In our ongoing mission to bring you only the shallowest and laziest analysis of Zombie Simpsons, we’re keeping up our Crazy Noises series for Season 22. Since a podcast is so 2004, and video would require a flag, a fern and some folding chairs from the garage, we’ve elected to use the technology that brought the word “emoticon” to the masses: the chatroom. Star Trek image macros are strictly forbidden, unless you have a really good reason why Captain Picard is better than Captain Kirk. This text has been edited for clarity and spelling (especially on “dickey”). I’ve linked the above graph before, and I couldn’t help but think of it when “The Fool Monty” did that rather half assed dome reference toward its ass end. That graph neatly sums up the general opinion on the movie, and if anything the SpiderPig slice is too small. What I especially like about this is that it exposes the movie for the cheap, forgettable ninety minutes that it was. One of the hallmarks of paint-by-number, chum bucket studio comedies is when they have just one or two decent jokes (which are often flogged to an early death in the trailers). In this case, it was a single iteration of a pig that had three of them, and only that because of the song that accompanied it. If Harry Potter had a catchy 60s cartoon theme they could’ve played off, that graph would read differently. But that isn’t what Zombie Simpsons brought back in their little meta-joke about how little sense the movie made. They brought back the dome that no one cared about, and then they tried to play it as though they were sending themselves up. The cultural ignorance that displays is impressive in some way and unintentionally funny in another, but neither does them any credit. On account of Thanksgiving we were a man short again, though this time it was Mad Jon. In the spirit of being thankful, I assume that he is. Charlie Sweatpants: Well then, let’s get this over with quickly, shall we? Dave: Please, let’s. Charlie Sweatpants: On a scale of one to the largest prime number yet discovered, what the hell was that? Dave: That was maybe a -8. I err on the side of caution lest I seem biased or anything. Charlie Sweatpants: I don’t think there’s any way to be objective about that thing. They took perhaps the easiest character to write for in the entire list of characters, made him act pathetic, then brainwashed him into some kind of plaything, then they made him pathetic again. Dave: Yeah the plaything bit was borderline demented, even by ZS standards. A, it’s implausible. B, it went on for what seemed like 4/5ths of the episode. So I suppose that’s actually par for course, who am I kidding? Charlie Sweatpants: Burns isn’t off the hook either, though. Even when he was still himself he wasn’t actually himself. Since when would C.M. Burns,…
Tag: The Simpsons Movie
“The Simpsons Movie” Makes Baby Jesus Cry (Part 2)
“No, make it a pie. Pies are easier to draw.” – Itchy & Scratch Animator “Okay, a pie.” – Roger Meyers Jr. After spending roughly seven weeks in the optical drive of my laptop, The Simpsons Movie is finally in the custody of the United States Postal Service and on its way back to Netflix. (Which means “Lies Make Baby Jesus Cry” should start for Season 13 in the next few days.) The second commentary was done by some of the animators and directors of the film, and while there is some interesting information in here, mostly it’s a blur of two ideas. The first is, and coming from the other commentary this is no surprise, that there were many, many different versions of almost every scene. The constant reactions and overreactions to test screenings meant that lots of things that had already been animated were scrapped, and whole new sequences were jammed in, up to and including at the last minute. The second is the term “beautifully animated” and variations thereof. Whatever else may be said about its timidity, its over-reliance on physical comedy, and its complete lack of anything that could be called a coherent story, The Simpsons Movie has a distinct and colorful look to its animation that served it well. This is, in many places, a very pretty film, and the animators are justifiably happy with how their work turned out. The commenters here are David Silverman, Mike Anderson, Steve Moore, and Rich Moore. Since they don’t pause the movie, and since there’d be no point in my noting the many times they mention a specific animator and compliment their work, this one is a lot shorter than Part 1. So let’s get to it. 0:50 – Discussing Scratchy’s entrance, the animators were also looking for a big laugh when the audience recognized the character. 3:45 – Pointing out that all of the audience is made up of regular characters, no generic animations. 4:30 – More discussion about how many times all of these things got redone. 