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America's Favorite Non-prehistoric Cartoon Family - The Simpsons Thread

The Force Awakens From Its Nap

Plot: Maggie goes to a new Star Wars-themed daycare where she must get BB-8's help to retrieve her pacifier and duels with Darth Gerald the Baby With the One Eyebrow. Maggie is felled but returns as a force ghost.

How embarrassing is this?: It's fairly embarrassing. It's not just that the short was meant to be a "fun" piece of brand synergy. But it's mostly a bunch of references while trying to milk the goodwill of that first surprisingly good Maggie theatrical short. The references feel pandering but more than that, things eventually start feeling like they have less rhyme or reason. I know Gerald just doesn't like Maggie but the fight seems out of nowhere and is a left turn from the initial thrust of the story. Also it's meta gag at the end feels wrong-headed, claiming "the popular characters never die" despite that happening in MOST of the movies. But I will say this is one of the few times they kill off Maggie, even in a non-canonical capacity.
 
The Good, The Bad and the Loki

Plot: Loki is sent to Springfield where he meets Bart. When Lisa complains about inviting Loki to dinner, Bart has Loki send Lisa to Asgard. She ends up in an armory where she finds she is worthy of Thor's hammer. She confronts Loki with a bunch of other Springfieldians as Marvel Superheroes and throws "Loki" into space... who is in fact Bart. Loki is now living with the Simpsons but Homer, who knows, really doesn't care.

How embarrassing is this?: It really just gets worse and worse. I think it's not very good at the beginning when it is trying to bounce Loki (Tom Hiddleston reprising the role) off the family but at least that's SOMETHING. It's smart enough to connect Loki to Bart in feeling like the black sheep of their family. But because this short is only a few minutes, it tries to ramp up the pandering a lot. Everyone in Springfield showing up as superheroes doesn't make sense and it isn't funny. It's a bunch of weak, unimaginative fan art but in the actual Simpsons IP. There's three credit codas that are all very unfunny. Since this was almost more specifically a promotion for the Loki TV series, they probably could have easily dropped the other Marvel stuff, really. It just makes it busy and eye rolling.
 
Off-topic a bit from the Disney pandering stoofs, but any plans to seek out Springfield of Dreams: The Legend of Homer Simpson?

I mean, there was some stuff that pissed me off about it, but overall it was neat to see most of the baseball players who cameo'd in Homer at the Bat brought together to comment on their experiences like it was a real thing that happened and not a cartoon.
 
Plusaversary

Plot: The anniversary of Disney Plus' first year is celebrated at Moe's Tavern where Homer shares a table with Goofy. Everyone is getting angry and Lisa, there to pick up Homer, decides to try to cheer them up with a Disney-style musical number. Then Bart enters disguised as an angry Mickey Mouse to tell everyone to get back to work.

How embarrassing is this?: This one feels really rough. I'm of two minds of the decision to not include the Disney actors as the voices, particularly Bill Farmer as Goofy. I can see the Simpsons, despite celebrating one year of a streaming service with a rich cast, might want to keep this feeling like a purely Simpsons thing and allow Dan and Hank voice beloved Disney icons. But it also seems liked a missed opportunity. The Simpsons is clearly not too good to sell out so why not give yourself a chance to play with Farmer, who isn't just goofy but has a distinguished career even to this day of great work (such as playing Hop Pop in Amphibia, which is often a silly role but allowed for some pathos and drama). But more than anything, I think the Simpsons wanted to lovingly jab at their owners. That's not a bad idea and I don't begrudge the jabs for being softballs. But even for softballs, it feels like such nothing, just a reminder of all the great IP they have. Most importantly, in using the Disney playground, it simply fails to be funny in any way. The closest is a pretty mediocre joke that Doc is so upset he's mistaken for Grumpy.
 
When Billie Met Lisa

Plot: Lisa, unable to play at home without her family bugging her or complaining, finds herself playing under a bridge. She is discovered by music superstar Billie Eilish, who decides to invite her to jam. They do a rendition of the Simpsons theme song that is popular across town.

How embarrassing is this?: This feels more embarrassing for Eilish than the Simpsons. Eilish has this cool chill vibe and it's awkward for her to be associated with the fairly hacky and weak gags that run through the episode. I liked it more than Plusaversary but even at a slight 4 minutes, I still felt like I was just waiting for this to end. There's a scene where Eilish has a photo with her parents and that makes me wonder if her parents were Simpsons fans and this is just her way to get them into the show.
 
