The Simpsons - "The Squirt and the Whale" - Talkback [4/25]

The Simpsons - "The Squirt and the Whale" - Talkback [4/25]

Some channel aired the "Je ne suis pas fran?ais" bit and some aired the South Park one. It was probably a last-minute change.
 
The Simpsons - "The Squirt and the Whale" - Talkback [4/25]

Hmm, I might have to give this one a watch later, it seems to have gotten rave reviews from the likes of IGN, and some are calling it the best of the season. It almost makes me regret my choice of playing Super Mario RPG on my Wii instead of watching this.

Almost.


BTW, that alternate chalkboard gag, the "Je ne suis pas fran?ais" one, is a recycled gag from an episode from a few seasons ago(I forget which one).
 
Several times in the past, actually. The ending of "Mother Simpson", Bart failing in "Bart gets an F", Homer seemingly dying in "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish", and the whole "You are Lisa Simpson" scene in "Lisa's Substitute" first come to mind. Then you have a whole ton of emotional but not tragic moments elsewhere such as the end of "And Maggie Makes Three", "Lisa's First Word", 'Lisa's Wedding", and so on.

Honestly, besides humor, this was probably the shows biggest strength up until season nine.
 
I think the East/Midwest got the French chalkboard and the West got the South Park chalkboard.

Was the Tic-Tac-Toe movie mocking Avatar or not?
 
That wouldn't make any sense, since the person who originally posted about it posted it when the episode was airing in the 8pm Eastern/7pm Central time slot. The western part of the country gets it later, the Mountain Time Zone gets it at 7pm MST(9pm Eastern/8pm Central; an hour after it first airs) and the Pacific Time Zone gets it at 8pm PST(11pm Eastern/10 Central/9 Mountain; 3 hours after it first airs).
 
That was a surprisingly good episode. Favorite parts were:
-Homer falling asleep on the plank of wood, and then the power coming back on. (OUCH!)
-The large storm creating too much power, so the Simpsons were basically being x-rayed.
-"I'm trying to be a sensitive father, you unwanted moron!"
-The invisible dog toy chasing the car and dragging Homer along with it.
-Lisa stopping Homer from harpooning the shark, only for it to hit a seagull.
-How there actually was emotion with this episode.

My favorite aspect of the episode, however, was how it kept that same somber color for the sky throughout the majority of the episode. Nice touch in setting the mood.
 
This was certianly and above-average episode (fell, for a post-season 9 episode that is, but i think that goes without saying...). The overall progression of the story was predictable, but the directing, dialoge, artwork and music made it involving anyway. As usuall in these modern episodes, the vast majority of jokes fell flat thoug. Among the funnier bits though were:

Lisa: "Whales are intelligent and highly sensitive creatures"
Jimbo: (pointing towards the whale) "NERD!"

And for whatever reason, i actually laughed at Homers "Seeing Lisa like this is killing me. And if there if one thing i will not stand, it's being killed!".

And kodos to the animation team. If there is one thing about the Simpsons that have only gotten better during the last few seasons, it's the animation. It's just miles ahead of the animation in similar shows, like the Seth McFarlane cartoons.

And as i final note, the ending with the whale-drawings and that lovely french song was really sweet.
 
I disagree. While the detail in the backgrounds has increased, the character animations are still too rigid. The only thing better about the new episodes is they make a better framegrab.
 
Though the art style on the whale was a tad too photorealistic for the show, it did work in the context of the more dramatic plot.
 
I think the Tic-Tac-Toe movie wasn't an Avatar parody, but a crack at how Hollywood is basically running out of ideas of movies, as seen with the idea of a big-budget sci-fi film based on a children's game.
 
What exactly happened to the show three years ago? The quality started dropping already around 1998 or so, and i think that most fans would agree that the show at least hasn't gotten worse than it was during the dreadfull last couple of Scully years (also known as the "Homer gets a new job and finds himself in a wacky adventure"-years), which was in the mid 00's.
 
I thought the whale exploding was a bit... um... much. Did they honestly have to blow it up...?

But otherwise this episode was all right.
 
Yes; it's a reference to a real event. In the 60s there was a beached whale on the Oregon coast, and they tried to get rid of it by blowing it up with dynamite, with the same results as in this episode. Cars smashed by blubber and all.

Don't take stock in what IGN says, about anything....they love garbage and hate puppies. That said, how long has it been since I've seen a decent Lisa plot? They weren't afraid to be sad with Lisa originally, and that is what gave her early episodes more weight. No stupid jokes, just one dead whale and a rare scene of poinjance. If this signals a return to the non-preachy, neglected, bearable and thoughtful Lisa, that would be fine with me.
 
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