Review: The Simpsons “Bart the Bad Guy”

 

 

Overview(Spoilers Below):

When Bart inadvertently causes Milhouse to injure his entire body, it prompts him to visit his friend at the hospital. But, as Milhouse makes an appointment, Bart is there to meet their favourite Marble Studio superhero actor. And, as the celebrity passes out, Bart gets in a sneak peek at the biggest movie of the year The Vindicators: Crystal War 2.

With spoilers in hand, Bart is able to control people at his will. The power goes to his head as he soon convinces the entire town to build him the treehouse of his dreams or he will ruin the movie for everyone.

The only heroes left to stop Bart’s rampage are the Vindicators themselves. The superheroes bring him to their universe in hopes of getting him to keep his mouth shut. And, as Bart faces the ultimate choice, he must decide between good and evil.

 

Our Take:

Avengers: Endgame is the largest grossing movie of all time. Typically, when a movie is that popular, you will see parodies popping up everywhere. Well, with the nature of the Marvel Cinematic Universe being so elaborate, it makes it difficult for anyone to directly satire the final film. Thank goodness we have The Simpsons. The show that has managed to parody nearly every popular movie you can think of has found their way to the MCU.

If you are going to take on something as massive as the Avengers franchise, it’s going to take something ambitious. And, this episode delivers. Within the first minute, we witness a quality rip on Avengers: Infinity War’s most iconic scene and are introduced to the Simpson-verse super-team, the Vindicators (we can ignore the fact that Vindicators is Rick and Morty’s parody super team). 

A mishmash of a sharp-tongued Magnesium Man, a feminized Groot, whale-shaped Moby-Man, champion of the French Quarter Black Voodoo, and the Nerf reinforced Air Shot. Kevin Feige himself gets the chance to voice their most powerful villain, Chinnos.

The episode only gets bigger from there, following Bart’s descent into the dark side. As the lovable troublemaker gains his power, what else would Bart do but use it for selfish gains? And, when Homer proves immune, thanks to him playing the voice of everyone who could care less about superhero movies, Bart even manages to turn him into a lackey.

The third act gets even more exciting as Bart enters the universe of his own heroes. Ultimately, it is shown to be a Disney trick to keep the boy from spilling the beans. But, it does offer us the cameos of the Russo brothers who play themselves going extremely out of their way to avoid spoilers. It’s always nice when the show takes a couple of jabs at their new overlords. Fox took the heat for thirty years; Disney can handle it.

This episode also offered a significant reveal into Moe’s love life. If you weren’t paying attention, you might have missed who his new fling may be. When poked with potential spoilers, Moe falls in fear as he wants to take his girlfriend to a showing when it hits the two-dollar. Something Lunch Lady Doris had already spoken to. These two grungy characters are perfect for each other. I’m surprised it hasn’t been done before because I totally ship the pair.

Regardless, this episode was ambitious, relevant, and exciting. Honestly, this is as good as it gets when it comes to modern-day Simpsons. The last few years have struggled to keep quality as high as the annual “Treehouse of Horror” episodes. Which even prompted them to deliver us “Thanksgiving of Horror” this season. But this was a winner. It pushed the boundaries of what the show can do. It carried on a topic that is fresh in our minds and therefore, more fun to laugh about. It did everything right and managed to keep the humour coming. Even those lost Simpsons fans who haven’t given the show much attention in the later years will love this episode.