Trollheart

Treehouse of Horror episode: 3
Year: 1992
Season: 4
Segment: 3 of 3
Segment title: “Dial Z for Zombies”
Writer(s): Al Jean & Mike Reiss, Jay Kogen & Wallace Wolodarsky, Sam Simon, Jon Vitti
Characters:
Main: Bart, Lisa, Homer, Marge, Maggie
Supporting: Flanders, Skinner, Martin Prince, Dolph, Jimbo, Curny, Krusty, Sideshow Mel, Willy, Barney

Homage to? Night/Return of the Living Dead and every zombie movie or TV series you've ever watched
Basic premise: When Bart and Lisa try to resurrect their beloved cat, the spell goes a little wrong and suddenly Springfield is overrun with zombies.

Best quotes:
Book (on Bart opening it, phantom faces leering out of its pages): “Evil! Evil! Bad! Beware!”
Bart (slamming book closed): “Cool!”
Book (faces from within): “Ow! Ouch! Ow!”

Bart (reading): “Let’s see, what we got? How to get your skeletons their whitest, selling your soul in a buyer’s market…”

Lisa; “Bart! You cast the wrong spell! Zombies!”
Bart: “Please, Lisa: they prefer to be called the living impaired!”

Willy (patting down a grave): “There! Pretty as a picture.” (Zombies emerge from the grave) “Aaah! Zombies!” (Zombies shuffle off, Willy pats down grave again) “There! Pretty as a picture!”


Lisa and Bart: “Dad! Dad! We did something really bad!”
Homer: “Did you wreck the car?”
Lisa and Bart: “No.”
Homer: “Did you raise the dead?”
Lisa and Bart: “Yes.”
Homer: “But the car’s okay?”
Lis and Bart: “Yes.”
Homer: “All right then.”

Skinner: “Martin Prince to my office. And bring that big, juicy chess club brain of yours along with you!”

Homer: “Spare my family! Take me! Take me!”
(Zombies gather around, walk off annoyed at there being no brain to consume).

Flanders: “Hey Simpson! I’m feeling a mite peckish. Mind if I nibble on your ear?”
Homer shoots him with a shotgun.
Bart: “Dad! You killed the zombie Flanders!”
Homer: “He was a zombie?”

Homer (shooting): “Take that, Washington! Eat lead, Einstein! Show’s over, Shakespeare!”

Zombie, getting back into grave: “Excuse me, I’m John Smith.”
Other zombie: “John Smith, 1882?”
Zombie: “My mistake.”

Type of ending: Ironic

Synopsis: Trying to do a book report for school (his first attempt, Baby’s First Book, being deemed not to have fulfilled the brief by his teacher) Bart comes across an occult section in the library, where he finds a book of spells. Arriving home, he finds Lisa pining for the loss of their pet cat, Snowball, and looks in the book for a spell to bring her back to life. They go to the graveyard, but the spell instead raises all the dead. Springfield is now in the midst of a zombie attack. Clever touch there when Bart is raising the dead, he has a copy of Michael Jackson’s Thriller on his head. Also clever when Homer points a shotgun at the screen and yells “To the book depository!” I mean, it’s not Texas, but the meaning is pretty clear. Anyway eventually Bart reverses the spell and the zombies go back to their graves. Clever commentary at the end, when, as they all sit watching TV, Marge says “I’m sure glad we didn't all turn into mindless zombies!” and Bart says “Shh! TV!” Homer then remarks “Man fall down. Funny.” And they all grunt.

Rating: A

Score
Story: 8
Laughs: 7
Originality: 3
Ending: 5
Longevity: 2
Total: 25

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Treehouse of Horror episode: 4
Year: 1993
Season: 5
Segment: 3 of 3
Segment title: “Bart Simpson’s Dracula”
Writer(s): Bill Canterbury
Characters:
Main: Bart, Lisa, Mr. Burns, Homer
Supporting: Smithers, Milhouse, Marge, Maggie, Kent Brockman, Chief Wiggum, Grampa,
Janey, Martin, Ralph, Lou, Eddie

Homage to? Bram Stoker’s Dracula (the movie) and also of course the novel; The Lost Boys
Basic premise: Mister Burns is a vampire
Best quotes:

Kent Brockman: “Another local peasant has been found dead, drained of his blood with two teeth marks on his throat. This cape was found at the scene (picture shows a black cape with the word DRACULA on it) Police are baffled.”
Wiggum: “We think we’re dealing with some sort of supernatural being, most likely a mummy. As a precaution, I’ve ordered the Egyptian wing of the Springfield museum destroyed.”

Homer: “Lisa, vampires are make-believe, just like elves, gremlins and eskimos.”

Homer: “It sure was nice of Mr. Burns to invite us for a midnight dinner in his country house in… PENNSYLVANIA!”

Burns: “Ah welcome, come in. Excellent. Fresh victims for my ever-growing army of the undead!”
Smithers: “Sir, you have to let go of the button -”
Burns: “Son of a bi -”

Lisa: “Eww! Dad, this is blood!”
Homer: “Correction: free blood!”

Bart: “Hello mother, hello father. I missed you during my uneventful absence.”

Homer: “Oh Lisa, you and your stories. Bart’s a vampire. Beer kills brain cells. Now let’s go back to that.. building … thingy … where our beds and TV… is.”

Grandpa: “Quick! We have to kill the boy!”
Marge: “How do you know he’s a vampire?”
Grandpa: “He’s a vampire? AAAAHHHH!”

Marge: “Homer, we’ve got to do something! Today he’s drinking people’s blood, tomorrow he could be smoking!”

Homer: “Kill my boss? Do I dare live out the American dream?”

