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The Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror" episodes RATED!

Started by The Mollusk, November 01, 2020, 01:05:20 PM

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The Mollusk

Quote from: Blumf on October 31, 2020, 02:28:09 PM
Would like to see a thread rating the Treehouse of Horror episodes, best segment, best overall.

YOU GOT IT BUDDY

My partner and I watched the first 8 this week as they're almost entirely excellent, and generally a good reflection of the Halloween spirit in general: a point in the year to drop convention and be as creative, daft and gruesome as you like. There's a couple which I find less-than-great, like Attack of the 50ft Eyesores and The Homega Man from seasons 8 and 9 respectively, but otherwise there's not much I don't enjoy immensely about these 8 episodes.

Fly vs. Fly is definitely among my favourites, a faithful and fairly creepy homage to The Fly which is jam-packed with jokes. Fly-Bart's manic physicality and garbled growling voice are properly unsettling. When he comes out of the transporter, is Marge's instinctive decision to beat him with a broom a nod to Kafka's Metamorphosis?

These two bits are such great physical comedy:



I also love this exchange:

Homer (after having walked through the matter transporter): "Mmm!"

Frink: "I take it from that little impressed noise that you're interested in purchasing this matter transporter."

Homer: "Hmm, two dollars... and you say it only transports matter... hmmmmm I'll give you 35 cents."




King Homer is another banger, again just loaded with gags. "Wow! Look at the size of that platform!" A few shot-for-shot replications from the film and the black and white animation really seal the deal too.

This bit fucking kills me:






Homer³ is proper landmark stuff as well. I imagine it probably cost a fair bit to animate this back in 1995 and I honestly still think it looks great. The animators did a really good job of adapting Homer and Bart to 3D models and the dimension they get stuck in is still really weirdly compelling and beautiful, in that sort of "retrowave" way that was captured in recent years by musicians like James Ferraro and Oneohtrix Point Never. The music in the dimension is so good, and the whole thing still fills me with a sense of quiet awe and wonder. Brilliant episode.






Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on October 31, 2020, 03:02:28 PM
I think Treehouse of Horror 9 (whichever was the one in which Homer gets an evil hair transplant) was the first example of zombie Simpsons I ever saw. There was something noticeably off about the whole episode, from the animation to the stilted dialogue.

The best one is The Shinning, if for no other reason than the "No TV and no beer make Homer something something" scene.

Definitely agree about The Shinning, it's fantastic. Although personally I think the 9th ToH still holds up really well, personally. It's great fun, each segment is very decent and the gag rate is pretty high, IIRC. "Look, Marge! Maggie lost her baby legs!" They get pretty shite after this one, though. I don't remember them vividly but I do recall the dolphin one being a load of guff.

WEIGH IN, CHUMPS!

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

The Nightmare on Elm Street one verges on the genuinely scary at times - particularly Willie's burning screams and his skeleton, with its glowing red eyes.

On the other hand, it has big laughs, like, "Just get [Martin's corpse] out of here. Not into the kindergarten!"

The Mollusk

I love that whole PTA meeting. "I don't like the idea of Milhouse having two spaghetti meals in one day."

Blumf

Think I'll second The Mollusk's view of Fly vs. Fly. Everything with Fly-Bart, and Homer's nonchalant introduction to and use of the transporter.

As for overall episode, I think IX may win it. I like the killer hair story, the Stay Tuned parody was great fun, and the bit in the alien Maggie section where Marge has to decide where she wants to be inseminated: "I absolutely refuse to go along with this... but since I have no choice, I'll take the alley."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Simpsons_Treehouse_of_Horror_episodes

Thursday

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on November 01, 2020, 01:52:45 PM
The Nightmare on Elm Street one verges on the genuinely scary at times - particularly Willie's burning screams and his skeleton, with its glowing red eyes.


I was thinking about this one, it's not really meant to be the scariest thing, but everyone continuing with the mundane PTA meeting while Willie is made to wait as he burns horrifically to death is genuinely unsettling. 

Blumf


Cuellar

The first and the second Treehouses of Horror have a great place in my heart - The Raven, To Serve Man, Monkey's Paw, Mr Burns putting Homer's brain in a robot is brilliantly gruesome.

The series 5 one is good too - in the Dracula parody, the animation and delivery of Homer saying 'super fun happy slide' had me howling.

samadriel

That haunted house one in the first one was scary as fuck.

Bazooka

Whichever one has the Homega Man in, the "Die you chalk faced goons " bit is an excellent gag.

up_the_hampipe

Quote from: samadriel on November 01, 2020, 02:42:50 PM
That haunted house one in the first one was scary as fuck.

That one fucked me up as a kid.

The Shining parody might be my favourite. "Hmm, that's odd. Usually the blood gets off at the second floor"

madhair60

Stupid hippo.

Stupid frog.

I stand by my ethnic slur!

This baby is called The Withstandinator. It can take a six megaton blast, no more, no less.

Catalogue Trousers

Yeah, early Treehouses are great. Then...well, look at that Wikipedia article. Parodies of such well-known horror stories as Mr And Mrs Smith? The Diving Bell And The Butterfly? Kingsman? Harry fucking Potter? Get the fuck out of here.

Ferris

Best segment: the one with Flanders as the devil, Lionel hutz as the defence attorney1, and a jury featuring the starting line of the 1976 Philadelphia Flyers. Also has homer eating all the donuts in the world!!

Season 5, apparently.

