokes and makes references as opposed to making us feel any kind of connection or emotion. That’s what’s missing IMO.

    That being said, it was a fun and funny look at the film industry and animation.

    • Funkybat

      I’d say it depends on the episode. Unlike most episodes of Family Guy etc. The Simpsons still has several episodes a season that I get a feeling of emotional connection with what one or more of the characters is going through in an episode. I think those moments were very few and far between for much of the 2000s, but the last three or four years have been noticeably better. The “Flaming Moe” episode a few weeks ago was one of the best in a while, and I was ready to toss it aside when I heard the premise. Really surprised me, the only joke that was an eye-roller was “Comic Book Gay.”

      This “Angry Dad” episode sounds like it was meant entirely to tell jokes and not feature “character acting” but if you watch more of the Simpsons these days, I think you may be pleasantly surprised.

  • http://dtoons.com/conroy Failing Art Student

    The episodes pacing was a little off, I guess I should say it felt fast with what was going on (though some of the animation segments went on longer than they should). I still enjoyed how they parodied award shows, Pixar, and Oscar animated features, including films the average viewer likely never heard of.

  • optimist

    “Muffins for producers only”.

  • Paul D

    I worked on Triplettes and would love to see the parody (skewering) that the film has received. Too bad we Canadians are on the outs (Hulu won’t play.) I’d go to another site, but I’m not savvy enough to do anything more than click a direct link.

  • Mark

    Half the humour is that the “co-executive supervising story producer” credit’s go on for what feels half of the show! I think if they’ve not done an episode where they run credits like this for the entire episode, they should. Does it take that many people with credits like these to do this show?

  • http://elblogderg.blogspot.com Roberto

    Homer/Bart’s conflict was terribly handled. There are actually better episodes nowadays in that department. Some terrible jokes too like Homer making things with his ass.

    The parodies and references were pretty well done, though and the guest stars were ok, not brilliant, but Ricky Gervais was mildly funny- even though he works better in person than in animated form- as were Nick Park and Halle Berry.

    But I wish they could just say Pixar instead of Mixar.

  • Nhargi

    Nick Park would have said “I’m more plasticine than man.”

    • Stephan

      Thanks Comic Book Guy.

    • http://beesbuzz.biz/ fluffy

      That actually was Nick Park saying that line.

  • http://braveandboldbackgroundpaint.blogspot.com/ William Joseph Dunn

    I haven’t seen an episode of the Simpsons for years. this was a funny episode and I enjoyed it.

    one minor criticism though, can’t anybody figure out how to draw Ricky Gervais for animation where he actually looks like Ricky Gervais? I think there is a lot to caricature on him: the squinty eyes set too far apart, the pronounced teeth on the side…

    • http://dylankingpresents.com Dylan King

      I agree with the Ricky Gervais comment. He really didn’t look like him at all (being a fan of Ricky, maybe he told the character designers to make him look different). Other than that, I very much enjoyed this episode – especially the jokes geared towards animation-afishionados.

      • Was my face red

        I suspect that Ricky gets a big say in how they draw him. He might be a chubby chap really but his portrayals are always flattering.

  • Cyle

    I had a good laugh. There were a lot of funny jokes here and some well done parody, though there were a couple duds. I agree with what others have said about the pacing being off. Everything felt much faster than what I’m used to (though I admittedly haven’t watched the show in years). I’m sure they had to move that fast to cover all that material. Also, I agree that the characters felt more like vehicles for jokes than anything else. That was a little sad to see, but I still enjoyed it.

  • Adam

    I’ve been watching the show since the very beginning, and still enjoy it quite a bit. There have been some classic moments in the past 2 seasons, easily as funny as anything in the supposedly flawless first 3 or 4 seasons.
    With the possible exception of the manatee episode.

  • http://www.sweetposer.tk/urbmn/ Cameron A.

    I think the beginning of this episode is a callback to the “Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie” episode, what with the fan-based hijinks. “I Am Furious Yellow” is, of course, well-represented.

