The feeling's mutual.
Rate and Review: "Treehouse of Horror XXIII" (PABF17)
- Thread starter Oh that's raspberry!
- Start date
serenade
will dance for money
This episode was so funny that I had to go to the funny farm.
They finally did it. The best Treehouse of Horror in nearly a decade!
It actually surpassed both Treehouses XIX and XX, which were to me the definite benchmarks of the Al Jean years. We have a new benchmark.
Writing-wise, I can't complain. Kudos to Brian Kelley, who's obviously no stranger to Treehouse stories, having done an excellent one 10 years ago. I was surprised to see Curb and Seinfeld veteran David Mandel also involved. Great effort.
The 2012 segment was surprisingly gutsy. In fact, this was probably the most gory and bloody Treehouse segment I think the show's ever done.
The black-hole story was quite good. My only regret is that this could have been a potentially fantastic plot for Futurama, especially the threesome ending.
The Paranormal Activity segment was the funniest horror parody the show's done in ages. Great use of static angles, and great gags (especially the peeing sequence). Also, quite an emotionally affected performance by Julie Kavner during the devil scene. Homer falling down the stairs had me in tears, even though it really brought his I.Q. down with the "We have stairs?" remark. It was so stupid, it was hilarious.
The time travel segment (the weakest of the three) started out rather slow, but really picked up steam once Artie Ziff entered the story. Jon Lovitz still has the energy to drive some of the jokes, and the new Bart Simpson hairstyle was a riot. Renaissance Homer indeed.
I've also heard the podcast (11 people on the same room, a record). I imagine it'll be used as a DVD/Blu-Ray commentary track for the Season 24 set.
I have to give some special kudos to the animation department. This was probably the best animated segment in the entire series, not counting the Simpsons movie and The Longest Daycare. Amazing use of shadows, poses, colors and tons of little details, not to mention amazing designs! This is Steven Dean Moore's 50th episode, and it turned out to be his best work to date!!
Random rant: did Dan Greaney get tired of halloween nicknames or something? His was the only ordinary credit. I wonder if George Meyer's disdain for the scary names rubbed off on Dan.
Alf's score was also seriously inspired. This is one Treehouse special that absolutely lived up to the previews.
Easily a 5/5. Season 24 has had terrific holdovers, so far. The show is on a serious roll.
It actually surpassed both Treehouses XIX and XX, which were to me the definite benchmarks of the Al Jean years. We have a new benchmark.
Writing-wise, I can't complain. Kudos to Brian Kelley, who's obviously no stranger to Treehouse stories, having done an excellent one 10 years ago. I was surprised to see Curb and Seinfeld veteran David Mandel also involved. Great effort.
The 2012 segment was surprisingly gutsy. In fact, this was probably the most gory and bloody Treehouse segment I think the show's ever done.
The black-hole story was quite good. My only regret is that this could have been a potentially fantastic plot for Futurama, especially the threesome ending.
The Paranormal Activity segment was the funniest horror parody the show's done in ages. Great use of static angles, and great gags (especially the peeing sequence). Also, quite an emotionally affected performance by Julie Kavner during the devil scene. Homer falling down the stairs had me in tears, even though it really brought his I.Q. down with the "We have stairs?" remark. It was so stupid, it was hilarious.
The time travel segment (the weakest of the three) started out rather slow, but really picked up steam once Artie Ziff entered the story. Jon Lovitz still has the energy to drive some of the jokes, and the new Bart Simpson hairstyle was a riot. Renaissance Homer indeed.
I've also heard the podcast (11 people on the same room, a record). I imagine it'll be used as a DVD/Blu-Ray commentary track for the Season 24 set.
I have to give some special kudos to the animation department. This was probably the best animated segment in the entire series, not counting the Simpsons movie and The Longest Daycare. Amazing use of shadows, poses, colors and tons of little details, not to mention amazing designs! This is Steven Dean Moore's 50th episode, and it turned out to be his best work to date!!
Random rant: did Dan Greaney get tired of halloween nicknames or something? His was the only ordinary credit. I wonder if George Meyer's disdain for the scary names rubbed off on Dan.
