We seem to be entering a whole new world for The Simpsons (so to speak), with the show that once referred to the head of its old corporate master as a “billionaire tyrant” now embracing its new corporate masters at Disney with a surprising willingness. Tonight, it’ll air an episode featuring a bunch of Marvel Studios references, right down to cameos from Kevin Feige and the Russo brothers, and on Friday a new Simpsons short film will be screened in front of Onward, the new movie from Pixar. As far as we know, Onward has absolutely nothing to do with The Simpsons, this is just Disney saying “we own Pixar, we own The Simpsons, let’s put the two together in the name of increasing general brand awareness.”
This comes from /Film, via the Simpsons Instagram page, and it says the short will be called “Playdate With Destiny.” It looks like it’ll be about Maggie on some kind of romantic getaway with another baby. That’s a little weird, but we’ve only got so much complaining energy to use on this. Look, it’s not like The Simpsons always had a “bite the hand that feeds you” attitude, but under the Fox reign it did regularly poke fun at the network, its right-wing news branch, and the other shows it was forced to share Sunday nights with. Now with Disney in charge, it seems a bit more supportive than it used to be. But hey, maybe tonight’s episode and this Maggie short will be really good and The Simpsons will enjoy a creative resurgence that makes this Disney takeover seem like a great idea, or maybe it’ll just keep trucking along as a pale imitation of the show it was 20 years ago. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.