REVIEW: [UABF18] Treehouse of Horror XXXIII

[Stretch_Dude]

Spoiler

Stop me if you've heard this one: So an overdressed hat demon and a death god walk into a theme park...

The Pookadook: Goddamn, this was a strong start. Trapping Maggie in the house with a possessed Marge? That is a legitimately scary idea, and they pulled it off very well.
Death Tome: I was as skeptical as anyone about this segment going in, what with "Murder, He Wrote" setting the bar so high so long ago. But this actually managed to stand on its own. The characters were translated into anime style surprisingly well, Lisa managed get a good character arc within the short time, and the ending landed with a fine double-twist.
Simpsonsworld: Gotta admit, I was not expecting this to be a Westworld parody. Nor was I expecting the biggest shock the night being the horrific sight of people with non-yellow skin and five-fingered hands. This was meta as hell, but also managed to be a different kind of meta from "Lisa the Boy Scout," mocking the show's descent from cultural behemoth to soul-drained IP. All the scene recreations, robo-Homer rebelling against the hedge meme, the army of Ralphs, that perfectly twisty ending... Good stuff.

All in all, a very strong THOH.

[Nidotamer]

Spoiler

It kinda gets worse as it goes along... but none of them are actually bad. Third one's weak but the Pookadook is the absolute star of this one, maybe the best modern THOH segment of all, Carolyn Omine hits it out the park again. Overall, it actually scales back on gore (mostly) and actually focuses on... good music? Atmosphere? Real jokes? Holy cow.


Also, Mr Burns' evil company is made up of ex-baseballers. RIP Sleve McDichael

[missy_misery]

Spoiler

I'm behind on the previous eps of the season, but I got to see this one live and man it was strong.

The Pookadook Genuinely creepy, which is the first time I've said that in a long time about this show.

Death Tome Excellent, probably helped by the fact that the actual studio that makes Death Note was involved in the animation.

Simpsonsworld: Intensely meta in an already meta season, probably my least favorite segment of the three, but still cool enough.

Further stills of the Death Note parody!

[Nidotamer]

Spoiler

Still thinking about just how damn good the Pookadook was.

I think one thing that really helped is that the monster in this case actually had implied constraints (possibly being bound to the book's order, limited by a human host, Maggie made the most sense to start with because she knew about it and had to be done with no witnesses or the rest of the family would be harder to kill) on top of that, Maggie's forced to rely on not just luck but her own skills and smarts too, against something she's otherwise helpless against.

So, basically the opposite of The Last Thanksgiving where the villain is stupidly overpowered and there's nothing keeping the protagonists from dying except for it leaving them alive for no raisin... erm, reason. Strangely, by comparison this one knew how to have a credible threat and give it means to plausibly be evaded/defeated and it doesn't call attention to blatant plot-armouring.


Also, from Simpsons World, the Lisa robot taken seems to be the one from Lisa's Rival but The Telltale Heart was Allison's diorama, not hers. Hope someone got fired for that (obligatory)

Homer insisting on taking the "hottest" Marge and leaving with the default is actually really cute...

[sabrina_diamond]

I liked watching the "Death Tome" Death Note parody concept and the SimpsonsWorld concept, but I skipped the Pookadook segment and watched only the epilogue of Kang and Kodos for today. I like how Lisa's general character design translated well to anime-style (which was a rather refreshing change) and my elderly mum also told me that she wishes "we got to see anime Lisa more often,"- so that's a good sign!

I wished that we had at least 30 minutes to flesh out the "Death Tome" segment instead of just 15 minutes though. My one nitpick was that before the segment aired I thought that anime Lisa would have blue eyes instead of brown eyes... Was there a reason why Lisa has brown eyes during the whole "Death Tome" segment?

That being said, "Death Tome" was a pretty good parody of Death Note, and it stood out from the other segments by being animated in a manner similar to the anime of Death Note. I liked how the introduction of Steve Johnson was animated well, and I liked Steve Johnson's voice actor. I also loved how Lisa had (temporary) glowing red eyes eerily similar to Kira's and her spiel about enacting justice. The twist ending was animated well, and the further discovery of L and Lisa's general voice acting throughout the "Death Tome" segment sold the twist-ending.

Spoiler

The montage of Mr Burn's company employees' murders were quite weird, but suitably dark- and I literally laughed out loud when Steve Johnson said to Lisa on the website "What about the second page?" and I greatly enjoyed seeing the would-be murderer of Tofu (the orange cat) getting a heart attack on the news!

That being said I thought the ending where

Spoiler

Lisa became a Shinigami just like Steve

was not unexpected but I did think the ending had some darkly humorous commentary on aspects of Lisa's own personality.

My SImpsonsWorld commentary will arrive after I rewatched the segment a second time (and I finished resting).