

Ultimately, Bart becomes the perfect toy owner, but it’s not exactly a happy ending. He is also the one who fosters dissent and leads the revolution. Krusty the Clown, Bart’s most beloved toy one imagines, is the Woody in this. Speaking of effects, the imagination captures the 1995-era computer-animated look and feel of Toy Story with subversive intent. The box warns about keeping the toy away from users’ scrotums, Abe thinks he left his in his other pants and Homer’s had a long history with the atomic effect. The Simpsons likes to play with the after effects of atomic energy.

Is it any wonder, though? His new Radioactive Man action figure comes with real radioactivity. Bart is apparently the rotten kid next door in this tale. “You put a dent in me, you broke my head in three,” a sorrowful and scornful Randy Newman knockoff sings in a throaty nasal. But we learn from the cleverly worded and Disney-sonic opening song this is not a kid who plays well with others, breathing or plastic. Marge is a loving mom, giving Bart his last moments with his toys before he gives them away to charity. The first segment is a parody of the children’s classic Toy Story. The rest of the episode plays it for laughs. Of course, the dire predictions of doom are slightly exaggerated in the animated, and Halloween-infused, world of “Treehouse of Horrors,” but it’s probably scarier than the entire season of The Walking Dead: World Beyond. It’s not like he has to choose between beer, pretzels and donuts. Homer understands and knows where he stands on all the judges and propositions, but when it comes to the presidency, he can’t pick. The opening segment isn’t all blatant politicking. But so are the rest of the political barbs in the pre-segment, such as when a heavily medicated octogenarian tells a potential voter he needs two forms of ID. They are detailed, amazing, includes one that is made up, and thorough. The list is long, so long you can’t make them all out during the crawl. Each more surrealistically real than the last. The sequence includes a list of reasons to vote against Trump (Made it okay to shoot hibernating bears, put children in cages, called Mexicans rapists, imitated disabled reporter, looks lousy in a tennis outfit, can’t get wife to hold hands, called third world countries **** holes, called Tim Cook ‘Tim Apple’ …). The episode begins a short while after Halloween on what looks to be the most frightening day in recent memory, the upcoming election between Trump/Putin and Someone/Anyone. But The Simpsons season 32, episode 4, “Treehouse of Horror XXXI” opens with the scariest of all fantasias: Reality. Halloween is the special time for many series, giving them the chance to throw logic and canon out the window to plumb the fantastic for fearful flights. This The Simpsons review contains spoilers.
