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Marge turns into possessed by The Pooka Dook. Photograph courtesy of twentieth Tv
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 28 (UPI) — The Simpsons writer-producer Carolyn Omine stated “Treehouse of Horror XXXIII,” premiering Sunday on Fox, challenged animators with types new to the collection. This features a satire of Demise Notice, referred to as “Demise Tome,” rendering The Simpsons characters in Japanese anime model.
Omine, 60, stated she needed to incorporate Japanese animation as a result of she is half Japanese and grew up watching anime. The Simpsons animators made some modifications from the present’s regular animation to Japanese anime model.
For instance, “Our characters blink far more usually,” Omine instructed UPI in a current Zoom interview.
The Simpsons finally employed the Korean studio DR Film to animate the “Demise Tome” section. Omine mixed the appears to be like of present anime characters to approximate what Homer, Lisa and others would appear to be in anime.
For Homer, The Simpsons added a 5 o’clock shadow and eliminated hair from the pinnacle of Akira Takaoka from Assassination Classroom. Newscaster Kent Brockman took the chiseled options of Demise Notice‘s Chief of Police Soichiro Yagami and grayed his hair.
The anime Mr. Burns mixed Demise Notice‘s Watari and Roger Ruvie. Eagle-eyed viewers will discover different Springfield residents passing by the background and Springfield outlets within the anime model metropolis.
“It is purported to appear to be Tokyo, nevertheless it’s Springfield,” Omine stated.
A Westworld spoof turns The Simpsons into robotic hosts in a theme park primarily based on the collection. The section opens with a scene from the traditional episode “Marge Vs. the Monorail,” which was animated in normal definition in 1993.
Now, excessive definition characters work together with the monorail episode, however Omine modified the unique scene from evening to daytime to suit the “Simpsons World” story.
“The establishing shot of the monorail is a shot from the [original] present,” Omine stated.
Like in Westworld, the Homer host realizes he’s a robotic. Homer wakes robotic variations of Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie to flee Simpsons World.
Their escape takes the Simpsons by robotic recreations of previous episodes. Like Westworld, this additionally presents the Simpsons with an existential disaster.
“How would the characters really feel in the event that they wakened and realized they had been a part of this big franchise?” Omine stated.
“Treehouse of Horror XXXIII” was considered one of 4 episodes for which Omine was put in cost for Season 34. Omine stated showrunner Matt Selman inspired her to maintain including extra homages to traditional episodes.
“As soon as we began storyboarding it, then Matt would go, ‘Extra,'” Omine stated. “We would provide you with lists and lists and lists. Then he’d nonetheless say, ‘Extra.'”
Scenes expanded to incorporate an increasing number of references to previous episodes. For instance, Homer picks considered one of many Lisa robots, every wearing a special outfit, from considered one of Lisa’s previous episodes.
“After they really lay it out, [animators] go, ‘Oh, really, we want extra Lisas,'” Omine stated. “So you then simply begin racking your mind. What number of different Lisas are there? Are they recognizable?”
One distinction between “Simpsons World” and Westworld is that the Simpsons robots are usually not anatomically right. Omine stated The Simpsons needed to keep away from any allusion to the rape of robots as depicted on the HBO drama.
“Individuals are not going into the park and abusing these robots in that manner,” Omine stated.
The wraparound section that introduces the three “Treehouse” segments additionally was a brand new animation problem.
In that, aliens Kang and Kodos are studying from a live-action e-book. Omine stated stop-animation was used to maneuver the e-book, and the aliens’ tentacles, body by body.
The Chiodo Brothers joined The Simpsons‘ Mike B. Anderson and Tom Klein for the e-book sequence.
“That tentacle is slightly foam factor that they simply bent,” Omine stated. “I wrote all of the textual content, so there’s really slightly further story there for folks in the event you return and freeze body and skim what’s within the e-book.”
Essentially the most conventional section of “Trehouse” for Omine was a satire of The Babadook referred to as “The Pooka Dook.” Marge reads to Maggie from a spooky pop-up e-book modeled after The Babadook.
“I needed to be much more elaborate,” Omine stated. “It is much less scary the primary time you see the Pooka Dook after which when the e-book comes again it is a lot scarier.”
Omine joined The Simpsons in 1998. Her first episode as co-producer was 1998’s “Treehouse of Horror IX,” and her first produced script was 2000’s “Little Large Mother.”
Omine stated of her 4 Season 34 episodes, “Treehouse” demanded the vast majority of her consideration.
“It is a lot more durable to do this many various issues, particularly when there’s so many various issues happening on this one episode,” Omine stated.
The Simpsons airs Sundays at 8 p.m. EDT on Fox.