    I just wish this episode had made reference to Homer Simpson being the voice of Poochie, and Bart and Lisa winning an Emmy through the Abe Simpson front. If The Simpsons is recalling moments from its history, as I think it’s doing in its 22nd season, it might as well go all the way. Strong-Dar: Master of AKOM deserves a revival.

  • Magnusson

    Lisa saying she enjoyed every Pixar movie except “Cars” was a really nice slam.

  • Justin Delbert

    With great parodies of Pixar, Toy Story, Wallace and Grommit, and a mention of Frank Tashlin how can an animation fan not love this episode. It doesn’t matter if you’re a big Simpson fan or not (I am); It’s very enjoyable. Latter that night after the episode aired I looked back at the Warner Bros. Acadamey Award Animated Short Subject box set and thought to myself, “This would be a great library product if someone wants to do a report on Best Animated Short Subjects. Maybe there’s one or two Simpsons fans that might want to find out about this stuff because of that episode.” As earlier posted on here, Frank Tashlin was mentioned too and I thank them for mentioning him because Tashlin maybe (unless I’m mistaking) one of the most unsung cartoon directors in the history of animation. Cheers to Matt Groening and his staff; you did a fantastic job!

  • andrew

    Nonexistant conflict. Awkward pacing. Toothless parody. “Mixar?” What?

    Its not enough to just copy a style to make a parody- you have to also make a statement about the overall idea/philosophy. Having clay, simpson-shaped Wallace & Gromit characters itsnt funny because there’s no opinion. It’s just lazy homage.

    Can anyone explain the Triplets bit to me? I’ve seen the movie and I’ve seen the simpsons. But where was the joke? Was there a joke?

    Come on Simpsons! You used to be the smartest show on TV!

    • http://elblogderg.blogspot.com Roberto

      I generally agree that a parody should make an statement and not just copy the general style. But then again, what kind of statement can you do about Wallace and Gromit? Their shorts are pretty great, not much to criticize there. The clip is not satiric, but it’s funny, there’s a decent gag in there close to those of the real Wallace and Gromit.

      The Triplets of Belleville one is a little gross and disgusting, though.

      I don’t think this episode is great or anything, I dislike the plot/conflict between Homer and Bart and I hate Homer’s behaviour, but the references and parodies are ok. They did throw a couple of criticisms to Pixar, the Randy Newman songs and the “Cars” line. Also the idea of showing how their movies are usually about inanimated objects coming to life.

    • Ryoku

      Nonexistant conflict? What kind of complaint is that?

  • http://mrscriblam.tumblr.com mrscriblam

    made me laugh for the first time in ages

    probably because it was laced with a million references that i understood

    nah

  • Stephan

    So fun. Animated parodies, J.B. Smoove, Ricky Gervais, should become a modern classic episode. (Man, if this show just just just came out and didn’t have to compete with itself 15 years ago, I think people would dig it more!)

  • http://midnightheist.deviantart.com/ Scott

    I was hoping you guys would post this, as I was interested to read some comments. :D

    Some bits fell a bit flat for me, but on the whole some decent jokes/references in there.

  • http://www.taberanimation.com Taber Dunipace

    Wow! Those clips from the various shorts were really well done!

  • ElDoDo

    I was first going to call out about ‘The Front’ being only mentioned once; the point has been made, though, about focusing on the current Simpsons without too much delving into overlapping ‘updated’ themes, or comparing the show to, as it were, itself.

    But we can’t really do that, can we? Even if we take in consideration that this show has already completed a couple of purging cycles, with its scope, writing and characters warped at least a couple of different shows worth, the fact is that The Simpsons rides on its accumulated popularity to back up any kind of noncommittally silly, celebrity-crowded patchwork plot, well seasoned with the current adult animation trend of self-indulgent, petty and vindicative writing.