Alf's score was also seriously inspired. This is one Treehouse special that absolutely lived up to the previews.
Easily a 5/5. Season 24 has had terrific holdovers, so far. The show is on a serious roll.
Did Lisa's words of warning about if one more thing goes into the black hole it would grow huge and devour everything briefly remind anyone else of the movie where she talked about the pollution in the lake?
Last edited:
Nicky
The Devil Himself....
I'm kind of glad they didn't go with the original ending of Marge first falling for Bart. It would have been rather creepy, like the 2 previous times they've teased an attraction between them.
The other one had her saying how cute she thought he was in one of the comics (in a BTTF parody funnily enough), mind you she's only stating fact there so that wasn't so bad.
The other one had her saying how cute she thought he was in one of the comics (in a BTTF parody funnily enough), mind you she's only stating fact there so that wasn't so bad.
simpsonsbart
"Modern Simpsons" defender
I hate Lisa in the last part.
Oh that's raspberry!
Food-Crazed Maniac
The post in question has already been dealt with now everyone please stay on topic.
Patches O'houlihan
I'm baaaack!
If last year's THoH was the equivalent the scum that is Detroit, MI, then this year's THoH is Cleveland:
I think your posts need a laugh track, seriously.
Bert Stanton
Beer it is
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2011
- Messages
- 885
I can fully believe that and thought "this is the sort of thing that could actually be an episode nowadays".
This is the first episode in a LONG time where I felt they weren't searching for time and that they might have actually had to cut some things out.
9/10
Walid
Executive Vice President
yea for some reason that tidbit of information doesn't surprise me much
alex_on_ice
Pin Pal
Treehouse Of Horror XXIII (12/20) :
Ahh, much better than last week !
Quite a few fans have pointed out that the introduction was a bit too long. I agree with them ; but I must admit, Moe did have some pretty good lines. I do find that Springfield could have been destroyed a different way than being smashed by Mayan gods, but oh well, that's just my opinion...
The first story was my favorite one out of the three. It was just a very well thought out story by the writer (everything made sense to me) and there were a couple of pretty funny jokes (Homer asking BH to open a bag of pretzels for him, Bart not able to get rid of his math homework, Milhouse hitting his first homerun etc). The ending was a bit too far fetched for me and I didn't really like the alien design.
The second story was suprisingly short. We didn't have much time to get into the story (and really feel the atmosphere a bit more). However, there were a couple of pretty funny jokes : Homer screaming "We have stairs ?!", Homer taking a wee, and the "Cinnamon" joke had me laughing the hardest
.
The last story was the weakest one for me. Not knowing any other way of bringing in a time machine into the story, the writers use Frink yet again
(that kind of annoyed me). I find we're seeing a bit too much of Frink in the horror shows these days. He was in the Intro for Season 22 as well, no ?!
I think what kind of gets to me is I don't really see what this story is doing in a horror show... Nothing can really spook you out... Apart from a few good jokes such as "that's renaissance Homer" and "make Egyptian Homer do it", there wasn't really anything too memorable.
I did like the James Bond posters though !
12/20
Ahh, much better than last week !
Quite a few fans have pointed out that the introduction was a bit too long. I agree with them ; but I must admit, Moe did have some pretty good lines. I do find that Springfield could have been destroyed a different way than being smashed by Mayan gods, but oh well, that's just my opinion...
The first story was my favorite one out of the three. It was just a very well thought out story by the writer (everything made sense to me) and there were a couple of pretty funny jokes (Homer asking BH to open a bag of pretzels for him, Bart not able to get rid of his math homework, Milhouse hitting his first homerun etc). The ending was a bit too far fetched for me and I didn't really like the alien design.
The second story was suprisingly short. We didn't have much time to get into the story (and really feel the atmosphere a bit more). However, there were a couple of pretty funny jokes : Homer screaming "We have stairs ?!", Homer taking a wee, and the "Cinnamon" joke had me laughing the hardest
. The last story was the weakest one for me. Not knowing any other way of bringing in a time machine into the story, the writers use Frink yet again
(that kind of annoyed me). I find we're seeing a bit too much of Frink in the horror shows these days. He was in the Intro for Season 22 as well, no ?!I think what kind of gets to me is I don't really see what this story is doing in a horror show... Nothing can really spook you out... Apart from a few good jokes such as "that's renaissance Homer" and "make Egyptian Homer do it", there wasn't really anything too memorable.
