Star Wars: an immense franchise with an enormous fanbase across the world that comprises three trilogies and some other movies, many animated shows, micro-series and live-action shows, videogames, and comics. The Simpsons: a legendary 32-year-old animated show that revolutionized the industry and broke every record, with 700+ episodes on their back, with a movie and the second one in production, two theatrical shorts, and videogames and comics as well. Both are incredibly popular and an essential part of pop culture. Both are known by everyone and beloved by the entire world. Both have years of history and countless hours of content. Both are timeless.
The question, then, is: why in the world somebody thought that an uninspired crossover of three minutes between them where literally nothing happens could be somehow worthy? It's absolutely expendable for both franchises. And I don't think Disney+ wins something with it either except three minutes of programming. There was too little publicity, few articles about it, and little-to-no flutter among the fans.
There is nothing truly remarkable in this short. The only thing that obviously was as good as expected was the looooooong list of references to Star Wars. There are some silent and minor references included as visual jokes. I am not an expert on Star Wars –not even close to that– so I am not going to list them. I guess hardcore fans of Star Wars and casual watchers of The Simpsons will enjoy it more than hardcore Simpsons fans and casual watchers of Star Wars. As a part of the second group, I enjoyed the cameo of some of the species of Star Wars had a triumphant cameo, although inconsequential, like the baby Wookiee. But nothing else for me.
Another positive aspect – even if gradually less positive with each short – was Maggie. Of course. She is always cute and sweet, and this was not an exception. I quite liked her speechless relationship with BB-8. Both characters were nice and charming. However, and due to the low quality of the script, I didn't feel anything for her. Like, I was indifferent whether she was in trouble, or fighting to Gerald, or even losing that battle-to-death. I was delighted by the little gags, but didn't care for her as the protagonist.
As others pointed out, this episode is just a xerox of The Longest Daycare, a largely superior short than this one in every aspect. The plot is extremely rehashed: Maggie is alone in a daycare, Gerald appears like the antagonist, it tries to sell an unhappy ending to suddenly reveal everything it's all right (although less effectively than that time). It even has some recycled scenes, like Marge leaving the building – the camera is in the same place and the joke of her hair was repeated –, and Maggie crawling through the robots was similar, if not the same, to her running off from Gerald evading babies in little cars...
But that's not the only reason why I thought it was uninspired. The truth is that, just like most of the Jean-run episodes this season, this short has no plot. Maggie lost her pacifier and BB-8 helps her to recover it, until Gerald crushes her under a wardrobe, although she survives because "the rules of Star Wars say that the main characters never really die". Is it the laziest plot twist ever? I thought ending it with a self-referential joke was a terrible decision. The joke of Disney's shares going down was also terrible, because it ruined the little moment of emotion and tension here for the sake of doing a joke.
Beyond the writing, the music was a bit less pedant than it was in Playdate with Destiny, some character designs and sound effects were clearly above-average, and the animation was once again a job led by David Silverman. I had the same feeling as in the previous short: HD animation and the cartoonish style of Silverman don't seem compatible.
2/5
(though, I'm a bit far away of SW-Universe knowning
)
