The Good, The Bart and The Loki

 What in the world is Disney doing with the Simpson's franchise?!

Okay let me unpack that: 

The Good, The Bart and The Loki is the latest Simpsons shorts to premier on Disney+, standing out for A: Not being exclusively about Maggie and B: for having Tom Hiddleston voice his iconic character. The God of Mischief is banished to Springfield and finds a kindred spirit in Bart, and a father figure in Homer, both indulge his evil machinations for as long as they serve their own psychotic wants. 

It's hard not to spoil, not because the plot is so interesting but because the entire clip is four minutes long. It breaks down into an excuse to show multiple Simpsons characters as iconic MCU characters, though only briefly. The entire episode feels like an excuse for Disney to flex its franchise collection, and sadly little else. 

Being a Simpsons fan since episode 1 over 30 years ago, I can say that the show has long since run out of ideas, and Disney seems to agree. The main series has gone on without change since the acquisition, with Disney only releasing Maggie shorts in a Bugs Bunny style and now this thing, making the Simpsons feel like less of characters and more stand-ins for Disney to use to show off their other franchises. Granted, a show which frequently features child abuse as a running gag isn't a good match for a brand known for family friendly princess movies, but if Disney is going to own this thing they may as well do something with it. 

Circling back to the latest Simpsons crossover, one stand-out moment is a cheeky post-credit scene where Loki is charged by the TVA for not only his crimes as Loki but for the flaws in his current show, Loki. It was nice to see Disney admit that their latest MCU outing had some problems that was annoying fans, though it's one thing to admit to problems and an entirely different one altogether to actually fix them.

A full length episode of the Simpsons apologizing for Loki and letting us have some real fun with the concept would've been welcome. This sadly is just a taste of what could've been. 

-JOE