Funko’s latest wave of The Simpsons Pops is dedicated to Treehouse of Horror specials. Due out in October, Twin Bart, Snail Lisa, Homerzilla, Witch Maggie, and Skeleton Marge are available to pre-order for $11.99.
There are also three retailer exclusives, pictured below: Itchy & Scratchy two-pack (Hot Topic), Spider Willie (Funko.com), and glow-in-the-dark Witch Maggie (Amazon).
On a long enough timeline, everyone gives in and buys a hunk of Funko plastic.
Okay but make The Simpsons Arcade x Treehouse of Horror and give lots of money to @probertson to art direct. This has been sitting there on the table for decades.
Okay but make The Simpsons Arcade x Treehouse of Horror and give lots of money to @probertson to art direct. This has been sitting there on the table for decades.
Grade School Confidential [S8 E19] (dir. Susie Dietter)
Although Bart doesn’t care for it, this might be the sweetest moment in the entire series.
Generally speaking, the show didn’t do character arcs. It’s deliberately episodic, resetting events to make sure there aren’t long-term ramifications.
For Skinner and Krabappel, we watched as love evaded them both. ‘Principal Charming’ and ‘Bart the Lover’ showed us well-formed characters with hopes, dreams and vulnerabilities. Those vulnerabilities reappear here; Skinner’s socially awkward nature, exacerbated by his domineering mother, and Krabappel’s loneliness, a symptom of her deep-rooted depression.
These aren’t two people looking for one another. The opening illustrates the more outgoing Krabappel finds the fastidious Skinner boring, but outside of work, they find a commonality, shared isolation from a lack of social group.
The spark of why they ended up in that playhouse may have been pity that a grown man cannot escape his mother, but it gives rise to a chance, a moment where the two are on an equal footing and can find in one another what they might be missing in their own life. Skinner sees a woman free of control, allowed to be herself; Krabappel, a man with no airs or graces, someone with an innocence that had seemed lost to her.
Romance blossoms in the spectre of judgement and punishment. Once again, happiness threatened to be taken away by something out of their control. Bart’s lack of respect for authority, perhaps for the first time, proves an asset. Skinner and Krabappel take a stand, fight for something more than themselves, and lead us to this.
For a few sweet moments, they’re free, happy, dancing as if there’s no one else in the world and it’s absolutely beautiful.
Grade School Confidential [S8 E19] (dir. Susie Dietter)
Although Bart doesn’t care for it, this might be the sweetest moment in the entire series.
Generally speaking, the show didn’t do character arcs. It’s deliberately episodic, resetting events to make sure there aren’t long-term ramifications.
For Skinner and Krabappel, we watched as love evaded them both. ‘Principal Charming’ and ‘Bart the Lover’ showed us well-formed characters with hopes, dreams and vulnerabilities. Those vulnerabilities reappear here; Skinner’s socially awkward nature, exacerbated by his domineering mother, and Krabappel’s loneliness, a symptom of her deep-rooted depression.
These aren’t two people looking for one another. The opening illustrates the more outgoing Krabappel finds the fastidious Skinner boring, but outside of work, they find a commonality, shared isolation from a lack of social group.
The spark of why they ended up in that playhouse may have been pity that a grown man cannot escape his mother, but it gives rise to a chance, a moment where the two are on an equal footing and can find in one another what they might be missing in their own life. Skinner sees a woman free of control, allowed to be herself; Krabappel, a man with no airs or graces, someone with an innocence that had seemed lost to her.
Romance blossoms in the spectre of judgement and punishment. Once again, happiness threatened to be taken away by something out of their control. Bart’s lack of respect for authority, perhaps for the first time, proves an asset. Skinner and Krabappel take a stand, fight for something more than themselves, and lead us to this.
For a few sweet moments, they’re free, happy, dancing as if there’s no one else in the world and it’s absolutely beautiful.
My Sister, My Sitter [S8 E17] (dir. Jim Reardon)
The residents of Springfield must live interesting lives if these are common. Given the number of riots, ‘looter’s hernia’ must be a real concern.
My Sister, My Sitter [S8 E17] (dir. Jim Reardon)
The residents of Springfield must live interesting lives if these are common. Given the number of riots, ‘looter’s hernia’ must be a real concern.
EarthBound dev. Ape Inc. and HAL Laboratory (1995)
It’s still rattling around in my brain. That’s a good sign. The music, the strange encounters and people. I loved it all, but it has the vibe of a polarizing work. It veers way off the path laid out by its JRPG predecessors. I can understand why it gained such a small and devoted following. But it wasn’t perfect. Battles are a far smoother experience here than in so many contemporaries, including the blessed removal of random battles, but they are still a tedious part of the process. Enemies late in the game can kill a party member with a single attack and can require particular tricks or items to defeat. But it’s all worth the journey.
Pee Wee’s Big Adventure dir. Tim Burton (1985)
This is a good inclusion alongside a few of the others this month. It’s a strange and surreal journey through America, the sprawling nature and open spaces. The weirdness of meeting strangers in life. This movie also has a similar meta-commentary on the nature of its medium. Movies about movies, games about games. Surreal comedies are a good way to explore those aspects.
Smooth Talk dir. Joyce Chopra (1985)
On the other hand, a story like this. A coming-of-age movie set in a small place that turns into something else, something more sinister. By comparison to the other stories this month, this one is claustrophobic, rife with frustration over the limitation of being here and not there. The events unfold that way but I suppose it’s about confronting the seriousness of growing up, of entering a world of adults who know more. The movie extends a bit beyond the ending of the original story by Joyce Carol Oates, and that changes the final feeling of it.