5:15 – Discussing another thing that got cut by test audiences: “It looked really good, and um, nobody laughed.” 7:00 – Discussing all the different people who did animation and layouts at two different studios. 12:00 – At this point I’m beginning to wonder if there’s use in doing this for the animation commentary. Basically they’re just mentioning who did a specific animation or background along with the occasional mention of whether or not something was redone after test audiences did or did not like it. 15:00 – Further underlining how much they got away from their usual editorial independence, someone asks how this was different than animating the show, and the answer is that they had to keep redoing things on account of rewrites. 18:30 – Here they’re discussing how they do transitions between all the completely unrelated scenes. 19:00 – Everybody loves Spider Pig. 19:45 – When they’re having Krusty, Cat Lady and Moe dump things in…
“The Simpsons Movie” Makes Baby Jesus Cry
“Well, you know what? I’m glad you’re nervous, because that means we’re on the right track!” – Herb Powell Several weeks ago I came across bobservo’s post about The Simpsons Movie commentary in which he described how the creators of the movie basically focus grouped it into oblivion. There are two commentary tracks on the disc and, having slogged my way through the all-star one (Brooks, Groening, Jean, Castellaneta, etc.), I have to agree with him. The commentary reveals another problem as well, one that resulted from all that focus group feedback, but we’ll get to that in a second. First, the timidity, then the horrible damage it did. Both The Simpsons and Zombie Simpsons are famous for their lack of network/studio interference; whatever their respective merits, both shows are the product of a group of people who thought A was funny and B was not, the outside damn world be damned. According to the commentary, that famous independence was completely abandoned during the creation of The Simpsons Movie. Rather than the writers writing, the actors acting, the animators animating and letting chips fall where they may, a partially completed version was repeatedly shown to test audiences, and everything was redone based on their reactions. The fickle minds of Sally Housecoat and Eddie Punchclock so terrified the powers that be that they nervously offered up whole new scenes and endings based on the reactions of a few dozen people in Tempe and Portland. For a show that once prided itself on doing what it wanted without interference, this is an unsurpassable capitulation. The result of all that bowing and scraping is a fractured movie. Scenes and characters were added and removed willy nilly such that the whole is less than the sum of its parts. For example, halfway through the movie the family finds itself basically teleported to a carnival so Homer can ride a motorcycle in a big metal ball. Seconds prior to being at the carnival, they were holed up in a hotel room, hiding from a massive police manhunt. There’s no scene of them traveling to the carnival, nor is any reason given why they would want to go there. They’re in the hotel and then – poof – they’re at the carnival. While at the carnival, no mention is made of the police chasing them, nor are they at all concerned about being seen by a crowd. The entire story the movie was telling has been dropped so that Homer can ride a motorcycle. Why does Homer ride a motorcycle? Because he rides one at the end and they need to establish that motorcycle riding is something Homer can do. According to the commentary, they originally had no scene to establish that, and they crammed in the carnival as a patch job when somebody noticed. The next time we see the family, the police chase is back on and they’re once again running for their lives as though the carnival scene had never happened. The commentary…
Reading Digest: Movie Leftovers Edition
“It’s just not the same.” – Bart Simpson To go along with the fact that the Simpsonize Me website is still down we’ve got two other links to leftover stuff from the Simpsons movie this week. Also there’s a little bit of video, some pointless internet lists, one piece of excellent usage, and a blogger who agrees with us. Enjoy. Limited "unlimited" claims should be banned – This is a discussion about how services are pretty much always lying to you when they promise unlimited anything. It starts by quoting Lionel Hutz questioning Marge about what happened at the all you can eat seafood restaurant. The quote is almost dead on and even though Hutz is listed only as “Lawyer”, I’m still calling it excellent usage. Me fail English? That’s unpossible! – YouTube for the hell of it. No other reason given or needed. Man getting hit by football – Speaking of short