"The Simpsons" Treehouse of Horror XIX (2008)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Bob Anderson

Writers:

Matt Groening (creator)
James L. Brooks (developer) ...

TV Series:

"The Simpsons" (1989)

Original Air Date:

2 November 2008 (Season 20, Episode 4)

Genre:

Animation | Comedy

Plot:

The Simpsons' 19th Halloween Special, with parodies of "Transformers," "Mad Men," and "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." |

Plot Keywords:

Halloween Special | Halloween | Pumpkin | Jack O Lantern | Barack Obama

Cast

Dan Castellaneta	...	Homer Simpson / Grampa Simpson (voice) (as Black Castellaneta)
Julie Kavner	...	Marge Simpson (voice) (as Boooooline Kavner)
Nancy Cartwright	...	Bart Simpson (voice) (as I Peed My Pants Nance)
Yeardley Smith	...	Lisa Simpson (voice) (as The Smith to Nowhere)
Hank Azaria	...	Moe (voice) (as Hockey Mom Azaria)
Harry Shearer	...	Skinner (voice)
Marcia Wallace	...	Edna Krabappel (voice) (as Macabre Marcia Wallace)
Pamela Hayden	...	Milhouse (voice) (as Hellsablazin' Hayden)
Tress MacNeille	...	Dolph (voice) (as Tress MacNihil)

Runtime:

21 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Company:

Gracie Films

Quotes:

Homer Simpson: Before you kill me, I have to know, what is the one true religion?
Krusty The Klown: It's a mixture of voodoo and Methodist.

Movie Connections:

References "Seinfeld" (1990)

Soundtrack:

Psycho Killer

The best Simpsons Halloween special in the last few years.

Reviews out before this episode aired all had similar complaints, many of them being about the second segment and how lacking it was. I found all three segements to be very solid, though the first segment was a bit generic. In the end, this was the best Simpsons Halloween special in the last few years.

The opening features Homer trying to vote for Barack Obama, but the machine says McCain each time. Where this could have been a political hit towards one candidate, it felt more like just the horror of rigged voting. It wasn't in poor taste, and it was a good, and original opener.

The first segment is called Untitled Robot Parody. Bart buys Lisa a Malibu Stacy car for Christmas, and it turns out to be a Transformer type robot. It seems as though every machine in Springfield is a robot, and they all start fighting with each other. After Marge has a talk with one of the robots, they decide to stop fighting and enslave the humans. The ending of this segment is all too familiar, with Kang and Kodos segments ending the same way, but it was still a good ending. It was way too short running at less than five minutes, but it was still deserving of a Halloween segment.

Segment number two is the critically panned portion of the episode, but it's also the one I found the funniest. Homer accidentally kills Krusty the Clown and finds out that he has a knack for killing celebrities. He begins to get paid to kill celebrities so their likenesses can be used for free in commercials. The celebrities in Heaven decide to come down and kill Homer. This segment produced the most laughs for me. The celebrity deaths were original, and the segment was well paced.

The beloved Charlie Brown Halloween special has been turned into a Simpsons segment. Milhouse believes in the Grand Pumpkin, and because of how strong his belief is, the Grand Pumpkin comes to life. After seeing that humans eat and carve pumpkins, it goes crazy and start eating Springfield residents. The only thing that can stop imagination is more imagination. This was by far the best segment. It wasn't the funniest, but it made up for not a super amount of laughs with it's amazing style. The water color backgrounds and over the top Peanuts animation looked excellent.

Overall, this was one of the better Simpsons Halloween specials. It was funny, and had amazing style!

My rating: *** 1/2 out of ****. 30 mins. TVPGDLVS