{"id":21759,"date":"2014-10-23T15:00:31","date_gmt":"2014-10-23T19:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=21759"},"modified":"2016-08-07T15:05:07","modified_gmt":"2016-08-07T19:05:07","slug":"the-simpsons-treehouse-of-horror-xxv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2014\/10\/23\/the-simpsons-treehouse-of-horror-xxv\/","title":{"rendered":"The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror XXV"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TreehouseofHorrorXXV\"<\/a>It\u2019s no secret that the writers of \u201cThe Simpsons\u201d hold a great love for Stanley Kubrick. Bart Dressed as a Droog for \u201cTreehouse of Horror III,\u201d and \u201cTreehouse of Horror V\u201d delivered the brilliant \u201cThe Shinning.\u201d For the 25th \u201cTreehouse of Horror\u201d yearly special, the gang behind the series pays a full unabashed tribute to Kubrick in what is easily the best \u201cTreehouse\u201d special in years. Though supplying only three segments this year, the writers opts for quality over quantity and the show really hits its stride for the Halloween Season well.<\/p>\n

\u201cSchool is Hell\u201d is a fun opener in which Bart and Lisa accidentally find an Aramaic inscription while dusting during detention. Using her Apple App, Lisa translates the inscription and Bart reads it aloud without regard to caution. This causes them to be scooped up by hell fires and thrown in to an Elementary school in the underworld. Oddly enough, this is a dimension opposite to Springfield Elementary in every way. Bart becomes an A student when he impresses his class with his various ideas for torture, while Lisa becomes popular with a clique of female demons. The segment is a wonderful opener featuring a lot great puns and unusual jokes regarding religion (\u201cHaw-haw! Your heresies were venialized by the Council of Palermo!\u201d), plus, there\u2019s a great call back to \u201cTreehouse of Horror IV\u201d with someone in the background being tortured with the donut conveyor belt Homer suffered.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Clockwork Yellow\u201d is another excellent Kubrick love letter, with the story of Moe who was once the leader of the Droogs, a gang that held Carl, Lenny, and Homer. After many years of crime and havoc, Homer meets a \u201cblue haired bird\u201d named Marge in a record shop and the two get married leaving their life of crime behind. This segment contains so many great references to \u201cA Clockwork Orange\u201d including a pretty funny twist on the threesome montage set to a high speed. Not to mention there\u2019s the great finale where Kubrick\u2019s various world come smashing together as the old time Droogs crash a mansion that happens to be holding a sex party. I loved how when the partiers charged the Droogs, Burns reminded the background sex blockers to snap in to action.<\/p>\n

The Kubrick references don\u2019t stop there, as there are more overt winks, and background gags like Homer in the record shop walking by records \u201cDr. Strangelaugh,\u201d \u201cPaths Of Gravy,\u201d \u201cD\u2019oh-lita,\u201d and \u201cFull Milhouse Jacket.\u201d \u201cThe Others\u201d is purely meta-fan service that has given the special the biggest press as the Simpsons begin getting haunted by mysterious presences in their house. Much to their horror, they discover they\u2019re being haunted by the Tracey Ullman incarnations of their characters. When they refuse to leave, a war ensues between both versions of the family, especially with Marge angrily competing with classic Marge for the affection of modern Homer. The segment is dark and pretty disturbing when it wants to be, but it\u2019s also mainly about paying tribute to the fans. There\u2019s a wonderful final gag about different variations of the Simpsons, and Dr. Marvin Monroe, deemed dead many years ago, returns as a ghost to try and sort out the battle between both clans.<\/p>\n

For the centerpiece it\u2019s perfectly fine but there seems like so much more could have been done, like perhaps grabbing Tracey Ullman for a cameo, but in its small window it acknowledges that the show has changed drastically, and that their corporate entity ensure more variations down the line. The real Easter egg is the family picture with both clans which is quite excellent for fans that remember the original short. Homer even says \u201cWatch your mouth, you little smart ass.\u201d I love it, and I wish \u201cThe Simpsons\u201d could gain this kind of momentum all season. The glory days of the \u201cSimpsons\u201d dynasty might be over, but at least \u201cTreehouse of Horror\u201d is still a fun tradition that delivers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s no secret that the writers of \u201cThe Simpsons\u201d hold a great love for Stanley Kubrick. Bart Dressed as a Droog for \u201cTreehouse of Horror III,\u201d and \u201cTreehouse of Horror V\u201d delivered the brilliant \u201cThe Shinning.\u201d For the 25th \u201cTreehouse of Horror\u201d yearly special, the gang behind the series pays a full unabashed tribute to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,17],"tags":[99,103,219,276,477,978,1008,1075],"class_list":["post-21759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-halloween-horror-month","category-tv-tomb","tag-animation","tag-anthology","tag-comedy","tag-demons","tag-horror","tag-stanley-kubrick","tag-supernatural","tag-the-simpsons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21759"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21761,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21759\/revisions\/21761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}