I did like the James Bond posters though !
12/20
Okey so in the last Thoh XXIII there is this scene at 15:04 where barts walks up to the time machine car and you can clearly see young Homer in the background, can anybody explain why this happend? is that since he goes back in time and homer comes back with him we can see him then because he walks down the street later in time. If see what i mean, if you have a another idea please reply 
Calif out
Calif out
Z
Zombies Rise from the Sea
Guest
Treehouse of Horror XXIII
Recent Treehouse of Horrors have screamed out "unfunny parodies of recent movies" than anything trying to be horror/sci-fi. Especially last years episode which was essentially the first TOH to contain non-scary segments. This episode looks to rectify that by containing two sci-fi segments and one horror segment; It may seem like it's back on track with it's newfound focus but it's as unsloppy and unfunny as the last installment. Watching a Mayan version of Springfield in the beginning that includes a weak Obama dig, okayish characterizations and Mayan randomness that seems more childish and distracting than anything cool will not help your expectations one bit.
The Greatest Story Ever Holed
That title proves how original the creators are at coming up with titles. This is a story about a black hole that is caused by the result of a LHC, referencing the fears of it creating a black hole that go back way into the ancient dates of 2008, where it was overhyped back then. (but the resulting site from that was pretty decent) Pretty late to be jumping aboard the bandwagon huh? The idea behind the story is okayish, Lisa befriending a black hole, taking it back to the home of the Simpsons (almost like a pet) where possible chaos erupts but the plotting behind it seems awkward. It seems like there's no sort of coherence or even structure; from scene to scene it tries to establish some form of story that'll hook the viewer and keep it watching but it doesn't know whether to set up the story or whether or not to set up jokes about the black hole that mostly misses and that back and forwarth continues to a point where the segment just loses any semblance and transforms into one of those random Family Guy episodes where anything goes. I don't know whether or not I was supposed to care or whether or not I was supposed to laugh, on one hand the story it tried to set up did have some potential but on the other hand I felt almost annoyed that this is what they think will hook viewers, random shit and because of that it left me disconnected with the segment. I do admire the type of jokes they tried to do, creatively with the stuff it's fed (Bart with his homework for example) and satirically with the stuff the people have thrown out (such as Milhouse's home run) but when the content of the jokes are unfocused narrow and the jokes are delivered with such scattershot precision, admirations can only go so far and it's a shame when a joke involving the aliens praising the Zune in a pretentious way overwhelms a joke where Maggie's pacifier manages to qualm the black hole. The characters are at least somewhat bearable if not a bit generic and though it was done way better in Futurama, the black hole effects were passable but this was a failure on all accounts, one that could be saved if only the black hole talked. Shame, this had a unique idea too, I could almost imagine having a black hole as sort of a pet...
1.5/10
Un-Normal Activity
The best segment of the episode; mainly because it has a sense of coherence and a better plot though it can only hope to reach the best of THoH segments. This is obviously a parody of Paranormal Activity and because of that, it allows the segment a small form of creativity that's shown in some scenes; I'm impressed with what they were able to do with it, the moment with the stairs is a decent usage of the first person perspective; nothing flashy, nothing excessive, just falling down the stairs and the way the perspective dynamically changes is different for Modern Simpsons. It still manages to retain a sense of cheapness and roboticness though... For example, they don't seem to get innovative with the angles, only managing to do what is appropriate for the show while calculate things to the nearest floating decimal point. Still, for current standards it's impressive enough. Homer here is above average, he seems almost entertaining as he goes through his routine, the jokes that he makes don't feel like he's trying to hard to make them and it makes us follow him if not for a brief second; the other characters follow the same route and they suit themselves to the parody without sacrificing much of their personalities. However... That doesn't mean they're not immune to the Modern Simpsons touch; there are out of character things like Bart beating up Milhouse and Lisa being as shovonistic as possible; also of note is an obvious error like Milhouse being in both Bart and Lisa's rooms while the clock is still on; there can't be two Milhouses; while this is a parody of Paranormal Activity, only a few scenes feel like they're parodying it (the initial scene and the singing in the bathroom scene) with the rest grabbing from the bag of overexageration and complacency that has tended to segments like this, I mean do we really need to see fires, babies floating around and skeletons in order to know this is a parody? Moe being the devil doesn't help matters either and while his appearance does lead to some good and creative things, it also shows the main problems with these segments; lack of quality control. Overall this was weak but it's still the best one here.