    I quit watching this show (and the McFarlane ones, for that matter) at the beginning of this season, maybe a bit before the Bansky-intro one; on top of the stuff mentioned above, the embarrassing random preachyness makes trying to salvage any entertainment from these almost a chore. And lo, an episode about undeservedly taking credit* with some piddling jabs at real animation!. I’m usually not more sure about the word than your average canadian-american musician, but I’m pretty positive that’s ironic. Any authority this guys might think they’re brandishing, they inherited it at best; they didn’t built it, I can barely believe they earned it based on available proof, and the fact is out week after week for everyone to see that they’re hardly honoring it.

    * That was the plot. Not “Animation parodies with about five minutes or so of Ricky Gervais”. Remember the plot of ‘The Front’?: “Bart and Lisa write cartoons”

  • Paul D

    Well… I watched the Triplettes bit.

    Maybe there was something in the set-up that made this worth watching but the clip does not stand alone. In fact, it was gross.

    Good job at marrying the Chomet and Simpsons style, but other than that, pretty disappointing.

  • Steve

    Not an artist, just a fan so I have a question. On the bar was a picture of Ricky Gervais with the caption “Do not let this man host”. Cracked me up. Since his Golden Globes escapade only happened a month ago, what kind of lead time does The Simpson’s have to put something like that in? Do you think they had already animated the bar scene and stuck that sign in last minute?

  • Scarabim

    I loved the episode. Funny and creative, and hey, Homer actually apologized for his asinine behavior for once.

    Anyone catch the waffle’s zinger at Pixar: “Wake me for the syrupy ending?” ROFLMAO!

  • Brody

    Weird — I watch the Simpsons every week and this episode was one of the worst I remember seeing in a few years (granted, this has been an uneven season). I didn’t last past the first ad break…

    • SJ

      Then how can you judge it as the “one of the worst” without watching the whole episode?

      • Brody

        Well, it had one of the worst openings of a recent episode I can remember. I’m not one of those “The Simpsons should be canceled because it’s a ghost of its former self” posters, either. It’s one of maybe three shows I ever make a point to watch…

  • http://arschblog.blogspot.com Steffi Alien

    Can’t watch it, because it is only for americans, boooo!:(

  • http://ThatFellowInTheCoat.com Stefan

    The Pixar parody is made even funnier, when you recall that a good number of people who worked on The Simpsons have gone on to work at Pixar (Brad Bird, David Silverman and Jim Reardon being the most well-known).

  • http://www.albinoraven.com Glen

    I feel like I’ve been able to enjoy The Simpsons even after the show started to consistently dip in quality, but I have to agree that the references and parodies in this episode were a little too ham-handed. To me it just felt like they were saying “Look, 3D animation! Look, claymation! Look, reference most people won’t get, isn’t that cool of us?!” without actually offering anything of substance.

    I think they felt like they were being edgy by making fun of animated movies that are generally well liked, since things like Pixar movies are parodied often but not usually scrutinized like that. Which is great, I mean I really appreciate that it was different take, but I just don’t think that by itself is enough to automatically make a good parody. It actually made me a little sad because this really seemed like the kind of thing The Simspons would normally handle better than other show, and it was so cool to see them return to off-beat subject matter, but it was just too poorly handled.

    I did enjoy the message at the end about how one person shouldn’t claim credit for a movie, that was great; but I don’t feel like all the parodies were necessary to make that point. That means that they wanted to showcase the parodies as being funny little bonuses to the episode, but the problem is that they just weren’t funny. I think it may boil down to the difference between doing something edgy in a subtle way, and doing it in a way that screams “Aren’t we so cool for making fun of Pixar? Yeah, take that!”

    • http://elblogderg.blogspot.com Roberto

      I agree with you about the episode having more references than real satire or substance, but, if anything, they are saying “Aren’t we so cool for REFERENCING Pixar, Wallace and Gromit, Triplets Of Belleville?” cause the way they made fun of those things was pretty tame. I don’t see them trying to be edgy at all, most of it are inocent little jokes, almost warm and harmless.

      And that’s part of the problem, maybe they should have referenced other things they hated as well so they could really be more critic about it.

