‘The Simpsons’: A Series on the Road to Redemption
In 2012, ‘The Simpsons’ reached its lowest point. Despite criticisms of the series since season 12, there has been a subtle comeback since season 33. While we may be hesitant to give the series a second chance, there is a desire to improve.
The premiere of the fourth part of ‘Ice Age’ showcased the ‘Simpsons’ short film with a return to the essentials – Maggie, adventures, and sight jokes – without the need for surprise guests, ridiculous plots, or forced references to current events.
However, the series seemed to have learned nothing from its second foray into film in 2020 with ‘Playing with Fate’, which only detracted from the mother series. Since the acquisition of 20th Century Fox, Disney’s crossovers with the yellow family continue on Disney+, reducing ‘The Simpsons’ to a drawing by Qwertee or Pampling.
From 2021 to the present day, Disney+ has released seven shorts parodying without parodying ‘Star Wars‘ or ‘Loki’ joined with Goofy, Ursula, Billie Eilish, Andrea Bocelli or Bad Bunny, among others. These contractual experiments reek of brand prostitution.
While ‘Almost Rogue One’ represents a five-minute ‘The Mandalorian’ hype, it tries to go a little bit beyond the mere crossover. But it does not reach the level of absurdity of ‘The good, the bad and Loki’ and does not display any art, desire, hand, soul, or heart.
While the synergistic attempts may have granted some funny moments, they are all seen as advertisements, lacking any genuine artistic intentions and reducing the series to a mere commercial product.
At the same time, these shorts are still kind of extras, like when Bart was promoting Butterfinger. Nonetheless, they aim to unite two unrelated series, and their execution reeks more of a management team than of a creative one.
