ABOUT THAT INTRO: While it was cool to hear Maggie Roswell again as a now disembodied Maude Flanders, it was way too short! I think that the writers could've made use of having Maggie for awhile and done a really great ghost story with Maude haunting the Flanders home, with Ned torn between two minds of keeping Maude around or exorcising her as a demon counterfeit. And it would've also been interesting to see Maude's take on Ned's relationship with Rachel (not to mention that, being dead, she now knows all about Ginger) It also would've made a nice story about Maude's revenge against Homer (after all, he >was< partially responsible for her death in the first place)
Alright, enough of the fanboy stuff.. As brief as it was, we see that Homer is >still< obsessed with Maude, and it's still funny.
THE SEGMENTS: 1. "Send In The Clones" - definitely the best of the segments, the idea of a literal army of Homers terrorizing the countryside was quite good. And you couldn't help but laugh at some of the in-jokes about the show's past. The bit about Duff Brewery, and what then happened behind it, was a scream. A+
DYN: - one of the clones is Peter from the now-cancelled FOX animated series _Family Guy_ - many people have claimed that Peter was a badly realized Homer clone.
- the original _Tracy Ullman Show_ era Homer is another of the clones, complete with Dan Castalanetta's Walter Matthau-inspired original voice - and even his wanting to go get "frosty chocolate milkshakes".
CULTURAL REFERENCES:
SEND IN THE CLOWNS - title a play on the title of a famous Steven Sondheim song, recorded by a number of artists over the years including Judy Collins.
MULTIPLICITY: the first half of the segment is similar to this Michael Keaton comedy about a man who tries to solve both his family and job commitments by having himself cloned, even down to the idea of the clones cloning themselves, and trying to hide themselves so their secret doesn't come out.
DR. STRANGELOVE (or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb): - meeting of army generals take place in the same underground bunker - one of the army brass is obviously Gen. Buck Turgidson, who was played hilariously by George C. Scott in the original movie. - "no little girls in the war room" a riff on one of the movie's funniest lines: "Gentlemen, PLEASE! No fighting in the war room!"
SUPERMAN/FLASH RACE: Grampa's story going nowhere is actually his misremembering of some famous DC Comics stories where Superman raced The Flash to prove once and for all who was The Fastest Man Alive. FDR is, of course, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President of the US during the 1930s up until his death in the closing days of World War II - and beating Superman in a race would have been a real feat, considering FDR was wheelchair-bound as a result of a bout with polio.
"SHEEPHEARDER DROOPY" - the sight gag of the army of Homers eating the farmland down to scorched earth borrowed from this classic Tex Avery/MGM era cartoon.
"Bart The Daredevil" - remember Homer's famous plunge down Springfield Gorge? Now imagine thousands of Homer clones going down the same path....
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2. "The Right To Creep And Scare Harms" - this was the weakest of the three
segments by far. We've already seen zombies ("Dial 'Z' For Zombies"), and we've
already seen Homer time-travel. ("Time And Punishment"). And we've already seen
Lisa causing disaster to happen to Springfield when her campaign for peace
succeeds to the point when better-armed adversaries take advantage of that peace
("The Monkey's Paw"). Come on, writers, there are a ton of cool sci-fi and
horror plots out there to be lampooned rather than having old plots rehashed-
perhaps they should take a look at the new _Outer Limits_ DVD collection. - D -
-
DYN:
- one protestor's sign read "Fire Gil, Not Guns"
- Ruth Powers in the scene where Rich Texas Guy is firing off his guns in
celebration of the ordinance.
- Maggie has as many guns as Bart does?
- Marge had guns to trade for cash - ironic as we know how Marge feels about
guns?CULTURAL REFERENCE: KAISER WILHELM: Remember all of Grampa's rants in episodes past about the Kaiser? This is the guy he was talking about - he was the emperor of Germany during World War I, and seen as the main heavy during that conflict. Although he was reduced to a mere figurehead of government as a result of the Armistice, he also may have had some bearing in the events leading to World War II, namely in his tacit approval of Adolph Hitler being approved head of a coalition government - and we all know how that turned out. It's a little ironic that even Grampa didn't recognize the Kaiser Zombie for who he was.....
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3. "The Island Of Doctor Hibbert" - this is somewhat more like it - doing a parody of a famous H.G.Wells horror story about perverted scientific research. However, Julius Hibbert was the wrong choice to be a heavy, as he's way too jovial and mild-mannered to be convincing as a mad surgeon playing God. It would have served the story better if the mad doctor was played by resident quack Dr. Nick Riviera, or even more interestingly by a resurrected Dr. Marvin Monroe (of course fat chance of that happening, what with Harry Shearer not wanting to ever do that voice again). OTOH, what makes this segment work is seeing anthropomorphosized, or "furry" versions of OFF and Springfield's population. Marge's version of Lota The Panther Girl was especially good, especially when you realize she was basically a cross between herself and Snowball II. And someone had the brilliant idea of making Comic Book Guy the Sayer Of The Law - give that man a raise, he did his homework! - B+
DYN: - Agnes Skinner was a kangaroo, and Seymour was inside her pouch? - there was a quick shot of a "furry" Superintendant Chalmers? - the eyes of that thing in the shadows that ate the other animal looked very much like Reverend Lovejoy's? - Mr. Burns was a FOX? (perhaps a reference to rumours that Burnsie was originally modeled on Barry Diller, who was a FOX programming executive during the fledgling network's early struggles)
CULTURAL REFERENCE: THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU - the H. G. Wells story about a mad doctor who's out to improve nature by giving animals human qualities - and vice-versa - the hard way, through a series of painful operations that convert them into proto-humans in his surgical theatre known as the "House Of Pain". Moreau is a true sadist, controlling his "manimals" through use of a bullwhip, and forcing them to give up their animal ways through "The Law" - one of the Manimals is The Sayer Of The Law, who exhorts his fellow freaks "not to eat meat, are we not men?" and not to murder. Of course, the appearance of some shipwreck survivors soon put a monkey wrench in Moreau's grandiose plans....
the novel has been filmed three times: as _The Island Of Lost Souls_ (1933) with Charles Laughton as Moreau and Bela Lugosi as The Sayer Of The Law, considered a classic of horror (although Wells, who was alive to see the adaption of his tale, reportedly loathed it): as _The Island Of Doctor Moreau_ (1977) with Burt Lancaster as Moreau and Michael York as a shipwreck survivor turned manimal, also considered a classic: and the most recent _Island of Dr. Moreau_ (1998), which turned out to be a turkey the size of Godzilla, thanks in part to the antics of Marlon Brando as a Moreau who didn't just chew the scenery so much as swallow it whole and then regurgitate it ..... ------------------------------ BTW, what was up with that final scene of Kang and Kodos commenting on the island - Was that a reference to something in particular?