Treehouse of Horror Presents: Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes (2024)
The Simpsons goes to a circus while Lisa wasn't happy. She wonders off meeting the fired Illustrated Man. This character voiced by Andy Serkis. You may remember him in many movies including Marvel Cinematic Universe films. They played off of a tattoo person telling their stories represented by their tattoos.
Honestly it kinda worked for this Treehouse of Horror episode. Just before the stories started, I quickly recall a similar set up Simpsons episode that's also non canon. Lisa's Wedding from Season 6 where Lisa almost got married. By now The Simpsons done a lot of what if future scenarios. Not the reason I mentioned it in this comparison.
In that episode Lisa meets a fortune teller at the Renaissance Fair. Who shows Lisa a vision of her what if future. The first segment is called The Screaming Woman. It heavily plays off of that famous concept of a boy who cried wolf. Bart was in the woods when he heard a woman. He tried to convince his parents something wasn't right.
All these segments are based on stories written by Ray Bradbury. His name directly reference as the name of the circus. I kinda missed that on the first watch. I do liked they tied his name into this like that. I just wish he might cameo like Stephen King does in several adaptations of his works. This was a surprisingly done tribute to the author.
Of course, they didn't believe him causing Bart to go to his bedroom upset. I do liked they went for some classic phone jokes with Milhouse. I also gotta mention, Pamela Hayden who voiced a lot of Simpsons characters retired. This was among her final episodes of the show. This also means her last Treehouse of Horror episode.
You start to feel bad for Bart who usually isn't this caring. It's once in a blue moon in canon Simpsons stories. This kinda reminded me of a classic Simpsons episode. Bart the Mother from Season 10, Bart shot the mom bird killing her. He takes care what he thought were her eggs. A twist happens they were actually lizards.
This is sorta playing on a similar emotion concept. In both situations you feel bad for Bart. It turns out the mysterious "woman" in the hole actually Milhouse's dad. The police let his wife off the hook over something I viewed to be stupid. Honestly, for the first segment within 2020 Treehouse of Horror episodes.
It's among the best of them hands down. I do like they went with this story. But at the same time they found ways to make it their own. I would even dare to say it's way better than The Information Rage. This clearly had enough time to finish properly. I would even consider rewatching this more. I still think the other two segments are better.
The second segment is Marionettes, Inc. Treehouse of Horror episodes done some similar concepts before. We got Send in the Clones where Homer kept cloning himself. Eventually his clones started to do it to the point they became a threat to the world. Lout Break also involving Homer causes a viral outbreak.
Most of the world becomes infected to transform into Homers. Intrusion of the Pod-y Switchers, aliens swapped places with humans that caused chaos to a degree. Obviously there's also The Thing and I, Bart had a twin brother. It was no surprise they were going to do another doppelganger take. Superintendent Chalmers takes advice to get a robot doppelganger.
In a twist, Principal Skinner also gotten his own robot doppelganger. Carl warns them about robots experiencing emotions that's causing em to have free will. This already reminds me of a particular Christmas movie funny enough. The Santa Clause 2, Santa had to get married before Christmas. He had some of the elves makes a toy doppelganger.
Which led to the evil toy Claus becoming a dictator. This is indirectly similar to that since both of them are among the highest authority figures in that school. Both involve with children to a degree. I felt this comparison not only works but also makes sense. This had a surprisingly happy ending with everything considered.
I would say this was rather interesting from start to finish. I still think Death Tome is way better. But this was a great second segment especially among the 2020 Treehouse of Horror episodes. I actually enjoyed this one a lot, it was all well done. You actually could see this happen within The Simpsons canon.
I also liked this partly played into Futurama a bit with the story taking place in the future. This was among the best school theme Treehouse of Horror stories they ever done!!! I still prefer maybe because I'm twisted like that. School is Hell where Bart goes to school in Hell. Which also had a few versions of those characters.
Mostly I'm talking about Superintendent Chalmers and Principal Skinner respectively. I felt this was a rather clever story. It also kinda reminded me of a particular Will Smith movie. I, Robot that also involves robots going against their orders from humans. Personally I do slightly prefer that over this story.
To be fair, this is among the best performances of a few Simpsons characters in a long time. There's no question, this is a high recommendation. This is also indirectly similar to a personal favorite Treehouse of Horror story I always enjoyed. House of Whacks that also had an AI rebelling against an human. This is widely different since that's an AI controlled house while these were robot copies of people.