3.0/10
Bart and Homer's Excellent Adventure
The parody of Back to the Future; this is the segment in the episode where it's allowed to go into any direction where it wants to go and here, it at least tries to go places. The plot seems focused but at the same time it also lacks direction; we know where Bart is supposed to go but it has to rely on such elements like convenience which is required to meet up with Homer in the first place and lazy jokes such as Bart getting Past Homer to strangle him which is made slightly different by the appearance of Marge and her rejectal of him which make it obvious they're just trying to provide a path to guide him through the episode; things don't get much better in the future where it seems like they're just coming up with stuff out of thin air in order to get to the end of the episode, things such as a sudden interaction with Present Homer and the subsequent multiple Homers that appears afterwards. Alas it seems like inconsistency has become one of those common things in recent THoH's and these things used to have actual plots to. I'll have to admit, even though it's non-canon fans will get some kick out of this episode; seeing Past Homer is nice as he interacts with Bart, interacts with the future and interacts with his former-self, there's just that insight that you get from seeing past versions interact with future versions of themselves with different experiences and different perspectives and even though the acting is horrendously bad, seeing Artie Ziff and Marge together is like somewhat of a dream come true. But alas, that's all the kick we seem to ever get from that segment as the rest is just like the two segments before it, confused and all-over-the-place ending in an anticlimatic fashion which in this case is overdone, excessive and while attempting to do a decent joke, just seems like something to up the stakes while providing something that at least enforces Homer/Marge's natural love in a THoH way. There is some spark in this segment in having Bart encounter the past but this was a disappointing way to end the evening.
2.0/10
Well, it's better than Treehouse of Horror XXII but only by a small amount. While this outing attempts to go back to it's sci-fi/horror routes, the results show that these THoH aren't the highly regarded events they once were. It doesn't seem like a source of creativity more like a vent for the writers to put out the randomest shit they have, shit that still manages to make itself known throughout the season. This works well for the writers to do whatever they want to do and I'm sure there are people out there who like this randomness but it's really tough to sit through, we can't help to cringe at the apparently lack of quality and apathy shown towards the shows condition, to the point where we're tempted to take the remote control and change to something else; I don't know of any words about the apparent decline that haven't already been said but you can easily insert these words here. I'm just thankful we get a two week break, there's only so much a man can take.
2.0/10
Recent Treehouse of Horrors have screamed out "unfunny parodies of recent movies" than anything trying to be horror/sci-fi. Especially last years episode which was essentially the first TOH to contain non-scary segments. This episode looks to rectify that by containing two sci-fi segments and one horror segment; It may seem like it's back on track with it's newfound focus but it's as unsloppy and unfunny as the last installment. Watching a Mayan version of Springfield in the beginning that includes a weak Obama dig, okayish characterizations and Mayan randomness that seems more childish and distracting than anything cool will not help your expectations one bit.