1: while combing his hair with a fork* "Mr. Simpson, don't you worry - I saw an episode of Matlock in a bar last night. The sound wasn't on but I think I got the gist of it")

Consignia

I remember some of the edited versions of these on Sky left many of the Treehouse of Horror episodes nonsensical. In particular the 5th one, with the Shining Parody and stuff which had a running gag of Willy being axed in the back in each segment being completely cut from the episode. It was the first episode of the Simpsons I'd seen bar a couple of friends' VHSs of season 1. It did leave rather confused about the show as a whole as an ignorant kid.

Pink Gregory

There's two endings that I find particularly bleak.

One is the ending of the teachers ending the kids, with Bart and Lisa being thrown into the blender and it cuts to black.

The other is the 3D one.  Just the final scene of the family despairing as Homer is GONE FOREVER.

neov1974

I'm of the view that the only post golden era episodes worth bothering with at TOH
the world building isn't broken, cos they're a completely separate world. Still super hit and miss but you get an occasional hit among them
ie. TOH 15 has a section where Bart and Milhouse can stop time that's solid


kngen

Quote from: The Mollusk on November 01, 2020, 01:05:20 PM
King Homer is another banger, again just loaded with gags. "Wow! Look at the size of that platform!" A few shot-for-shot replications from the film and the black and white animation really seal the deal too.

"I'm dreading the reviews, I'll tell you that" is such a great, silly line, perfectly delivered.


idunnosomename

always think it's amazing how they used mundane jokes on these supernatural episodes. "lousy Smarch weather" could totally be used in a normal episode that doesn't involve Groundskeeper Willie turning into a massive bagpipe spider.

i do love dream Krusty reacting to that and fucking off. it's superb

Brundle-Fly

For me. it has to be this early Treehouse segment that petulantly spoilers the classic The Twilight Zone episode with its rice paper-thin conceit.

Funnily enough, though, a mate and I once shared a similar gag in 1983 about a beauty therapist student we both lusted over.  She always used to wear baggy T-shirts around campus with large font slogans. We imagined her gradually unfurling the garment to our dribbing faces with the legend, 

"I love nerds...

...to die...

...lovingly in my arms...

...with their throats cut.
.,.etc...etc

You get the idea with that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxI7B758XBQ

Blumf


VelourSpirit

Quote from: The Mollusk on November 01, 2020, 01:05:20 PM
Homer³ is proper landmark stuff as well. I imagine it probably cost a fair bit to animate this back in 1995 and I honestly still think it looks great. The animators did a really good job of adapting Homer and Bart to 3D models and the dimension they get stuck in is still really weirdly compelling and beautiful, in that sort of "retrowave" way that was captured in recent years by musicians like James Ferraro and Oneohtrix Point Never. The music in the dimension is so good, and the whole thing still fills me with a sense of quiet awe and wonder. Brilliant episode.
Great review, it left such a lasting impression on me as a kid. Always felt melancholic, just this terrifying but calm atmosphere the whole way through.
Also agree with others that the Groundkepeer Willie one was terrifying. Genuinely scarier than the actual films!
The Devil and Homer Simpson, absolute classic, probably the most iconic.
Either V or VI are the strongest overall, I think. I just rewatched X and I really liked it so I guess the decline started with XI. Was the Brosnan HAL 9000 in XII good? I seem to remember thinking it was properly creepy. Didn't watch any after that.
Citizen Kang > Devil Flanders > Homer³ > The Shinning > Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace > Nightmare Cafeteria > I dunno there's so many good ones I can't rank them

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Quote from: Blumf on November 02, 2020, 01:17:25 AM
"Oh no. Aliens...bio-duplication...nude conspiracies!"
"... Abortions for some, miniature American flags for others!"

"You have to vote for one of us - it's a two party system."
"Well, I believe I'll vote for a third party candidate!"
"Go ahead. Throw your vote away!"

American politics in a nutshell.

"What the heck is this? Some sort of a tube?"

Thursday

I suppose Homer3D and maybe the Murder House one are more realistically depicted in spite of their premise. Unlike the tendency to have characters behaving in insane ways for no reason in service of the premise and jokes (which is fine, they just have different intentions)

13 schoolyards

Dial Z for Zombie isn't really a classic but:

"You killed the zombie Flanders!"

"He was a zombie?"

Still makes me laugh after 25-odd years

The Mollusk

The Raven from the first Treehouse is a minor masterpiece. Its pacing manages to make it both darkly enchanting and fervently gripping, with just enough of the early Simpsons charm and wit to carry it along without it being a zany malformed hatchet job. James Earl Jones plays a blinder too, obviously. Just under 5 minutes of genius which doesn't feel tightly-packed or clunky for even a split second.

madhair60

Mr. Ploot? Homer Simpson here. When you sold me this house you forgot to mention one little thing. You didn't tell me it was built on an Indian burial ground! No you didn't! Well, that's not my recollection! Yeah. Well... all right, goodbye. (To family) He says he mentioned it five or six times.

idunnosomename

thats one of the best bits of one-way telephone dialogue ever

Sherman Krank

They did another 3D segment in the lastest Treehouse episode but I can't tell you if it was any good or not as I can't remember anything else about it even though I only watched it a few days ago.
Can't remember a single thing about the other segments either.
So overall I'd have to rate it as unmemorable.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

I'm not sure I'd rate Homer3 that highly. It's too heavily invested in the novelty of the 3D animation, which has long since faded. It's not all that funny or interesting outside of that.

Has anyone mentioned the evil Krusty doll one yet? The froghurt conversation is of course a classic, but I also love the line, "Help! Help! The Doll's trying to kill me and the toaster's been laughing at me!"
I also like how every segment in that episode ends with the heart iris and that jaunty music.

Speaking of toasters; I love the utterly batshit way the time travel one begins, "Daaaad! Your hand is jammed in the toaster!" "Dad, it's in there again!"