      That said, I thought the take at comic book artists in “Husbands And Knives” was funnier and more inspired than this (you’ve got to love Alan Moore reacting to Baby Watchmen). Unluckily that episode was terrible after the first act. If that episode had been entirely about comic books like this one was entirely about animation I think it would have been far superior. I LOL at everything in that first act.

      Anyway, the main problem to me is that in the classic era they managed to tell a decent story even in the most guest-star populated type of episodes, and now they got some decent jokes but little to none conflict or story.

  • Gummo

    I thought it was funny, enjoyed seeing various animations styles “Simpsonized”, esp. Wallace and Gromit and Pixar, but yes, the show is so damned rushed these days.

    But that’s bound to happen as they keeping hacking running time every season for more & more promos and commercials. Pretty soon the average Simpsons minus commercial breaks will be the length of a single SpongeBob, 11 minutes.

  • What in the cel?

    You can easily tell they had more fun directing the different studio-styled segments. They stick out like a sore thumb and whats worse is I wanted to see more of that than the Simpsons. They should end it soon and with a bang… animate the Simpsons/Futurama comic crossover as a movie and call it quits.

  • http://www.frankpanucci.com Frank Panucci

    The legendary magnificence of SIMPSONS seasons 3 through 9 are forever gone, but this episode was very good for a show on long-term life support. At times it very distantly evoked past glories, and the outsourced parody animation was a treat.

  • What in the cel?

    When South Park does parody it usually feels dead on and a bit exciting. When the Simpsons do parody it feels safe, a little dated, and made for a nursing home audience.

  • http://mayberabies.blogspot.com Raven M. Molisee

    I have a hard time watching The Simpsons now. They no longer feel genuine & caring about the characters is what their best comedy hinged upon. Now it feels like every scene’s only purpose is to spoof another property.. If I can’t trust them with my heart, I can’t seem to trust them with my funny bone either.

  • http://www.kristioportfolio.com Kristi O.

    I have to admit, I did laugh out loud at Lisa’s remark about seeing every Pixar film except Cars, we must have the same taste in movies (I’ve seen Cars, I just don’t like it that much). It was indeed interesting to see the different takes on the various animated films, though I was rather disappointed by the Triplets of Belleville one. I guess I kinda see where they were going with it, but it seemed they were grasping at straws.

  • http://www.robothandfilms.com Brian

    The Simpsons is a show that is no stranger to lengthy animated parodies. They did Mr. Magoo, The California Raisins, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. I thought it was fun but not very funny. The cameos for the most part were ok. Like Halle Berry, Brooke Shields made a cameo in “The Front” when she presented the award for the writing. Probably would’ve been a little funnier if they paid homage to that episode by having Krusty co-present with her.

    Unrelated to animation or the writing, why was the Jurassic Park theme in the episode?! Made no sense at all.

  • The Gee

    Whether or not the show is still good or bad if I watch it I still find myself laughing at something. There are still moments.

    It’s weird. Back during the early seasons I doubt many people thought those episodes were classic with a capital C. Even if it was said it was probably just because they were good and some people were just saying “classic” a lot.

    The episodes from recent seasons haven’t all been great. But, there’s so many other options now that didn’t exist back then, so many other animated shows, it is kind of pointless to take potshots at the Simpsons not being better. It is good for the price you pay to watch it.

    As for this episode, man, when that Gervais guy “makes a cameo” the pacing slows down, doesn’t it? But, overall, even the bits that include him, the episode was amusing.

    Good for the price….

  • DB

    I have to stand up for the Triplets of Belleville parody – for me it was dead on.

    To wit:

    I found Triplets to be absolutely nauseating and is one of those films I wish I had just walked out of after about 5 minutes. I realize the character design comes out of a long line of French caricature, but I can’t help it – I find those kind of caricatures revolting. To me, the grotesqueness of the characters was an expression of utter contempt for people with any sort of odd physical characteristics. I know it was not MEANT that way, I know it was meant to be affectionate, but I just hated it. (“The Illusionist” was not nearly so bad on this score).