The Greatest Story Ever Holed
That title proves how original the creators are at coming up with titles. This is a story about a black hole that is caused by the result of a LHC, referencing the fears of it creating a black hole that go back way into the ancient dates of 2008, where it was overhyped back then. (but the resulting site from that was pretty decent) Pretty late to be jumping aboard the bandwagon huh? The idea behind the story is okayish, Lisa befriending a black hole, taking it back to the home of the Simpsons (almost like a pet) where possible chaos erupts but the plotting behind it seems awkward. It seems like there's no sort of coherence or even structure; from scene to scene it tries to establish some form of story that'll hook the viewer and keep it watching but it doesn't know whether to set up the story or whether or not to set up jokes about the black hole that mostly misses and that back and forwarth continues to a point where the segment just loses any semblance and transforms into one of those random Family Guy episodes where anything goes. I don't know whether or not I was supposed to care or whether or not I was supposed to laugh, on one hand the story it tried to set up did have some potential but on the other hand I felt almost annoyed that this is what they think will hook viewers, random shit and because of that it left me disconnected with the segment. I do admire the type of jokes they tried to do, creatively with the stuff it's fed (Bart with his homework for example) and satirically with the stuff the people have thrown out (such as Milhouse's home run) but when the content of the jokes are unfocused narrow and the jokes are delivered with such scattershot precision, admirations can only go so far and it's a shame when a joke involving the aliens praising the Zune in a pretentious way overwhelms a joke where Maggie's pacifier manages to qualm the black hole. The characters are at least somewhat bearable if not a bit generic and though it was done way better in Futurama, the black hole effects were passable but this was a failure on all accounts, one that could be saved if only the black hole talked. Shame, this had a unique idea too, I could almost imagine having a black hole as sort of a pet...
1.5/10
Un-Normal Activity
The best segment of the episode; mainly because it has a sense of coherence and a better plot though it can only hope to reach the best of THoH segments. This is obviously a parody of Paranormal Activity and because of that, it allows the segment a small form of creativity that's shown in some scenes; I'm impressed with what they were able to do with it, the moment with the stairs is a decent usage of the first person perspective; nothing flashy, nothing excessive, just falling down the stairs and the way the perspective dynamically changes is different for Modern Simpsons. It still manages to retain a sense of cheapness and roboticness though... For example, they don't seem to get innovative with the angles, only managing to do what is appropriate for the show while calculate things to the nearest floating decimal point. Still, for current standards it's impressive enough. Homer here is above average, he seems almost entertaining as he goes through his routine, the jokes that he makes don't feel like he's trying to hard to make them and it makes us follow him if not for a brief second; the other characters follow the same route and they suit themselves to the parody without sacrificing much of their personalities. However... That doesn't mean they're not immune to the Modern Simpsons touch; there are out of character things like Bart beating up Milhouse and Lisa being as shovonistic as possible; also of note is an obvious error like Milhouse being in both Bart and Lisa's rooms while the clock is still on; there can't be two Milhouses; while this is a parody of Paranormal Activity, only a few scenes feel like they're parodying it (the initial scene and the singing in the bathroom scene) with the rest grabbing from the bag of overexageration and complacency that has tended to segments like this, I mean do we really need to see fires, babies floating around and skeletons in order to know this is a parody? Moe being the devil doesn't help matters either and while his appearance does lead to some good and creative things, it also shows the main problems with these segments; lack of quality control. Overall this was weak but it's still the best one here.
3.0/10
Bart and Homer's Excellent Adventure
The parody of Back to the Future; this is the segment in the episode where it's allowed to go into any direction where it wants to go and here, it at least tries to go places. The plot seems focused but at the same time it also lacks direction; we know where Bart is supposed to go but it has to rely on such elements like convenience which is required to meet up with Homer in the first place and lazy jokes such as Bart getting Past Homer to strangle him which is made slightly different by the appearance of Marge and her rejectal of him which make it obvious they're just trying to provide a path to guide him through the episode; things don't get much better in the future where it seems like they're just coming up with stuff out of thin air in order to get to the end of the episode, things such as a sudden interaction with Present Homer and the subsequent multiple Homers that appears afterwards. Alas it seems like inconsistency has become one of those common things in recent THoH's and these things used to have actual plots to. I'll have to admit, even though it's non-canon fans will get some kick out of this episode; seeing Past Homer is nice as he interacts with Bart, interacts with the future and interacts with his former-self, there's just that insight that you get from seeing past versions interact with future versions of themselves with different experiences and different perspectives and even though the acting is horrendously bad, seeing Artie Ziff and Marge together is like somewhat of a dream come true. But alas, that's all the kick we seem to ever get from that segment as the rest is just like the two segments before it, confused and all-over-the-place ending in an anticlimatic fashion which in this case is overdone, excessive and while attempting to do a decent joke, just seems like something to up the stakes while providing something that at least enforces Homer/Marge's natural love in a THoH way. There is some spark in this segment in having Bart encounter the past but this was a disappointing way to end the evening.