Welcome to the Club

Plot: Lisa is lead to a castle where "Bart" (actually Loki) tells her she's going to be made into a Disney Princess. In fact, it's housing the Disney villains who wants Lisa to be a villain, too. They tell her it's more fun to be evil (particularly to get delicious petty vengeance on the people who wronged her). When Lisa reminds them they tend to die at the end of the films, the villains point out the Disney villains have it worse, being in relationships to incredibly dull male romantic leads.

How embarrassing is this?: This one... is actually pretty solid. Not "great" but I feel like rather than a series of references, it comes at the premise with a point of view and one that would make sense in wooing Lisa (though we never actually get Lisa's side). Again, I am torn; I would have liked it the show decided to pay for some of the voices of the original actors (at least, the ones who are still alive). But I also appreciate keeping most of the voices (except Loki, again voiced by Hiddleston) from their own pool of actors and letting them get to voice iconic characters.

One shocker to me was actually letting Mickey appear on screen in a mildly villainous role voiced by Nancy Cartwright. Other references to him have Bart dressing up like him so I think it's cool for Disney to let that happen. Some other things I liked it some commentary with teeth. Baby teeth, the softest kind but them lightly teasing Disney for dull male leads still seems like more than the Simpsons is usually willing to toy with in their "corporate synergy"-based shorts. I also think they are trying to make the villains very close to their original look instead of Simpsons-ifying them, which I think works. Overall, this short isn't something you need to run out and see but it feels closer to the kind of corporate shilling that allows the show to keep it's irreverent tone.
 
The Simpsons meet the Bocellis in Feliz Navidad

Plot: For Christmas, Homer gets Marge a visit from Andrea Bocelli and his children, Matteo and Virginia Bocelli. Initially Andrea sings classic Italian opera but then, for the season, sings Feliz Navidad.

How Embarrassing Is it?: Not real embarrassing but it's also kind of nothing. The animation and gags (at least one of which is recycled from an earlier episode) are pretty forgettable and it's really about the Bocelli family singing, which you don't need the Simpson family for, really. This just feels like maybe Matteo or Virginia wanted to be in the show and this is how they got to do it. Actually, looking it up, he is the one who reached out, initially wanting a cameo with his family. I can't tell if this is better or worse. It means the spotlight is on them but is anyone really watching this. Plus you get to say "I was on the Simpsons" with an asterisk.
 
Rogue Not Quite One

Plot: Maggie, once again at a school in the Star Wars universe, ends up accidentally taking Baby Yoda's hyper-stroller through space, where she is nearly killed by Darth Baby Gerald before pacifying him

How Embarrassing Is it?: Blech. There were worse shorts but this one is deeply "who cares". It also feels inconsistent where this is supposed to be the Star Wars universe with the Simpsons in it or what because there's a regular Springfield with no aliens but also an alien place. It feels like they just had to do something and hoped throwing Star Wars at it was enough. It wasn't.
 
May the 12th Be With You

Plot: Marge takes the Disney moms out to a playdate with their kids on a Star Wars planet for Mother's Day. A fight breaks out and Marge goes hard, only to discover it's a simulation, which she disrupts. As an apology, everyone comes to a party in her back yard.

How Embarrassing Is It?: I feel like there are more cringeworthy ones, but I think this one is, not having scene the last one remaining yet, the worst Disney short. I know that I should be treating them as a series of gags rather than a narrative but I can just not get over how the poor the consistency in terms of what we are doing moment to moment. I'm sure they were aiming for "all the Disney characters and Star Wars co-existing" in a Kingdom Hearts sort of way but it feels less like joy of having these characters be together and just pure IP slop.

It's funny because there's clear effort here. The Disney Plus shorts really do try to animate the Disney characters a bit differently. Not like the films but noticeably different than the way Simpsons characters are animated, generally. I actually like that. The problem is it just feels all completely thrown together and maybe I could forgive it if it was funny but it really isn't. Also, Stewie from Family Guy is in it at the end, voiced by Seth MacFarlane. Not funny but somehow one of the least awkward gags in the short.
 
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