Lisa: “You must drive this stake right through his heart.”
Homer: “Take that foul fiend!”
Lisa: “Dad, that’s his crotch!”
Burns: “Aaaagghh! You’re fired!”

Type of ending: Stupid, pointless and very annoying

Synopsis: Invited to a midnight dinner by Mr. Burns, the Simpsons quickly become suspicious (well, Bart and Lisa do) and uncover evidence that Homer’s boss is a vampire. Bart is turned, and then, Lost Boys-like, floats outside Lisa’s window and then turns her. Stupid ending where suddenly for some reason they all shout "Happy Halloween" and sing what appears to be "Auld Lang Syne" (?) as it snows outside?????
Rating: A (despite the ending)

Score
Story: 5
Laughs: 5
Originality: 2
Ending: 0
Longevity: 5
Total:17

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Treehouse of Horror episode: 6
Year: 1995
Season: 7
Segment: 2 of 3
Segment title: “Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace”
Writer(s): Steve Tompkins
Characters:
Main: Bart, Lisa, Willy
Supporting: Nelson, Milhouse, Sherri, Terri, Ralph, Skinner, Martin, Mrs. Krabappel, Lunchlady Doris, Homer, Marge, Chief Wiggum, Mrs. Wiggum, Flanders
Homage to? Oh now hold on, let me think…
Basic premise: Bart and Lisa are attacked in their dreams by Groundskeeper Willy
Best quotes:

Skinner: “There’s no mystery about Willy. He simply disappeared. Now, let’s have no more curiosity about this bizarre cover-up.”

Skinner (looking under cover at corpse of Martin Prince): “Better wheel him out of here; best the children don’t see.” (Steps on sheet, corpse revealed, kids scream) “Oh just get it out of here! NO! Not into the Kindergarten!! (More screaming).

Marge: “Kids, it’s about time we told you the truth and put your fears to rest. It’s a story of murder and revenge from beyond the grave!”

Marge: “It all started on the thirteenth hour of the thirteenth day of the thirteenth month. We were all there to discuss the misprinted calendars, which the school had purchased.”
Homer (in Marge’s retelling): “Lousy Smarch weather!” (Sees note on thermostat: DO NOT TOUCH - WILLY) “Do not touch Willy. Good advice!”

Lisa: “Bart! Don’t you realise what this means? Next time we fall asleep we could die!”
Grandpa: “Meh! Welcome to my world!”

Type of ending: Funny

Synopsis: Bart and Lisa both realise they are being attacked in their dreams by Groundskeeper Willy, who “disappeared mysteriously”. On checking at school, they find they are not the only ones: all the kids are being chased in their dreams, though Skinner insists there is nothing to worry about. Then Martin dies in his sleep while napping in class. Marge tells Bart and Lisa of the grisly death of Willy, who was accidentally fried in his own furnace, and swore to get revenge on the parents through their kids.

Bart goes into his dream to face Willy in a final showdown, and tells Lisa to stay awake so she can wake him up if things go wrong. But in the event, she falls asleep too and they’re both trapped with Willy till Maggie comes to the rescue.

Rating: B+

Score
Story: 5
Laughs: 4
Originality: 2
Ending: 4
Longevity: 5
Total:20


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_FiQH3RQhU

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Trollheart

Treehouse of Horror episode: 6
Year: 1995
Season: 7
Segment: 3 of 3
Segment title: “Homer cubed”
Writer(s): David X. Cohen
Characters:
Main: Homer
Supporting: Marge, Lisa. Bart, Maggie, Chief Wiggum, Reverend Lovejoy, Professor Frink, Patti. Selma, Santa’s Little Helper, Snowball II, Dr. Hibbert, Grandpa, Jasper
Homage to? Twilight Zone episode “Little Girl Lost” it says here, but I’m more for Tron
Basic premise: Homer gets lost in a strange world of three dimensions!
Best quotes:

Lisa: “Sorry dad we called it.”
Homer: “Nu-uh.”
Lisa: “Well we’re calling it now.”
Homer: “You are?”
Bart: “Yeah.”
Homer: “Oh! They got me with their legal mumbo-jumbo!”

Homer: “This is like that twilighty show about that zone!”

Patti (or is it Selma?): “It’s like he just disappeared into fat air!”

Homer: “Did anyone see the movie Tron?”
Everyone: “No.”

Frink: “Here is an ordinary square…”
Wiggum: “Whoa! Slow down, egghead!”

Wiggum: “Enough of your science, professor! A man’s life is at stake! We need action!” (Shoots the wall) “Take that, ya lousy dimension!”

Marge: “Bart! What happened?”
Bart: “Well, we hit a little snag when the universe sort of collapsed on itself. But dad seemed cautiously optimistic.”

Type of ending: Stupid and pointless (but you can forgive this one anything; it’s a real case of just sit back and admire the superb three-dimensional animation)

Synopsis: In a desperate attempt to avoid the visit of his sisters-in-law, Homer takes refuge behind a bookcase and finds himself in another world, a world where everything suddenly has three dimensions. The animation here is excellent, though the story really relies on it as otherwise it’s nothing really. When he realises he’s lost, Homer calls out and they can hear him in the house but not see him. Various attempts are made to get him back, including Wiggum, for some reason, shooting at the wall, but all to no avail. Homer ends up trapped in the third dimension. Bart goes in to save him but Homer falls down into the vortex that has been created and ends up in our world.

Rating: A++ (you have to give it top marks for animation)

Score
Story: 6
Laughs: 5
Originality: 3
Ending: 0
Longevity: 5
Total:19

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dvavcX9I8g

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