2.0/10
Well, it's better than Treehouse of Horror XXII but only by a small amount. While this outing attempts to go back to it's sci-fi/horror routes, the results show that these THoH aren't the highly regarded events they once were. It doesn't seem like a source of creativity more like a vent for the writers to put out the randomest shit they have, shit that still manages to make itself known throughout the season. This works well for the writers to do whatever they want to do and I'm sure there are people out there who like this randomness but it's really tough to sit through, we can't help to cringe at the apparently lack of quality and apathy shown towards the shows condition, to the point where we're tempted to take the remote control and change to something else; I don't know of any words about the apparent decline that haven't already been said but you can easily insert these words here. I'm just thankful we get a two week break, there's only so much a man can take.
2.0/10
Last edited:
Bertholomew
Needs More 32'
Here's a very short and rushed review:
Mayan introduction, only good joke was Moe's apparent Masochism, but the design of everything in this scene was brilliant 4/5
-The Greatest Story ever holed was my favorite segment, perhaps because it didn't rely on the (bad) writing as much as the other sections, and had awesome animation. 4/5
Un-normal activity was pretty bad, I saw the first film and was laughing through most of it at how predictable and shoddily made it was, I would have preferred if they parodied how un-scary it was, but maybe Americans found it scarier so it wouldn't have worked (just guessing from 'The film that shocked America). Still it had a couple of decent jokes here and there 2.75/5
Bart and Homer's Excellent Adventure (Why not 'Bart to the future'?) Annoyed me because it was like a badly done version of a comic story where Bart goes back in time, in which there are also more jokes and reveals about other characters pasts'. The show could have done this had they not put in the Multiple Homers and instead used that time to see other people around Springfield. 2.25/5
Overall: 3.5/5 Better than Last years by a pretty large margin IMO
Mayan introduction, only good joke was Moe's apparent Masochism, but the design of everything in this scene was brilliant 4/5
-The Greatest Story ever holed was my favorite segment, perhaps because it didn't rely on the (bad) writing as much as the other sections, and had awesome animation. 4/5
Un-normal activity was pretty bad, I saw the first film and was laughing through most of it at how predictable and shoddily made it was, I would have preferred if they parodied how un-scary it was, but maybe Americans found it scarier so it wouldn't have worked (just guessing from 'The film that shocked America). Still it had a couple of decent jokes here and there 2.75/5
Bart and Homer's Excellent Adventure (Why not 'Bart to the future'?) Annoyed me because it was like a badly done version of a comic story where Bart goes back in time, in which there are also more jokes and reveals about other characters pasts'. The show could have done this had they not put in the Multiple Homers and instead used that time to see other people around Springfield. 2.25/5
Overall: 3.5/5 Better than Last years by a pretty large margin IMO
That's already an episode.
Comicshow MolemanBob
DICK MOVE!
and he did only go to the past...
Bertholomew
Needs More 32'
Thanks, I should've remembered that, but i was thinking back to the future, not that he actually went to the future
Frightenin’ Mate No. 2
a whiz with cold drinks
They could've called it Bart to the Future II.
just rewatched it
so yeah it was still a piece of shit
so yeah it was still a piece of shit
Diversity Pumpkin
Stonecutter
- Joined
- Nov 3, 2008
- Messages
- 4,637
^ Lol at your season 24 ratings.
Real Melvin
hat factory
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2009
- Messages
- 731
it was bad
Kit Starter
Pin Pal
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2007
- Messages
- 591
Bart was originally from the future so of course he became his future self. 70's Homer was from the past so he was able to meet his future self.
I'm surprised they posted anything at all. It seems to be the uncut, unfinished version.
Oh that's raspberry!
Food-Crazed Maniac
Interesting extra for the dvd/blu-ray/whatever we're using by that point....
Or it'll be the episode itself.