There's also Simpsons World that had a lot of Simpsons characters having doppelgangers. Which is also among my favorite robot theme Treehouse of Horror episodes. Also if you haven't already guessed by now. The robot Simpsons family rebelled against the theme park to escape. I also think it's among the best doppelganger stories they ever told as well.
I also gotta mention Life's a Glitch, Then You Die. Homer didn't set up computers at the nuclear power plant causing Y2K to happen. All of those are way better than Untitled Robot Parody. Which also had technology rebelling against humanity. Somehow the way it's done here I really enjoyed. I would even say among the best of them.
The third and final segment is Fahrenheit 451 is in my opinion the best segment of the episode. This was a great Simpsons parody that was among the best within 2020 Treehouse of Horror episodes. The original story it's parodying was more about people destroying books. I loved they changed it to being older television shows.
Which was the perfect direction to go with the concept. We have Homer that changed sides when he enjoyed episodes of America's Funniest Home Videos. I knew eventually in some way they had to do this. Anyone with VHS tapes of these tapes gets their copies destroyed. It kinda reminded me partly of Danger Things.
Which also had Homer wore a similar suit using an flame thrower. This kinda parodied people's view over shows to a degree, I loved that!!! Not only that, they were quite creative with this. This was among my favorite final segments within Treehouse of Horror episodes. It indirectly reminds me of Simpsons World.
Simpsons World was filled with a lot of references to the show. This is kinda similar to that except the main Simpsons family aren't robot. Also only Homer acted on destroying copies of older shows. The rest of them only watched TV that's it. They virtually used the more complex shows to control people. Homer does find the main source of these shows left in town.
This ended up playing off like a similar twist in Total Recall. The older movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger to clarify. Where Carl Hauser also known as Douglas Quaid got tricked into leading Richter to the mutants. Homer was tricked to leading the authorities to that source of media. The group decided to tell stories from those shows at a location outside town.
Obviously, Homer would tell America's Funniest Home Videos that way was pure genius. There was one writer that written the entire episode. I was very surprised how great it truly was. There's one more twist before the ending credits fully roll. It turns out the longer Lisa listened to those stories. The more of her becoming a living tattoo on The Illustrated Man's body.
Well that was kinda outside the box ending if I ever seen one. How does this compare to Treehouse of Horror 35? Honestly it was way better I'm not kidding. Even as much I loved Denim with a huge passion. They really knocked this out the park here. This was well written from to start to end in comparison.
The stories might not play off the actual horror factor within Treehouse of Horror episodes. At the same time, all of them felt more like The Simpsons. This comes so close to rivaling Treehouse of Horror 33. Which is really saying a lot I know. I actually can't criticize much about it. Probably the closest issue I had was I kinda wished we started with Lisa to the man before it happened.
In my mind, I felt they could've did a lot with the longer introduction. Especially how strangely interesting that guy turned out to be. I do think choosing Lisa to talk to him was a wise choice. Just makes you wonder if it was a different Simpsons family member. What stories we might've gotten instead.
This one change really gives you some ideas before the actual stories. It would help to give more suspense to the overall theme. In other words to help pull you in more. Other than that they should do more spin off Treehouse of Horror episodes like this. The only thing left is to compare it to the other spin off Treehouse of Horror episode.
Not It was a great parody easily among my favorite Stephen King parodies they done. It even rivals The Shinning, also based on a book of his works. I do like both of these spin off episodes are directly inspired by authors. I do know Stephen King way better. I have little to nothing to go on regarding Ray Bradbury.
I will say this Not It was broken into two parts. Which is directly parodying both It movies. This is like three separate stories connected to an overall story through a few characters. Mostly Lisa and The Illustrated Man respectively. I know some might view this as an unfair comparison. No matter how you view it, I can't do anything about that.
I would say this ended up being more interesting than Not It. I also could argue is somewhat funnier as well. Both are more of their unique point of views from the typical Treehouse of Horror episodes. I would heavily recommend rewatching both close to or on Halloween. I surprisingly had to go with the newer spin off episode.
I partly felt Simpsons characters got used slightly better. Also it was harder to predict things. Not only that, they made three stories into three entertaining parodies of the same author's works. I gotta give em respect for pulling that off. You really can't go wrong with either spin off Treehouse of Horror episodes. I already felt 2020 wise, Treehouse of Horror episodes going to easily beat out the 2010 ones.
This is exactly why I love The Simpsons so much. The insane level of creativity they had for over thirty years is truly impressive stuff. They should parody more author's works. Especially if they do it like some Treehouse of Horror episodes. Honestly, the newer spin off episode is truly amazing at what it delivers.
No comments:
Post a Comment