The Muppet Movie dir. James Frawley (1979)
Pee Wee’s Big Adventure almost feels modeled on this. It’s a hoot. It’s especially interesting to see all the cameos from renowned comedians and actors. And I just have an appreciation for road movies. I think there’s something in moving that’s compelling. Moving here and there, the encounters along the way.
Police Story dir. Jackie Chan (1985)
A Jackie Chan classic but small-scale relative to some of his other hits (especially contemporary works like Armour of God). Still, this is “pure Chan excitement” at its core, full of the same insane stunts and a middle act that turns the whole thing into slapstick comedy before the big stunt set piece at the end.
The Simpsons – “Treehouse of Horror XXXI” (2020)
I was excited to see that the writer for this episode is a comedian and longtime co-host of a Simpsons podcast to which I subscribed for a while. The segments were a bit forgettable (I needed to check out the details again), but the introductory segment about the election (like the election itself) likely subsumed the rest.
Bob’s Burgers – “Heartbreak Hotel-oween” (2020)
I wanna hang out in haunted hotels. Really, old hotels are getting harder to find. The creaky ones that couldn’t stay in business before a pandemic and now have little chance of surviving. The trope is well-worn I suppose, but the writers of this episode did a great job with it. Halloween episodes of Bob’s Burgers are always good.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – Seasons 6-7 (2019-2020)
The second half of this show figured itself out in style. Instead of trying to drag a single conceit across a whole twenty-some episode season, they designed the season as a series of shorter arcs, and this kept things fresh. The final two seasons were shorter overall and didn’t have a chance to do that, and I think season 6 at least suffered for it. But then their final season wises up to the idea that this is indeed the end, and so it becomes a fan service-filled extravaganza across time and space. It’s an interesting and fun release in a year when Marvel properties were otherwise absent as Disney held everything back until the pandemic is over.
EarthBound dev. Ape Inc. and HAL Laboratory (1995)
It’s still rattling around in my brain. That’s a good sign. The music, the strange encounters and people. I loved it all, but it has the vibe of a polarizing work. It veers way off the path laid out by its JRPG predecessors. I can understand why it gained such a small and devoted following. But it wasn’t perfect. Battles are a far smoother experience here than in so many contemporaries, including the blessed removal of random battles, but they are still a tedious part of the process. Enemies late in the game can kill a party member with a single attack and can require particular tricks or items to defeat. But it’s all worth the journey.
Pee Wee’s Big Adventure dir. Tim Burton (1985)
This is a good inclusion alongside a few of the others this month. It’s a strange and surreal journey through America, the sprawling nature and open spaces. The weirdness of meeting strangers in life. This movie also has a similar meta-commentary on the nature of its medium. Movies about movies, games about games. Surreal comedies are a good way to explore those aspects.
Smooth Talk dir. Joyce Chopra (1985)
On the other hand, a story like this. A coming-of-age movie set in a small place that turns into something else, something more sinister. By comparison to the other stories this month, this one is claustrophobic, rife with frustration over the limitation of being here and not there. The events unfold that way but I suppose it’s about confronting the seriousness of growing up, of entering a world of adults who know more. The movie extends a bit beyond the ending of the original story by Joyce Carol Oates, and that changes the final feeling of it.
The Muppet Movie dir. James Frawley (1979)
Pee Wee’s Big Adventure almost feels modeled on this. It’s a hoot. It’s especially interesting to see all the cameos from renowned comedians and actors. And I just have an appreciation for road movies. I think there’s something in moving that’s compelling. Moving here and there, the encounters along the way.
Police Story dir. Jackie Chan (1985)
A Jackie Chan classic but small-scale relative to some of his other hits (especially contemporary works like Armour of God). Still, this is “pure Chan excitement” at its core, full of the same insane stunts and a middle act that turns the whole thing into slapstick comedy before the big stunt set piece at the end.
The Simpsons – “Treehouse of Horror XXXI” (2020)
I was excited to see that the writer for this episode is a comedian and longtime co-host of a Simpsons podcast to which I subscribed for a while. The segments were a bit forgettable (I needed to check out the details again), but the introductory segment about the election (like the election itself) likely subsumed the rest.
Bob’s Burgers – “Heartbreak Hotel-oween” (2020)
I wanna hang out in haunted hotels. Really, old hotels are getting harder to find. The creaky ones that couldn’t stay in business before a pandemic and now have little chance of surviving. The trope is well-worn I suppose, but the writers of this episode did a great job with it. Halloween episodes of Bob’s Burgers are always good.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – Seasons 6-7 (2019-2020)
The second half of this show figured itself out in style. Instead of trying to drag a single conceit across a whole twenty-some episode season, they designed the season as a series of shorter arcs, and this kept things fresh. The final two seasons were shorter overall and didn’t have a chance to do that, and I think season 6 at least suffered for it. But then their final season wises up to the idea that this is indeed the end, and so it becomes a fan service-filled extravaganza across time and space. It’s an interesting and fun release in a year when Marvel properties were otherwise absent as Disney held everything back until the pandemic is over.
Twenty-five games, thirty years, over eighty ports–whatever the number, there’ve been a heck of a lot of Simpsons games. The story of the big sitcom that tried to make it in video games is a long and sordid tale, now collected here for your reading pleasure. With detailed critiques from a longtime writer and collector, as well as collected insights from the creators, this promises to be the most complete look at every Simpsons video game ever made.
Read all about them in the first novel-length look at the entire series – http://www.noiseland.co.
ICYMI, I wrote a whole bunch about every Simpsons game ever, and now it’s all on Medium! Check it out if you prefer their newspaper aesthetic over my neon green stylings.
Bart vs. My Hopes & Dreams: A Retrospective