YouTube clips, here’s a ref taking a football in the groin. (Also there’s a link to the Simpsons version.) it’s the Top 5… hairstyles in the movies! – Marge comes in at #1, beating out Princess Leia. 100 Reasons to Love Winnipeg – #54: Homer Simpson is from here. In 2002, Simpsons creator Matt Groening noted his father, also named Homer, was born in Canada, making the lovable cartoon character a Canadian, too. But from where? “Uh, if you went straight north from Kansas, where would that be? Winnipeg? Yes, Winnipeg!” Good enough for us. Given what’s happened to their hockey team since it moved to Phoenix, I’m inclined to give this to them. Ken Griffey Jr: The Forgotten Superstar – This rather schmaltzy article praises Griffey, mentions that the Simpsons was still good in 1997 and . . . doesn’t mention Griffey on the Simpsons. How is that possible? Trinity Mirror gives away Simpsons comic – Some Scottish newspaper readers will get some free Simpsons comics this weekend. Awesome Pictures: The Simpsons do Abbey Road – It’s that Simpsons/Abbey Road picture I loathe. (Just to be clear, I understand why people like this, it’s just sad that there’s a better one that is almost completely ignored.) You know i love you – Well, at least one person’s doing that scavenger hunt thing. Look at that entry form! I don’t see a space for Social Security # and a blood sample, so those are probably on the next screen. The WWE is a lot like The Simpsons – Simpsons characters with their professional wrestling equivalents. Panel offers comic relief for comic strips in distress – A brief recap of Groening’s appearance in Chicago last weekend. XUP – The faces behind some famous cartoon voices, including some Simpsons people and Mel Blanc, one of the all time greats. Simpsons Come to the Springfield Museum – One of those big couches from the movie is moving into the Springfield Museum in Springfield, Oregon. Real Life Kwik-E-Mart – Much like the giant couch, this appears to be from two years…
Simpsons Evolutionary Theroy Part 1: From Homer to Punching Bag
“Let’s ask an actor portraying Charles Darwin what he thinks.” – C. Montgomery Burns I think it is fair to say that the principles behind natural selection and evolution can be applied to televisions shows. The Simpsons was once a great show, and then it wasn’t so good, and then bad, and now even worse. With each episode representing an intermediate in the evolutionary chain that is The Simpsons, we can compare episode traits from different parts of the lineage to hopefully figure out what the hell went wrong, and maybe try to reason why this series won’t die. Today I will focus on the needless physical comedy that has made its way into Homer’s life. I think I can do this with only three examples. In these examples we will see a distinct change; the occasional physical harm Homer suffers will go from an afterthought to the main source of Simpsons jokes. My first example comes from season 4, “Brother From The Same Planet “. In the end of this episode Homer gets into a fist fight with Tom, Bart’s ‘Bigger Brother’. The fight ends when Homer is knocked out and falls backwards over a fire hydrant. It lasts all of a few seconds, it is only punctuated with one witty remark, and then it is over. This is an appropriate use of physical comedy. The second example comes from season 8, “Homer’s Phobia”. At the end of this episode Homer and Bart are trapped in a reindeer farm. As the reindeer get ready to trample them, Homer holds Bart up over his head, as to save his son from certain doom. The Reindeer pummel Homer for a little while before the rest of the crew saves the pair. In this example, you can see that the physical pain lasts a little longer and is accompanied by an extra line or two (“Homer you feel softer than before” “I’ve been tenderized”) as opposed to just a single phrase from Homer. The scene was still relevant, but you wouldn’t have seen it a few seasons before. Finally we can look at modern day, or as we say, Zombie Simpsons. There are way too many examples from which to choose, so to make this example as accessible as possible I will use a scene from The Simpsons Movie. This particular scene was even in the trailer (a statement unto itself?). I am, of course, speaking of the thirty seconds or so that Homer spent on the wrecking ball. Here we see a physical scene that was completely unnecessary, wayyy too long, and more than physically impossible. On top of that, they should have shelled out the extra few bucks to make the building a Hard Rock Cafe as opposed to just something named A Hard Place, but I digress. This evolutionary end-product could have been from a number of crappy episodes of late, and that makes me wonder what is keeping this premise in the show? It is clearly detracting from…