    So the Simpsons parody actually capture to a “T” the way I reacted to the film.

    Otherwise, it was a pretty good episode for a show I stopped watching regularly a long time ago. The thing I’m sickest of in the Simpsons is how the show starts off with one or two episodes that are ‘feints’ to what the show is really going to be about. It was funny for a couple of years but now its just annoying. Oh for the Brad Bird years, when the show had really solid scripts.

    • ElDoDo

      The Simpsons has been fighting a losing battle against nonchalant non sequitur-ness and “hilarious” self awareness for a long time now; and even when it was done right it was still a bit obnoxious.

      I had no idea the Triplettes’ parody was trying to make any kind of point, but you’re probably right. Chomet’s thing, though, is “pure” animation without dialogue to support (or, as it’s quite more usual now, be supported by) it, so the characters need a lot of surplus, well, character, that has to go somewhere. I was not bothered by it (I’m not french, but I guess I live in the same continent), but I agree it’s not an universally appealing style.

      • Was My Face Red

        ..and hurray for that! Thank God we don’t just have things in one universally appealing style. I’m sad that DB seems to have had such a violently repulsed reaction to a different way of drawing from the culture he’s used to, but the more ways we draw the world the richer we are. Artists need to show us new ways to look at the world, not hit the default setting all the time.

  • A.A.

    Hulu’s currently in the US-only but many TV stations that air The Simpsons often have full episodes online for viewers in their country-example: Network TEN in Australia has Simpsons videos, so when the ep airs in Oz, it’ll be on ten.com.au

  • Dave O.

    I suspect that the W&G parody was supposed to be bloodier (what with the buzzsaw), but probably got tamed down by Nick Park.

    The other parodies fall into the tough-but-fair category:

    -Disney/Pixar’s aggressive behemoth Oscar campaigns are a major turn-off. (Personally, I think it cost “Tangled” a Best Animated Picture nomination).

    -Sylvain Chomet is obviously a talented filmmaker, but his stories are hampered by nostalgia. I loved “Triplets” but I would never want to see it again and though the character designs were more palatable in “The Illusionist”, it had a torturous pace.

    -I think a better target rather then “Persepolis” (which was very moving) would be the neo-roto films like “Waking Life” or “Waltz with Bashir” which are painful to look at despite their messages.

    • Funkybat

      It’s interesting to see what people, including fellow animators, think of Triplets of Belleville. I’ve seen it a couple of times, once when it was in theaters and others more recently, and it held up pretty well IMHO.

      I was fascinated the first time I saw it, just trying to process what I was seeing. I’ll admit on repeat viewing the pacing is rather slow, but not nearly as slow as The Illusionist. I enjoyed the Illusionist, especially the art, but I doubt I’ll see it again any time soon. Belleville is like a fascinating look through the eyes of a madman or an alien visiting Earth to study our daily lives. So much of it is uncannily realistic, almost mundanely so, which the rest is surreal and disturbing. It was a breath of (maybe not *fresh* exactly) air into the animation world, and I was kind of disappointed that the Illusionist wasn’t nearly as bizarre. I’m hoping Sylvain does something more akin to Belleville in his future projects

      As for the Simpsons parody, I thought it was fantastic. And a friend of mind who loathed Triplets of Belleville said it perfectly captured how that film came across to her; well-drawn depictions of surreal, poverty-stricken mundanity.

  • christian

    10/10 – best new episode of simpsons. by animators for animators! loved the whole thing.

  • Ryoku

    This was okay, though the whole thing with Homer and Bart seemed to be tossed on. The parodies should’ve been more aggressive rather then just being there for animation fans.

    The animation in this itself was the usual Simpsons, stiff, characters have no side profiles, and seemed limited in expressions.

  • http://www.blabbingonartsandculture.blogspot.com Steven Hartley

    It says I can’t view it because I’m NOT from the United States – well, I’ll face the facts and try and watch it elsewhere on a Watch Simpsons online site.